A time of planting seeds...

It is good to be home.  Being back in my house with Milo  has been the best part!  It is good to see friends and I am able to dialogue more in Swahili with my Tanzanian friends!  That is exciting and makes these last many weeks wroth it!  Meeting the new group of students is always an enjoyable time.  It is a bigger class of kids.  There are 15 kids with three of the cutest babies!  Slowly they are getting into the swing of things and already learning a great deal.

I had the hardship of not renewing the teacher's contracts that have been working with me up to this point within the classroom.  It was the needed thing to do for a variety of reasons but it was difficult for me.  It also gave me an entire different "to-do-list" for my so called vacation!  My recurring malaria symptoms returned as well so I decided that I had to stay in Arusha for another week.  With some advice from the States I believe I am finally on the medicine to rid me of these parasites!  Between interviewing and everything else in the I have been trying to rest to finally be finished with malaria.

The difficult week is paying off because the three new teachers we have within the classroom are working out great!  They are super with the kids and have such a desire to learn how to teach.  I know they will work well with Amy for the next four weeks to training break.  Knowing that I can now leave again to continue my Swahili Training!

There is a slideshow that is at the bottom of the blog.  I hope you enjoy the pictures of this group of kids in Kids Training.  Amy the apprentice holding down the fort in my absence is doing a great job!  Before the kids came her parents were here.  They did a much needed paint job in the classroom!  Amy and I brainstormed ideas to make the walls as much learning material as possible!  They did a super job.  The yellow walls help the room to be bright and cheerful.  The large shapes, colors, and designs are all a part of our learning day.  I am grateful for the Swartzentruber's and all of their hard work!  Since I was back I was also able to open boxes that came while I was away!  Many of them Christmas things that did not arrive before I left.  Christmas or Birthday doesn't matter it is always a grand day to get to open something from the mail!  I was excited to open boxes from the Pricehill Church of Christ!  I am thankful for my supporters and their partnership within this ministry.  Pricehill is one of the many of those!  They sent many helpful things for us to have in the classroom and seeds were one of them.  This week with the help of Julius my outside guard we had our planting lesson.  The kids were learning the lessons of Creation and this is an activity we like to do with the kids.  This year instead of plants in water bottle pots we made a place in the playground to have shamba kwa watoto (children's farm!)  These techniques that we use is a study program about farming in Africa with conditions of drought and a sun that scorches the Earth.  This my friends is more than a craft it is teaching these children important ways of providing food for their families along with keeping their little hands busy!  They made a name marker and each child had a row to choose what he/she wanted to plant.  We had a dirty but very fun time!  Today, they saw little sprouts coming up passed "God's blanket" (a ground covering) and they are very excited to see the little sprouts!  As I look within these 30 eyes I can see sprouts of many kinds and it brings me great joy.  

Prayer Points~

• my new teaching team along with Amy working through this transition 
• this new group of students here within training
• grateful for active supporters like Swartzentruber's and Pricehill Church who help make our classroom come alive! 
• my return to Makoko on Saturday for several more weeks of schooling 
• no more malaria parasites hanging out in my liver!