Bonjour!!

Week five out of eight in the classroom has been completed. This week I taught science. We did a lot of experiments, all dealing with the Earth and the land that makes it up. It is funny how some dirt and water will thrill five and six year olds beyond belief. :) I am enjoying being with these students and feel like a mom to them since they are so little. There is constantly someone that needs their shoe tied or needs help in changing for P.E., or a little girl that asks me to do her hair. This is a very independent age compared to the third graders that I worked with first. I think that it is going to be difficult to leave knowing that I won’t be able to just “pop in” when I want later on. However, I cannot wait to see my third graders in just a month or so! I still don’t know what I think would be the “perfect grade” to teach because I have truly enjoyed both experiences and am so thankful that God has placed me in these two classrooms.

Well…to catch up…not too much out of the ordinary has happened since I last updated you. I am teaching more which is why I haven’t had a lot of time to write. Most of my day is still consumed with either being at the school or planning for school. Other than that, I have enjoyed spending evenings with Sheila and John. I am going to miss these two a lot! I hope that they someday come to Ohio and stay with us! There have already been a few things that I told John we will do if they come. Some include: enjoying Mom or Bri’s Chicken Fried Rice, going to Tokyo House, going ice skating, going laser tagging, and many others.

Monday I went to the orphanage again. I got to see a glimpse of my future dream. In the past year or two a few buildings have been built to begin a school for many uneducated students. The landscape is an open field and so far there is the orphanage, a high school, and elementary school, and a women’s clinic (where woman can go to safely give birth). A preschool is in construction and will be running within the next few months. This whole thing is so exciting to me. As some of you know, my heart is to educate, love, and bring the hope of Jesus to children who don’t have access to education. Someone else has seen this need, too. It is possible through Him!

Speaking of educating children, this week I experienced one of my favorite teaching experiences thus far. I decided to start reviewing the letters of the alphabet that the students have covered so far and to start forming words with them. The easiest way to do this I thought was to use word families. I had seen the idea in one of my labs to make an actual house out of paper. So, I made the “at” and the “an” families. …For those of you who don’t follow education lingo or remember from your early days, these are the words that have the same rhyme. Anyways, we went over these words as a group, and then I tried to act them out so that my two French speaking students would understand. The French speaking little girl knows the letters that we have covered so far very well, and she quickly figured out the pattern. Soon she was reading all of the words and she would get more excited each time. To see this girl being able to read these words in English when I have heard her say only a few words for weeks besides, “Miss Marshall” and “paint,” was thrilling for me! Today we reviewed, and she lit up. I think that I found her new favorite thing. Moments like this make me know that I am supposed to teach.

Youth group was on Thursday night, and it was a unique one. We got to go to someone’s house and help an organization who will be distributing 3,000 backpacks to orphaned and underprivileged children for Christmas. The Gospel will be presented in the process. We made a huge assembly line and cranked up the Christmas carols. It was so exciting to be a part of this, and a lot got accomplished since there were so many of us. There were times when I felt like Lucy from the I Love Lucy episode where she and Ethel are working on an assembly line for chocolate. The bags kept coming; however, they were a little harder to put inside our clothes or in our mouths! :) We took a one minute water break half way through. This was my first “water in a bag” experience. Here they don’t sell a lot of water bottles but water bags. You simply bite the edge and squeeze the bag. It is common to see someone walking down the street with a water bag dangling from their mouth. I tried this to see what it would be like. I concluded that the Burkinabe not only have tough heads but tough jaw bones.

Tonight after I went back to school for a little bit, Sheila and I did a little relaxing in from of the Tele. We watched the finale of “Strictly Come Dancing” which is the British version of “Dancing with the Stars.” I have followed this show…along with CSI, CNN, Super Nanny and others….a lot more than at home. I love dancing. Whenever I see these shows or any type of dancing, it makes me want to dance. After I graduate from the LTC (the no dancing policy at Taylor), I think that I will think about my future dance career. Haha!

Well, tomorrow I will wake up at the usual 6AM…but on a SATURDAY!! I will be heading to the school with Sheila to help with the school’s annual Walk-a-thon. It is a fundraiser that the school does to give money to a village school.

Random fact of the day: Mosquitoes are attracted to the color black. Maybe you knew this. I didn’t until yesterday. However, after wearing black pants yesterday and a black skirt today, I confirm this theory.

It is about time to call it a night here. Please let me know if there is anything that I can be praying for you. A few of my prayer requests are:
-To finish strong as there are only a few weeks left
-For continued health
-To be able to spend some quality time with Elizabeth and Marie
-For my upcoming visit with Farida
-My new relationships here…that I may truly reflect who Jesus is and that they may come to
know the Lord
-Patience to “sit and wait” for God’s plans and His timing in many areas of my life

Thank you for your prayers and for your love!