School begins

Dear Family and Friends,

Since Shannon's been good and has written most of these updates, I decided to give him a break and write one to you too. We started school last Monday (I know this is unthinkable to you teachers out there) and survived the first week and a half of school. :)

The children are very cute, energetic, and for the most part,excited to learn. A typical school day begins with our chapel time at 8am, and at 8:30 the children walk to class. Shannon and I each have 20 kids and our classrooms are next to each other. The classrooms are spacious and there are more than enough desks for everyone. The only thing we wish for is for better lighting, since we teach only by sunlight without electricity.


In the morning we teach reading, writing, math, and spelling. We eat an African meal for lunch made by the volunteers. Typically, the meal has rice with peanut sauce. Peanut sauce is made up of finely ground peanuts, palm oil, and some other spices. In the afternoon we teach phonics/word work, social studies/science, and then the kids either have art or music. Jeje, the missionary from Korea teaches art and we, er Shannon, teaches music on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I usually end up teaching the children some new songs at the end of music time and do my best to strum them on the guitar. The children absolutely LOVE to sing and it's a real joy to hear them. We can usually hear them in the chapel singing at 7:30 in the morning before school starts and they love learning new songs.

During the first week, we were concerned with the children because some of them stared at us blankly while we spoke to them. Since then, some of them have started to remember what they learned last year and they are speaking much better now. It's difficult because over the whole summer they haven't had any practice with their English, so we've been doing a lot of review with basic skills. What we're most amazed at is their range. Most of the children are very good at math, but they are at all ends of the spectrum when it comes to reading, writing, and spelling. So, we'll do
our best this year to especially bring up those kids that are really low.

After school we have orientation with Pastor Joshua at 3. Orientation is really good and gives us a chance to debrief and also learn from God's word. Then we usually go back to school to finish preparing for the next school day. Shannon usually makes copies at night. Hahaha, making copies is the most frustrating thing in the world because it's such an ordeal. In order to make copies we have to turn on the generator, which takes a lot of physical strength and is extremely loud once it's on. Then we plug it into the duplicator and hope and pray that it doesn't break down
that day. Our duplicator is tempermental, but PJoshua and Shannon do a pretty good job being handymen to fix it when it gets stuck and stops working.

At around 5-6 we usually make dinner. They do have a lot of things we can get at the Faranah market, like potatoes, bananas, onions, green onions, garlic, cucumber, and plantain. They also have these fried donut holes that Shannon especially likes to eat. Jeje loves to cook, so it's been great making dinners with her. We've been pretty creative with the food we have. They do have French bread in Faranah that is delivered by bicycle by one of the workers every morning for the children and us to eat. Shannon really enjoys being able to eat his peanut butter sandwiches
everyday. I don't know what he would do without them. So, we are eating well and we're healthy. I think we've actually put on a couple pounds here.

This week Pastor Joshua, Sarah, Caleb, and Christa are in Conakry, Guinea's capital. Conakry is the city we flew into when we arrived here. The drive there from Sambouya is 8 hours of mountains and is sometimes treacherous. Please pray for them as the trip can be very tiring. They went there to get more supplies and pick up mail. So this week, I've
been leading the praise time with the kids in the morning and Shannon has been giving mini sermons. Please pray for us that we would stay energized. The sun really does make you tired and it can make the children listless too.

I would say that the hardest part about teaching here is that we are constantly concerned about the children. Almost everyday, someone has a fever, needs bandaids, or has an upset stomach. Today in class I had someone throw up on the floor, and she never told me that she felt sick. So, we make an effort to constantly tell the kids how to stay healthy and to tell us when they are not feeling well. Please pray that the kids would stay healthy!

On a funnier note, we've seen and eaten our fair share of strange things. Shannon always happens to see/catch/observe crazy insects/animals out here. So far this week we've seen an enormous millipede(probably 3/4inch thick and 8 inches long!), an iguana, a snake, and the biggest slug we've ever seen. He's usually attempting to prevent the kids from
throwing things at them. While we were in our village the other night, someone offered us what looked like a meatball. I took a bite and discovered that it was a fishball with bones. Being the nice wife I was, I offered
some to Shannon to eat. He took one bite and passed it on to a village kid who gobbled it up. "Adumang, adumang!" they said, which means delicious! We just nodded our heads and smiled.

Life in Bilingkoro has been interesting. We try to get home early enough to greet people about twice a week or so. The other times it is too dark or we are too tired by the time we get home to go around the village saying hi to everyone. We'll talk more about village life in another e-mail, but I realize I've already written far too much.

So now you know what a typical day is like for us. Sorry I can't be as concise as Shannon, but there is just so much to write. We think and pray for you all often. Please do the same for us! :) I hope all is well at home!

Love,
Shannon and Carol