The Countdown

The countdown has begun. In less than a month, I’ll be back in Morristown, Tennessee, of the United States of America. In less than a month I will be able to drink out of the tap, breath deeply of fresh air, have constant electricity, and not hear the mocking chant every time I walk outside: “Oyinbo, peppe, chuku chuku, peppe.” Also, I’ll get to see my sister whom I will have not seen for a year, which is pretty great.

My great anticipation for home, however, is not an indicator of my discontent here in Nigeria. In fact, I am remarkably content and full of thanksgiving for all of the ways that God is blessing and teaching me here. My countdown is not anticipating “getting out of this place,” but rather reaching another place of blessing full of people whom I love.

The last few weeks have been great.  I have fallen in love with another small child, a very fragile looking one-year-old, named Kanyinsola. I think we have mutual admiration for each other which causes our faces to light up and our arms to extend each time we see each other.  She’s precious I tell you. My Pre-Nursery class continues to grow in their brilliance. Tomorrow we will be joining the 5^th graders in a shape search that will involve finding pentagons, octagons, and hexagons around the school. I mean really, what 2-3 year-olds do you know that can identify an octagon?

We had quite the time with electricity, A/C’s, and internet here in our compound this week, but we can’t really complain seeing as a) it’s all part of the African experience, and b) most of our neighbors have it WAY worse than we.

Last weekend Ibadan hosted an ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) conference that most of our staff was able to benefit from.  We residents of the compound also had the privilege of hosting two of the speakers at different times, which was brilliant. One of the leaders in ACSI—who also happened to be Katie and Gretchen’s South African Principal and Karen’s friend—spoke to us about the exponential growth of Christian education in Africa. It was all quite fascinating.  He sees good Christian education (as in solid education through a Christian worldview) as an essential part of the economic and social development of this continent. Whereas the animism that has permeated Africa causes stagnation as people wait for the goodwill of their gods to shine on them, Christianity encourages progress as man realizes the responsibility of managing the earth that he lives on.  It was fun to hear some academic analysis of this apparent “movement” of Christian education in Africa that I have somewhat inadvertently become a part of.

Tuesday was a public holiday which we Americans celebrated by travelling to a waterfall. As we approached the small town that bordered the small mountain range, we imagined the natural beauty and peace that we were about to experience. Unfortunately the day didn’t turn out exactly how we had hoped. As we ascended up the mountain (which seemed quite small compared to the last mountain we hiked), we began to hear a loud chatter. Upon reaching the first of four levels of the waterfall, we found a massive party taking place. Apparently Nigerians really enjoy celebrating May Day. There was a huge excess of alcohol and noise which we were not too excited about entertaining. Luckily we saw a steep path leading to the next level which no one seemed to have noticed before. We quickly climbed away from the havoc, reached a much nicer falls, and prepared to have our picnic lunch…. Just in time to see that the party had followed us up. Soon our initially empty nature spot had filled with screaming drunkards. Luckily we had found another path of ascent. This time we tried to sneak away quickly with no one seeing and rapidly get out of sight. It was a more difficult climb, and when we reached the third falls, we were quite sure that we had lost the party. We relished the peace and beauty that we had finally found… for ten minutes before we heard voices. Sure enough they had followed us again. At this point, we decided that we had had enough of this mountain of sin and so made a quick descent back to our car. You know how sometimes you go on a small vacation and never want to come home? Yeah…that wasn’t the case for us on this trip.

I’m looking forward to my last few weeks of school. I’m excited to bring my bible classes up to the point of Jesus’ birth, having gone through a bulk of Old Testament stories this year. It’s been great for me personally to analyze and synthesize these stories which provide the foundation for my faith. I greatly anticipate the privilege of now bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to these students who have begun to recognize the existence and character of the One True God.

I am also excited this month to be working with 7^th and 8^th graders in speech.  I recognize it to be an uncertain and yet pivotal time in these kids’ life and, consequently, a really difficult time to be forced to speak publically before your peers. It was also the time in my life that I began developing my speaking skills—a process which proved tremendously instrumental in forming the personality which I own today.  Many of these kids are putting up a fight. I’m hoping that they’ll surrender quickly that they might prove victorious in the end.

25 more days.