Schooled.

God is so good to allow me the privilege of being at Mattaw and the school.  He is teaching me more of what it means to die to self and love those in front of me; and that even when that is hard or uncomfortable, His glory is greater and better.  It's funny, I'm here to teach, but feel I am actually learning more each day.

School is going great; being there and working with other teachers toward a goal just energizes me completely.  I loved coming in today and seeing Peris using some of the phonics teaching techniques we discussed the previous day.  The children seem to love it, too.

Peris making it happen.

The longer I'm here, the more I find myself talking in this metered, robotic British-Alabamian over-accented voice.  (Somewhere my dear friend Vivian is laughing.  This has happened before.)  It's weird, but since I don't know Swahili, sometimes it helps in communicating with the teachers and students.  Other times, it doesn't matter at all--like yesterday when I told the teachers that if there was a difficult subject and they would like for me to model a lesson, I'd be glad to do it if they'd tell me the day before so I could prepare.  I used my new Kenyan accent, but the whole "day before" thing didn't go through, apparently.  I spent today teaching four on-the-spot hour-long lessons. The invitation went something like this, "Teacher Courtney, come in."  I go in.  "Here, teach us the letters now."  Ha.  It was a surprise, but it was incredibly fun.  Again, the Lord continually provides.  I think my favorite lesson was on long and short vowel sounds, taught to the mid-level class.  Teacher Helen grabbed my camera off the desk and took the liberty of snapping a few shots.

Hello, Kenya!  These are post-its.

White teacher look crazy, y'all.

Teaching in Kenya is an awesome privilege.  It's challenging, but my favorite part of the day.  School is filled with lots of sweet moments with students and teachers--Like working one-on-one with Eunice.  I've been working with her in math and writing to model differentiation techniques to the teachers.  Eunice is one of His precious ones, and I adore her.  She and I finished the day by snuggling up on the stoop and reading.  I'm thankful for this day and my time here, and looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow.

Rainbow Fish is a hit no matter where you are.

Eunice.