Puke and Prayer

Today one of my students puked in the middle of class. Welcome to kindergarten, the land of bodily fluids. I've been in a classroom when a kid throws up, it's always interesting to see how the teacher reacts and how the students react. Only this time, I was the teacher. I told the sick child to go strait to the bathroom, then looked around the room to find the least concerned looking student and sent her to the office to get some help. I told the rest of the students to go to the carpet and sit down. Then I assessed their reactions, they had all been talking to me (all at the same time of course) through out my process of handling the situation, but I of course didn't hear what they were saying until now. Finally when I started listening I realized they were asking me if they could pray for the sick student. "Miss Merz we need to pray for her!" "I already did pray for her." "I did too!" "I prayed that God would heal her" One even said "I already prayed that no one else would throw up!"
I was blown away that these 5 year children were not only not completely disgusted, laughing at the sick kid, saying "eeww" or "Gross", or reacting in any other inappropriate manner. They just were so concerned for the wellbeing of their peer and all they wanted to do was pray for her.
These kids never cease to amaze me.

Jeremiah 29:11

I've been in Rwanda for over 6 months now! One might say I'm over halfway through my time here. Well, I am over halfway through THIS year, but I'm not halfway through my time here. After a lot of time and thought and a LOT of prayer I have made a decision to commit to one more school year of teaching kindergarten here. This was not an easy choice, but through prayer and discussion, God has really shown me that this is what I am meant to do next year and where I am supposed to be. "Now Kelsey, how do you really know that next year will just as wonderful and you won't miss your friends and family like crazy?" Well I don't. I don't know what is in store for next year. I AM going to miss my friends and family like crazy. In fact I have a very hard time imagining being away from them for yet another year. And in fact, I don't know how I will afford teaching for another year without pay. But guess what... it's ok. God says I don't need to know what's coming, I don't need to stress about how I'll survive another year away from loved ones, I don't need to lose sleep over where money will come from to support another year, and I don't need to worry about it! Even saying this isn't easy. I don't know what another year in Africa will bring, but God does! The one who created me and everyone and everything knows! And He has a plan, not just a plan but THE BEST plan for my life. He knows the struggles I'll go through, HE will provide for me, HE will provide peace for my family at home in the states, HE will write my paychecks, HE will bring great things and lead me to further His kingdom. Which is really all I want to do!
We have a new superintendent/director for our school next year. She already is working at our school now, but will be taking this new position in the fall. She has been meeting with all the returning teachers to discuss the changes that are to be implemented next year. Before my meeting with her I was talking to a friend about what she might discuss in the meeting. My friend who already knew the new plans for next year mentioned that she had reviewed each teacher's prep time and there would be some big changes coming in that area. I also recently had received an email from a parent who's also on the school board. In the email she told me that at their last meeting they had looked at the number of "face time minutes" each teacher spent with their students. I was the "clear winner" with 500 more minutes a week with students then the top number for any secondary teacher.
So before even going in to my meeting with our new director, I was already excited (beyond excited really). I had no clue what changes she was making for next year or what she was doing about this new discovery of my work time. I didn't know anything about her plan, but I knew it would be good. I just trusted that she would make things better for next year.
Why can't we have that same kind of trust for the Lord's plan for us? If I can be "beyond excited" for someone's plans for me next year without knowing what they are, why can't I do the same for God's plans? He created me, He can give me anything I need if I follow Him. He wants to give me the best life possible if I let Him. But, somehow I'm not always beyond excited for His plans for my future, not in the same way I am for my school director's plans. It's funny how we can trust a person so easily and yet still question whether God really knows what He's doing. Of course He knows what He's doing!
I'm incredibly humbled by how much God has already revealed himself to me this year, how much He has provided for me, how much He has shown me of what He can do.
I do still have concerns of being away from home for another year, but one thing I know is that when God leads you somewhere, He doesn't just leave you there. I know He will provide for me just as He has been this whole year. And I know that with His plans, and my life in His hands, I have nothing to worry about.
God is so GOOD! (At this point, my students would start singing "Our God is an Awesome God") :)

Christmas break

(Note- This blog was written about a week and a half ago, but it's taken this long to upload the pictures! )

Dec 19- Last day of school, my kindergarteners had their first ever class party! This was a pretty big deal. We have yet to really celebrate any holidays at school, halloween and Thanksgiving are American holidays (my kids are from 9 different countries). So finally we were able to have a class party and celebrate Christmas! I had some wonderful moms come in and lead crafts, play games, read stories, sing songs, serve food, and we ended the day with a movie. Exhausting day, but the kids had a blast! I can't tell you how many times I heard them say things like "this is the best day ever!" or "this is the best party of my life!"
It's funny the things you forget about that are so exciting the first time. This is the best part of teaching kindergarten.

Dec 21- Acts 20:35 tells us it's a greater blessing to give than it is to receive. While I may not have much money to give, over Christmas break, I was rich in time to give and I was blessed with some great opportunities to spend my time serving. Today I went to work with my dear friend, Torey. Torey works at a home for street boys. We went out to the home and visited with the boys who were still there for Christmas. The ones who had family members to be with, went home for Christmas, but there were still about 6 older boys who remained in the home for the holiday. After they had finished their morning chores, Torey gathered the boys together and told explained to them that was almost Christmas, and at Christmas time, families get together and give each other gifts. She told them that they were a family and they wanted to get them each a new pair of shoes for Christmas. So they were going to go down to the market and each boy could pick out a new pair of shoes that they liked. What a blessing it was for me to take these boys and help them find shoes that fit them and ones they liked. It was incredibly humbling to see the joy these young men had just from getting a new pair of shoes- something so simple and regular to americans, but so rare and special to these boys!
This afternoon, Torey and I were blessed with a chance to serve a wonderful family in our community. This family has 6 kids- 2 teenage girls, 2 boys ages 5 and 6, and 2 Rwandan babies whom they are currently fostering, a 11 month old girl, and a 7 month old boy. The parents took the older girls Christmas shopping while we spent the afternoon with the boys and the babies. I'm thankful there were 2 of us to keep up with the energy of these spunky and precious boys and the sweet babies.







Dec 25- Christmas day! Quite a bit different in Africa, than it is in America. Christmas here means going to church, being excited and full of joy for the birth of our savior, and maybe sharing a special meal with family and friends, and MAYBE exchanging gifts. Of course there were gifts exchanged from western families, but I learned from many Rwandans that giving or receiving gifts was definitely not expected on Christmas day. "Why would I need someone to give me things to celebrate Jesus's birth, it's His birthday, not mine."
I spent the day attending church and sharing meals with friends from school. It was a difficult day to be away from my family, but extremely interesting and humbling to see how others celebrated it.




Dec 26- Jan 1 - Trip to Uganda!
This week I traveled around Uganda with a few teacher friends from school. We left early on the 26th and took a 15 hour bus trip to Jinja. We spent a few days there, relaxing, enjoying the beautiful area, watching monkeys swing around on the trees at our hostel, oh and rafting grade 5 rapids down the Nile River! I'm going to try to post some pictures of this, but you can take my word for it when I say it was simply awesome. :)
Next we traveled down to Kampala- the capital of Uganda. They had a movie theater and a mall! It was almost like being in the states again. After spending some time there, we took a 7 hour extremely bumpy bus trip to Lake Bunyonyi. My roommate, Jodi and I sat in the back row of the bus and literally bounced up and down the entire ride. I wondered if this is how babies feel when you're hold them and bouncing them up and down... I suppose it was kind of soothing, but also a little nauseating... maybe this is why babies spit up all the time.
Anyway, something fun about taking bus rides through Uganda is what happens with the bus stops (which for some reason happens quite often). When the bus pulls over for even just a minute, it gets bombarded by people holding up fruit, corn, chapattis (similar to tortillas), and brochettes (meat kabobs). They make this food and then try to sell it to passer-byers. You can just lean out your window and buy a banana without even leaving your bus seat. It really brings a new meaning to "fast food."
Uganda was a beautiful country to visit! It was really fun to travel, but I was ready to be back in Kigali. For one thing, I was ready to get home and take a shower. Due to a lack of warm water and towel, I had only taken one shower during my trip/ I know- gross, but hey, I live in Africa! But it gets worse, we came home to find that the water was out at our house (for various reasons, this just happens sometimes). I was able to take one bucket shower the next day at my dear friend Kerry's house, but even they were having water problems. Well after a lot of strange issues with our tank, phone calls to the landlord, and workers in our yard, we now have running water again. Wahoo- I have taken 3 showers now in the course of 2 weeks.

This is Africa, folks. ...and I wouldn't trade my experiences here for anything.

I'm the one in front in the pink helmet :) 

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!