Why I like that music video...

I really liked that music video for a few reasons... and I think they all have to do with transition. I think I shared a similar graphic when I was in Dar... and now it's all happening again!!!

Changing to a new job, new people, new town, new cultural norms, and deeper language interaction is a lot. It's normal for people in any life change to go through this cycle of ups and downs. Lately I've felt more in the down part... The "who am I?" question.

Who am I when no one here really knows me yet? Who am I when I make friends with a person from a completely different culture and socio-economic bracket? Who am I when I'm writing policy to help a learning center keep families on the field? The answer, I know, is to first as, "Who is God?" then "Who does He say I am?" Even that feels difficult and foreign sometimes. So that's why I like the video... a visual/audio reminder of My Lighthouse, the beauty He creates, how He created us to be creative in worship, and how we get to do that together, in the Body... or the band.

Art. Nature. Truth. Unity... A Good Combination

Levity In the Classroom

Levity: the treatment of a serious matter with humor.

I have a little notebook; I started keeping it at my first job, after realizing that teaching is challenging and that I take myself too seriously. So I started writing down some of the funny things kids say: The free entertainment of a teacher. The notebook helps me balance my focus between the serious responsibility of my job, and the lighthearted, joyous, silly subjects of my job.

Here are some levity additions from teaching here at Lake Victoria Learning Center:

"Since I was thinking about Star Wars all evening, I won lots of battles in my dreams."

After reading a simple (yes/no) phonics workbook question: "Is a lobster ticklish under it's nostrils?" 
The student reflected, "I've never tickled a lobster... if I did it would bite me... unless I used a long stick... but it would have to be light enough so I could run away quickly... but not too light because it might bend too much..."

When asked why he and other students were lying curled up in the dirt, while other kids ran around them... 
"It's a new game. You pretend that you're a seed and somebody plants you. Then if you get watered by the plant monster you have to chase him." Is this an effect of my plant unit?!

"I told my mom I'll have a good attitude TODAY after school, because it's after art." What does that mean the other days of the week?!

An Update on Jita Jonah

A while back I posted about the progress in translating the book of Jonah into Jita, one of the 8 languages in process in our Musoma office. Now, Jita Jonah IS IN PRINT! Pictured here are the translators and the translation adviser, with freshly printed copies. After printing, the adviser delivered a copy to his neighbor who is an older Jita man. He immediately gathered his Jita friends together and they read the Bible together in Jita!