I must admit, there was no real anticipation mixed in with the dread at what I would find in the homeschool room. It is not a rat proof or bug proof building and not entirely rain proof. I actually put off looking in the room until the 3rd day we were in Gesses.
Would the books all be moldy, would the rats or termites have destroyed them? Imagine a teacher walking into their classroom a week before school was to start and finding the following:
Student chairs destroyed. (3 of the 5 leather stools completely destroyed by rats. Yes the leather was completely eaten and the filling pulled out. The other 2 leather stools had golfball size holes. Greedy rats.)
Dozens of moths flying around....not sure yet what they are eating.
Termites decorating the walls with lines of dirt tunnels that needed to be scraped off.
Rat poo on the tops of shelves, tables and some books and stashes of crayons and glue under cupboards.
A pool of water on the floor where the ceiling leaked.
One shelf back eaten through by termites.
First thing: the janitor would be called. Second thing: the cleaners would be reprimanded. Third, exterminators brought in. Fourth, painters would be hired. Fifth, new chairs would be ordered. Sixth, a builder would be hired to fix the roof.
But here in Gesses, it's me. (Well actually my husband is a great handyman so I called him in for help with a few things.) The kids and I got to work sweeping, cleaning, throwing out and washing shelves. It was a much bigger job than I planned.
I also spent 2 mornings decluttering. There were lots of good resources in our classroom thanks to our teammates. We have also been given lots of free stuff. The longer that I live, the more I am aware of how dangerous free stuff can be. I tend to accept free stuff just because it is free and not because I need it. It takes great discretion and will power to say no to something that may have a use "someday". The shelves were overflowing so I boxed up all the books and teacher resources that I didn't absolutely need and the classroom now feels more manageable.
We then got to work on the walls. Last year's work still adorned the walls and I was tempted to keep it that way but my kids were determined to do something new. I found a book filled with ideas for a monthly writing wall so that is where we got started. My creative 10 year old daughter Kalia was a great assistant and made a large colourful umbrella with construction paper. Joel, my 8 year old son cut out large “raindrops” and these will hold rainy season writings. They were placed on the wall along with small raindrops and our August writing wall was complete.
We also worked on our reading wall (we are doing a path to 100 using paper stones to make a wall and then will add flowers and butterflies for each book read) and our word wall where we will put up new words each week.On Thursday, I had the privilege of meeting with the Gumuz elders and Yasheko as we discussed women's training. It takes perseverance, wisdom and lots of creativity to bring teaching to the women. This Sunday we will meet with the women and possibly begin Sunday afternoon teaching times instead of Thursday morning. My goal is to set up a women's program that is sustainable and growing! I am excited to see what the Lord will do. It can be so much more than I can even imagine! Pray that the baptized women will get excited about serving the church and doing outreach and attend teaching times. Pray that vision would grow in the Gumuz church.
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