T.I.A

For those of you who don’t already know…the power here just decides to turn off whenever it wants to (which is quite often and sometimes for days at a time) so, don’t think I’m ignoring your emails, or forgetting these updates :)
So anyways, another insane start to the week its been. The kids are on “holiday” this week, so I am just working with the kids who live at the school full time. Yesterday I had only 5 students in my class…which actually turned out to be quite a good thing. At first I thought, “How can I possibly make any kind of impact with just five students?” But, God really opened my eyes(that is happening a lot here!) and showed me how he works in even the most unexpected of places! I knew that these five students were in my “regular”, larger class but I didn’t know any of them personally, or even their names. I made it a point first thing to learn their names (except I cannot pronounce the name of one of the boys, lol.) So then I put up a few “warm-up” problems on the board to start, and one of the boys called me over to his desk. He said, “teacha teacha...I have a problem, and cannot see the board, can you please write the problems down on my paper?” As I looked him in the eyes, I realized that he is permanently cross-eyed and mostly blind. He told me that he usually tries to copy off the other kids papers in class so he can keep up because the teacher does not stop for him. It is mind-boggling to me. In the U.S, I can’t think of a single teacher who would deliberately expect a kid with a CLEAR disability to find a solution for keeping up on his own! But, I am not in the U.S. This Is Africa.
Anyways, I got to spend a few hours working with these kids yesterday, and got to find out their strengths, and weaknesses, and by the end of the day, felt as though I had actually helped.  It’s the greatest feeling in the world.
Unfortunately, after that my day took a bad turn :( ...please bare with me as I vent ;) We drove into Kampala to drop off some of my new friends at the bus stop who are headed back to Kenya. Made me really sad to see them go and also reminded me of everyone back home that I miss. We did a bit of shopping in the city and I drank some sort of sketchy coffee drink that made me sick. I also got bit by something on my elbow that has turned bright red and swollen to the size of a golf ball! Ayayayay! Lol. So, last night I was dizzy, had a fever, and didn't sleep too much, but am feeling much better today and still happier than ever to be here! :)
Peace!