Just Today

The last 12 hours deserves a blog post of its very own I've decided. While life here can be very different and sometimes difficult- it is certainly never dull. Today my day was filled with a school-wide olympic ceremony, a kindergarten christmas pageant, me finding myself carrying live chickens from my house to school, watching middle and high school students wrap those chickens up like presents, and then having a snowball fight in 70+ degree weather. 

Allow me to elaborate...

Being at an international school means that when they do olympics in P.E. class, then can actually represent their own countries and compete for them. The students have been doing olympic competitions in P.E. for the past few weeks and today the whole school took part in the "closing ceremonies." The whole school went out to the field across the street and gathered with the flag of their own country. The school had 13 different countries represented! They then walked together with their flag and came in to the auditorium of the church across the street. We had a big ceremony announcing the 3rd,2nd, and 1st place winners of each competition and they played the national anthem of the 1st place winner's country. It was so neat! 

Every week we have elementary chapel. Every other week chapel is lead by a different class and this week it was kindergarten's turn. We have been preparing a Christmas pageant all week to perform for our chapel today. Everyone had at least one line and had (some kind of) costume. Creating costumes wasn't very easy, but we got creative! Our angels wore fairy wings and aluminum foil halos, the wisemen (and wisewomen) wore curtains as capes- you get the idea. While they had a bit of trouble remembering where to go after they said their lines, I think my loud whispering of cues across the stage helped and they of course were just adorable. 

Something I don't think I've mentioned on my blog yet is that besides teaching kindergarten every day, I have gotten involved in being a Young Life leader with the high schoolers. Young Life is a youth program that is quite popular in the states, but also is an international program, so we have it here in Kigali. Tonight we had our Christmas club. Winter here means the temperature might get down to 65 degrees, but mostly it is just really hot all the time. So, we (the other American YL leaders and I, who have actually experienced snow) decided we wanted to give these kids a true wintery Christmas experience. So we made snow balls out of panty hoes and flour- filling them with the flour and tying knots to create snow balls (essentially flour bombs). Then we had them play capture the flag with snow balls. What made the game even more interesting is that the flags were frozen inside blocks of ice that had to melted before they could win. 

Buuuuut before the snowball fight we had another "fun" activity. We told the kids we wanted them to wrap some christmas presents we had gotten for the guards. 6 of them volunteered to be gift wrappers. Then we brought out the "gifts." They were live chickens. The students of course freaked out, but also loved it and were actually successful in wrapping them in butcher paper and yarn. And no worries- no animals were harmed in the process... but they will be very appreciated and very tasty to the guards who are receiving them. 

...All in a day's work. 

Processing in for the olympic ceremony 

Ready for chapel to start

Singing at chapel! 

Chicken at my house

Chickens in the road

Chicken in a package 

Chicken #2 in an even neater package

The Power of Prayer

Every morning my kindergarten class starts the day by lining up with their little feet on the little curb, each giving me a good morning hug on the way in the door, then they sit on the carpet to begin our day with praying together. Everyday before we pray I ask for prayer requests and I write them down in a little notebook. This is probably my favorite time of the day. Why you might ask? Well, here are just a few of the best requests we have prayed for in the past 4 months....

-The whole word
-That God is with us every day
-That my little brother won't break my things
- That God heals all the sick people
-Praise God that my mom sent a note in my lunch
-That my baby sister doesn't bite my mom when she's nursing
-That we don't argue with our moms and dads
-That God blesses everyone
-Praise that I was early to school today
-That we can stand in a nice line in the hallway like the 1st graders
-That we don't scream at house center
-That my car gets fixed because my mom's car is so not fixed
-For my ouchy
-For my cold
-That my little sister doesn't bother my mom when she's teaching her workout class
-Praise God I got new socks and a new lunch box!
-Praise God that my mom got games on her phone
-That we don't fall and get hurt in P.E.
-That my dog doesn't bite my new chicken
-That we are obedient
-That no one has to move their clip
-Praise the Lord that today is the 46th day of school
-Praise God for spirit week!
-Praise God for Cupcakes
-Praise God for gum that my mom got for me
-That the presidents of the United States don't fight with each other
-That my sister doesn't step on my head to wake me up in the morning
- Praise God we get to sing in Spanish at chapel
- Praise God for Miss Merz's new shoes
- Praise God for reading buddies
- Praise God that next summer I get to go to Tennessee
-Praise God we learned our memory verse

I hope these gave you a smile. I just love how much my students want to Praise the Lord for such simple things. But the thing is, they are doing exactly what God calls us to do! We SHOULD be praising God for things like the 46th day of school and simple pleasures like new lunch boxes and bubble gum. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says "In everything give thanks..." That is exactly what they are doing! I know I came to this country to be a teacher for these children, but sometimes I think they teach me even more.

:)

A Heart FULL of Thanks.

Thanksgiving.... Rwanda style. I was a little nervous about how this holiday would be for me, as it is my first Thanksgiving away from my family, and let be serious- I'm pretty far away. I think this week leading up to today was harder than today. I should have known our incredible providing Lord would pull through and prove yet again to me how amazing He truly is and how much He cares for anyone when they do His work. Like I said, the past few days it's been slightly depressing for me, thinking about spending the holiday with a half of day of work and dinner with people I've only known a few months. But, today has been nothing but wonderful. It started out with a text from my boss announcing it a "jeans day" - awesome! Then as I got to school I realized that of course I wouldn't want to spend my morning any other way than with the 17 incredible little blessings that are my precious students. I felt so full of joy as they came in and I told each one how thankful I was for them. Then an awesome mom came in and surprised us with a fruit turkey! See the picture below, it's adorable. We spent the morning watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving with the first graders, making handprint turkeys and talking about what we were thankful for. Their responses to what they were thankful were priceless- God, Jesus, family, friends, Miss Merz, sick people, grace, our hearts, our school- just to name a few.

This afternoon a family opened up their home to about 30 people from the community including singles, couples, and families. It was so comforting to enjoy a meal with these incredible people of all ages and join in encouraging conversation with them. Not to mention the food! There was so much and it was all so good! We even had 2 turkeys! Turkey is very hard to find and extremely expensive. One family brought their's from the states in their carry-on, ha!
And the fun continues, tonight I have another Thanksgiving gathering of Americans and skype date with my parents and family in Wisconsin- so so blessed I am and so so thankful I am for these countless blessings in my life!

A fruit turkey! Made by an awesome mom from
my class. 

Kindergarten and 1st grade movie morning 

Lower El staff in our fall colors 

It's not Thanksgiving in Kindergarten without handprint
thankful turkeys. 

Fall leaves!! (Compared to the African green ones in the background)
Thanks Jody Tobias for sending them! :)

Aaaaaand I wrote this post last Thursday and I've been trying to upload a sweet video of my kids singing a thanksgiving song, but alas Africa wins this one- it took way to long to upload so I've given up. Maybe another day!

One last note! I have a Christmas wish! Printing photos here is pretty expensive so I want to ask for everyone to print a picture from your favorite memory we have together, maybe write a little note about it, and mail it to me. You can send it to...
Kelsey Merz
Kigali International Community School
B.P 6558
Kigali, Rwanda

Thanks, Friends!

Spirit Week and Accreditation Celebration!

I think sometimes I can do a better job telling about my life here through the pictures I take, rather than writing. So, this post I will dedicate to this past week's spirit week and my precious students' creativity. Last week was not only spirit week but also the grand opening of our brand new library and accreditation ceremony. Last year our school was finally approved for accreditation recommendation and NOW we are accredited! Wahooo! On Friday, the whole school had a ceremony in celebration, while it was very meaningful and special to me and many others, I knew this hour long ceremony of speeches and recognitions wouldn't be as appreciated by my kindergarteners. I was concerned that they might get pretty antsy, but they did great! It may have helped that I gave them each a piece of string to play with in their hands, but I am so proud of them. After the ceremony everyone got cupcakes and sodas... you can only imagine how the afternoon went from there. ;)

Here are some highlights from Spirit week...

 Twin Day!

I think everyone wished they could be twins with these girls.
They even had sparkle hair spray in their hair! 

"I think I look like Mr. Maxwell." 

Pajama Day!

Wacky Tacky Day :)

 I let my kids do my hair... 

And on Friday we had our official Accreditation Ceremony. This is me leading my class through our brand new library! 

Photo Update

I realize it has been almost a month since my last update! So sorry! I also noticed I have not posted very many pictures. So here is a little photographic summary of my life. :) 

Would ya look at that, I'm a teacher! 

Self portraits of my kiddles! 

This is a view form the high area of the lower El. are.
My classroom is all the way to the left. 

My beautiful bestie, Kerry. It was always our dream to teach in the same school
and now we are teaching right next door to each other in Africa!  

Last month we took a staff retreat to Lake Kivu. It was beautiful! 

Yes, I do teach a class full of monkeys. 

Out to dinner with friends for my wonderful roommate, Jodi's bday. :) 

What a better way to practice counting to 10 than with the
10 toes God blessed us with?! 

Last weekend we had two days off, so a group of us took a
trip to Nyungwe Forest in southern Rwanda where we went camping and hiking

My roommate Jodi and I before our hike through
the forest

Nyungwe Forest! 

Blessings!

This week my house really felt the "This is Africa" experience. TIA (this is Africa) is a common response here to when things don't go as planned, things you were expecting don't happen or don't exist,  or basically life just became a lot simpler. For example, at least once if not a few times a week the power will go out. The funny thing is it doesn't really phase me or anyone else living here, it just happens and you work around it without question! Well, on Wednesday our water pump broke. This means the water had to be turned off for several days while it's being fixed. Living without water however has been a blessing! It means we have to get creative and adventurous- something I love! It means I have an legit excuse to not take a real shower for a few days (hope that doesn't gross you out haha!). It means my roommates and I wash each other's hair with a bucket and the neighbor's water. Most importantly it means we are experiencing the life style of a very large percentage of the  households living in this continent. So many families here not only don't have running water, but also may have to walk hours or even days to get water and bring it home. We only had to walk next door to fill up a bucket of water to brush our teeth. (As I say in my class) Easy peasy lemon squeezey! While living several days without water has been an adventure, I feel incredibly blessed and thankful that this is a rare occurrence and generally I can turn on a faucet on a day to day basis.

On a completely unrelated note, my kids are still wonderful. While being a first year teacher includes challenges, I can never go a day without smiles and laughter. Almost all of my students speaks English, but most of them speak British English. This means their vocabulary is slightly different than your average american 5 year olds. Here are a few examples...
When they have a loose tooth, they tell me "My tooth is shaking!" When they are hurting or have a head ache, they say they are "paining" "Miss Merz, my head is paining!" If someone is ignoring them or not doing what they want, they will say things like "She refuses to get off the swing." or "He is refusing to listen to me," always refusing. When they get warm they ask me if they may "remove" their sweater (or sometimes "jumper") . It took me about a week to find out why my kids kept telling me that I looked "smart." I thought it was so funny that they would say that I "looked smart" until I found out that looking smart just means you are well dressed and has nothing to do with your intelligence.
I know there are more phrases they use that are different than how Americans speak English, but I think I'm becoming so used to it now that I can't think of any more.

And a last tid pit that is also completely unrelated to anything else in this post. Today I was asked to come lifeguard for a birthday pool party of one of the 3rd graders. The birthday girl received some wonderful gifts, but everyone agreed that the best 2 gifts she got were a heath bar (American candy is super rare here, so it's a pretty big deal to have it) and a chicken. Yes, a live chicken for your 9th birthday, as she said after opening the box and seeing it, "This is the best birthday ever!"

Well this post was full of some pretty random thoughts, but I have such a hard time thinking of what to write sometimes, I figured I would take advantage of my rare inspiration and write about all of it. Hope you enjoyed!

Love Love and more Love!

Life is still good!

I figured you guys were probably getting tired of reading, so here's a video instead! Enjoy :)

And His Love Just Shines!

Every day I am just overwhelmed at how much God is working in my life and all the lives around me! Let me paint a little picture for you... I work at a school filled with people who are just on fire for the Lord! At staff meetings, we spend the first 30 minutes at least just praising and worshiping together, and man can these people sing. I feel like I'm back in the Alma Choir sometimes! We pray often for each other and for our school. And not only with each other, but with and for our students! It's incredibly refreshing to be able to pray with my students and teach them about God. And often times I feel like they are teaching me more with their strong spirits. They are constantly finding the connections to God in my lessons and they love learning more about Him! The other day one of my little girls came in and recited the entire Psalm 23 in front of the whole class. And when she got stuck on one part, another student started reciting that part until she remembered and told the rest.
But not only are they knowledgable, but they are just so full of His love! They are always quick to hug and comfort a crying classmate. And after one student fell off the monkey bars and got pretty scrapped up and shaken up, they all just wanted to pray for her and for God to heal her.
One last story and a huge example of how God's love knows no boundaries, I have two ESL students, one from Korea who speaks some English and one from Bolivia who speaks almost no English. They can't talk to each other pretty much at all, but they have become best friends! They just hold hands and run around and play together at recess. They can't speak the same language and yet they learned to not only get along, but absolutely love each other.
God is so good!

Kindergarteners = Tiny Comedians

I survived week 1! And I still love it here and love my kids and love teaching.
While my students can be frustrating at times and I have certainly had a fair share of overwhelming moments this week, they never fail to make me smile and laugh.
Here are just a few funny moment and quotes from week one...

I went to pick them up from their library time (this was their first ever special), and walked in to find one sitting on the librarians lap (she cried after I left) and another one sprawled out on the cement floor completely asleep in the middle of the rest of my kids sitting up nicely listening to the story.

At recess on Thursday, one of my little cherubs comes running up to me with one shoe on. When I asked her where the other one was, she exclaims "It's on the other side of the fence! It just fell over there!" The fence is an 8 foot wall. Sure enough when I went to look through the gate, there was a small flip flop in the middle of the sidewalk down the street.

Today one of my students looks at me in the middle of snack time and says "Miss Merz, are you born again?"

While most of them remember my name, I still often get called "teacher" today I responded with "My mom didn't name me teacher!" to which another student responded with wide eyes, "Miss Merz, you have a mom?!"


And this was only a 2.5 day week! They are already winning over my heart. :)

"Miss Merz, kindergarten IS so much fun!" Oh the joys of my students' excitement on the first day of school. Which by the way was today. It went great!In case you were worried, I can guarantee you I do in fact have THE cutest class in the world and just in case you don't believe me I am posting pictures below to prove it. With only a few criers, we survived the morning and everyone agreed at the end of the day that kindergarten is cool and they were excited to come back on Thursday. ....wait Kels, don't you mean tomorrow? (I know I can hear you all saying it) We found out yesterday that tomorrow is a holiday. Sometimes holidays get announced a few days before they happen here. Surprise! So tomorrow we have no school, but kids will return for full days on Thursday and Friday. I think that a 2.5 day week will be plenty to start out with anyway. Today was only a half day, but my kids were exhausted by the end. Here you can see pictures of my room and (as promised) my precious kids!

My Classroom complete!

My classroom when I arrived

Week 1 done

It's hard to believe I have already been here a week! I am already loving it though! (It's a good thing, Mom ;) ) My fellow new teachers and I have filled this past week with learning as much as we can about the city, culture, history, school, and so much more. I am even starting to figure out my way around town a little bit. I am generally terrible with directions, but I have figured out how to get to a near buy store that has food. :)
We have been able to get internet at our house (when it works), which means that we've been able to watch the Olympics via youtube. The internet doesn't always cooperate, but when it does we've been able to catch some swimming and track. The best part is that what we see is actually live and has British commentators. They make some really funny comments.
Today we had our first all staff meeting. All the teachers and staff have flown in now and it's very exciting to finally come together as a team. I am amazed by the strength of this group's faith and so inspired by them. Literally half of our meeting this morning was filled with worship and devotion. It is so refreshing to be both surrounded by and working with a staff that is so on fire for God! He is truly working in our hearts and in our school!

I ask for prayers for;
- The staff as everyone gets settled back in and adjusts to the time difference
- My 17 students as the prepare to start their first year of school
- That I can stay calm and collected as I begin my first year of teaching! (Starting lesson planning has proved to be a bit overwhelming)
- Praise for the incredible peace that God has been blessed me with. :)

I made it!

I'm here!
After a long day of traveling (about 27 hours total), I finally made it in to Kigali on Monday night. Almost all my bags made it too, and I just picked up the lost one from the airport today, so now I have all my stuff.
So far, Rwanda has been nothing short of wonderful. Although things do get overwhelming at times, I truly feel at peace being here and can really see that this is exactly where God wants me.
Monday night I flew in with a few of the other new teachers, it was such a blessing to connect with them in the airport. We were picked up at the airport by Trevor (our Headmaster), and Kerry and Douglas Bryan (For those who don't know, Kerry is one of my best friends from Alma College and teaches 1st grade at KICS right next door to my classroom :) ). As soon as we came through baggage claim, they were there to greet us with hugs and ice cream! What a great welcome to Rwanda. :)
We then went to our new house. I am living in a house that is literally a 2 minute walk from the school. I live with two other girls who are also new teachers at the school; Jodi who teaches high school math and Katharina who is our school librarian. We are all really enjoying our new home and finding it adventurous to discover the little "quirks" about our house. For example, when you want to take a shower upstairs, you must, an hour ahead of time, plug in the hot water heater. Also, right before you shower you have to flip a switch downstairs to turn on the water pressure. Just something that is going to be different, but we're thankful for the hot water and the pressure!
This week we have been doing orientation at school. This has been incredibly helpful for our transition in to this year of living in Africa. Today we all shared our stories of how we found KICS and came to Rwanda. It was so neat to hear how God worked in everyone's lives through different situations and brought us all here. God works in some crazy ways!

Well I am currently at school using the internet and sitting in my very own Kindergarten classroom- SO exciting! I have not finished setting it up, but I promise when I'm done I will take and post pictures. :)

Tomorrow!

Well the time has come, I leave for Rwanda tomorrow!
This has been an incredible summer. I was blessed with the opportunity to bike and build houses down the east coast with The Fuller Center. My brother, Todd and I were both able to spend a week at home at the end of June- lots of family time and we celebrated our grandfather's 90th birthday! Mom and dad were thrilled to have a full house again. :)
I was able to spend a month working my forth summer at Camp Grace Bentley. Leaving camp was hard, but I'm so glad I could still spend as much time as I could there.
And now, after packing and repacking and repacking again, all my bags are within weight limit and I'm ready to go!
Tomorrow I fly out of Detroit at 2:30 to Newark, then Newark to Brussels and Brussels to Kigali! I'll arrive in Kigali the following night at 6:30.

As crazy as it is to think that tomorrow I will be moving to Africa and starting my first job and my first year of teaching, I am feeling an incredible sense of peace. I am more nervous about teaching than I am about moving across the world. But I think overall I just know that this is exactly what God wants me to be doing and therefor know that by following His plan, He will be with me every step of the way and protect me. How awesome is it to know that we have such a God who can always be with us!

I'd still like to ask for prayers for safe travels and that all my luggage makes it to Kigali!

Thank you all again for all of your support!

Love and long flights,
-Kelsey

I'm going to Rwanda!

Hello friends!

I have taken a position teaching kindergarten in Kigali, Rwanda! I will be teaching at Kigali International Community School (Check out the website,  www.kicsrw.org). The school is primarily for children of missionary families, but also has local children and other international families.
I have been praying about this decision for a long time and I truly feel that God is calling me to follow this path for the next year. I am very excited to see what God has in store for me!
I will be flying out on July 29 and will spend about two weeks going through an orientation with my fellow teachers and getting ready for the school year to begin on August 14. I will be able to communicate still throughout the year through Skype (my name is kelsey.merz), email (Kmerz529@gmail.com), and I will try to be updating this blog as much as possible!

As this is considered a mission trip, I will not be making money. We are encouraged to raise approximately $400 per month to cover our living expenses and support ourselves. If you feel like donating, please do! You can donate to me online by clicking the "Donate" button on the right of this page. If you prefer to send me a check or cash, please email me and I will give you my address.
Thank you all so much for your support!

I ask for prayers for a few things; the next three weeks as I prepare for the year and continue my job at camp, my travels, my safety, that I may be able to raise enough money so support myself, and of course prayers for my family as this will be the longest and farthest I have been away from them.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me!
Thank you all so much for your love and support!

-Kelsey