I was so excited all last week in anticipation of teaching Sunday School for a class of 7 to 10 year olds. I was excited to know how to do something for a change because I had taught Sunday School in the States since I was 15. But, you know, God has a since of humor to keep me humble. I walked with a large group of children toward the small building we use as a classroom. About halfway, many of the children broke off and went to another building where Sunday School for 11 to 15 was taking place. When I turned around to greet my students, I found myself facing 8 energetic boys! Not one girl looked back at me. I had to laugh. I’m surrounded by brothers at home, I’m surrounded by boys here also. I told them they could not try anything on me that my brothers hadn’t tried before and they found that very funny but behaved nonetheless. They were excited to learn but still so full of energy that I had to keep the lesson exciting and short, which wasn’t an issue because I told them about Moses and the Red Sea. Their eyes got wide when I informed them that the Red Sea was bigger than their whole country! When the lesson was over, I allowed them to find coloring pages in a cabinet in the back of the room to use up the rest of our time. As they searched for the coloring pages, they were distracted by something and started pulling the cabinet away from the wall. I asked them what they were doing and they said, “A rat. We need to get the rat.” As I’m leery of rodents, I backed up and let them have it. Probably wasn’t the wisest choice but what followed was very entertaining for me to watch. Boys started screaming and running away from the cabinet while others wanted a better look. Out of nowhere one of the boys brought a broom and used it like a spear to try to hit the “rat” which turned out to be 2 fat lizards. I laughed as I watched boys throw objects at the cabinet and run screaming like little girls away from it. I saw one lizard retreat up the wall finally and realized that was what they were chasing. That’s when I finally intervened and had them clean up their mess before they could be dismissed.
I came home and rested for a while after my chaotic morning with the boys. Later in the evening, I attended youth group and found myself very depressed and wanting to cry just because I could not figure out how to sing a song! I couldn’t believe myself and felt very silly. I came home after youth to my housemates and told them about my strange mood. It turned out that they hadn’t had the best of days either and we were all ready to go to bed early. I like having tea some nights to help me relax and sleep so I decided to make myself one this evening and another housemate also wanted some tea. As she reached for the tea on the shelf, she noticed movement and said, “Was that the mouse?” (we have a few mice that live in our house and had borrowed a cat to take care of them) Of course, it was the mouse she had seen and I was the next to see it come tail first from behind the refrigerator. I screamed just for the heck of it I reckon because I didn’t hardly flinch, just scream. The third housemate watched the mouse run for the living room and looked around for the cat. It was sleeping in a chair. My housemate grabbed the cat from the chair and all but threw it in the direction the mouse went. Thankfully, the cat didn’t need much encouragement to catch the mouse and a chase followed. Amongst the screams and giggles of 3 girls and the help of one of them to flush the mouse out from behind the fridge, the cat was successful in catching the fat little mouse. I noticed that all 3 of us girls had crazy eyes and 2 of us were crying for no other reason than exhaustion and as a release of pent up emotion.
As the weeks tick by that I’ve been living here, I’ve learned that no 2 days are alike and you can’t predict how you will react to each situation. You may scream and cry about a little mouse or laugh at yourself up on a chair. You feel the whole range of human emotion when you are transplanted from where you are safe and comfortable to a hard environment with many different people. It’s beautiful and miserable at the same time. I’m learning to love the “typical” and the “normal” days here and I’m grateful to share snapshots of life here with you.