The Journey Lens - take one

Dear family and friends,

It is my great pleasure to finally share a few photos of this journey with you. I hope that they truly will be worth a thousand words, and aid you in seeing how precious these children are, and how amazing this place is. As I have mentioned many times before, it is such a privileged to be here and the Lord continues to grow my heart daily for this country, its culture, its people, and particularly its children.

Say Hi to Canada!!

Family of Hope Services

FHS is one building with two small offices, a tiny kitchen, and a main room which gets divided into five make shift classrooms. It is very loud and difficult for the children to concentrate. Each 'classroom' has a small chalk board, and each morning the students set up the chairs, desks, tables and classroom dividers, all of which are cracked, broken, filthy, and falling apart. All of the windows in the building are smashed, and birds are constantly flying through. The children are very used to them so they are no longer a distraction (I will say though, that one birdy gave me quite a scare when it flew inches away from my head while I was teaching). Teachers take turns moving their classrooms outside in order to keep the noise level a bit more manageable.
Needless to say, conditions are very different from those in Canada. 

The students love to crowd for pictures.

Some of the boys outside during break.

Despite the less-than-favourable conditions, FHS is an amazing place. The teachers have big hearts and truly care about their students. It is a work which is constantly lifted before God in prayer. But during moments when I think about the education system in Canada and the privilege Canadians, including myself, have in this respect, my heart can't help but hurt. It is the simple things that I get taken back by. For instance, having no electricity and no light being students' excuse for not having homework done ( not that I accepted this excuse of course, but just hearing it made me think ). Or hearing a girl give thanks to God for His protection in allowing her to walk to and from school safely all week (many of the areas the children have to walk on a daily basis are very dangerous. With poverty comes a number of different issues – theft, prostitution, alcohol abuse, drug dealing, etc). Or this morning for instance, my students were struggling to concentrate because it was simply so cold. (I actually wore leg warmers today... yes I'm probably one of the only people who would think to bring leg-warmers to Africa, but I tell you, I was so very thankful for them today).You could see your breath outside this morning, and being that all the windows in the school are smashed, and the building is concrete, inside is just as cold as outside. Hunger is also a problem and cause for lack of concentration. It is these little things on the surface which speak volumes of underlying issues the children are faced with everyday.

Teacher Judith and Teacher Candace
with some of their enrichment students.

Playing clapping games with the kids during the morning break.

My 'ohh so cool' junior high boys...
 they are a handful but we have a lot of fun.

My hair is very soft, very funny, and a never-ending source of
children's entertainment and amazement...

... not always to my delight... ouch!

Smiles and poses for the camera.

All smiles here. 

Meet Joanne.
I met Joanne one day after school.
She was playing with this Coke bottle, filling it with sand
 and then emptying it again, behind the bike repair shop
 beside the school.
 Joanne was very shy, maybe even afraid,
 but after spending a bit of time talking with her,
 I was given the gift of seeing her beautiful smile!
 She also loved seeing her picture on the camera. 

Watching the sun set on another beautiful day in Africa
"...And the clouds are the dust beneath His feet"
Nahum 1:3

More photos to come soon! Thank you for all your emails, words of encouragement, and for your faithful prayers. The Lord does answer prayer, and for this I'm truly grateful. 

Enjoy the day!

~Heather