While in the waning sun

The first post that I put on this blog was typed while sitting in my backyard in Courtice on a cushioned chair beside a propane fireplace. Over three months later, I am now sitting in the front yard of my house in Asamankese in a green, plastic chair, watching the sun set behind the palm trees and the cooler evening breeze blow the pink and golden clouds. We only have four sleeps left here in Asamankese and six sleeps until I am back in Canada, which my mind cannot wrap itself around. Mary flies in tomorrow night and we have a busy few days of saying goodbye to people, teaching our final classes, reading our final stories to the children and celebrating the accomplishments of the women with the graduation ceremony on Wednesday.

Crazy things happen every week. We've started a list of things that we find in the children's mouths, as they like to chew on EVERYTHING! Leaves off of the bus floor, pieces of wire from the fence, money, moth balls, candy bottle lids, pieces of their shoes, their socks and pencil led are only a few. I've learned how valuable good quality pencils are, since most of the pencils here are of the poorest quality and cannot even sharpen properly. Once I hand out the books and pencils to the kids to copy something from the board (they LOVE to write!), I have a continual stream of children coming to my desk with their pencils that "won't come", as they say. They've either bitten the led off, broken it on the table, or they were legitimately not sharp. There have been a few times that blisters have formed on my fingers from sharpening so many pencils and the pencil shavings go everywhere, including into the kids' mouths. I end up sharpening half of the pencil before it is actually ready to be used since the quality is so bad. One positive side to having the kids come to my wobbly, plastic table is that the Beginner's Bible usually sits there and the kids will leaf through it viciously and ask me who the people are as they wait for me to struggle with their pencil and to keep my patience.

I do not remember much from kindergarten, but I do remember using scissors and glue. Which kid doesn't love scissors and glue? In addition to English, I teach Creative Arts  and I have come up with a few fun crafts for my eager KG2 students that involve cutting up paper and tissue paper and gluing things to it. The cleanup takes longer than the actual craft does, but every child, even the ones that rarely ever sit still during class, are extremely intent on their work as they try to figure out how to hold the scissors and how to use the popsicle sticks to paste the white glue on their work. After our craft on Thursday, a pair of scissors still laid on my table that had not been put away. Trinity, one of my dear students who is just something else, was standing behind my chair on the table during morning break while I read a story to one of the other girls. I felt Trinity playing with my braided hair, as the girls have not ceased to twist it even though it's already in braids. Something felt different. I turned around and Trinity's face broke into a nervous smile as she lowered her hand with the scissors in them to her side. Had she actually cut my hair, I don't know what I would have done, but I am so thankful that that situation didn't happen.

The children are preparing for their Christmas program and I am incredibly sad that we will not be here to see the actual performance! Margaret asked me to teach them some Christmas songs so I have spent a few hours slowly going over the words to "Away in a Manger" and "Joy to the World". Children remember things so easily and with the aid of a musical tune, they catch on to a song with ease. I had to correct them after the first afternoon of going through the verse to "Away in a Manger", as they were saying, "Amanga, a manga," and although their voices and accents were cute and made me smile, the first words were slurred. They LOVE singing "The Twelve  Days of Christmas" and I'm pretty sure that they know it better than most North Americans know it. Their Bible quotations are coming along and it melts my heart to see some of the Muslim kids reciting verses from the Bible and I hope that they remember those life-giving words when they are older. Trinity, Christiana and Mardiatu were inside with me at morning break the other day and Trinity had the Bible open on her lap and said she loves Jesus. Mardiatu joined in and dramatically said, "I love, love, love , love, love Jesus!" I don't know if she understands the gravity of those beautiful words, but I hope that one day her heart will help her mind to fully accept it.

The final exams for the literacy program went well on Wednesday and there are a few of my students who would be graduating to Level 3 next semester if the program was continuing. They have thrown themselves into their studies upon learning that the funding is being cut and no more interns will be coming and therefore the program will, unfortunately, be ceasing. I am looking forward to the graduation rehearsal on Tuesday and then celebrating with and showering gifts and love on the women on Wednesday. Wednesday will be our last day in Asamankese. We are planning on having a party in the morning for the kids, decorating for the graduation ceremony in the afternoon and then we have to say goodbye to the children, the women and our friends in Asamankese (the majority of whom will be at the ceremony) all within the span of about 3 hours. I expect it to be emotionally draining.