April Showers Bring...

A few weeks ago, my roommates and I decided to create an enormous “advent calendar” to count down the days left of school.  As an art teacher, Becca volunteered to make the thing even more grand and glorious than we’d imagined it.  So there’s this huge piece of blue butcher paper with large cutouts of Africa on the right side and the US on the left, with numbered paper pockets in the space between.  We filled the pockets with all sorts of little nothings - chocolate, sudoku puzzles, toy soldiers, quarters, things like that.  It’s laying on the floor of our laundry room because we figured it’s so heavy it wouldn’t stay attached to the wall in the living room where we’d planned to hang it.  I never realized when I was a student how much teachers looked forward to breaks, too. 

There are twenty more pockets to empty.  Twenty more days and then I’ll have finished my second year of teaching.  I’m excited.  It’s been another difficult year, and in many ways more challenging than my first.  I guess my first year here I didn’t know what was coming, so I was able to look at any upcoming challenge with a certain amount of hope and positivity.  This year, I wasn’t so naive.  I knew exactly what was coming my way.  But I’m still optimistic that with each year in teaching, I’ll get better and better.  I’ll anticipate problems.  I’ll have the right answers.  I’ll manage my time better.  I’ll find ways to make my life simpler.  In the meantime, it’s a bit hit and miss.  Things that make me want to pull my hair out, and things that remind me why I’m here to begin with.

Steel Magnolias

Last weekend, the girls performed Steel Magnolias.  They weren’t perfect performances, but I was proud of them.  One of the six girls in the cast actually quit two weeks before our scheduled performances.  I wasn’t surprised, but obviously, that was a huge problem.  I had cast the show before Christmas, so the girls had had four months to learn their parts and rehearse.  Five of the girls were relatively seasoned performers - all had been in The Man Who Came to Dinner last year, and a few had performed in plays before that.  Confident and enthusiastic junior and senior girls.  The sixth was a bit of a risk on my part from the beginning.  Freshman.  Quiet.  Introverted.  Self-conscious.  But she reminded me a bit of myself when I first found theatre, and I felt like she could bring something to the part.  Three months later, I felt I may have made a mistake.  

So I asked her at lunch one day if she actually wanted to be in the play.  She responded by saying that she’d never felt supported and that she felt like the other girls didn’t like her and that she wouldn’t be any good.  I tried to explain to her that a great deal of what she was perceiving wasn’t true at all.  I’ve never seen a group of teenage girls respond with such patience and graciousness as that group of girls.  They could have been awful - but they were so supportive and encouraging.  Her very own cheerleading squad.  And I’ve been her advocate and coach the whole time, too.  She listened and believed me and promised to pull through.  

Those last two weeks before their performances were rough.  Not only was my freshman Shelby still floundering, but I didn’t even get my set until the day of our first performance.  Only fifteen people had called the office to arrange seating and my “sound crew” was made up of two freshman boys who only agreed to help because they have “D’s” in Theatre Arts I and I told them I’d give them extra credit.  Props and costumes were still coming in the day before the play, too.  I really didn’t think it would come together.  But even without a true dress rehearsal, and with all of the other little complicating factors, those girls actually had a fairly good first night.  Our little audience of about 40 family members and friends had some big laughs and gave the girls the confidence they needed.  They skipped about three full pages of dialogue, but it came together.  Their second night, I about had a heart attack when Shelby blanked out and just sat looking at the floor for a good three or four minutes and the other girls struggled to cue her and direct the scene’s dialogue for what seemed like an eternity.  A few actually cried during intermission, but I gave the best pep talk I could offer and they performed their little hearts out in the second act.  Best performances I’d seen out of any of them.  That’s live theatre for you.

I’d found out a couple of weeks ago that the freshman’s parents weren’t even planning on coming.  There’s Kenyan parents for you.  I don’t think they realized what a huge deal this was for their daughter.  So I was thrilled when I saw her father show up Thursday night for their opening with her younger sister.  He sat in the front row and filmed the whole thing for her mom, who’d gone out of town.  After the first act, that man was absolutely beaming.  Brimming with pride, he kept grabbing other parents by the arm and saying, “That’s my daughter!”  And after that first performance, I watched that girl leave our little chapel with her dad and sister with this incredible energy I swear I’ve never seen out of this girl.

This is silly, but I’ve realized now as a director that I hate getting called up on stage after a show.  My name’s in the program, that’s enough for me.  I can’t remember a single time in high school when my director let us call her up to give her flowers after a curtain call.  I don’t know, I guess I think it’s tacky.  Or self-glorifying.  Or just uncomfortable.  Or maybe all three.  But those sweet girls called me up both evenings, bless their hearts.  That second night, the junior girl who played Truvy, the wise-cracking hairdresser that Dolly Parton played in the movie, handed me a voucher from a local salon (which I thought was totally cute for a show revolving around a Southern beauty parlor) and said, “If I want to be like anyone one day, it would be Miss Weiant.”  

Well after hearing that, I about dropped.  If you’ve been reading any of what I’ve been posting here this year, I feel as though all I do in my life here is screw up, complain, and have the Lord remind me that He’s sovereign, for some reason He still wants to use me, and I need to get on board.  So to have this sweet young woman give me the biggest hug I’ve received in a long time and tell an audience full of people that I’m someone she wants to emulate, I was stuck somewhere between feeling completely fulfilled and completely unworthy.  He’s so good to me, He even chooses to send outrageously undeserved encouragement into my life when I need it most.  

Egypt

After school let out for Easter break, I suckered a few of my teacher friends into helping me finish up the yearbook.  Bless them, they didn’t know what they were getting themselves into.  We’d already spent three days from noon until 5 or 6 (kids were taking standardized testing, so half days) up in the computer lab, and then the weekend came and we spent two full days - about 24 hours total - up there finishing the darn thing.  148 pages.  Up from 102 the year before.  About four of us working on it.  I swear, if the students had been there, they would have had an ear full.  But by Saturday evening, we finished.  Headed home, ate some dinner, packed our bags, and waited until 2 am to head to the airport to catch our flight to Cairo.  I was definitely ready to celebrate.

We spent about a week in Egypt, the first few days in Cairo and then we headed down on a night train to Aswan for a cruise up the Nile.  It was such an incredible, surreal experience.  Less than two hours into our time in Cairo, we stood in sand facing the pyramids.  We crawled down into a queen’s burial chamber.  Took cheesy photos with the Sphinx.  Watched an Egyptian make papyrus.  Listened to a man tell us all about extracting essence from flowers.  Gawked at all of the American fast food chains littered around the city.  Visited the Egyptian museum and saw King Tut’s treasures and some of the most unbelievable things I think people have ever dug up.  Checked out one of the oldest Mosques in Cairo.  Meandered through cobbled streets in Coptic Cairo.  Rode a falooka sail boat on the Nile.  Jumped on a cruise ship on the Nile.  Wandered around ancient temples.  Visited the Valley of the Kings.  Made our way through the most insane outdoor market I’ve ever seen.  I couldn’t believe all of the incredible things we were able to do.  And then Easter came that Sunday, and it dawned on me that I was in this place of literally Biblical proportions.  Absolutely the most incredible trip of my life.  I’m so blessed.


If you'd like to see some photos from our trip, visit this link to my album on facebook: Egypt 

Looking Forward

In other news, we have officially hired a new school counselor and new prekindergarten, kindergarten, third grade, elementary specials, vocal music, middle school social studies, middle school science, and high school English teachers.  We’ve still got to hire an art teacher, substitutes to cover our PE teacher’s maternity leave, and most importantly, a principal, but things are looking up.  And get this: all of them are women.  And all but one are single.  Can you believe that?  People are already making jokes about the inevitable drama that that’s likely to create, but I’m optimistic.  The school is definitely ready for some new folks to come in with some enthusiasm and excitement, and I’ve got a feeling that if we start off next year on the right foot, we can turn some current vision into future reality.  

Our director, Les, had me email a few prospective hires to answer some of their questions about life here in Kenya and working at WNS, and after spending some time developing one whopper of an informational email, it turned into something that I passed along to quite a few of these new teachers and it afforded me a nice little opportunity to “meet” these great new teachers before they actually arrive.  They seem like some really great women, and I’m excited to get to know and work with them next year.

Additionally, I believe I mentioned that our landlady told us maybe a month or two ago that she plans to triple our rent for our house next year.  Our little monthly stipend definitely wouldn’t cover that increased expense, so we’ve been working on finding housing for next year.  In the last couple of weeks, we looked at a house on the Africa Inland Mission compound in Kilimani (very close to where we live now, but a bit closer to the school) and are about 95% certain that we’ll be moving in at the end of May.  My roommate Jen and I will be welcoming in one of the new teachers as our third roommate, and we’re excited about having a little yard, a bigger kitchen, some more pleasant neighbors, and the chance to make a new place our own.  

Prayer

As I finish up this last month of school, I’m looking forward to wrapping up things well, coming home to visit folks I’ve missed a ton these past nine months, and preparing for another year.  I’d love it if you could pray for the following:

• Pray that my attitude would be Christlike and content (especially in my growing discouragement with “senioritis”) and that I would serve the Lord well in my relationships with my students and co-workers during the end of this semester.
• Pray that the things still left undone in my life would wrap up well and that we’ll glorify the Lord through our efforts with an afternoon of ten-minute plays at the WNS international food fair (my Theatre Arts I class - May 8), the performances of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged (my Theatre Arts II boys - May 13 and 14), the AP English Literature and Composition exam (four of my AP students - May 6), and the production of the yearbook (I’ve signed off on the proofs, and we’re hoping to distribute the last week of school).
• Pray for our senior graduating class as they make preparations to leave WNS and their relationships here and move on to college, moving out of Kenya, getting jobs, or summer school ;) They’re an incredibly gifted bunch of students.  Pray that they would recognize the Lord’s direction in their lives and that they would set out to be devoted followers of Christ in their adult lives.

I return “home” to the States on Friday, June 4 and am already getting excited about some travel plans, weddings, and reunions and visits with family and friends.  I’ll be in Hilliard for most of the summer, and have already made some plans to visit the Oxford/Cincinnati, Sandusky/Put-in-Bay, and Chicago areas, and may even try to make it down to Atlanta at some point.  I return to Nairobi on Thursday, July 29 and I would love to get in touch with you this summer before I head on back to Kenya.  Coffee dates, Columbus excursions, photo slideshow events at your place or mine :) - I’d love it all.  You just let me know!  Can’t wait.  And as always, please know that I’d love to hear about your lives wherever you are and would love to know how I can keep you in prayer!