As I start writing this blog, it is Monday evening, November 2. Somehow, it has managed to be both a fairly typical Monday and a remarkably good day. Here are some remarks about it.
I got up around 5:30 a.m., read my Bible, and then went for a two-mile run, arriving back at the compound with just enough time to take a quick shower (cold, because that's the only kind available), eat breakfast, and join my colleagues to walk to the Preschool at 7:45. Because of all the rain lately, the walk to school was a bit of an adventure in an of itself. The erstwhile-culvert-now-river was almost up to the bottom of the footbridge. The stepping stones that lead to the footbridge were underwater. Thankfully, we were all accoutered with rubber boots. Thus shod, we bravely picked up our skirts and forded the foul deluge. The dastardly mud tried to ambush Rachel, but with a fierce cry of [ahem] defiance, she gained the bridge.
"In yon straight path a thousand
May wel be stopped by three:
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?"*
On Mondays, I go from the Preschool to Nakaale Primary School. This week, we are reading about Daniel and his decision to abstain from the king's food. When I arrived in the P6 classroom, there were only two students, but another two came shortly after I finished giving some context to Daniel. Four is a pretty typical number for P6 at Nakaale. The lesson booklets we use for the primary schools are written in both English and Ngakarimojong. Usually, I read a paragraph in English aloud first, then two students read aloud together in English, and then the remaining two students read the Ngakarimojong translation. For the next paragraph, the English and Ngakarimojong readers (students, that is; I stick to English) switch. While this Monday followed the normal pattern, two things happened that stood out to me.
First, I paused the reading at one point to explain a bit more about the Jewish laws concerning clean and unclean foods. (Fun fact, the K-jong word for pig is "epege," which sounds very close to "a piggy." A couple of the boys thought this rather funny.) Briefly and as simply as possibly to limit the effects of the language barrier, I tried to show how the laws about cleanness point to and are fulfilled in Jesus. Because of the work of Jesus, we can be clean before God. Engaging my students in conversation is difficult, but it seemed to me that Korobe at least was paying particularly close attention.
The second thing that was exciting to me is that one of my students asked an unpromted question! Loro asked, "What's a prophet?" And then another student, Lokiru, answered him: "A messenger of God"! I was pretty pumped.
After teaching at Nakaale, I returned to the mission compound and prepared for my first math class with Caleb. Caleb is almost 13 and, in true homeschooler fashion, in 7th or 8th grade. I am tutoring him in Pre-Algebra and General Science. For our first lesson, we tackled adding negative numbers. "This is easy," he assured me. I advised him to enjoy it while it lasts.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I prepared for Tuesday's science lesson, set up and played on my slackline, made dinner, and read some of G. K. Chesterton's Heretics. And started this blog. It was a good day.
* From "Horatius at the Bridge"
