Ups and Downs...

     For those of you who recall my experiences at Camp Easter Seals last summer—and for many, a particularly LARGE scene might stick out in your memory—you might think that I’ve become immune to other human’s excrement.  This would be a false assumption. I was not, in fact, pleased today when that cute little Oshojeme peed all over me. And I was even less pleased yesterday when I was privy to not one, not two, but THREE diarrhea explosions in my classroom (and no, none of them were my own, but thanks for asking). If you do the calculations right, within the span of 5 minutes, 1/3 of my class was covered in…fluids. 

     While yesterday was one of the worst days so far in preschool, the day just prior to it provided the greatest moment yet in the department. Little Merlin came dressed in the most beautiful Indian dress; she looked just like a princess.  But looks can be deceiving, we found out during snack. Upon being asked to sit and eat, Merlin scowled and flipped over her chair. Being the disciplinarian that I am, I quickly grabbed her up and took her up to the Time Out Chair which sits up some stairs on a little deck in the classroom.  Merlin immediately began sobbing and crying out—in her very strong Indian accent—“Merlin be good, Merlin be good.” After a few minutes of this, I asked if she was ready to come eat her food nicely, to which she replied, “Merlin be good, Merlin eat, Merlin sit.” I walked slowly over to the stairs and motioned for her to come down.  She took a couple steps down, then spread out her arms, and in the most dramatic, princess like way imaginable, she free-fell down the equivalent of four steps where luckily my fast-like-lightening reflexes allowed me to catch her. I TRIED to give her the serious talk about her wrong actions, but was so overcome with laughter that I could barely ask for an apology.  I’m not really sure if she learned her lesson or not… 

     The preceding Friday was QUITE an interesting day as well, mostly due to the unexpected announcement that Barney (Yes, that big Purple Dinosaur) was going to make an appearance at the academy as part of his Welcoming Celebration in Ibadan. An emergency assembly was called for his supposed arrival at 12:30. Knowing that he would probably be a few minutes late, Karen asked me to lead a few songs for the 120+ 2-13 year olds.  The “few songs” turned into at least 30 min. of entertainment as we waited for the Dinosaur. To make a long story short, we ended up waiting for three hours for that purple guy, trying to keep kids under control and entertained, trying to explain to parents why their kids weren’t quite ready to go home. When he finally arrived he spent literally only two minutes with our kids, just enough time to let their video crew get some footage for their evening announcement. Biggest disaster of my life. Barney takes far too much liberty in his song when he supposes that “You love me.” ‘Tis not the case at American Christian Academy, sir. 

     On a brighter note, Bible classes have gone quite well this week.  We discussed the Garden of Eden and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I mentioned in my last post that my perspective on sin and God’s love has been shifting and, I hope, becoming clearer. It’s really interesting to see how my teaching of Genesis is being affected by God’s work in my own heart. I am so thankful everyday for this opportunity to share the knowledge of a Good God with these students.   

     Other events of the past week include a FANTASTIC choir concert at a local church. They had a lovely mix of hymns, contemporary praise music, traditional Yoraba (a large Nigerian people group) music, and the most lovely rendition of some Handel’s Messiah. Very well done.

     In my goings to and fro’ this past week I have been almost continually aware of the folks with disability on the streets, and it’s been doing a work on my heart. One scene nearly brought me to tears yesterday. On the way to Bible Study we drove through a busy part of town with slow, slow moving traffic. In the median there was a man speaking/chanting into a megaphone. Leaning over onto this man’s lap was a young lady with her shirt raised to expose her badly deformed hunchback. As he blasted over her with his megaphone, a couple of  people circulated in the traffic collecting money supposedly to help the young lady. The whole thing broke my heart. Anyway, scenes like these may or may not have triggered some thoughts regarding long term life plans.  I pray that God would use my time and experiences here to provide direction for my future that I might serve him with my utmost.

Also, I’ve been here for over a month now, which is CRAZY.