Wednesday

Classes today went well. Yesterday afternoon we were able to talk to Carmen Bennett’s class in Louisville, GA. I talked to the kids beforehand about how Louisville was rural, and how many of the students were black like them. I explained how in American culture not every child lives with both their mom and their dad, just like them. Carmen sent pictures and they were giddy to see a black student, Josh, with corn rows. They loved them. They said he looked like Snoop Dog. Whoever that is. :) I was shocked to find out that most of my students are little Evangelists. They kept wanting to ask them questions about Jesus. Which is all fine and good but I felt sorry for Carmen over there in Public School Land having to ask her children about how long they have known Jesus. But I was quite proud of my little pastors. They liked hearing the accents and and were proud of themselves for being able to understand and translate. It was a fun lesson. I still have not heard if our letters have arrived or not but they ask me daily about them and are awaiting their replies. 

My afternoon class is about half the size of the morning one. The morning class is slowly getting out of control. Just way too many. We need help. I am such a mother hen though and I don’t want to turn them over to just anyone. Today I laughed when we were practicing CAN, MAY, SHALL etc. We have been studying this for two weeks and will be on it for awhile. I often praise them with correct responses, just to boost some confidence and get them comfortable speaking. I chose two students to come up front with the instructions of one asking MAY I ...and the other answering YES, YOU MAY. I have completely forgotten how to play Mother May I, but that game might come in handy. I cannot believe I have forgotten that. Oh wait. It is coming back to me now. Yikes, we may have to try that tomorrow. But here we were up front. Chawale always takes forever and clears his throat over and over and stands up big and tall and clears his throat again. The kids laugh. He says, “May I borrow your pen. Good job”. I want to tell him that the “good job” part doesn’t belong but I can’t bring myself to correct him. The other student answers, “Yes, you may. Excellent”. I laughed. And of course told them, “That was perfect”. Even though it wasn’t. I appreciate their efforts. I see the pain on their faces when they know they have messed up. I feel my own pit in my stomach when I haven’t a clue what to say in Portuguese. 

I do have to say that today I realized how much those dreaded lessons paid off for me. I am still rubbish at the language but without fail when I have needed to really explain something, I have the parallel Portuguese I need to show them one language vs the other. I had several big moments today when I saw myself pouring over those lessons with Lincoln, paying all that money and was so glad I did that. (I took private Portuguese lessons for months before arriving at something like $50 an hour. But I knew I needed to get my head around the language and now I can understand and write way better than I can speak). 

I have contacts now with all major hotels here. I am hoping to start taking my students there as part of our lessons. The morning students will be impossible because there are too many of them and too few of me. But the afternoon class is feasible. I would like to start taking them on field trips where we simply volunteer and make beds and prep food and do whatever needs to be done to 1) train them 2) teach them a language 3) create relationship with local businesses 4) allow the students to build relationship with management to get jobs!

Meanwhile I have several other big projects I want to work on but find myself doing this for now. I am trying to rest and not overdo it all and take a look back at all this great fruit that I am able to see around me daily. I was once told that I may never see the value I have here and it may be generations away. I am fine with that and willing to never see the return on my investment. But I see it even now. I get to see these kids every day and simply speak good into their lives. They hang on to every word I say. We cut up and laugh together. We are becoming quite a little family. Today I found out which one of the twins was born first. And we had a nice long discussion on birth order. I can pick out the bossy ones and the whiney ones and which ones are the baby vs first born. I love getting to see their personalities. They are all so incredibly unique. I need to introduce them to you and have them introduce themselves. We will work on that. It may never happen but I hope it does. 

Today was a good day, a productive, fruitful day. 

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