chopsticks everyday

I thought I would tell you what my daily schedule is usually like, although it changes quite often. I wake up about 7am, and we always have breakfast at 7:30. It is usually eggs, toast, fruit, and boiled whole milk to have Nescafe (instant coffee) or Drinking Chocolate (hot chocolate). During this time we watch a Korean soap opera (with English subtitles) which I definitely enjoy. After that I go to the Special School for the morning. Here I am greeted with hugs and kissed from 11 children, ranging from 7 to about 12 in age. A lot of them have down syndrome, and others have behavioral disorders, and some have mild mental retardation. In the morning they have assembly, where they line up on the front lawn and say what day of the week it is, review eachother’s names, and tuck in their button down shirts and straighten their sweaters, among other things. Then they have Morning Devotion. Here they learn a Bible story and sing songs, they each take turns leading the song. This is all in mix of Swahili and English, but mostly Swahili. They are just learning basic words in English. After this time I usually so random things to help, like make a colorful Bible story devotion book or some sort of art type thing for the teachers to use. (there are two teachers. ) I also have play time with the kids while the teachers do their lesson plans. Sometimes I teach PE or art or something, but it is always difficult with the language barrier. At 10 I give English lessons to one of the Korean girls I live with. At 10:40 all the teachers and staff from the Special School and the Secondary School have Chai time. We gather in the chapel, someone leads a song and devotion, and then we have chai and maybe Mandazi, which is a sort of sweet bread. After that I’ll go back to the special school until lunch at 1pm. After lunch I do another English lesson to a different Korean woman, the one who speaks the least, and it is hysterical. She repeats everything I say in the same tone I do, and she adds an ‘e’ to the end of every word. After that it varies, sometimes I help in the office, but right now I am preparing a Praise Dance for graduation. Yep, that’s what they think I should be able to do since I studied exercise science. Right now I have extra down time where I can read a lot, but I think the closer we approach graduation (November 17th) the more I will have to do, because it is a big event! We always eat dinner at 6:30, and I forgot to mention that lunch and dinner is always Korean food. I love it. I eat with chopsticks everyday, and eat rice twice a day. They bring in all their own food from Korea, and even have a garden to grow Korean vegetables. It is so good because there are always so many different flavors to eat, from Kimchi which is spicy, to avacados dipped in soy sauce, to leafy greens that you roll the rice and maybe a spicy hot pepper paste in, to maybe seaweed soup! I try everything, and they always joke and say that they think I am actually Korean. The best part is the fruit! We have fresh mangos and green oranges and papayas and bananas from our very own farm, and the best is passion fruit! It is wonderful. I like it very much. We sit at the table sometimes until 8 watching Korean television or me just listening to them talk. (what about I have no idea.) I usually go to bed at 9 and read and journal for an hour or so. It is a very chill way of life. It is so different than I am used too, and I think that it is very good!