Katale: Tuesday July 27

We spent our second day at the "God is Good School". We visited the last of the seven classes today. It is cool to see how similar little kids are here to the kids in the USA. These kids are studying similar things. Today one of the classes was studing how to calculate the radius and diameter of a circle. Another class was learning words that begin with "S" and "T". Carrie, who is on our team, is a teacher in the USA and her perspective has been helpful to us. She keeps on telling us about how familiar the kids feel and how familiar the teaching is.

Today at break time I was swarmed by kids. I'm sure my big camera and "cool" sunglasses drew them to me. The kids like to see their photos after I capture them. ANd they like seeing their reflectionYeah, it probably wasn't that I was one of the few Muzungu's on campus and that I'm tall. : ) The kids found great fascination with my feet. They spent some time "petting" them. At the same time kids were patting my rear end. They fought for a piece of my hand. It was fun for a while but one of my teammates rescued me just about the time I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.

The classes were fun. We got a chance to help teach today. The teachers had us help with English speaking. The kids again seemed really comfortable with us in their classes. Tomorrow Carrie and I are going to spend time actually teaching the kids. I’m going to share more than teach. I’ll get to share about my family and life with three classes tomorrow. I must say that it is nice to have the chance to be with the kids for several days so that they get to know us and we get to know them.

After school we spent time just talking with Pastor Wilson. What an incredible man. I'm impressed by his humble spirit and his passion for his community and God. Wilson shared a bit today about his story. He was a child soldier. And while he didn’t go into this very much what I found interesting is that he was working for the army that supported the RPF (of Rwanda). In my mind it was those who confronted the Hutus that were the “heroes” of the 1994 Genocide. (as much as there can be a “hero” during any war) Yet it sounds like even that side of the army practiced great injustices. Children in the army?! How horrible. Pastor Wilson has been through a ton and the way God has been involved in his life and those around him was really great to hear today. At one point all of us listened with teary eyes. It was a good day!

Before Wilson dropped us off at the guesthouse he took us around the village and showed us the spectacular views of the city. We drove up to the top of the “mountain” right above where the village of Katale is. There are some huge homes being built. Even out in the village there is the rich and the poor living next door to each other.