Kenya Klippings: SCHOOL!!!

L to R: Hannah Gingerich, Logan Wagler, Jeneva Miller, Jamie Zook, Heidi Gingerich, Elya Beachy

These children are the wonderful little folks that fill my days with joys and challenges and busy moments.

It's unbelievable that we have already finished the first quarter of school! Our first 9 weeks were filled with a lot of change. School has been a continual reminder to be flexible and accept that on the mission field, adjustments and change are just part of life.

We started school without the Gingerich girls. I was so excited when they came, because I felt like I could really TEACH, rather than knowing that everything I went over, I would need to reiterate again later. They both did a really good job of getting caught up with their school work, and soon we were all plugging along on the same page. Yet, things are different here for them... and adjusting to a new world is hard! Then, towards the end of September, Tony and Judith Zook moved to Nakuru to work with CAM there. Seeing Jamie go was extremely sad! Next week, Elya's family will be moving back home to America, and our class will shrink again and get even smaller. It's hard to just let go. Sometimes as we are playing at recess with the entire school, it hits me that last year I had more students in 3rd and 4th than we do here with the whole school. I have to remind myself that teaching 5 or 6 little people is just as important as a classroom full of 23 energetic ppl. Everything is such a huge contrast to what I was used to before, but it's still great! I absolutely loved teaching 1st and 2nd grade concepts. They are a lot more dependent on the teacher, but it has been SO MUCH FUN teaching the first graders their letters. It is incredible watching their progress. Day after day, I am just amazed as they read harder and harder words and stories.

The first day of school, I climbed up on the slide(so I could see over the hedge) to take a picture of this sunrise. Sunrises and sunsets have always been favorites on my list, and I was reminded that even a world away, God is still the same. He doesn't change. Even when it seems that everything else has, He remains the same. His promises are forever. At first, there were days that I felt lost in my own classroom. I hated how we have to always trek through Miss Charity's room to get outside. It was sad to look out the windows and only see walls instead of grass & trees & blue skies & the softball diamond. It was rough to get used to not even having my own desk to sit at before and after school as I was preparing for the day or grading papers and books. There is just no way to play team games when you have only a handful of people. Getting used to different curriculum, a new school culture, a different age bracket, having one co-teacher instead of a bunch, big school to small school...so many, many things, and yet... these things are small. Truly, I have enjoyed teaching so much. Already I can tell that by the end of the year, I'm going to wonder why these things were even difficult to accept.

Some snapshots of my lovable little people...