What did you do today?
Sometimes it is hard to define what I did after a day in Tete. I start off with one plan and things almost always change by 10am. Monday I was nicely defined as a substitute teacher for John's class... until noon. At noon, I should have driven home to make lunch for the other two... then back to school to teach Bible Club and hang out until swimming was over at 4pm. But... something changed.
We have to look at Sunday- the team went with Mikael to deliver the Gospel of Mark in Nyungwe to 7 churches "on the other side of the river." He drove on good highway... and some normal dirt suburb roads. They had a warm welcome in the church they visited and headed out for the second on the list. "Ka-plomp, ka-plomp, ka-plomp." Flat tire. How odd that a 5 inch metal shard would be stuck in our new big, tough Wranglers! The spare was low. Power cuts on Sundays. No compressors to pump up and no repairs possible. So Maliko came home with Mikael on Sunday and we didn't want to drive much.
So, on Monday, "teacher Jeni" didn't have a car. M dropped us all at 7:30 for a day at school. At 10am he brought us lunches and snacks and all we needed to stay at school until 4pm. Still no tire repairs possible since the Maputo riots tried to spread through the country. A few people tried to start something in Tete... at the goat market between town and the school. Police controlled it peacefully. They still closed things in town to keep people quiet. We were able to go home as planned at 4pm, but we were a bit tired.
Today was different. Everything is back to normal in town. Our spare is still not great, but holding most of the air. The repair on the other tire will have to be done next week since the shop ran out of patching material. So we aren't driving around much. I needed to work on a few things. Email was working, so I checked and answered it. Then it wasn't working... then it was... I started a workshop proposal for teacher training in Nyungwe writing skills for schools in Mufa-Caconde.
We need to look at yesterday for that explanation- I always have prayer time on Wednesday mornings with some moms at school. Our group is small, but faithful. When we were finishing up I got a surprise call from the Director of the primary school in Mufa-Caconde. He was in town and looking for materials in Nyungwe for his Bilingual Ed students... about 80% of his school at this point. We had a great chat. He took a class set of Maliko (the Gospel of Mark in Nyungwe) a few Jonah books and some Life of Jesus SGM booklets based on Luke. These he will use in the 4th grade where the kids have almost nothing to read in class. He was really happy for the materials. They can use Bible texts in school... the important thing is that it is written in Nyungwe. Almost nothing else exists, so Maliko is the best offer! He also wanted our literacy book produced last year. He wants to use it for first grade since their Nyungwe materials never arrived from the state publisher. Our book is still being revised, but it follows the methodology they use in Bilingual Ed so the teachers can use it and hopefully fill in the gaps. I printed out the first 3 units that are reasonably ready. I need to get more copies for him.
So, now I can explain my Workshop proposal. Since teachers in Mufa-Caconde don't have materials for their students to read, I want to offer to teach them to write their own. In a series of workshops, we will make sure they have learned the basics of Nyungwe spelling; we will give them a chance to write about local history, interesting events in the community, folktales, etc. Then they will learn the art of re-working the texts into easy reading materials. It is much harder to write natural EASY stories! So they get lots of practice in editing and spelling and grammar and all that good stuff.
That's what I did today in between answering phone calls about electricity repairs in our house and picking up the kids at school and looking at the big, ugly owie on Rosa's leg...
and evaluating a loan request for one of our staff...
and speaking to the "boss" about the request on behalf of the employee...
and welcoming a friend who stopped in having just returned from a month in Brazil...
and finding a ride home from school for her son...
and eating sweet potatoes and cabbage for lunch...
and scheduling a meeting to discuss some partnerships at the department of Education...
and waiting for the server to recognize those emails and this blog post.
Most of the things on the list take just a few minutes... but they add up to many interruptions that slow down the progress of the things I mean to do every day. But, there is progress...
Last year, Mufa-Caconde didn't have materials either, but this year they know where to find something to substitute what they are missing. That is a huge step forward... the result of some concentrated efforts with lots of little interruptions like today.
We have to look at Sunday- the team went with Mikael to deliver the Gospel of Mark in Nyungwe to 7 churches "on the other side of the river." He drove on good highway... and some normal dirt suburb roads. They had a warm welcome in the church they visited and headed out for the second on the list. "Ka-plomp, ka-plomp, ka-plomp." Flat tire. How odd that a 5 inch metal shard would be stuck in our new big, tough Wranglers! The spare was low. Power cuts on Sundays. No compressors to pump up and no repairs possible. So Maliko came home with Mikael on Sunday and we didn't want to drive much.
So, on Monday, "teacher Jeni" didn't have a car. M dropped us all at 7:30 for a day at school. At 10am he brought us lunches and snacks and all we needed to stay at school until 4pm. Still no tire repairs possible since the Maputo riots tried to spread through the country. A few people tried to start something in Tete... at the goat market between town and the school. Police controlled it peacefully. They still closed things in town to keep people quiet. We were able to go home as planned at 4pm, but we were a bit tired.
Today was different. Everything is back to normal in town. Our spare is still not great, but holding most of the air. The repair on the other tire will have to be done next week since the shop ran out of patching material. So we aren't driving around much. I needed to work on a few things. Email was working, so I checked and answered it. Then it wasn't working... then it was... I started a workshop proposal for teacher training in Nyungwe writing skills for schools in Mufa-Caconde.
We need to look at yesterday for that explanation- I always have prayer time on Wednesday mornings with some moms at school. Our group is small, but faithful. When we were finishing up I got a surprise call from the Director of the primary school in Mufa-Caconde. He was in town and looking for materials in Nyungwe for his Bilingual Ed students... about 80% of his school at this point. We had a great chat. He took a class set of Maliko (the Gospel of Mark in Nyungwe) a few Jonah books and some Life of Jesus SGM booklets based on Luke. These he will use in the 4th grade where the kids have almost nothing to read in class. He was really happy for the materials. They can use Bible texts in school... the important thing is that it is written in Nyungwe. Almost nothing else exists, so Maliko is the best offer! He also wanted our literacy book produced last year. He wants to use it for first grade since their Nyungwe materials never arrived from the state publisher. Our book is still being revised, but it follows the methodology they use in Bilingual Ed so the teachers can use it and hopefully fill in the gaps. I printed out the first 3 units that are reasonably ready. I need to get more copies for him.
So, now I can explain my Workshop proposal. Since teachers in Mufa-Caconde don't have materials for their students to read, I want to offer to teach them to write their own. In a series of workshops, we will make sure they have learned the basics of Nyungwe spelling; we will give them a chance to write about local history, interesting events in the community, folktales, etc. Then they will learn the art of re-working the texts into easy reading materials. It is much harder to write natural EASY stories! So they get lots of practice in editing and spelling and grammar and all that good stuff.
That's what I did today in between answering phone calls about electricity repairs in our house and picking up the kids at school and looking at the big, ugly owie on Rosa's leg...
and evaluating a loan request for one of our staff...
and speaking to the "boss" about the request on behalf of the employee...
and welcoming a friend who stopped in having just returned from a month in Brazil...
and finding a ride home from school for her son...
and eating sweet potatoes and cabbage for lunch...
and scheduling a meeting to discuss some partnerships at the department of Education...
and waiting for the server to recognize those emails and this blog post.
Most of the things on the list take just a few minutes... but they add up to many interruptions that slow down the progress of the things I mean to do every day. But, there is progress...
Last year, Mufa-Caconde didn't have materials either, but this year they know where to find something to substitute what they are missing. That is a huge step forward... the result of some concentrated efforts with lots of little interruptions like today.
May God continue to bless your faithful work.
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