Traveling!

Yesterday I painted a wall while teaching a kid how to read. We learned a song about vowels while paint was splattering ALL OVER my face and arms and new second hand jeans but I didn't really care even though all the other kids were looking at me like I was crazy. I told them I was going to Accra for 2 weeks but when I came back we were going to make a mural on that wall about human rights so they should pick one and figure out how they want to draw it.

Then I met my friend in the lorry park and we drank warm coke before I boarded a bus to Accra and drove ALL NIGHT and barely slept except for when I got in at 4:30 in the morning and had no idea where I was so passed out on a wooden bench until the sun came up in a firey red ball over the industrial park so I could get my barrings.

Today I am going to spend and AWESOME weekend on the beach by myself reading, catching up on journaling and going through the two packages that are waiting for me in the post office at circle, that I am probably going to have to beg for because I don't have the package slips. I am also going to church on the beach, which will be beautiful.

Then I am going to come and pick my mum up from the airport, and on Monday we are going to go on an extravagant vacation to the Volta region, Akosombo, Busuea Beach and Axim. Also I am turning 21 on tuesday, which will be sweet.

Update on my life so far. I have a month left of my placement before I start prepping to come home. See you soon!

Jenn x

Like a child.

I think that I am getting good at teaching.

When I started working with youth alive, I got thrown into the possition of after school teaching for a couple hours, every day. Innicially I thought "wow, this is great! I will be a great teacher. I am super good with youth and I know a lot of awsome stuff plus I am just awsome and they will love me."

How terribly wrong I was.

Picture this: A dusty room of about 30 kids between the ages of 8 and 20 and classes from grade 2 to 8, which doesn't actually mean anything because they are all at different levels of litteracy. There is a major language barrier. I have an awkward Canadian accent. There is a major cultural barrier. I don't know any of their references and they laugh at my annalogies that don't make sence. They can't understand me. I can't understand them. I am NOT the right person for his job!

I am okay with the youth but am stuck teaching the young kids too because the other intern is sick in bed with Malaria for a week right after leaving me and traveling and the only staff with teaching experience is as flighty as a spring leaf. I am terrible with kids. And these kids have nothing- no pencils, no notebooks, no nothing. They have backpacks made out of old cornmeal sacks which I think are cool and trendy but also know are because of poverty. I tried to supply some books and pens, but different ones keep comming, at different times, and I somehow end up trying to explain what a 'con-SEN-ant' is at the front of a scribbled on black board while trying to sharpen a cheap wooden pencil with a swiss army knife.

Bottom line: Disaster.

But I am getting better. The other intern recovered well and I am learning how to manage the classes better too. I am no longer so hopeless with children, I am learning how to distill things into small morsels to eventually paint a bigger picture. I am learning to be patient and gentle and kind- to break up fights calmly, without screaming and yelling and I am okay with making a fool of myself in front of a classroom whilst maintaining respect (if not, at least, shocked and quiet bewilderment). I am learning how to speak with authority on things that I don't fully have a handel on. I am learning how to guide instead of push, how to water seeds instead of forcing them to grow.

But most of all I am starting to observe little things about my classes. How they love to devour knowledge, even more so when you do cool things and arn't too boreing. Which ones are good at reading, are charismatic, are bright but quiet and need a little push. And that they love to learn computers. I start to see them wispering to eachother about last week when I showed them how to make an email adress- how they long to learn technology and sometimes get bored with my explainations of tenses and pronouns. It made me think of when I was a kid- in kindergarden on the reading mat, sitting eagerly, anticipating, in my gym shorts, which I wore to school every day because I was just desperately and longingly waiting for the teacher to declare that it was my turn to play on the indoor wooden playground. I was crushed the day she took it down- just like my kids were crushed the day I told them we could not do IT because I didn't have an extension cord for my laptop.

And then I thought to think how beautiful it was- this child-like-ness. Even though some of the youth I teach are approaching 20 and are in JSS, because they havent had exposure to computers and technology, how cool everything still is to them, how new and awe-some.

I think there is something in this: this child-like-faith. In the bible, when the children tried to come to Jesus, the diciples shooed them off inicially. But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

What would the world be like if we maintained this childlike faith? this awe; If we woke up each day to the newness of everything, to the way the sun light danced across the trees or the way the birds' laughing song was never the same; if when we saw the homeless, it wouldnt seem normal but horrifically new, we wouldnt see the poor as a blind mass but as individuals- to love and them well and know their names. Life wouldn't be normal, and bland- it wolud be fresh and new eachday because with each new breath God reveals to us a little more of His kingdom come to this earth, in the joy of our relationships, in the hope of healing and in the excitment in knowing that nothing is just normal, because with Him, all things are possible- even the sun and the moon could change places in the sky and we could dance on the ocean waves.

I want to be like a child- like a little kid just gasping in awe and delight at the newness of everything. Because His mercies are new to us every day. Every, every day.

on Love.

Broken homes are messed up.

As part of my work I am typing up case studies of the kids that Youth Alive supports. Their stories are in stacks of cream coloured files piled by the desk. They want to compile them into a database so they can access them better. They speak passionately about these kids in meetings that last all day long. I get to know their stories.

Today I read a file about a kid who’s mom decided that she didn’t want to take care of him anymore- so he got passed on to his dad, then his aunt, who pawned him to a cattle hearder, who he ran away from, joined the military barracks to run errands for the soldiers, ran away from that and ended up making his way to a foreign city to join a children’s home, and then eventually landing himself at Youth Alive. It sounded like a story from a movie- this could not be somebody’s life.

But then I thought of all the stories I have heard like this before. All the stories of unwanted children, parents who could not or would not take care of them, moving from house to house, place to place, unforgiving menial job to menial job. Displaced kids. Fatherless kids. Motherless kids. Kids without a home. I thought that the messed up, broken homes and sailing divorce rates I knew of were a western thing- that because of our hard-ass-urban-anonymity and wealth that we had forgotten how to love each other. But it’s a global thing. And its seriously injuring our kids.

Love begins in the home. If we want to love each other we have to love the ones that are close to us first- the ones that we can see all their faults and the messed up things about them- our familes. This is hard. This is why many people give up on love in the home, on marriages- it gets too difficult, too annoying and we don’t want to put up with it. “I can do better than this”, we think. But also, am I perfect? Am I righteous? Do I really ‘deserve’ better, if I was to judge myself by these same standards? I too, have sinned against my fellow man, the one I was to ‘do better for’, and so then I too, am not worthy to this ‘love’. But Love is patient, and love is kind. It is not selfish, it does not boast. Let’s not make love about ourselves- let’s not make it about what we ‘deserve’ and what we want; let’s make it about what we can give. For the sake of our children, and for the sake of our selves. Because without love, and love in the home, this world is falling apart. If we can break apart and divide our homes, our closest, most intimate relationships- then what is left for us? What is left for our kids? We must learn to love in grace, because we have all messed up on love. But the beauty and the mystery of love is this:

“That just at the right time, when we were still very powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8

and-

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” – 1 John 4:10

I think we need God’s grace to love. Let us love by the One who taught us how to love, by loving us first.

Mathew.

“I am the way the truth and the life, none shall come to the father except through me”

This is a verse most cited in evangelical Christian thought. It is the verse that is usually used to sum up Christian ideology- when a newcomer is curious about the faith, or within a theological debate, or even to ‘prove’ other ‘religions’ wrong by it. It is the verse that was cited when I brought my Muslim friend to church on Sunday.- And I think that he was quite confounded, as there was no context given with it! It is the verse that is seen to be foundational to our faith. But I think that the way the Evangelical Church has framed it, has often caused it to be devoid of all its power.

When Jesus said this, he was not making a religious argument. He was not proving one God against another, he was not creating a religious divide. How could He? The truth had not been made known about Him yet- The world just heard His teachings, they did not yet know Him for who He is. Neither was it a statement of religious conditionality “you cannot be my disciple unless you repeat after me” No- like most things Jesus said, this was not a command, but a promise. It was not to condemn, but to love, restore, redeem. The object of Jesus’ teachings is always the same-to evoke in us a whole hearted faith, to make us love God and our neighbours with all our heart and soul.

I don’t think this verse was either meant to condemn the unbeliever. It is a promise that in Him we will find the Truth, in Him is Life, and life eternal, and when we get to heavens gates at the end of our days, when we stand before the judgement on that great day, that we will find him there, waiting patiently, as The Way to the Father. I think that we struggle in this life, too much. We struggle to please eachother, we struggle against our selves, we struggle to MAKE something of ourselves, to be better. We battle with sin- in our own hearts, and in the world. We wonder why we are not good enough, over and over and over.

Sometimes we try to find another way to God- to that serenity, that peace. But God is more that peace- He is a fiery love. He is forgiveness, He is grace. And the promise of Christ is this: that as He is the way, we needn’t beat through the bush and bristles to find another. That as He is the truth; we can trust Him and know that what He offers us is good. That as He is the life, that when we ‘drink from His cup’ we receive life eternal, life that is true and pure, life that makes us to truly live. We needn’t fight to make our own way to the Father- through Him we find Grace. Our struggle in this world to ‘be better’ will land us tangled even deeper in the ailments of this world- but the same One who spoke these words also said:

“Come to me, all you who are wary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

[in]justice

Also check out this link. Its my first published article!! :S :) And there are some awsome, awsome contributions:

http://issuu.com/vanderherberg/docs/injustice_102

you can discuss it here:

http://injusticepeterborough.blogspot.com/.

Today I...

Got to sit down with 5 amazing past benneficiaries of my awsome NGO- Youth Alive http://www.youthaliveghana.org/- and design an interactive peer mentorship program with them!

That means...
(1) these fantastic, successful older influences who used to be on the streets themselves will get to encourage and support young people on a weekly basis in their own cultural context for the comitted period of at least one year

(2) it will be a sustainable program that doesnt have a hint of outside forgien ideas

(3) these kids lives will be changed forever in a great way!

This makes me so unbelievably happy- because these kids need support thats not just comming from random white 'vollunteers' that come in for a couple months and then leave them! I don't even mind that i sat in the office waiting for the whole morning since 7:45 waiting for the meeting to start or that i was at the office all day until past dark yesterday teaching because I KNOW that at least my work will be lasting and benneficial and that is AWSOME! :)

Quick update

Time is starting to go fast here. Sorry I havent posted for so long- I am back in the North now doing my work placement at Youth Alive, an organization that sponsors street kids through school, university and appreticeships. I am mostly entering case files and doing extra school classes with the kids. It is good work, but at first I felt very wierd being in and out of their lives so fast. I will only be with them for 8 weeks. It also felt wierd being another young, white vollunteer in Tamale- the NGO capital of Ghana for 15 years and still in pretty much the same shape. People just go in and out of here all the time. But its good- it's really made me really analyse power dynamics and my purposes for being here.

I am living in a compound house with another student and some lovely Ghanaians. I usually work late as the kids just want to soak up everything you can give them. It is so wierd working with street kids who are so eager to learn and be good- I feel more comfortable with teenagers who hate the world, wont listen to a word you say and want to drop out of school. I can get that. This I don't get- young people who are desperate for the opportunity to get an education. Who will come after school on an empty stomache and listen to 3 hours more of teaching until the sun starts to set. I love working with the Junior high kids because they are at the age where they are trying to really figure out their place in the world. I love stimulating their thinking. I love giving them an opportunity to speak their minds and opinions.

God has really blessed me a lot in this place- and is opening a ton of doors for me. He is showing me the value of hard work, sacrifice, suffering and love and what it means to store up our treasures in heaven. I have been humbled and blessed and amazed.

I also went to visit my friend's village this weekend and got a Guinea fowl from the chief as a gift. So cool!!! :)