My day

It's in the middle of my day here. 11:38am to be exact. My students are off to PE (physical education) and I am supposed to be marking but the grading program online is acting up. What's new. I didn't have internet access all day yesterday and the power kept going off anyway. The younger kids are outside playing imaginary games on top of a mountain of dirt or shooting some hoops. I am munching on very expensive sunflower seeds and watching a gecko climb upside-down along my ceiling before my students return. Then we'll have lunch in the lunchroom. Spaghetti with beef sauce. I'll just have the beef chunks with some carrot sticks because I'm allergic to the noodles. After school today, I will practice riding my new moto (yes, I just bought a moto!!!) around the school's quiet neighbourhood so I can head out on the streets of Kigali soon.I'm nervous! :) Intermittently, the power will go off in the middle of a lesson and we have to teach/learn in the dark; a bird or very large bug may fly into the classroom and zoom past students' heads causing screams from them and laughs from me; or, I will have requests from students to go to the bathroom often because they have some intestinal problem due to something in the food... ha ha. Fun times! _______________________________________________________
Life here is always an adventure and a never-ending test of endurance and patience. And I love every minute of it. Almost. Tonight, after feeding my puppy Goober (leftover pork, a tortilla, a raw egg, and some some ground beef from a burrito), I settled down to do some marking and prepare for this week's parent/teacher interviews. Only 5 1/2 weeks left of school. Time sure flies by!As I sat on the floor to do my marking, I soon realized what a terrible idea that really was. Ants began to climb all over me! Yes, I still detest ants. And now I am off to bed. I plan to get a whole 6 hours of sleep beneath my comforting mosquito net before waking up at 5:15am to start my new day. Besides that of my cell phone alarm clock, I'm sure I will awake to the sound of the neighbour's guard singing songs in Kinyarwanda as he washes his employer's car along with the sound of moto engines zipping through the streets. As I head to the shower, I will pray that there is still water in our tank, let alone hot water, to help wake me up. And the school day will then begin once again. What a joy it is to teach here. The students have hearts of gratitude for the smallest of things and I am also learning this attitude of thankfulness as well. I am thankful to be serving here in this place, exactly where God wants me to be.