Hangin with the kiddos!

During the month of May, we have a Kids Club on Saturday mornings.  During my summer in SE Asia, we taught a Kids Club 6 days a week so this is one of my favorite activities!

We went out into the neighborhood and passed out tickets to different children that we ran across.  The idea was that you needed a ticket to get in.  We had to do this for population control.  Also on the ticket was a place for a parent signature.  We passed out 40 tickets because that is the maximum number of children we felt we could accommodate and keep our sanity.  We really didn't have high hopes for the children actually coming with the tickets signed but miraculously about 9 came with signed tickets.  In total, we had about 30-35 children every Saturday morning.

We taught them a little bit of English, sang songs, did a craft, stories (the last day with puppets!) and played silly games.  It was ALOT of fun!  It was also very stressful - kids will be kids in every country but in this culture, there is no concept of a line or much discipline.  Kids do what they please.  So it was definitely a challenge to incorporate order while still being fun.  Each week we seemed to get a little bit better.

Some highlights:
1.  Listening to the children recite stories.  So incredible to see how focused they were and that they were actually paying attention!
2.  Driving up to the center on the last day 30 minutes before KC started to see about children already there and waiting.  They ran up to the car, shouting our names and ready to go!  Loving these guys is what this is about!
3.   Playing Duck-Duck-Goose.  I was it and I chose this little girl to be the goose but little did I know that she was a sprinter and I was genuinely surprised when she caught me!  Into the mush-pot I went.
4.  One week, I couldn't be at KC because I had an eye infection..  The others informed me that the kids were asking where I was..  Super sweet!
5.  Watching Amanda and my supervisor tell a story with puppets - I almost wet myself laughing so hard.
6.  Each week, I would act out different animals and let them guess which one I was.  I scared a little boy because I came up to him quickly and started barking..  The look on his face was hilarious as pure fright!

I hope to add more pictures and videos later but I may not be able to..

Insert Fun Title Here

Amanda and I are no longer creepers!  The little girl absolutely loves us! :)  We can say about three things to each other - one of those is candy - but it's not the quantity that matters..

BTW, you can tell the heat is here..  we (at least I) look a hawt mess!  But isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen???

One night, we went up with some of our students to the lighthouse here to overlook the city, hang out, eat cookies, dance, etc..  These girls are an absolute mess.   

There is a term here - "jaay fonde" -  Not exactly sure but if you have a larger rear end (which is considered desirable) one of the girls will say tell you "jaay fonde" which is like sell your large rear end.....  all this to say that we took a "jaay fonde" picture..  :)

And this...  what can I say?  This girl is CRAZY..  her dance moves definitely aren't family friendly!  Look at how uncomfortable Amanda looks and the girl holding the cell phone is providing the music for the entertainment..  

Lookie who I ran into:

Love these guys!  I went through a bag of Funyons and an 80 count pack of pepperoni in about a week!  Also, bringing my new Kindle and taking my broken one home to mail...  These guys ROCK!  I miss TRBCers sooo much!  

Easter and Camp!

Spent the Easter holiday with our new "family" here and loved it!!  Seriously, love the people we work with.  Couldn't have asked for a better clan :)  Fun silly games, worshiping together and of course, delicious grub! 

The Easter bunnies hiding eggs... aren't they cute!?

Tug-of-war madness!!

Egg-toss...

We had an English camp with our University students this week..  It was a blast but also extremely tiring!  Here's just a few of the hundreds of pictures taken over the week :)

Eating around the bowl..
Amanda and I want to get shirts made that say, "I survived ceeb five days in a row!" :)

I really do love my job.  During this lunch meal, we were having a conversation that stemmed from the issue of slavery since we had just visited Goree Island.  It's amazing to me how the people here hold no grudges.  Our conversation focused on the idea of forgiveness - is it truly possible?  what does it mean to forgive?  is it a one-time deal or is it a process?  

Teaching the small group Grammar Session.

Some fun gals!

Please can we notice that this fish has TEETH!?

We had a scavenger hunt around Goree Island - this is the "recycled cowboy"  ...can't you tell?

Our group was a little "communication challenged" so we weren't able to do a lot of the items on the list so we decided to make the pictures that we did take fun :)

Our group shot!

In other news, I started driving this week.  I've been practicing shifting gears on the side roads but I had never gone past third gear.  I called our team leader last night to see if he would ride along for moral support this morning on the big roads - he says, "Why don't you come pick me up?"  UMM.. you mean drive on the big, scary road to get you?  Well, alright then.  I was glad though because if I'm scared, I need to be gently forced to do something.  And driving went REALLY well..  A huge blessing.

Classes start back up again this week.  Cannot believe we're already halfway through April.  Time is flying by.  This session will be finished before we know it and then summer will be here!

Lots of things happening now and around the corner!  We're hoping to start a study with some girls that we've met, English classes in full gear, getting a children's club up and running, prayer walking our neighborhood, tons of teams are filing through, continuing visiting the friends we've already made, attempting to improve our Wolof language abilities...  Loving Him and loving lifeeeeeeee!

London: The land of pretty buildings, flowers, and of course, the Queen!

London in 33 words:
The Queen, Les Miserables, Wicked, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Countryside, Stunning Buildings, Flowers, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, London Tower, Trains, Mind the Gap, Tesco (England's Walmart), people waiting in lines, red buses, ENGLISH!


What I did NOT see:
Sand and unfinished buildings.


This was a lovely 5 days!


Here are the pictures:

Tower Bridge!

Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace!

In front of BH Palace.. the Queen was in residence as Monica informed us since the flag was there!

:)

This is the statue of Wesley at some huge cathedral - can't remember the name! haha

Big Ben!!!!!

Obligatory Phone Booth Pic!

I'm seriously in love right now...  I've never really cared so much about pretty trees, grass and flowers but since they are no longer apart of my life, I appreciate them much more!

Big Red Buses everywhere!

Some horse in front of some important building - I think maybe where the PM lives.. I dunno!  I'm such a good tourist.

Well, the people we were with left in a hurry and told me the directions- that was clearly a mistake!  But uncharacteristically, a nice British man stopped to help us which led to him telling us to walk instead of taking the tube... was a hilarious conversation.. would have had to been there..

I was in nostalgia heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is the McD's that fed me french fries every single day! :)

I want you all to make your best Ninja noise!

We had a Pizza/Game night with our two Pre-Intermediate Level English classes.  This started because I learned that one of my students from Chad has never eaten pizza in his life.  I seriously could not believe it so I couldn't in good conscience end classes this session without them having had pizza. 

The pizza was good but what was even better were the games that we played... 
Honey- if you love me, you'll smile and Ninja were the best two of the evening. 

Enjoy these video clips to give you an idea of how fun our evening was.  We really do love these students and most of them are returning in the second session with us starting up in April!

This game was a serious hit!  I wish I could upload all of the videos because they are hilarious!  Brings you back to your youth group days, eh?

I have high hopes that this game will take Africa by storm!

Please continue to lift up our students and ask for opportunities to share more than English and games!  :)

Highlights of my job :)

So it has taken quite a bit longer to get to this point than I initially thought it would but I can honestly say that I'm enjoying (most aspects) of life here.  I mean, I think that I'll miss people from back home and the convenience of a Chick-fil-a until the day I return but there are lots of little things that make life here, as Amanda would say, fantastic :) 

Here are a couple highlights:

This is teaching English at its best folks! What I lack in training to do this, He has certianly made up for with passion :)  By the time I leave class every day, I'm seriously covered in chalk!

The students want to learn English and I have so much fun with them!  This particular day we were going over body parts and I decided to draw a person so they could practice.  That person, I told them, was Amanda.  We labeled her.  It's truly amazing how far they have come in so little time.  I really was scared out of my mind the first day of class but now things are pretty smooth!  Also, we're making our way through (in English, French and Wolof) the best story ever told in class! It's truly a blessing to teach these guys! 

We had a game night for the University English students that we teach.  We played charades, scrabble, and Never Have I Ever.  The games were a hit and it was so much fun to see the students out of their serious element- just to cut back and let loose with them. 

Peeping Toubabs

Amanda and I can look out our bedroom window and the apartment complex adjacent to us is unfinished.  However, there is a family that has taken up residence on the second floor.  Amanda was the first to become infatuated with watching this family.  There is a little girl who would walk out on the ledge (this would NOT be okay in America) and play with the rocks, throw the rocks off the ledge into neighbor's houses, brush her teeth, put a bucket on her head and yell out fish names (like the fish sellers in the streets), etc.  We were stricken with this little girl.

So sometimes the mom would come out.  Amanda noticed that she was pregnant.  This made us really happy to know that a second child who would be as cute as the first was on it's way.  So we've been watching this family for a while now.  We've been careful not to be seen.  Hence the name - Peeping Toubabs (foreigners). 

One day, as we are driving along, Amanda (being the CIA agent that she is) sees this family selling peanuts not too far from our house.  So then, anonymously, we start buying their peanuts because we love them.  We give the girl candy.  The first time we gave it to her, she smiled a huge smile and said, "Ca va? Merci" (How are you?  Thank you).  So we continued to go.  But after that, something changed and instead of being happy to see us, she would immediately start wailing.  We were so upset because we love this child... haha!  We just continued to give her candy each time.. Pavlov's classical conditioning at it's finest!

Another time, I decided to call her name from our window.  It was hilarious because each time I did it - she went into a room looking for her mom because I imitated her mom's voice pretty good :)

Soon afterwards, we heard a newborn baby's cry.  We were so excited!  So we decided to meet this family formally and the way to do it was to bring the baby a gift :)  I consulted our language teacher on exactly what to say to make us seem less the creepers that we are.  I had an entire speech ready.  "Hello, how are you?  We are your neighbors.  My name is Mariama.  This is Aminata.  We would like to get to know you.  We brought a gift for the baby."  So we knock on the door concrete wall that serves as the entrance to their house and the little girl comes down the stairs.  Luckily, she didn't start crying but just announced to her mom still above that it was the toubabs.  So the mom leans over the balcony and tells us she doesn't understand Wolof.  We were devastated!  There was no way to communicate because they are from another country in West Africa.  We gave her the baby gift and I was able to say in French "gift for baby" but we left disappointed we couldn't get to know them.

We call our language teacher (aka person to call for anything and everything) and tell her the situation.  So we decide that someone in the family must know Wolof.  We set a day and time for her to go with us to where they sell peanuts and find out who speaks Wolof.  Luckily, the mom's brother and husband both speak Wolof so we were able to sit down with them for a while and talk.  The little girl is still scared of us but we learned alot about her - the funniest is that she would brag to her parents that "she had toubabs that give her candy" and that she likes to be called "toubab" because her skin is light.  We had a great time with them!  I got to hold the newborn baby and we learned his name and I invited us to the naming ceremony.. haha!  There are advantages to living in such a forward country- I can invite us to things :) 

Today, we were walking to go catch a taxi and we passed by them and just said hello and waved.  Next thing we know, the little girl is running after us with her uncle.  So we give her candy!  The uncle says to us, "She was upset because the toubabs passed by without giving her candy.."  haha!  I looked at Amanda and said, "You know we're going to have to keep this up for the next 1.5 years!"  We don't mind.  We're just happy that the little girl loves us too.  They say that money can't buy love... well, we've discovered that candy can! :)