Short and Sweet

When I was in San Francisco, I was trying to blog every day but there were days (weeks, even) when I was EXHAUSTED and needed to write a post in as few words as possible. Today, I’m going to see if I can sum up my last week…

Medical outreach. At a government school… Super crazy. Super intense. Awesome to deworm and do HIV testing for as many as we could. Hard to see lots of aches and pains that can’t be healed in a day. Made friends with a little girl in a purple dress… The cutest little girl ever!

Three day school week. SCORE!

THANKSGIVING. Tons of food. Tons of dancing. Lots of baking! Lots of extra people. Fun but chaotic. Yes, we ate American food. No, I didn’t really miss home. Watched football! American football! So thankful Houston FINALLY won the game.

Weekend. Accra trip. Pizza took forever. Worth it. Failed attempt at fixing our internet. Successful attempt at recovering my gmail account (including my blog). Rest.

Today. Stressed. Overwhelmed. Left my patience at home. Workout with Autumn, Holly, Emily, and Stacy. Awesome. Time to plan.

Always checking my e-mail. Always missing people. Also, usually content here.

Home in 20 days. AH!

I am still trying to process what it means to be “going home,” even though it is just for a month. I think it’s going to be really hard… But also, hopefully, really good. I am greatly looking forward to spending my first week of being home in Spokane with the people I love and coming home just in time for Christmas and a few more weeks back home. Wrapping the trip up with about 4 days in SoCal, I will then be headed back to Ghana for five more months (with a lot of chocolate, peanut butter, Trader Joes goodies, and dried fruit in my bags!!)! I can’t believe these first three months have already passed, yet at the same time, I can’t believe it’s only been three months… Great things are happening in this place, and I am thankful to be a part of it, even when it feels overwhelming and stressful at times (example A: me crying in my classroom after school today, overwhelmed at my inability to effectively organize. I really need to break that habit!).

Thankful for the little things, like leftover pumpkin pie and eye contact with the other adults over something hilarious a child is doing. Little things like Moses pretending to hide my water bottle, or Bismark telling me how to spell his name. Also, thankful for BIG things like best friends and God’s love! Happy Monday, friends.

Resource Room Support

My classroom has been a “project” since the beginning of the year. Here is the shortest synopsis I can give of my year so far…

First two weeks of school, teach in second grade (with about 24 hours of notice). Spend a week subbing and testing. Start doing individual work with two students as my classroom is covered in wood shavings from library construction. Do this for a couple weeks until the carpenter stops showing up and I realize I have to take things into my own hands. Spend a few days cleaning out the classroom and taking extra desks from other classrooms to try and fill mine. Realize I have a 10-foot high GIGANTIC cupboard in my classroom that I don’t know what to do with and is too heavy to move on my own. Eventually start taking small-groups even though there are still buckets of paint and extra sheets of wood in the back of my class. Come to terms with the fact that once a first grade teacher is hired, I will have to give up these students to another teacher. Have this actually happen. Realize that I finally need/get/have to start with the groups that I will have for the rest of the year. Have Holly come in and tell me we’re rearranging my class. Get overwhelmed. Do it anyway. Realize I envision having a reading/quiet/work corner… But have nothing to make it happen. Finally have Autumn convince me to dive in with my groups. Have a relatively successful (and stressful) first two days. Write this blog.

One of the things that I’m trying to do in my class is to break the mold of Ghanaian school culture… To do things hands-on.  To make my classroom feel welcoming. To have my room be a place where change happens. I don’t want my classroom to feel like we’re in America… I just want my kids to feel like they belong and can be comfortable here.

Part of this process involves having resources… Having manipulatives, having mats on the ground to sit on (kids here really hate sitting on the ground… it’s pretty funny), building a shelf to start a mini-library, getting and making things to decorate the walls and fabric to cover the open shelves…

I am asking that you consider helping me in this process by making a financial donation at the City of Refuge website with the purpose of it going to my classroom. Every day, I have a 17 year old come in who is trying to learn to read… A 13 year old who can tell me 8 letters of the alphabet… An 8 year old who made me cry when he recited the spelling of his name out loud to me… a 13 year old who is thriving after she has spent multiple years learning and loving at City of Refuge, and now needs to be pushed to keep going… an 8 year old who laughs with joy as he beats me at football, but shies away when I ask him to do a math problem, still figuring out what his new life at CORM means for him… These are faces of hope, faces of potential, faces of opportunity, and I want to be able to give them more.

Please consider helping me in bringing change to these kids. My goal is to raise $200 for this project. You can donate online at www.cityofrefugeoutreach.com using their PayPal button… When making a donation, include a note of “KT1- Classroom,” which will send the money to me.

While you are at the website, take a look around… Find out what this ministry is about. I am blessed to be a part of what these people are working to accomplish, and I hope that you are willing to partner with us in the process of “educate, motivate, liberate.”

The Secret Life of an Introvert

I’ve always known I was an introvert. There are times when I definitely show extroverted qualities, and I do love being around people, but I am definitely someone who needs alone time in order to be able to function well.

This week, introvert-galore struck me. I saw down with Holly in my classroom just saying “I’m so tired of people… Just having them by.” And it’s not that I don’t love them. I just need space! And to add on to my introvert-ness, I know I’m also a homebody… I love to do things, but I also need my (slow, quiet) time at home. And though we are here all week, there’s not a ton of time to just relax around then house… There is always work to be done!

Our house is getting fuller and fuller… Emily moved into our room in the middle of October and since then, we have had three staff members move into another bedroom. This means more personality, more things going on, and just more people…

I’ve been going running as a means of both getting time by myself and of trying to raise my energy level. While this has been good for me, I am a horrible runner so it doesn’t last for long…

I have realized that the library is an awesome spot for me to camp away after-hours when I need a quiet space to sit and read or work. I don’t last super long over there because the school is dark and creepy outside and I don’t like being over there by myself, but still…

This weekend, Holly and Emily accompanied the YGAP group here from Australia to a beach for a few days. I chose to stay here, and was left with pretty much am empty house and two days to myself… I could not be happier.

It’s only noon on Saturday and I haven’t done much yet, but I am already feeling better. Excited to be able to say “no” to things (Stacy and Autumn and John, I hope that “Sparkle” is everything you wanted it to be!), excited to spend time with the kids, excited to run and play football, excited to check things off my to-do list, excited to have time to read and get into the Word and rest… Excited to just be!

So today I am thankful for space… for time… and for quiet! But just as thankful as I am for these things, I am also thankful for the people here… Both those that live here and those we see often. They are a huge blessing to me and I am thankful that God set up a community for me to transition into during my time here in this country!

PS- This afternoon brought my first African baking adventure (chocolate chip cookies!), and cleaning lessons from Paul... Success!

Sweet Portia Girl

This morning I was sitting at my living room table in aquiet house… The best blessing I could ask for. Time to be here and break andrelax and just be by myself.

As I was trying to figure out how to make iMovie work onStacy’s computer (I stink at the whole Mac thing…), Edwin (3yrs) came runninginto the house crying “Portia (5yrs) took my circle!”

I walked out to my porch to find our sweet, full-of-energyenergizer bunny Portia with her bottom lip out and her eyes cast to the ground,holding both a metal circle (who knows what it even came from…) and a littlecloth flower bracelet. Yes, she had Edwin’s “circle,” but she also looked likeshe had a heart full of hurt.

Portia is in the final stages of her adoption process andwill soon be heading HOME to Knoxville, Tennessee where she and a girl fromanother Ghanaian orphanage will be loved with open arms and open hearts. Portialoves her new mom and wants to be there so bad. Originally, the hope was tohave the girls home for Thanksgiving. Mabel, Portia’s new sister, has all herpapers ready to go… But Portia’s have faced complications and she hasn’t gotteneverything she needs. Therefore, it’s a waiting game at this point…

You can see it in Portia’s eyes. You can see it in Portia’sbehavior at school. You can see it in Portia’s heart… She longs to be HOME!

At first, when Edwin and I came out, Portia wouldn’t talk tome… She kept her eyes down and unwillingly sat in my lap until she scooted outonto the ground after about a minute. After she gave me Edwin’s circle and heran away happy as a lamb, Portia eventually gave in… First climbing back up tosit in front of me, and then onto my lap, and then clinging to me… She stillwouldn’t talk, but she didn’t need to.

In this moment, the only thing I wanted to do was sit thereand tell Portia how much she is loved. How loved she is in this place, afterbeing here for two years and being loved so deeply by Autumn and Stacy and theadults and children here… How loved she is by the volunteers, as she seems tocapture the hearts of those who are here for even just a day… How loved she isby God, who has set out such a beautiful plan for her filled with joy andfreedom and a forever family… How loved she is by her new parents, just waitinganxiously to bring her home as soon as the get the go-ahead…

So naturally, I just cried. I couldn’t say a word… I justcried.

Cried out of love for this girl. Cried out of love for allthese children, especially after watching video footage of previous CORM tripsto the Volta region earlier today. Cried out of joy that I am able to be hereand be a part of moments like these.

Eventually Portia started playing with my braid and thenbecame my hair stylist. I would have had a picture, except then “let’s sit inKathy’s house and not leave and then kick her when she tries to pick me up andthen accidentally kick Edwin in the head” became a game from one of the otherkids, so my chance was lost… But let’s just say, Portia may have many gifts,but I don’t know if hair styling is in her future.

However, what is in her future are many things… Joy.Freedom. Hope. Life. LOVE. So, so, so much love. And that is the best thingthat anyone could do for her.

Words

Me: “I keep looking at her blog but she hasn’t written in it for forever!”
Caty: “Kathy, you haven’t written in your blog for forever either!”

But I look at it often… If I look at it often enough, won’t the words just write themselves?

The words of tears of frustration over every aspect of life here… The words of being overwhelmed by the constant presence of people all around me (oh the life of an introvert)… The words of struggling through beginning to share my classroom space and handing over a group of kids whom I love dearly to a teacher whom has a long way to grow… The words of feeling so desperately lonely yet surrounded by people, grasping for any little communication from my loved ones 7,000 miles away… The words of early-morning lesson planning and attempts to avoid chaos…

The words of hushed talks with Holly in my classroom about whatever is on our heart… The words of one on one’s with Autumn where I get to just be… The words of watching Stacy jump on a trampoline for the first time in her life… The words of pleading with God to heal my heart which breaks on a daily basis… The words of preparing to visit the community where our sweet Moses was enslaved… The words of hugs and conversations (and constant frustrations) with Bismark… The words of seeing the relief on Rosemary’s face and hearing multiple exclamations of “THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!” when I was able to make her computer work again…The words of Autumn talking about looking at blog stats and being thankful I’m not the only one… The words of playing soccer with the little boys until dinner time and having Sammy prance around like a little pre-professional with a grin on his competitive face the whole time… The words of finally starting to work with the groups I will have the whole year…

The words of paining stomachs… The words of forgetting to take your laundry out of the washer all day long… The words of getting a dresser for our room and screaming for joy… The words of sunset prayer runs… The words of afternoons in the one coffee shop we know exists in Ghana… The words of conviction from a telecast at 2am in the Beebe’s living room…

No, I suppose they won’t write themselves. I guess that’s my job.