Nothing (much) New

I wish I had another really interesting story to share with you this week, but to be honest, I bummed around my house this weekend – a lot. When Saturday afternoon rolled around, I just didn’t want to move from my room. And so I didn’t. But I’ll allowed to have one of those weekends every so often, right? Plus, it was raining a little bit Saturday and down pouring Sunday so I kind of had no choice. I wrote a few letters and read a book.

OH!! AND! Greg and Kate sent me this AWESOME puzzle for my birthday. It’s a map of the world with hundreds of little details about culture and history, etc. etc. I couldn’t resist, so Jana, Sean, and I pulled it out Sunday afternoon and worked on it a long time. We almost finished it. It was really fun. I’m looking forward to sharing it with our students (still trying to figure out a good, organized way to do that). Thanks Greg and Kate – awesome present! It came in a big box, but surprisingly I didn’t have to pay anything to receive it. Want to know why? Because they cut open the side and couldn’t find anything worth while to charge me for (or steal). Thank goodness! Getting an opened box like that is a reminder of where I am (not the States, that’s for sure).

I don’t have anything life changing that happened this week, so I guess I’ll just share little bits and pieces of my week…

Things at school are business as usual – well, for the most part. Fr. Marty recently returned to the States for a fundraising trip in a bunch of different cities. Things are going along fine, but I think the school is missing him. The organization of the school is definitely missing his authority.

Update on my rooster: HE RAN AWAY. I saw a chicken that looked a lot like Ignacio (his new name, more manly than Lola) in the brush across the street from our house a few days after we got him. I was walking home from work and though he looked EXACTLY like him, I wasn’t sure – I don’t know anything about chickens. They all kind of look the same! Plus, the neighbors always let their chickens run free around the neighborhood to look for food, so I just thought he was someone else’s – because WHY would my chicken be out of our yard? So when I finally got into my yard, I searched everywhere and my fear was confirmed. He must have flown out, which is really impressive because our fence is pretty high and covered with bushes. I thought about going to catch him, but how the heck do you catch a chicken? No idea. So I let him go, hoping he’d just come pecking at our gate in a little bit to be let back in. That was a silly hope though, he’s only been here a few days so why the heck would he return? When everyone else came back home, Ignacio was long gone, and we haven’t heard from him since. I’m positive he is now comfortably tucked in our neighbors’ tummies. Bummer. We may try again and get a few hens; at least two – we think Ignacio escaped because he was lonely. We’ll see.

Saturday service is up and running at SPC. Each stream is responsible for a different service project every Saturday afternoon. As it turns out, three of the four streams do service around their campus, cleaning the classroom block and toilets, the dormitories, or the multipurpose hall and other things around campus. The last stream, on a weekly rotation, boards the school’s new bus and takes a trip into Dodoma town to the Myuji Cheshire Home – a two-year boarding school for children with special needs. Myuji Cheshire gives these children a place to get special care and education in hopes that they can eventually be reintegrated into other Tanzanian schools. As a Jesuit school, service is very important for the formation of it’s students (our motto: to learn, to love, to serve). Many of our students have never experienced service (or meaningful, reflective service), and definitely have never come into contact with the young students of the Cheshire Home.

Sean is the official coordinator of service, so he will probably go every week. I really enjoy the Cheshire Home and getting to know our students a little less formally, so I will probably go along most days, too. I had been there a few times before with Jana and Thomas who volunteer there weekly, so I know the Sisters and a few of the returning students.

Last weekend we took Stream One. They all basked in the historical moment – they were the first Stream to ride the bus at St. Peter Claver. That’s huge, right! Our first day there went a lot better than I expected. The St. Peter students were a little shy of the Cheshire kids at first, but a few of ours “figured it out” (went to a kid, took their hand and started talking and playing) pretty quickly, and became good examples for the others. We stayed close to two hours and then headed back to the bus. Stream One seemed to really have enjoyed themselves and the students of Cheshire. It was really energizing to me to be there with them.

The second weekend with Stream Two was a little rocky to be honest. I think this stream has less “go-getters.” Also, it rained as soon as we arrived so that put a little damper on our playtime. We were all stuffed in a room instead of warming up to each other on the playground like last time. It may take this group a little longer to warm up to Cheshire, but I think they will eventually. We have four streams, so each stream will end up visiting once a month.

Alright, I’m ending here so I can make time to upload some pictures. (P.S. my new picture on this blog is from the Cheshire Home!). I also have videos that would be great to send along, but I haven’t figured out yet how to do so. Coming soon!