First Full Week With the Interns

I have been having a great time trying to keep the interns busy this past week.  We've got a solid group of girls who really want to be pushed, and I love pushing them!  Problem is, I need to rely on people throughout the mission to lead some of the trainings, and I have had countless occasions where they have had to cancel at the last minute.  I've learned to quadruple check appointments with people (because they will forget even after triple checking with them), and just because I remind them 30 minutes prior (and they confirm), they may not remember it when the time actually comes.  I've learned to have more than 1 backup plan for each and every lesson that is scheduled, because I've had several times when even the backup plans fall through.  The only times that it has really been a problem has been when people have said that they are just running a few minutes late, but actually it turns into 3 hours.  It's difficult to know how to keep the girls busy when I don't know how long I have to keep them busy for.

The good news is that now they get to start shadowing all the different departments of the ministry this week!  This was how I was able to discover my love for working with preschool age kids; they'll have little over a week to see all the different departments and placement opportunities, and then get placed where they will be serving for the rest of their time out here.  I am telling you now, I am already ridiculously jealous of whomever gets to be with my kids.  I was able to stop at the playground 3 times last week to see the kids, and every time I have been bombarded by both the kids from last year, and the new kids this year.  It cracks me up how much the new kids love me just because the other ones do.  I have asked Lucy a few times how the new kids are in class and she just laughs and says "naughty."  Apparently they're all quite a handful- poor Lucy!  I sure do feel loved, though.  I have been asked by kids from all grades in the primary school, "when are you coming back, Miss Ashley?  I want you to teach us again!"  I am planning on spending more time at the school once things settle down and the interns are all in their placements.

So what have we been up to this past week?  Tours of the plot, personality tests, carpentry lessons, driving lessons, Bible studies, working out together at night, scaring the interns with my snake and bugs stories, ministry with the youth, church on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, dinners with missionaries, care giving at the the Lorato House. sending the girls into town on public transportation with a shopping list scavenger hunt, playing with Mmapula and Mason, meetings with the COO,working in the warehouse, taking the girls to Old Bridge, and playing lots of Uno and Bananagrams.  Our cultural day is coming up on Wednesday, and I am excited to get to experience this again.



You may be asking (and quite possibly, you're not asking at all), who are the interns??  Well, let me show you!

Yes, I made them pose in the same spot that we interns posed in when we came to the hippo pool for the first time.

Look at how different the background looks after Bots has been in the rainy season!  My goodness.

The interns this term are:

Angie Tranel, Christ for the Nations

Jessika Tate, from Liberty, TX

Val Hargreaves, Christ for the Nations

Sookyhun Kim, Christ for the Nations (and an RN!) (and from South Korea!)

Kirsten Hedben, from Michigan

Heather Williams, Christ for the Nations

(Heather cracks me up.  She is very animated, so all the pictures I have of her are pretty much of her making a crazy face.  This is my favorite...she was shuddering after thinking about all the termites that were all over the boxes she just moved)

Friday night's Fire By Night was the first youth service of the year (and actually, the first one since the first week of December).  Pastor Gary and his wife Stacy are back from their time at CFNI in Texas, so the youth were really excited to have him back.  There was such a different vibe in the tent that night.  The kids were respectful, paying attention, joyful, and solemn at the right times.  Gary showed a video about a father who worked for the railroad system, and one day had to make the tragic choice between saving hundreds of people on a train by killing his son, and saving his son but letting hundreds of people die.  It was so hard to watch, and for a while, I actually thought I was going to throw up, but it was a very well put together video showing what God chose to do for us.  After he showed the video, he shared about Jesus, and 6 teens came to Christ that night.  I got to pray with a 13 year old from South Africa, and it was one of my greatest experiences with the youth out here.  She was so excited about the decision that she was making that she couldn't stop jumping up and down and she hugged me about 12 times throughout our conversation.  We had a great talk about what it truly means to give your life to Christ, that it's not just a one-time prayer and you go on with your life, but you really turn your life around and make the right choices from here on out.  I ended up in tears myself while we were praying.  I am so happy for her!!

Ok, so it is definitely time to hit the sack.  We've got a big week ahead of us, so I need to rest!!  Oh, here's a picture a bird eating a frog.