The Past Two Weeks

Thank you so much to those who have been praying for me.  My class has been way easier to deal with since I posted my last blog!  Also thank you to those who gave me advice about dealing with my students because those have also been helpful!

One of my most difficult child; when he is easiest to
deal with! :)

I was able to see that I was choosing to get really frustrated.  Where lately I have been able to actually enjoy my students and not get so caught up in the little things.  I have to remember that most of them are pre-school age so they should be playing most of the time.  Not getting ready for grade one.

Also one of my students have not been there for the past two weeks, which I do have to admit has helped.  But from what I have understood is that he is not coming back.  I am not sure why.  One of the other students just came and told me that he was sick and was not coming back anymore. I am hoping he is fine and then just changed schools but honestly don’t know.

On another note, last weekend us SALTers were in PMB (Pietermaritzburg), we were all together to spend the weekend with the students from Growing Nations in Lesotho.  It was really neat to see them again!  Trish drove Nikki and I PMB and when we were almost at the prison (where James and Joan live) we saw some of them walking and we said hello out the window and they were so excited to see us! :) It was really great!

Over the weekend we had Jim Johnson come and talk to us.  He lead our Spiritual Retreat in October and will again in March.  It was really good, he talk to us about “How to be Successful in the Kingdom of Heaven” we also had some time to encourage each other in groups and he put the SALTers together, and that was really nice.

We also went to Bisley Park which was really great.  James took my team to Bisley when I was in South Africa last time and it was really cool and it was good this time too!  Though is time was a little more adventurous as I only had brought flip flops with me, not realizing what we were going to be doing.  And it had just rained..needless to say I was a little muddy and slid a few times.  The special thing about this park is that you can walk around and see giraffes, zebras, impala and wildebeest.  And they are not in cages they just wander around and you cross paths with them!  But you also have to be smart about being around wild animals.  They mostly would just watch us walk by or run away from us so that was good.

This weekend I went back to Lily again.  I always enjoy going there!  Some of the kids will usually just come up to me and say “Hey! You are back!” And its fun that they still know my name.  And then there are others who run and give me a hug which I really like.  

Amanda and I

There is one girl who I can’t remember if I mentioned her but she hated me the first few times I tried to talk to her.  She had such attitude with me, until I started giving it back to her.  She had said “No” to me one day with such attitude I had to imitated her and laugh and since then we have been good buds! She came up to me when I got to Lily and hung off of me for almost a hour.

I also really like going to spend time with the volunteers. Of course I get to see Nikki, which is always great!  I also have gotten to know Nikki’s roommate Candace pretty well too and have enjoyed getting to know her.  On Saturday night they had a games night for all the volunteers and this was fun!  Hilary made waffles for us all and had some great toppings for them!  Then we played Skip-bo and Banana-grams.  Banana-grams is like a fast scrabble game, which I have not been good at but this time I came close to winning twice!  I was pretty happy with myself!

On Sunday we go to the Lily church service put on by the teens, and then the pastor, Nkululeko, preaches.  I will have to get a video of them singing and dancing one week and post it on here.  The music is loud and something I have come to enjoy. :) Then in the evening the volunteers always go to the city for church and we take a few of the teens.  I have really enjoyed this because it gives me an opportunity to talk to some of the high school students from Hope.  And this way I also get to see their personalities outside of school.

This was during the week. We were celebrating Esnath's
birthday (which was on the weekend)
Me, Esnath, Petunia and Philile

For those who did not know.  I was struggling with not being able to go away from the farm every once in a while.  But as you can see I have been able to get away the past few weekends which has been nice.  I do also like it here on the farm sometimes, but there has to be something going on with the other teachers. Other wise I go a little crazy sitting in my room waiting for something to happen.  I have learned I just have to  be proactive!  It is my choice to make the best of situations.  If I have a sour attitude about it then it’s going to be a crappy time, but if I choose to take the best out of situations it could be a good thing.

Sooo until next time…choose to look at the best of situations rather than the bad things.