Week #3

Over the past week, my duties have consisted of teaching some of the classes at New Life Academy. I believe I had mentioned something about this in my last blog post, but here I will elaborate. Some of the teachers who have been hired for this school year had not been released from their previous schools and hopefully, will be arriving this week! Since they have not yet arrived, I filled in with the Standard I (first grade), UKG (upper Kindergarten), and for the last four days of the school week (Wednesday – Saturday), the Standard IV (fourth grade) classes.

            It has been quite challenging, especially during the first couple of days as the students in the lower-level classes do not speak very much English. Thankfully, when I was in the UKG class, I was assisting another teacher who could speak Odia (Oriya) and Hindi. I was quite relieved when I was placed with the Standard IV class as they understand English quite well, and we were able to cover all their subjects (even Hindi and Oriya with the help of a couple of the students!). I have enjoyed them immensely, even though they are particularly prone to misbehaving (i.e. throwing paper wads and hitting each other), and I think I can honestly say the past four days of school were a success – I even learned a couple of words in Oriya!

            Yesterday, I taught the Standard VII class, which was a lot of fun! The students were so well-behaved and they were very excited about having me as their teacher for the day. After finishing their studies, they had a lot of questions for me (I have listed some of them in with the others below). At the end of the day they said “ma’am, you must come back tomorrow!” to which I replied that I might not be able to. As it turned out, the school day was cancelled due to heavy rainfall overnight which made many roads impossible to navigate with the buses.

            The students at New Life continue to amuse me as they really enjoy thinking of questions to ask me (Indians consider it rude to not ask questions of foreigners/guests). So far, they have included:

• What village do you live in? (I think the students who asked me this actually thought I was Indian!)
• Where are you from? (I really enjoyed the response I got when I answered “America” – they said “But, everyone in America is black and you are white!” [Often Indian children confuse America and Africa]).
• What are your favorite American films? Favorite American actors/actresses?
• What is your favorite color?
• What are some of the place names (cities) where you are from?
• Is everyone a Christian?
• How many members are in your family and what are their names?
• Do you like this school?
• Do you like this school better than the school you went to?
• Do you have pets? What are their names?
• How old are you?
• Are you married? 

            On Saturday evening, I had the honor of watching the orphanage children dance and then was asked to participate (sorry, no pictures this week)! It was a wonderful time filled with much laughter. On Sunday, I began teaching them a song, which I hope will be the first of several that I will teach them over the summer. I am hoping to not only teach them songs in English, but to have some of the songs translated into Oriya so that even the children who do not speak English very well can sing them!

I have also been playing a lot of badminton with them (without a net) and they keep telling me “Sister, you are a champion!” (In spite of the fact that I often fumble around and drop the birdie or hit it over the wall) and I have no lack of opponents! I am seriously spoiled by having the opportunity to spend almost every hour of every day with children and youth – students in the morning and the orphanage children for the remainder of the day and weekends!

            The longer I am here, the more I wonder what the future will hold as I graduate from college in less than a year (May 2014!). Will I continue with what I have thought God is calling me to (working with girls who have been rescued out of trafficking) or does God have something else in store for me? Will I instead work overseas in trafficking prevention (education, children/youth programs, etc.)? Will I work for a non-profit in the U.S. that supports national ministries? Will I stay in the U.S. or will I move to another country? Will I end up in India again? Or, will I do what I originally thought I would do in youth ministry – work in a church or parachurch organization in the U.S.? Should I consider becoming certified in teaching Bible in a school setting or even obtain ESL training?

            The questions are endless and I have no answers as of yet. However, God has guided my way in the past, and I know that He will be faithful to do so in the future. In His good and perfect timing, He will reveal the answers to each of these questions. The most important question, which I must answer for myself, is whether I will be obedient to His call, no matter what the answers to the other questions end up being. And I already know that answer. No matter where God may lead me to go, I will go.