On Monday (Day 43), it was our rest day. In the afternoon,
Immaculee’s sister offered to take us girls back to the market. We finished up
buying souvenirs and gifts for others. Otherwise, most people were able to
sleep or do more laundry.
On Tuesday (Day 44), we start out very early to work for the
YWAM preschool. Franzi and Taryn are with the youngest class, the two year
olds. Sarah and Ashley are with the middle class, which is age 3 and Bianca and
Kaitlin are with the 4 and 5 year olds. Rebecca and Peter had not been assigned
to classes so Peter was helping David (the leader of the preschool) in the
office and Rebecca came up to the top class. On the first day in the classes,
we were only there to help settle the kids down and observe the teacher to see
what we could help with the next day. The youngest class mostly spent time
singing songs together but the two older classes had lessons from the Bible and
worked on math. There was a time for a relatively good snack and playing
outside with the kids. After lunch, we all went back to our classes and helped
the teachers prepare for the next day. Mostly, we were writing in their
homework and in-class assignments and writing them up for the next day.
On Wednesday (Day 45), we all worked at the preschool again.
The kids are super cute but very excited all of the time. Since it was our
second day, we were able to lead activities. There is a section of the day
called morning circle. And that is when the kids pray for the people who are
sick, sing songs, update the calendar and update the weather. In the upper
class, Bianca led the kids in the song ‘Who is the King of the Jungle’, while
Kaitlin led the calendar and weather update. Our favourite times are before
class and during snack break. Then, we are able to play on the playground with
all of the kids. During class, we were all able to see the first rainstorm in
Rwanda… which made everybody very excited. In the days after, the air was so
much cooler and not as humid. Instead of working on the kid’s homework in the
afternoon, there was a worship and prayer time at the YWAM base with all of the
Arise and Shine staff. Afterwards, David had organized a volleyball game which
was the nursery school vs. the primary school. I think that the primary school
won.
On Thursday (Day 46), it was our third day working with the
preschool. We had all gotten into a pretty good routine now, but our biggest
struggles are always making sure that the kids quiet down for the teacher
during class. After lunch, we helped our teachers write out the weekly homework
and classwork for the kids. They sometimes use a photocopier at the school, but
for the most part every single assignment for every kid needs to be handwritten
by the teacher. For example, in the upper class, there are 28 kids who have 3
separate notebooks each. That’s over 80 notebooks that the teacher has to write
separate assignments in. So the fact that our team is there is a huge help to
them.
On Friday (Day 47), it was our last day with the kids. At
the end of the day in the upper class, the teacher allowed us to have time to
take pictures with the kids. After lunch, we were supposed to clean the
bathrooms downstairs, but as we were carrying water to clean it we found it
already clean and finished. So we were able to have an extra-long break after
today. When we were saying goodbye to our teachers, they had handmade us all
cards with blessings and verses for us. And although the week was very
exhausting, we were very sad to say goodbye to all the kids. This whole week our leaders (Richard, Immaculee, and Laura) were teaching the current YWAM Rwanda DTS about freedom. They all prepared talks of topics like fear, injustice and unforgiveness for the DTS and spent the evenings praying for original designs and strongholds. Friday night, our outreach team watched 'The Book of Eli' with the rest of the base. Quite a gory-ish movie but very shocking... That night, we also saw the dresses that we would wear to the wedding the next day. At first, we all had different traditional Rwandan gowns, but two of the dresses were incomplete. So, instead we are planning on wearing leopard print dresses.
A last prayer request (as there is only going to be one more
blog post after this and then we’ll be back on the oval) is still health. A
number of us have been sick in different ways and a few of us have had to miss
duties because of them. So although we’re in the last week, we would still
appreciate your prayers for our health and safety.
Cheerio, Immaculee’s Babies
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