give thanks in everything!

It’s raining! I don’t usually get excited about the rain, in fact I’m usually kinda annoyed, but as we’ve had very little rain of late it’s good to see the ground get a good soaking. Of course this means a cold shower tonight, but I think I’ll live. I was reminded yesterday that I need to be thankful in everything! I find I often whine about what I don’t have or how what I do have is not good enough etc. Yesterday 5 teachers from a local Zambian school came to Sakeji to observe our teaching practices etc. Sort of like a professional development day for them. I was not looking forward to their coming at all as any disruption to the class can be rather annoying. At lunch time of the teachers was assigned to my table, which is always awkward as I’m shy and never know what to talk about, but I need not have worried as she was not at all shy and had tons of questions for me about teaching grade ones. During the conversation I found out she teaches 30 grade one students (ages 5-6) all by herself (no T.A’s or extra assistance). On top of that the school she teaches at doesn’t have a set curriculum and has very little resources. (I’m slow so it took me awhile to pick up on that one). It definitely made me feel very guilty for all the whining I do about the curriculum we have that I don’t like. At least we have it! I don’t know how she teaches without losing her sanity! I finally took her down to my classroom to look at the books etc. She was blown away; not by the mess or anything wonderful I had done, but by the size of the room (for just 11 students) and the bulletin boards etc. I soon found myself grabbing a spare box and filling it full of extra stuff (flash cards, old reading books we haven’t used in years, photocopyable books I was sent but never find the time to use etc) she was nearly in tears she was so excited. It was very humbling! God continually needs to remind me about how much I actually have compared to those around us here; maybe one day I’ll actually learn this lesson and stop whining!