Shift

Our kids' shift- no local school, more homeschool this month

Back home in the States I imagine it feels like a pretty normal month.  June—summer starting, kids getting out of school, barbecues, and days at the park.  You probably aren’t even aware of anything different happening this past week.  I doubt you noticed the fact that there was a new moon a little over a week ago.  Yet, for us, that new moon means a great shift—a great change of the pace of life for the next month.  The month of fasting has begun, and for one month, life feels rather different.

music:  During this month all thoughts turn to religious devotion.  That means the upbeat african rhythms, the global pop and hip-hop, and the music that seems to constantly blare from certain houses is turned off.  Such music is not believed to be honoring to God.  So instead we hear the chanting of their holy book or sermons.  Even the taxi drivers (who aren’t known for being a terribly religious lot) join in.  Gone is the thumping base, replaced with the softer wail of a religious chant.

dress:  Along with acting more religious comes looking more religious.  This is the time when nearly all women cover their heads and the clothing that would have been reserved for special occasions is now worn throughout the month.  For men especially, this means wearing their Friday robes and hats (called kofias) all the time.

Emptier afternoon street, women inside cooking

conversations:  Fasting is on everyone’s mind.  It’s understandable.  Their fasting requires not only not eating, but not drinking as well.  It is no easy fast.  The constant hunger and thirst means often the first question we hear in the morning and the beginning of every conversation after that starts with, “Are you fasting?”  This question can get old, but it is also an opportunity that we hope to take advantage of.   It is a special time of year when “religion” is on everyone’s mind.  What do we have to say in the midst of this?

classes:  Fasting not only effects our environment but it also effects our daily rhythms.  For example, most people are not interested in studying English in the afternoon after fasting all day.  Women are busy cooking from about 3:00pm on. (During the month of fasting, every night is a feast.) And no one in their right mind would want to postpone breaking the fast in order to finish an English class.  For that reason, we don’t teach English during this month.  So it opens up some opportunities for us to work on curriculum development, language, and spend more time with friends.

taxis: Daily rhythms changes our transport.  Not eating during the day means people get up later, which means there are less taxis on the road in the early morning.  The day is normal enough but then, around sunset, you see a change again.  The half hour or so before the breaking of the fast cars race down the streets at dangerous speeds—hungry drivers wanting to get back to their homes before the meal begins.  When the meal does begin, the roads fall silent and no taxis can be found for about an hour.

meals: During the day, islanders neither eat nor drink, but at night they feast.  Breaking the fast is very special for our island neighbors.  At night they feast on favorite foods.  It is also the only time that most islanders will come together and eat as a family.  Normally islanders eat when they are hungry, and grab food when it is prepared.  Sitting down to a meal together is not part of their culture—except during the month of fasting.  And so, for many families, this month is extremely special, and rightly so.  Imagine only eating together as a family for one month out of the year???

But what about us?  Our family isn’t fasting everyday this month, but to respect our neighbors we are discreet about eating.  We prepare daytime meals that won’t waft the good smells of cooking into our neighbors’ homes.   Where our neighbors eat more lavishly this month, overall our meals tend to be more simple. 

shops: You might think shops would close up at this time.  But the month of fasting is actually a time of high commerce—something like our Christmas season”. In the morning shops are stocked, sales abound, and street vendors appear and crowd all the main streets with their special wares.  People are busy buying gifts, fixing up their houses, and buying new cloths in preparation for the holiday at the end of the month.  During the meal hour after sunset— things are silent and every door is shut. But at night, after the meal is all over, the shops open up again and people are out on the streets.  Staying up late  and sleeping in late is one way to reduce the hunger of the day.  The shops cater to these new rhythms.

Like many cultural holidays, there are parts of it that are positive and parts that are negative; parts that are wonderful and parts that need to be redeemed.  But mostly we wanted to share with you the life shift.  For the next 30 days or so our lives and the lives of islanders are different. Pray with us as we adapt.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our neighbor’s child with the bad burn has been healing well.  Megan is becoming quite the burn nurse!  The burn looks noticeably better each day.  This month is definitely giving all of us opportunities to talk about deeper things.  We and all of our teammates have had numerous chances to share.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray that we would continue to have good opportunities and that people who are truly searching would truly find during this month.  Our agricultural workers are visiting another island to learn from a fellow agriculturalist.  Pray that they would learn a lot and be encouraged.  A group of short-term visitors will arrive this week and stay for the whole month.  Pray for their safe travels and a good month of learning and fun.  Lift up our teammate in Kenya, for a good time of rest, reflection and healing.  If you would like to pray with us during this coming month we’d be happy to send you the annual “month of fasting prayer guide for the islands.”  Just send us an email to our fastmail address.

Thank You Picnic

Watching over the food preparations

The month of fasting has begun, and that means some tough days ahead for our island friends and neighbors.  Going all day without food or drink in a hot climate is no easy task.  Not surprisingly, the days before the month begins are filled with parties and picnics—a last hurrah before the hard days arrive.

This year we took advantage of the festive spirit to organize a picnic of our own.  We invited all the administrators of the English programs where we teach and their families.  As English teachers we work with local organizations to teach our classes.  We leave all the administrative/organizational needs (registering students, providing a classroom, creating books and materials, etc.) in the hands of the administrators.  We simply come and teach.  This has been a great model and as a result, we’ve gotten to know the administrators of our programs pretty well.  This was a chance for us to enjoy them and their families and honor them for all the hard work they do to make our classes successful.

Megan & administrator

So we took them to our new favorite spot down by the river.  The kids swam and the men cooked —grilled beef kebabs, chicken wings, and fried breadfruit and green bananas.  The food was good.  The fellowship was better.  Afterwards we had a little ceremony where we honored each administrator.  We explained to them about service and how important it is.  Tom told the story of how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples in order to show them a model of how to serve one another, and then we presented each administrator with a gift and with some kind words from one of the teachers they work with most closely. 

It was a special time.  Everyone ate their fill and there was still quite a bit of food left over.  It’s a bit of a hike over to the river, so we didn’t really want to take the food home with us.  Just then a group of boys showed up—20 strong.  They were coming to swim in the river.  One of our teammates had an idea.  “Hey, you guys!  I’ve got some food for you.”  The boys were on the other side of the river.  He put the food in a big basin that had been holding cold drinks and floated it across the river.  One of the older boys took charge and brought the basin across.  He brought it to a flat place and set it down.  Suddenly it was like a pack of wild dogs.  The boys descended on the food in the basin grabbed a chicken wing or two, and ran off to eat it in peace.  The basin was emptied in a flash.  They left behind only some pieces of breadfruit and green bananas—the meat was gone.  So we ended up getting to bless two groups of people- our administrators and the roaming pack of boys.   It was a good day.

The boys descend on the food

PRAYERS ANSWERED
All of our exams finished well and our students did quite well.  We are happy to have finished before the month of fasting began.  The picnic with the English administrators went very well and was a good time for bonding and honoring them. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for one of our teammates who is traveling.  If you would like to pray with us during this coming month we’d be happy to send you the annual “month of fasting prayer guide for the islands.”  Just send us an email to our fastmail address. Pray that we would use the opportunities to share this month well. Pray for our little neighbor boy who has a bad burn on his leg— we are helping them care for it everyday. Pray for quick healing without infection.

English Exams

Students waiting to be called in for their exam

It’s that time again!  Our English classes are finishing and it’s time to give exams.  All our exams are oral, so the whole team helps out to administer them.  Now normally, things would be a bit more staggered, but because of the religious month of fasting (which will begin this coming week) all of us are finishing our English classes around the same time.  Which means we are racking up a lot of exam hours.

Now most of our students do very well, but that doesn’t mean we don’t hear some memorable responses.  Here’s some recent highlights.

• “I am three children”  (talking about his family.)
• “My birthday is April, twenty-tooth.”  (so close…)
• “I was born in 1885.” (again so close)
• “I like to eat my children.” (I think he meant “see”)
• “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13…” (Um, what happened to 6-10???)
• “My husband is a policewoman.” (We have a lot of gender confusion in our classes.)
• "He is wearing a blue skirt and red pant." (I think he meant shirt.)
• “In my house there is a dining room, bathroom and chicken.”  (This may be true, but I think she meant “kitchen”.)
• Teacher: “What do you like to do?” Student, excitedly “Pizza!”
• Teacher: “What time is it?” Student: “3 a quarter to 15.” (I guess we need to review telling time some more.)
• "No, I don’t not from…not Kenya."  (We’ll at least they used the negative.)
• Teacher: "Touch your back."  Student: rises out of chair, turns around and puts his hand on his butt.

Oral exams in progress

Every oral exam is different.  The majority of our students have learned the material well and respond without much trouble. These exams go really quickly, and some students struggle.  Sometimes they know the material but you can see they are so nervous that they are clamming up.  Others think they know the material but clearly haven’t studied.  They get about halfway through the exam and start to flounder.  Then every so often someone shows up to take the exam who only showed up for half the classes.  These are always painful.  Blank stares, mumbled answers, and lots of silence.  We move through the questions, wanting to put them out of their misery as soon as possible.

As language learners ourselves giving exams is a good reminder to us. Learning a language is hard work and at the beginning you say laughable things all the time. By now we don’t say laughable things ALL the time but hopefully we’ve haven’t lost the ability to laugh at ourselves when we do.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Exams are going well, only a handful left to do. We’ve jumped back into life and had a chance to share some of our conference reflections with the team. Here on the island, each week seems to bring an encouraging story of our new sisters sharing what they are learning with others, of others becoming interested and studying themselves. We are greatly encouraged by  these developments.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We are hosting a big picnic for all our English Class administrators and their families tomorrow.  Pray that this would be a good time, go well and be a chance to deepen relationships with our island friends.  One teammate will be the leaving the island this coming week, pray that the logistics would come together for her travel.   The month of fasting begins next week.  This is a time of difficulty and grumbling, but also a time of feasting and fun, and for many it is a time of spiritual seeking.  Pray that we would be ready, with good answers and If you would like to pray with us during this coming month we’d be happy to send you our annual “month of fasting prayer guide.”  Just send us an email.

Conference Notes

Grass! (We don't get that on the islands)

We just arrived back to Clove Island today.  It took us three days of travel.  The first day by bus—Tanzania to Kenya.  The second day by plane—Kenya to the Islands.  And the third day by small plane—Volcano Island to Clove Island. 

The travel was tiring and we are glad to be home but we are really thankful to have gone to the conference as well.  Why?  To use a classic analogy it was like taking your car in for a tune up.  The car’s been running fine, sure a hiccup here and there, but at the same time you just know it’s lost some of its get up and go.  The engine needs a tune up.  Well in the case, it was the team leaders that needed the tune up.

So here’s a quick list of the sorts of things that got tuned up:

Back to basics:  So this leaders conference was a mix of present and future team leaders, so a good portion of what we learned was review.  That said, review is a good thing.  There were a number of “oh yeah” moments. “Remember when we did that?”  “Why don’t we do that any more?”  So the reminders were helpful and hopefully will help us perform better.

“Don’t worry, we’ve seen this before”:  Sometimes just being around other people in the same situation as you or those with years of experience can be helpful.  We got a lot of perspective and it was nice to talk to people who really understand your situation. 

Cleaning up the vision:  We spent a lot of time talking about vision.  Setting it, clarifying it, defining it.  This was really good.  It’s something we’ve been feeling a little loose about.  But the conference ideas and the time for reflection have been very helpful in helping us tighten up our vision that will give strength and energy to our team.

Nearby bunny farm in TZ

New spark, new tools: There was plenty during the conference to take away—new tools for language learning, understanding stress, how to improve accountability, etc.  Plus, being together with other leaders, hearing their stories, seeing future leaders excited to lead new teams—all of it is inspiring and gets us excited to get back to our team.

So these are some of the things we are taking away from the conference.  Pray that we would be able to apply what we’ve learned and continue to grow and improve as team leaders.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful for a good conference that was both informative and reflective.  We are happy that all our travels went safely.  It sounds like our teammates have done just fine without us and we are looking forward to seeing them all tomorrow for fellowship. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for a good transition back into island life and team life.  Pray that we would be able to apply all that we’ve learned this past week.  Pray for our kids, as they go into full time home school mode (island school finished just before we left).  Pray for our team as we move forward. Pray for all the English teachers on our team as we give exams for all our classes before the month of fasting begins in under 2 weeks.  Start praying now for our opportunities to deepen relationships and share with people during the upcoming month of fasting.