So Beautiful!

On Tuesday I came down with my very first African illness. I awoke in the morning, exhausted from tossing and turning all night, to find my sense of gravity had left my body. I was officially dizzy and nauseous with no recollection of how I could have gotten this sick in less than 12 hrs. I went to work mind set on not puking on my students. I was no help to Sinead the whole day and kept resting my head on our desk, falling asleep in between classes.
I didn’t realize how distracted my brief sickness had made me until returning to school on Thursday morning.
You see on Tuesday I grazed through everything half asleep. I was just praying for it to be open.
But on Thursday with the sun shining down on us I felt I was rewelcomed into the community at ST. Leos. And it struck me, how could I have already found this to be commonplace. Watching the scenes of children playing, yelling, and running around, sweating, and soo much sand. And then came my new eyes, the return of my health.

St leos students sing every morning. I am not talking catholic school mumbled words, when is this torture over singing. I am talking harmonized, soulful, praise to God. This day I was greeted with a new song. Praising Moya(spirit, God) along with clapping and dancing. I ask you where on earth do you get 7th grade boys willingly participating in song and dance. I watched the children sway to happy to greet the day. My heart lept. I cant believe I had already begun to overlook the small wonders that fill my life here.
These children, however mischievous in my classroom, really know how to hand over their fear of embarrassment. They just close their eyes, raise their hands, and sing...with no sense anyone is watching. It really makes me love them. Even when they are clicking in Zulu while I am trying to teach words that begin with the letter A.

Ps. I have become the kind of teacher who has a stern look and repeats things like “quiet down!” and points yelling “hey hey hey stop that!” if only my fourth grade teacher, Mrs Kelly, could see me now.