Full House

Jada playing Pictionary so his team can guess which through line he is illustrating.

Jake often talks to this group of kids on his walk home. They love having their picture taken.

We had a full house today at the CH centre. Judy was training pastors and lay church leaders in Sunday school curriculum. She had 65 trainees with her translator as an assistant.

It was fun at break time to mingle together with both groups. The only problem was the bathroom-- too many people and too few toilets :)-We were fortunate to be able to go back to the guest house at lunch time:)

Ike did some teaching on assessment and evaluation followed by a lively discussion on how many students failed in SS classes and why? The teaching of Math is a huge problem for our teachers. So many students do very poorly in Math and we discussed reasons why and possible solutions. I followed up with several dice games involving addition, multiplication etc. They loved doing the games-- I'll give them all my dice to take home but in classes of 100-150- you need a lot of dice:)

Jada taught us a new song " For whatever you do to the least of my children, you do it unto me"--our teachers asked to sing it several times. He tied it into his presentation of all of us being image reflectors of God. Very moving!

Lujohn did a model lesson on Domestic Animals-- incorporating the through lines and Christian worldview. We were impressed with his lesson plan and are looking forward to seeing other lessons.

I'm sitting at the kitchen table typing this in draft mode. We lost our internet at the house and the power just went out.  It is so touch and go here with the electricity. You never know when it will go out or for how long. We will probably be in bed even earlier than usual tonight:) -- which may not be a bad thing-- all of us have had a long day and a good night's sleep will be awesome!

Ethiopian Worship Service

Sunday-- a day of rest and worship and did we need it! It felt so good to have a leisurely morning breakfast because we didn't need to be ready till 10:15. Our teachers were picked up in their 14 seater van and we followed with Sarah, Judy, Jake, Mitiku and me. Ike stayed home to rest some more since he's been fighting a cold. We're so dependent on each other in our teaching team that we don't want to get sick and not do our part of our the day:) We covet your prayers for Ike to feel healthy and strong and for all of us to stay healthy and strong.

When we arrived at the church, the service was in full swing. They already had their first hour of prayers and now it was time for the worship team and choir to sing. That took at least an hour-- lots and lots of praise--all in Amharic. The children were called to the front for a blessing-- all 100 of them- and then they left for their Sunday school lesson. An offering was taken by the deacons-- all women 60 years and older.

This is the entrance to the church-- our SS teachers are walking on the rough stony pathway.

Judy presented her message with her translator, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity and is now a prominent leader in this church. Our SS teachers were following her every word in English and taking lots of notes. Just before the message, Jake started feeling oozy so he left to go to the back and get some air. I had flashbacks of him fainting in Juba so Mitiku went out with him to make sure he was OK. After some time he felt a lot better and while he was standing outside, the Sunday school teachers asked him to come into their classroom and help lead the lesson:) He taught the kids" My God is so Mighty-- My God is so big-- they caught on so quickly!

Sorry the quality is so poor--this little fellow sat with me for most of the service.

The service lasted over 2 hours but we were so glad to worship with God's people in Ethiopia, Africa-God can be praised in many many languages, cultures, and formats-- we felt the communion of saints--and the love of our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

The choir--lots of mikes and a good sound system ( very loud:)

Jake met this ' business man" on his walk home from church--literally a walking store:)

Sunday School Curriculum and Market Day

Lesson plans and Sunday School curriculum were given out today in class. We met from 9-12 and  Judy explained her lessons and development of her Children's Ministry curriculum-- a wonderful program in which she trains pastors and church leaders how to do ministry from ages 3 to adults. She does a lot with finger plays, music, drama, and personalization of the Bible stories. Our teachers loved it since many of them teach Bible classes at their local church or in the community as after school programs. Many elements of good teaching are the same for the classroom and the Sunday school class so her teaching dovetailed our training nicely.

After lunch, Jake, Sarah and I went for a walk to the river behind Michael's house. I'm always so amazed at how the donkeys can manoeuvre the narrow trails with huge loads on their backs! We found it very steep to go down--let alone go up again:) Today we didn't see any women washing their clothes in the water-- it did look like rain so maybe that was a deterrent. The scenery was so beautiful!

One of the beautiful sights at the river.

At 3pm we went to the market to do some shopping. I bought some Addis tea and a small coffee set ( and a KitKat chocolate bar:) Judy and Sarah bought gifts for their Compassion Child ( and chocolate bars too:)-- but the taste is not quite the same as in NA-- we probably have loads more sugar in ours:)

Jake just stood and watched all the people, animals, traffic, shoe shiners, coffee stalls, --you can't believe how much is going on anywhere on the streets let alone the market area!

At one of the little stalls jam-packed with goods!

One of the many interesting sighs that Jake saw at the market.

We look forward to a day of rest, worship, and fellowship tomorrow!

Creativity and Curriculum

We finished our week with a packed day full of content and creative activities. Ike led the teachers through some of their SS curriculum units and they worked on integrating their Christian worldview into the units that they taught. Jake did some teaching on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for students. We had a great discussion/ debate on whether every child wants to learn--stories were shared from various teachers with examples from their classes.

We did a drama called VIC-- very important creatures and I had the teachers improvise props for the owl, lion, fox, hippo, bluebird etc--loads of fun and they did an amazing performance. Their story booklets were due today so we shared them in groups and a few presented their stories to the whole class. One advantage of sharing is that they learn from each other and receive a host of new ideas!

Our teachers were all interviewed by Sarah, a young journalist from Chicago who works for CH Global. She videotaped the class first and the teachers were delighted that she was filming them!

Sarah--our videographer-

The VIC drama

The booklets were lovely-- many different versions!

Jake taught the class in devotions the song "One Thousand Reasons". We played it on the computer to have accompaniment--and he also related how our six year old grandson sang this song to us in our car while on a trip. His elementary school had this song as their theme for the year so he knew it very well:) The teachers learned the song quickly!

Continuing to learn and grow.

The week is going by quickly and our teachers are continuing to shine in their studies and homework assignments. Every night they write in their journals a response to the Essential Question of the day as well as three things they learned in that day's class, two questions they had about the day and one thing that they enjoyed in their day. Two teachers are also responsible each day for devotions, which they take so seriously! Usually we get a lovely inspirational " sermon" :)

Tomorrow they have a mini-project due called the Big Story--I gave out coloured construction paper, title page covers, markers, glue etc. We're looking forward to their results which they will share in groups.

The temperatures are definitely cooler than last Sept and we've also had more rain this time too. It gets dark at 6:30 already and we are usually in bed by 8:30 :). We're up at 6:30 and start class at 8:30-- we end at 4:30 and get home close to 5-- wonder why we go to bed so early:)?

The car wash at CH global-- the van is tilted and water is poured right into it--

Jake with a fun challenge for the teachers to figure out( which my mom taught him:)

Another fun activity-- look at the teacher with the pink shirt:)

A typical scene on Jake's walk home-- the gutters are for the heavy rains

Elephant, Monkey, Palm tree

To break up the sessions of Ike and Jake's teaching, we often will do a tribes activity or an energizer.Our teachers love these and today was no exception. We stood in a circle and had to be an elephant, a monkey or a palm tree if the person who was it pointed to someone and called one of the three names. The person on either side of the teacher who was picked had to be part of the elephant, monkey or palm tree. The object was to get someone out who responded too slowly- it was hilarious to watch our group get so involved and animated!

Taban and I were supposed to be the monkey with Michael, but I messed up:)

We also did a "bingo" game using science definitions and again they loved the challenge of calling the word bingo first. It is so neat to use these varied activities because it expands their repertoire of the English language. We have seen much progress in their reading, speaking and writing of English.

Michael ( our CH Global representative) visited the class and officially welcomed the teachers. He told of some exciting news about increased aid for development of education in SS. There are several agencies ready to help SS make education a top priority.

I am wearing a SS shirt given to me by Jada .

Rose and Margaret wanted their picture taken with me.

Jake taught one of our teachers how to use his camera so he wanted to take a picture of us.

Day 4

Day 4 started with another beautiful devotion by Lomude, who teaches in Juba.  He based it on Mark 1:16-20- and said that God was calling each one of us--even though at times we weren't sure we wanted to follow his call. It was inspiring to say the least! I always look forward to our opening of class-- the enthusiastic singing and sincere wish to love the Lord is so uplifting.

We had wonderful discussions in class on building communities in our schools and learning to be servant workers in them. Our Ethiopian teacher related how there are over 80 different languages in Ethiopia and how hard it is for people to respect each other's language and customs-- especially if you are in a minority. 

I did another literacy activity called the ABC's of teaching. Each teacher was given a letter of the alphabet and they had to write a sentence beginning with that letter involving something about teaching. We had a few hilarious results. The teacher who had the letter V wrote: Ventilated and improved pit latrines need to be kept clean at school.:) The one who had X wrote: Xmas holidays may be coming but hard work still needs to be done:)

African hamburgers for supper-- couldn't believe our cook Sisay made them especially for us! She even made "fries" ! We have been so spoiled by Sisay-- she is trying to cook American food just for us--no Ethiopian dishes:)

There must have been a pound of beef in each burger:)

Notice the beautiful African print on the wall.