If you have known me very long…you know this about me... I
am horrible about taking pictures :/
Well, I guess that’s not entirely true, because when I had Zorah (my
sweet, adorable, so cuddly puppy) I would take tons of photos of her…you have
probably been subjected to…I mean, had your life enriched by…them on Facebook
in the past – but photos of things that other people might find important…not
so much. My friend Jon would say “too
busy living life to document it” but sometimes, I kind of reprimand myself and
ask “why don’t you take more photos???”
Ah well…maybe I will have breakthrough in this area one day…
Actually, I do have some pictures of my first week here in
Moshi! There’s this can of coffee…I was
super excited about finding this instant coffee since I didn’t have any other
means of creating coffee at the time…
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| Instant coffee! |
This picture of our guard dog Settie…she is super sweet, but
not to be messed with…I personally witnessed the torture of a lizard…and found
a deceased hedgehog – both crossed her path (no doubt attempting to murder us
as we slept) but neither live to tell about it.
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| She probably heard the rustle of a lizard (they're everywhere) |
Oh, and these bananas!
We bought them at a roadside stand and they are delicious because they
are tiny. Not that their cuteness makes
them taste better, it just so happens that God made the cutesy bananas yummier.
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| The smallest ones are the sweetest! |
I also photographed these ants…they love to invade the wall,
doorpost, ceiling – travelling by the hundreds…they are tiny and I had already
given up at trying to get rid of them by the middle of my first week. I quickly realized that I could use hundreds
of dollars worth of poison…and they would still come.
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| :/ |
So I guess I do take plenty of photos…just not of the stuff
that people really want to see. :)
The things I didn’t take pictures of…oh, there’s so
many. And thinking of them…I believe I
know why I don’t do well taking pictures of some things. The first thing I thought of that I didn’t
photograph…was the moment that I walked down the steps; off the plane at
Kilimanjaro. The way the air looked, and
felt, and how thrilled I was! Thrilled
isn’t good enough, but I don’t know a word for how excited I was in that
moment. How I felt like I was walking
off that plane and into a future that God prepared for me before I was ever
even created! How can I take a picture
of that?
I did take a couple of pictures when I went to the dentist
the other day…we drove through some jungle areas and up the mountain to get to
the hospital and the view when I walked out of the hospital was
breathtaking! I took a picture (several
actually) and when I showed them to someone later, those pictures did not make
my heart happy at all. They looked so
dull and not at all like what I remembered.
I think there are just some things you can’t photograph.
Back to my first week…I think I could do a separate blog
about each experience. My first time
seeing my classroom, all the boxes stacked up and the dusty shelves, how empty
it looked and how excited I was to see what it would look like by the end of
the week! One of the first things I did
was open the boxes and start putting books on my shelves. I pictured myself reading those books to the
children that would be in my class. I
thought to myself, over and over, what if I don’t know what I’m doing? What if I don’t teach them the right
things? What if I just don’t do a good
job? Every time those thoughts came, I
would just remind myself that Jesus was standing right there with me, and that
God brought me here. All the way from
Louisiana…and surely HE knows what he’s doing.
As I started filling the shelves and seeing all the
wonderful things that I could use for lessons, reading through the books on
teaching preschoolers, reading through the curriculum…I only got more and more
excited. My worries just sort of…
stopped coming up as much. Then a few
days into that first week I found out that I would be teaching a science class
to some older kids. All the sudden I was
overwhelmed with doubt and wondering if I could actually do this. I mean, I knew I could do it, but could I do
it well enough? I got a stack of books,
sat down at a table and reminded myself that Jesus was sitting there with
me. By the end of that day I had a plan
for my first week. I found out that
night that one of the other teachers was teaching the same exact topic to some
younger kids and she was so helpful and shared books and even her lesson plans
with me to help me get started! (ps…this
class is now one of my favorite parts of the day!)
On Wednesday night we went to Ryan and Stacy’s for worship –
they are the couple that I would call our “hosts” here. That night...I went home and cried because I
missed home so much. Just the atmosphere
during worship made me think of how much I missed my church family. The next day, I made my first trip to Union Café,
and I got to use the internet for the first time.
Getting to “talk” (text) with friends back
home was exactly what I needed. Being
able to connect with them, even for just one hour, made my day and helped with
the homesickness. By Friday, I had my
classroom ready for the first day of school.
When we left school that day…I thought to myself that before I knew it...
I would be going home a week from then thinking of what a great first week we’d
had. How true that was!
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| A picture of my classroom after a week of preparation! |
Ok…I know this is long – but I like words, and I use them
quite proficiently :) I wish
I could share every new experience along with the joy and excitement that God has
filled me with as I get to take part in this adventure!
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