The

I am explaining how to use touch points to add to the kids. Don't you love their desks and paper? Their pencils are even built in to their hands!

Kids working diligently on addition and playing in the sand!

Auntie Jean and I having a good time explaining touch point and trying to hear all of the kids answers at the same time.

The pavilion from the side.

The pavilion for Children of the Light. This is looking from the top of the land and then it slopes down. Where the bricks have stopped is where the floor for the pavilion will be laid. The men read my dad's plan wrong and started with the foundation up instead of in the ground but Auntie Jean is adjusting.

Even all of the kids had to help carry up water.

The pile of sand and cement to make the flooring. Yes, they mix it all on the ground!

The kids from Children of the Light carrying down water and oranges to the land. They had to walk at least 20 minutes down a narrow and rocky path to the land. This is all in a day's work for them.

This picture is especially for Cathy but please enjoy it as well. This is Kweku, who was Cathy's special friend over Christmas. He is six even though he looks a lot younger.

Monica and Abigail, the girls down the streets who I give books to. They are intensely writing their names

Abigail's sister, enjoying some bread.

This is Abigail, look at that attitude!

This is Monica, they love to pose for the camera!

After five days out of school due to illnesses, we still not go back to school as Ghana was still celebrating its Independence. Yes, it was nice to have time off to get caught up in school work and e-mails(thank you to all who have e-mailed me, I love it!) but by this point, I was ready for a routine. I just could not sit in my room a second later looking up ideas for my classroom as there is a world around me in need. I sat for awhile contemplating on my move and just asking God what I could do for Him on this day that would be more glorifying to him than being on the computer. Finally it struck me, well actually God put it on my heart, that I should visit the girls down the street who I give paper books. After circling their house once, mind you it is an unfinished house, the girls came out and I asked them to read to me. They quickly found their books and read from them which included rhymes. I had to explain a rhyme to them and then we spent time naming rhymes in which we would jump everytime we said one. Children in Ghanaian school learn everything through rote memorization and don't exactly have the skills to decode words so I want them to know important phonetic rules. I then brought out a leveled reader, which isn't that interesting and doesn't have the best pictures but they loved it. They read a story about a clown which they had never heard of before so they loved it. They were desperate to keep the book but it is a school so I could not allow them to have it, however I had better new for them. Auntie Jean, the lady who runs Children of the Light which I go on Saturdays to help, told me that these girls could check out books from her library. All they had to do was pay a cedi for the pouch and then I could continue to give them quality books which they have never had before. The only books they own are the paper ones I have given them. Okay, so take a step back and think about your own house. How many books do you have laying around that you have never opened? How many do I have in my classroom although I still complain that I do not have enough? These girls are dying to get their hands on books where sometimes we just dispose of ours. They were so excited about the idea of getting real books and their grandmother and mother thanked me for this opportunity. Everyday, they would ask me about the books but I told them that I would not be able to go up until Saturday. Saturday was amazing on the land but I will get to that in a moment. When I got back, my guard told me that the girls had stopped by twice to give me their cedi and they were disappointed each time knowing I wasn't there. Later that night, as I was going to dinner for Faith's birthday, I saw the girls and they ran to go get their money. They said, "we came looking for you, we want the books." I tried to explain to them that I wasn't around because I was getting them their books! They gave me the pouch and I promised to bring the books after church. Even this morning at 6:30 when they were carrying water, they kept saying " the books, the books." "They are coming," I responded in true Ghanaian fashion! I love these girls zeal for wanting to read and actually understand what they are reading. I am also so thankful that the Lord put it on my heart to spend time with them on Monday instead of stay in my home. Please pray that I seek after small opportunities to just touch someone who needs it. Also pray for these girls as they want to be nurses and I want them to achieve but I just pray that school fees or sin doesn't get in the way of those dreams. I am so excited that I at least have another year with these girls to help teach them phonic skills and open their eyes to a new world through books.

I thought the kids would be crazy coming back after being gone for 6 teaching days but they did a good job remembering routines, well for the first day because they were so tired from not being using to getting up early. After that, they struggled but I always have to remind myself that they are only in second grade. I love the moments when I take a step back and realize how thankful I am to God to be here and to be a teacher. These are my kids who will remember me as their second grade teacher! It is hard to comprehend after being a student or helper in the classroom for so long. I love them all for their personalities and their creative ideas. For the most part, they remember what I tell them about good worth ethics and important life skills which is great but also scary that they are quoting me, what do I really know? Best of all, they have a desire to serve God and love to give prayer requests and pray to our mighty God in Heaven. Another great part is they say the funniest things! For this week: we were talking about Ruth and how Naomi was a widow. I said that if you are a husband who loses your wife, than you are a widower. One boy says, " Oh so that is what I am, Oh wait I don't have one of them(a wife)" Oh man, comments like those make the day so much better. A had a girl whose birthday was on Friday and her father goes all out so I wanted to talk to him before they came in. He came by my room after school on Thursday( he speaks mostly French), and I said, so our daughter's birthday is tomorrow. "It is?" he said to Saly. He had no idea that tomorrow was her birthday. This crushed the girl and I felt so bad that I had to be the one to tell him. These kids might have a lot of monetary value but they are hurting inside by not have someone who is there for them. Yes, there parents provide above and beyond, but the kids are crying out for attention, even the high schoolers because they don't get they crave for at home. Please continue to pray that we love on these kids even when they may act up from wanted attention.

Saturday morning, I made the treck up to the land with some friends. They needed water carried up from the stream so they could make more cement so I had the privilege of carrying water on my head! I will admit that it is not easy! First, you put a shirt or cloth wrapped in a circle on top of your head. Then you have a guy, well we had to have a guy, raise the bucket and set it up on your head so you can start moving quickly. It hurts the neck muscles but some of these kids have been carrying water at a young age so they have built up the muscle there. Yes, I must admit that some of the kids carry as much or maybe more than I do. It really is an amazing workout but to the Ghanaians, it is a way of life. I see the small girls in my neighborhood carrying water home before 6 in the morning. If they want to take a bath or have breakfast, they must first fetch the water. Water; that just comes out of the faucet for us but is a laboring job for people here. Oh what we take for granite! After we filled the large buckets, we began math or maths as the call it here. All of the kids were sitting on the sand doing flashcards while I was trying to think of how to use pencil and paper here. Then it dauned on me, we already have paper and pencils. I got their attention and told them to get out their pencil by holding up their finger. We then sharpened our "pencils" and got them ready to write. I showed them their paper on the ground(sand)and they even had a an eraser(palm of their hand.) We were working on touch points again which will help them be faster at adding. Yes, it was chaotic to the maximum but that is how Auntie Jean and I function so we had a good time. The kids would write the problem and then they would show me the answer by using the touch point to add. So, I had about 15 kids yelling, "Madame, Madame, look, look, 15, 15, I got it, I got it." It reminded me of Ethiopia and I loved it. If they got it right, Be,(teacher at the school) would throw them a biscuit. It was a group effort to help these kids understand but they were catching on which was amazing. Oh it was so much fun as we laughed continuously. I was just in my element, in the frest air, teaching kids who were using sand as their paper. How could it got much better. Well, actually it did, because then we told the Resurrection story through the eggs where there is a small figuring inside each egg that help tell the story of Christ's sacrifice for mankind. Some of the kids were distracted half of the time but there was one boy who will be a preacher one day as he would stop us to tell the kids something. He would point his finger, and in twi, tell them the truth of Christ. We always asked for a translation and it was the most beautiful words ever! What an amazing day. It is exciting to see the building of the pavilion as she just started going down to the land last June when it was still high brush. She officially purchased the land in November, and now she is building on it! God is working wonders here! We talked about how we can use the pavilion for teacher training and workshops which got me so excited as this is a desire of mine. We will see how God moves in time.

Well, this is a super long blog, sorry so much to write about! Enjoy your week and keep in touch!

,