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| Town on other side of island |
Once in awhile, however, an opportunity arises for us to take a trip out of town. It happened this past week. An English teacher who comes to our English club lives and works in a town over an hour away, and he was very persistent in asking me to come visit. So this past Wednesday, my teammate Jeremy and I made our way to his town.
Bright and early we went to catch the taxi bus. Public transport means climbing into a 14 seater van and packing it with at least 18 people, and depending on the driver as much as 20. Crammed and hot, we then bumped over roads that in places have crumbled to nothing, making the going quite slow. But our island is beautiful and as we climbed the mountain pass to drive down to our destination, we had some nice views of the island.
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| Another view of town |
Our host met us in the center of town and took us on motorcycles (helmets for drivers only) to the various schools where he teaches English. We had many nice interactions with students along the way, but when we came to the public high school they brought us into the headmaster’s office. I steeled myself as I saw the headmaster, principals, and teachers file into the main office to have a chat. This is very possibly my least favorite part of the job.
“How can you help us?” is nearly always the first question out of the headmaster’s mouth. It’s not a new question. The scenario repeats itself nearly every place we visit. I told him I was only here to look and learn today. I told him about some of the things our group does. I explained that we don’t offer much in line of materials or financial support. We are volunteers. We teach. We donate our time, our wisdom, a few resources we’ve developed and ourselves. This is how we help. After some unsatisfied looks the second inevitable question arose:
“Could you come once a week and teach here?” Again I go into explanations. “We don’t teach in the schools because we don’t want to take the jobs of Island teachers. We do training sessions, we can come once in awhile to encourage, but in the end, your town is much too far for us to come on a regular basis.”
The third foreseeable question arrives: “Our town is a big place. Why can’t someone come and live here and teach?”
How do I tell them that I would like nothing more?… that I would love to have a whole team of people living and working in their town?...that I do think they are important and worthy?... that I do hope to see our work extend to every region of the island and for people to learn from us? How do I explain to them how encouraging it is to know that they want us to come and would accept us with open arms?
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| Cool spider pic- he's as big as Tom's hand |
They nod their heads and respond as all islanders do when talking about the future, “God willing…” God willing.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
The lice problem in our house seems to be under control and on its way out. We are thankful for a special lice comb that arrived in the mail! Our plans for Megan’s back problem and our time away seem to be coming together nicely. We are glad for the details and logistics to come together so easily. Electricity has been improving. We were even able to have a fun night as a team watching a movie together! We continue to be so thankful for our team and how we get along.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
Grace and David are having tummy troubles. David has been dealing with it for a week now. Pray that he would be healed. Keep praying for Megan’s back. The more improvement we see over the next two months, the less likely she will need surgery. Pray for more workers. Pray that more people would feel a call to the islands, and that we could see work started in towns like the one we visited this week. As a team we continue to have great conversations with islanders. Pray that these conversations would lead to real understanding and real transformation. Pray for the island body here- divisions and mistrust continue.
