Topics for Teaching

               The past three weeks have flown by so fast! We are now basically completely adjusted to life here in Burkina Faso. Right now, we have a lot more people living with us than when we first arrived. Last Friday (October 4), a girl from France, Aimie, arrived. She will be staying at Sheltering Wings with us until December- she is doing an internship at a nearby school. Also, yesterday (October 7), Ruth and Linda arrived. Ruth is the lady who began the orphanage here. She is only visiting for a couple of days, and will be going to south-west Burkina Faso to start another orphanage. Linda is one of Ruth’s friends and will be going with her.

                This past Saturday, Bekah and Lauren had the opportunity to help at another TOMS distribution. This time, we handed out shoes to 1,144 kids- how amazing is that? Bekah was sizing feet this time, and Lauren was fitting the shoes on the kids. The kids at this village were so excited to get their shoes, and it is amazing to see how a simple pair of shoes can make a child’s day.

                Lauren started going to school last Thursday (October 3). She is an assistant to Pastor Valentin, who teaches Bible at the secondary school. Pastor Valentin teaches 7^th through 10^th grade, and he teaches through 4 different parts of the Bible:
 

7^th grade- Creation
8^th grade- The fall of man
9^th grade- Jesus’ life/death/resurrection
10^th grade- The second coming of Christ

Lauren makes lesson plans for two of the four classes that the Pastor teaches (7^th and 8^th grade). Just this morning (Tuesday), Lauren had the opportunity to teach part of the lesson. After class today, the Pastor asked Lauren to teach the following week on the third and fourth days of creation. Lauren is very excited for this opportunity, and hopes that more opportunities to teach will also be available.

Bekah has been continuing her work with the preschool at the orphanage.  At the beginning of every week, the head teacher tells Bekah what topics she wants to teach on and Bekah figures out the exact method and materials needed to convey those topics.  The basic outline of the day starts with some singing and music.  The children are each given an instrument and they sing some basic Bible songs.  Then there are two different topics each day.  Normally, the first topic is a story of some sort (at least once a week, this is a Bible lesson).  The second topic is more general.  It can be something like learning a specific letter, numbers, colors, or even playing soccer… football. 

Classes are Tuesday-Saturday, from 8:30-10, so you can see that Bekah has plenty of time to do other things.  She can be found playing with the children, but most of the time she is doing some sort of work for the orphanage.  Last week that consisted of a lot of painting.  Yesterday, she (and the other girls living in the house) sorted through the preschool supply closet and cleaned all of the toys in the baby and toddler area. 

In the late afternoon, Lauren and Bekah tend to spend their time with the older children.  Many times, they are playing Uno or watching a football game.  Sometimes this means following them around while they ask the girls to take pictures of them.  Then they go eat dinner.  Lauren really can cook J