Me? A 3rd Grade Math Teacher?

Today was an awesome day. I will probably be starting every entry with that
opening sentence. We woke up around 9:30 and headed to Oasis to hang with
the kids. When we arrived the kids were on break playing soccer in the
Alley (their field). Chris joined in the game and I hung out with the
little ones. They are so amazed at my tattoos. They try and rub them off
everyday. It's so funny. I love it. When their break was over all of them
went into this little room they call their classroom. It had 4 tables in
it with all the kids in there it was packed. They sat in age/kind of grade
sections. When I asked about it Chris said " this is the 5th graders, this
is kind of the 2nd, 3rd grader and this is the 2nd to babies. I laughed so hard,
it was so awesome how they all worked together just to have a space to do
their schoolwork. The kids cannot get a diploma from the school at Oasis of
Hope. The classroom is more of a place to occupy their time and keep them off
the streets. They receive two free meals a day and a safe place to hang out.
Any of the street kids in the town are welcome to go there any time on any day.

I decided to head over to the "kind of 2nd, 3rd" grade table to hang out and see
what they were working on. As soon as I sat down they started calling me teacher
and asking me for help with their work. There I was living my dream of being
a 3rd grade teacher in a different country. I didn't even realize that I was
living that dream until I left Oasis for the day. It was Freakin so sweet.
The kids were so eager to learn and some of them were the smartest 3rd graders
I have ever met. They would not cheat and worked so hard and fast at the work.
It made me think about how some of the kids I have worked with at home take
advantage of even being able to go to school. I mean they are so young that
they don't realized what they are doing but if only they could see these kids
and what they call "school".

I met Jeffrey, the head honcho that runs Oasis, today. He was such an amazing
servant of the Lord, such a nice guy and as Chris says a breath of fresh air
from the Kenyan culture. I did not understand what he meant when he said that until we went to lunch and then to this place called Kipsongo.

Now Kipsongo was an awesome school for kids from ages 11 up to college age students. It was such a nice place compared to anything that I have seen in Kitale. We went there because some of the Oasis boys were staying there for a camp for a couple days. We met the, I guess I would label him as a principle? His name was Francis I believe. It’s hard to understand the Kenyan people sometime. He told us that the school has dorms that hold up to 40 kids at one time. They can stay there for a maximum of 3 years. He believes that after 3 years the kids are changed enough that they would be ready to go back into the town and stay clean. There were these 2 little girls staring at me while we were in the office talking with Francis. I kept slowly looking over at them and giving them the drop. The drop is this ugly/funny face that my good friends bumber and Jesse do back at home. They would laugh so hard. They would make me laugh because they were laughing so hard. After we took a tour of the place I found the girls and chased them around the school while it was poring rain. They did not care at all that they were running and playing in the poring rain. On the other hand I kept seeking shelter. Then I realized, who cares if I get stoked. I am not going anywhere that I need to be looking good. It was a blast. Here are the two little girls....



There is so much that goes on in the day that I want to write. It would take pages. But as I am new to this "blogging" thing I will try and give you the best parts and talk about what God has revealed to me that day, if anything is revealed to me at all.
I realized that I should not expect to be greatly enlightened everyday that I am here or come away from the day feeling a little wiser or more "holy". Just being here and being with the kids I feel like God has shown me everything I needed to be shown.

I wanted to share with you these verses that got me through my journey on that bus ride.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" John 14:27
And
"Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your
counsel and afterward you will take me into your glory". Psalm 73:23