First Day of School

First Day of School

Today was the first day of classes at school, and I am beat but I will try to provide a quick rundown.

 

We started the day, as usual, with morning prayer and mass followed by breakfast.  After that, we walked down to the school courtyard for the student assembly.  Each morning before school, all of the students gather next to the flag poles for announcements and the Ethiopian National Anthem (we are assuming that’s what it is).  Students (1^st-6^th grade) wear uniforms consisting of a yellow long-sleeved button-down shirt, brown trousers, and brown vest.  Upon dismissal from the assembly, students go to their classrooms.  They stay in the same room, and teachers rotate throughout the day.  I taught one section of 3^rd grade Spoken English (45 students) and one section of 4^th grade Spoken English (36 students).  In total, I will have two sections of each class plus after-school classes.  Lesson One: Respect (complete with tribute to Aretha Franklin).  In addition to my classes today, we played with the kids during break times.  After school, the teachers hosted a coffee ceremony to welcome the new teachers (yes I have, occasionally, been drinking coffee…Paula says the coffee here is, “the platonic form of coffee”…whatever that is!).  Today’s accomplishments:
 

1)      Helped a girl fix her necklace that was in pieces during break time

2)      Successfully had 4^th grade students make name tags with their first name only, in English

3)      Maneuvered through a power outage

4)      Sanitized and bandaged my just-slightly-injured toe (scraped it on my chair)

5)      Learned that in Ethiopia, “ ‘Father’s name’ is a student’s ‘last name,’ which is the same as their father’s first name”

6)   One of the students told me that I am a good singer

7)      Almost able to recite the “Hail Mary” prayer in Amharic (well, I still have to read it, but I am getting close to at least being able to say the whole thing)

8)      Downloaded a song within a reasonable timeframe and figured out how to transfer it to my phone

9)     Found what I like to call “a teaching moment” while playing hand-clapping games with the girls during break.  As the number of claps increased, I counted the numbers 1-10 in English and Amharic aloud.  Thought this might be helpful to the girls, and surrounding captive audience of other students, because Paula said her next lesson in 5^th and 6^th grade will be counting in English.  Well, I guess she said counting after twenty...but anyway, I figure it's still good for the kids to hear.

10)      Survived Day One of classes!

 

Hi All!

Today we got to sleep in!  Morning prayer started at 8am.  We have prayer and daily Mass in a small chapel in which there are eight chairs (one for Abba, one for Deacon, and one for each of the two Brothers…Paula and I take up two of the remaining four).  The chapel itself is just a regular room with tile floor and painted walls – of course decorated as a chapel.  Morning prayer was directly followed by breakfast consisting of the usual, hot tea with white bread (resembling French bread) with assorted toppings, butter and strawberry jam today (on other days we have also had fresh avocados and cream cheese).  After breakfast, the Brothers, Paula, and I climbed into the back of the pick-up truck to ride to Mass.  Since it is Sunday, and inspired by our interpretation of the local women’s Sunday attire, I am wearing a long skirt with three-quarter-sleeve sweater…each of us wearing a scarf loosely draped around our head and neck.  We have quickly grown accustomed to the rides in the truck into town (we don’t get out much).  We ride standing in the truck bead, hanging on to the roll bar (?) right behind the cabin.  As we drive down the dirt roads, lined with houses (made of mud and large sticks), we wave and say “Salam” to people who are in the road (mostly children) standing in front of their houses.  We still are not quite used to people starring at us all of the time (we are clearly not from around here), everywhere we go, but in response we just smile and wave (or shake hands), saying “Salam.”

We attended Mass today at the prison, which Paula and I enjoy.  After Mass we came back and had a couple hours of free time.  Lunch always involves pasta – yummmm! Mind kinda place :)  Also, today at lunch we had homemade pizza which has become one of my favorites around here.  In the afternoon, we had a teacher meeting.  School starts tomorrow, but it’s really just orientation.  Classes officially start on Tuesday.  I will be teaching 3rd and 4th grade Spoken English classes, 3rd grade English Tutorial, and 6th grade Math Tutorial.  After the teacher meeting, we had time to play with the kids 1,440 kids came to play today.  One good thing is that it doesn’t take much to make them laugh, so it’s pretty easy to keep them entertained.  There were more kids today than on a usual day; typically there are probably between 400 and 500 young people.  On Sundays after play time and prayer time, we hand out biscuits (large crackers) – one package of four biscuits per child. 
Our day concluded with evening prayer at 7pm, in the chapel.  After, we had dinner which consisted of pans of rice, lentils, beef, hardboiled egg, and a thick soup.  I kind of just get some of each thing and eat it from my plate all together.  The food is all really good here!  Occasionally we get to have chocolate, typically chocolate with hazelnuts :)

Well, I should get to bed, as we have a big day tomorrow with it being the first day of school!
Peace and Love,
Jenna

Today, more playing with the kids (extra today). Sometimes it's a bit intimidating-I stand there completely surrounded by about 15 kids or so, with their full attention on me. So much of the time, I am at a loss...a game, a song, a dance, learning more words, simple questions/answers in English?? Most of the time, I just smile really big, shake their hands, and say "Salam" (sp?). To which, they respond with big smiles and big eyes, "Salam." Every once in awhile, I will feel a little pinch on my arm and look down only to find one of the little children examining a mole on my arm-just one more way that I'm different-hahaha! Over and over they try to teach me the numbers in Amharic, as they use my fingers to count. Let's see how I'm doing, from memory:

1 - "and"

2 - "hulet"

3 - "sost"

4 - "arat"

5 - "amest"

6 - "sedest"

7 - "sabat"

8 - "cement"

...I'm workin' on it :)

Today=triumph! I washed all of my underwear in the sink in my room and created a make-shift clothes line with the string that the boys from Thurs Bible study so kindly gave me. Also, today I successfully hung my mosquito net above my bed.

Once we are finished with all of our play time with the kids for the day (which is always followed by a Rosary they say in Amharic), we have a break before evening prayer and dinner. During our break, Paula and I are becoming accustomed to sitting out on our small balcony. We admire the beautiful sunset while she plays the guitar and we sing and talk about the day. What a gift it is to get a chance to admire God's glory. Ok, I've got to get to bed, morning prayer and Mass come early. Peace and Love.

Europe Trip Reflection

 

Reflection on my/our trip around Europe (the whirlwind tour: Dublin, Berlin, Rothenburg, Wurzburg, Munich, Vienna, Bologna, Rome, Venice) has led me to realize that not only have I participated in what I like to call “The World’s Best Beverage Tour,” but there are also a number of ways the trip positively impacted me.

World’s Best Beverage Tour
1) Yuengling in New York
2) Guinness in Dublin (even though I decided Murphy’s is better)
3) Dunkel (dark beer) of various types in Germany
4) Vino della casa (house wine) of various types in Italy
5) Coffee in Ethiopia (since it allegedly originated here)

Short Reflections/Things the trip taught me
1) Things end up working out
2) Gaining confidence in self
3) Traveling the world is not nearly as intimidating as it was before
4) God romancing my heart:
             a. The guys taking such good care of me
             b. Gorgeous country-side along our drive through Bavaria into Austria
             c. Grandeur and elaborateness of the churches throughout
             d. Artifacts of human experience (i.e. Roman Ruins)
5) God, in His infinite glory, exists everywhere (over all the earth)
6) The world is both big and small
7) God gave the earth to us as a gift-why not go to see it/experience more of it with a playful spirit, bearing in mind the call to be a good steward of what has been given
8) Honored, blessed, and privileged to have been given the opportunity to participate in such a trip
9) Human relationships are more important than travel. It was cool to see all of the things we did, but being in good company made all the difference. I suppose a good balance of relational and experiential aspects to life is ideal.
10) God is sooo good to me!
11) Learning how to be more flexible and not stress so much, finally!



Our Car!

Reflection of Orientation

What an honor and a privilege it was to attend the Salesian Lay Missioner orientation! I grew in my relationship with God, in my faith, in knowledge of self, met some amazing people who share my heart for service…oh yeah, and began to feel more prepared for my upcoming mission trip to Ethiopia.

We learned the difference between being a volunteer and being a missionary. This is the way I understand it: Being a volunteer is good and is to be commended because it is an opportunity to help people in a very direct way. However, in being a Salesian Lay MISSIONER, I will not only be helping people but with added faith undertones.

Throughout orientation, I came to the realization that this upcoming year will most likely be the most humbling year of my life. In America, I have become what I think to be a well-qualified citizen, capable of supporting myself and “successfully” living daily life. Now, I am going to live in a place where I know nothing about the culture, customs, language, etc. I anticipate feeling pretty incompetent.

As much as my goal for a long time has been “to help people in Africa,” I am realizing more and more that they will be teaching me. This is great! I hope to learn and grow as much as I can throughout this year.

One concept that has stuck with me from orientation is that we are not bringing God to people; instead, we are going there to help them see that God is already there.

This is my favorite quote from orientation (something I think my Dad has been trying to teach me my whole life-Thanks Daddy!):
“The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you. They are unique manifestations of the human spirit.” – Wade Davis

In this way, my goal is not to “change the world,” necessarily, but to help others see God in it. For people to not see me, but instead to see the love, mercy, and glory of God. So they can come to know Him even better and so I may be able to see the same in them.

Another thing this experience, as a whole, is teaching me is that if God places something on our hearts, we will not be disappointed and should not loose hope in our impatience. For years it has been difficult for me to “sit on the sidelines” and watch while so many of my friends have gone on mission trips all over the world, gotten married, begun having kids-all things my heart burns with desire for-wondering (with attempted patience), “When will it be my turn?”…I had to finish school first, Mom said, which was definitely a wise decision. So I finished school and got a job (which I loved)-the American way. But still my heart yearned for something more. Finally, my time has come-God has provided an opportunity (a miracle) for His will to come to fruition in and through me! That’s not to say I wasn’t living out His will before, it’s just in a different way now. “Go in peace to glorify God by your life”

9 Sept 2012

Today we attended Sunday Mass in the local parish.  Even though Mass was said in Amharic/Wolaitanya, we were still able to tell what was going on because Mass is in the same format everywhere! The music was great-there was a children's choir, drums, and lots of clapping. Paula and I hope to learn how to sing in Amharic! After Mass, we met a couple of the Missionary of Charity (Blessed Mother Theresa's order) sisters who work here, in Soddo. At the same time, we quickly became surrounded by curious children. To whom we would say, "Salom" (meaning 'peace' and is used as a common greeting) with a handshake and a smile. We had a teacher meeting this afternoon, at which I learned that I will be teaching Spoken English and Math Tutorial classes for this upcoming school year. I think the students are 1st-6th grade, and the first day of school will be next Monday. We hope to find out more soon. Later in the afternoon each day, many local kids come to play at the Don Bosco School (where we are assigned). Today there were 1,380 kids (well, maybe a couple of adults included in that)! Tomorrow is the Ethiopian New Year's Eve, and then Tuesday will be the New Year (2005 since Ethiopia uses a different calendar). So, we are looking forward to the festivities that will ensue! Goodnight for now.

Peace and Love,
Jenna

Soddo!
Oh boy, it's been awhile since I last posted! I apologize for the delay in updates. While we were in Europe, we had limited internet access. Not to mention the fact that we stayed pretty busy :) Once we finished our trip through Europe, I arrived in Addis Ababa (capital of Ethiopia) on Sept 2. I stayed with the Salesians in Addis and Paula (my site partner) for a couple of days. Once my bags were delivered in Italy, I flew back to get them (Paula went ahead to Soddo, as planned). I left Addis on Sept 5, picked up my bags in Italy, and arrived back in Addis on Sept 7.  Later in the day on Sept 7 (yesterday), Deacon Temesgen picked me up and brought me to Soddo (approx. 5 hr drive south-west of Addis).  Upon our arrival at the Salesian’s compound, Abba, the brothers, and Paula greeted me with a “welcome song”. With tears streaming down my face from excitement and relief, I hugged each member of my new community :) I realized how much it took for me to get here, and by God’s grace and Mary’s guidance I finally made it! At last, I am in Soddo, with Paula and all of my bags!
With that said, I hope to post the following: Reflection of Orientation, Europe Reflections, Europe posts by location, First Days in Ethiopia, To Get the Bags, Thoughts of the day, and Soddo.
I love and miss you all, but am feeling excited and blessed beyond belief to be here :)