Are you ready for this?
For this term of school...
I will be teaching...
Chemistry and History/Government.
KENYAN History & Government.
Can we all just stop and laugh at the irony here? I came all the way from America to teach a classroom full of nomadic Kenyans the history of their own country. A country I had never been to until 9 days ago.
9 days does not make me an expert on Kenyan history!
I just might be the most under qualified person for this class in the school…no. Make that the COUNTRY. Yes, there are Kenyan teachers at our school…no, they’re not teaching History. Hilarious.
Not to mention that I haven’t taken a Chemistry class since my freshman year in college. Yes…that was FIVE years ago.
Alicia is teaching Geography and Business Studies. To the secondary students. Yeah…we’re in the same boat here.
School starts Monday. It’s Saturday night here. Looks like we’ve got a TON of reading and learning to do in the next 36 hours.
Good news is…any learning my students do will certainly not be attributed to me. These next three months will ONLY be successful because the Lord desired them to be so. It’s certainly a humbling yet secure place to be in…even though teaching two subjects which I know next to nothing about is being ANYTHING but secure.
Tirrim Secondary School – the school we’re teaching at – just started this past January at the beginning of the first term of school. (Kenyan school starts in January and ends in December. Three terms: January-March, May-July, and September-November. April, August, and December are their months off). This year we only have Form 1 (equivalent to 9th grade). We have 31 students and one classroom that the teachers rotate through. There will be 6-7 teachers this term.
Thankfully, each student at Tirrim has a textbook each for every class they’re in (almost unheard of in Africa!)…and they’re in class a lot. School starts at 7:10 and ends around 5:00 each day. Then, the students have mandatory study hours from 7:30-9:00 PM three nights a week. PLUS…they have class on Saturday from 9:30-12:30. Crazy!
Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to YOUR name be the glory
because of YOUR love and faithfulness.
[Psalm 115:1]
“May the God of peace… equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him…”
ReplyDelete–Heb. 13:20-21
Whether you feel it or not, God has been preparing you for this long before you've thought about it. You're right - what a testimony to His Provision this will be :)
YOU! CAN! DO! IT! (Tell the secondary kids I say hello! ... on second thought, tell them I say "Bonjour!" I taught them French!) All you've got to be is one step ahead, and think of how much you'll learn about Kenya! I'll say it again - YOU! (AND GOD!) CAN! DO! IT!
ReplyDeleteThis gives new perspective to the mandate "go and serve where needed"......Already, life in Kenya is SO EXCITING and full of SURPRISES! A magnificent rush!
ReplyDelete