Boxes, Boxes, and more Boxes!

“Hey, Enjoli.” said Brianna as she popped her head through the doorway of our room.

“Yes?” I answered.

It was Saturday evening and I was reading on my bed. A rare occasion back home so I take advantage of it here. :) 

“You think you could help unload some boxes of literature in the morning? Uncle Jason needs all the help he can.” 

“Sure! What time?“ I asked.

“We have to BE there at 7 in the morning.” she answered.

“At 7 in the morning? On a Sunday? Oh…” 

Brianna continued, “We can eat at Uncle Jason’s and Aunt Antinette’s for breakfast and then they will give us a ride.  Do you want to join me?”

“Sure...” I said slowly. 

 

In the morning at 6:55, we were off. I was bumping around in the back of the truck bed. We were the first ones to arrive but soon others jointed our party. Before log the truck appeared, although it wasn’t t truck like Uncle Jason has, it was a Semi truck! 

 

 

When they parked the truck, the guys immediately started untying the strings to get the tarp of the boxes. With that being done, we started unloading the boxes. They were all numbered 1-15. We formed a line passing the box from person to person. The boxes were awfully heavy, they weighed about 50 pounds each. It tools us at least two hours. We were so tired and happy that we had finally finished. 

 

This morning when we woke up to school, Brianna and I were extremely sore. I mean EXTREMELY sore. Our whole bodies were aching! We could hardly move our arms! I have quite a few bruises, my back hurts, and my arms are just throbbing. 

I told her, “I don’t think I can bike all the way up there. I don’t think I could make it! On the way back you just cruise, but the ride up is exhausting, even without having every limb in your body sore. I think I’m going to walk. Want to come along?”

"I’d love to!” She exclaimed.

So at seven, we left for the long walk to the school. 

Usually, I don’t mind it when the kids come up to me and pull at my arms and hold them as well as my hands. Today was a different story though. Every time one of the children would roughly grab my arm I would grimace and inwardly cringe, then sweetly smile at them and say, “Be gentle please!” and loosen their hold on me. Well, hopefully I good some nice muscles out of it. 

But what else happened besides move heavy boxes and get really sore, Enjoli? Well, let me tell you a little bit about my day at school.

Bible class was very smooth and went quite well. We taught them a new song today. “Be a Missionary.” They’re still learning. They love the last line. “Let’s GO!” They enjoy doing hand motions so we like to sing songs that have lots of actions to them and if the don’t, we add some. 

Science class with Standard one was interesting. Brit (another missionary that has been here since November) and I we trying to teach them how to clean themselves. How they use toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, and so forth. They didn’t understand a word we were saying and wouldn’t keep quiet! Finally, we found someone to translate for us. After that, everything was a lot calmer. We finished teaching what we had planned, yet we still had at least 15 minutes and they were getting restless. We decided to take them outside and play duck, duck, goose. They didn’t understand the concept of the game at first, but I think they finally got it. 

The little kids would go around the circle saying, “bata, bata, bata, cuckoo!” Then the two children would race around the circle, laughing all the way.

In Math class, I decided to give them a test. I wrote all the problems on the blackboard (painfully) and then they copied and solved them on their notebooks. When they finished, they would bring their exercise books for me to grade. Of course, most of them finished at the same time so I had a swarm of kids around the desk, all trying to hand me their test and fighting over who would get theirs graded first. If they got all the questions right (or fixe them until they were) I would give them a sticker. These kids love stickers! They got so excited and showed it to all their classmates. 

Today was the first day I taught piano. I tutored my two kids from the seventh grade. All went well and they learned what a quarter, half, dotted half, and whole note is and how long to hold them. I loved teaching piano. I’ve always wanted to teach the piano but have never had the chance to. 

Well, it’s off to week of prayer for me! I believe I”ll be helping with the kids during the meeting. 

Hiya! (Good-bye in Swahilli)