Week One: Saturday and Sunday

Saturday:
After unpacking a little, we went to dinner at the Legacy Center with the other Camp Life people.  After dinner, we went over to the girls' house to help them paint canvases.  The Grade 7 kids at FCA have started a "business".  They painted canvases and put their handprints on them to sell at the market.  We just added words like joy, peace, love, etc.  The profit is going towards taking them on field trips.  It's a great idea and such a good opportunity for those kids!  They need to get out there and be able to experience the world around them.

Sunday:
Sunday morning, we went to church at the Tree of Life.  I sat with a little girl named Jennifer who had just moved into a house the day before.  She had been at Chelstone, the transitional house they move into before moving into the Tree of Life.  She told me her mom had died last week but that she loved being at Tree of Life.

with a sweet new friend, Jennifer

so good to see sweet Paulina again 

 There is something about worshiping next to rescued orphan children, holding their hands, hearing their beautiful voices singing praises to God.  There is nothing like it!  They sing from their hearts, and they are not afraid to dance and move around.  They just radiate joy for the Lord!

After church, we had lunch on the hilltop and shopped at the market.  Many vendors gather on the hill each week to sell beautiful items which make great souvenirs.  I ran into Teacher Edna from last year!  She works at Faith Christian Academy, and Amy was her Teach ONE teacher last year.  She sells things in the market on the weekends to make more for her family.  She is so sweet, and it was great to see her!

me with Teacher Edna at the market

Teach ONE team overlooking the beautiful view 

We then had our Teach ONE meeting that afternoon.  I found out I would be with a male teacher named Chewe who teaches Grades 6 and 2.  Our focus would be on literacy and teaching them how to use the basal readers.  As a teacher in Coppell, we have it so ingrained in us not to use textbooks and to create all of our own units and ideas, but that is not an option for these teachers.  They are very behind in their strategies and ways of teaching, and these textbooks are GREAT resources for them.  They have had them in their classrooms for awhile now, but they needed more instruction and modeling on how to use them effectively.

Kathryn, Alicia, and Kenley came to our meeting and told us a few stories that put things into perspective.  Kathryn said that they had a professional development for the teachers earlier this year, and she tried to do a scavenger hunt with them.  The first clue was "Please sit down.  Someone will be with you shortly."  They were supposed to go to the room where the receptionist sits.  Instead, they all read it literally and sat down to wait.  :)  Those were the teachers!  They have just not been exposed to a lot of experiences and critical thinking.  Another example was trying to get them to get into 2 groups using puzzle pieces.  They walked around confused for 20 minutes, and the lesson turned into helping them work a puzzle, learning how to identify edge pieces and put it together.  They are smart people, they just have not had the same experiences we have had.

After our meeting, we headed to the Legacy Center for a quick dinner and then came back and played a game with our group. It was a good time to laugh with the girls and bond.  I could already tell it was going to be a great group and loved seeing friendships form.