Rachael Ray chicken and M&Ms

Happy Wednesday!

I spent all day on Monday and Tuesday at Kuyasa! The more time I spend there, the more I realize how much I love it! I sat in on the Monday morning staff prayer in which we prayed through Scripture for open doors, financial gifts, carry over of last year's effectiveness and for staff perseverance. I love praying through Scripture and really don't think it's done enough. Doesn't it make sense to pray God's own words and plans? The prayers were mixed between English and Xhosa. The significance of bilingual prayer is becoming more and more obvious to me.
I began my fascination with Heaven and Revelation while I was a counselor at Geneva and I can't help but think about this passage:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." Rev 7:9-10

After our prayer time, I began tutoring a student who did not pass his grade 12 math & physical science (physics and chemistry) exams last year. He needs to matric in order to get a job at a ministry in Kayamandi and will retake the exams in November. There are 2 types of math taught in the high schools. One is Pure Math, which is your traditional algebra, calculus, geometry, etc. My student is in the other type of math called Math Literacy, which is more of an application based math. For example, we discussed inflation instead of straight percentage problems and painting a wall instead of area problems. This is definitely an easier math and better for those not wanting to go into a math based career but not so helpful when taken alongside physics and chemistry. Math Lit doesn't teach formulas and equations, which are essential in chem and physics. The schools combine a year of physics and chemistry into one course. From what I can tell it covers all of the usual Newtonian physics and general/analytical, basic organic and inorganic chemistry...quite a lot for 1 course! The math and chemistry won't be a problem for me but I'm going to have to reach back into my brain and find the physics information I so carefully tried to forget about after my wonderful Hope College physics experience! It will probably turn more into teaching instead of tutoring as several more students will be joining us. But I am really looking forward to using 4 years of knowledge to help these students pass and get jobs!

These very busy 2 days also involved finishing the grade 1 & grade 2 curriculum for the year. It was quite the task of 6 full days of work. Granted, everything takes about 3 times longer to accomplish then it would in the States but I'm glad I could do it so Cindy (Learning Center director) didn't have to waste her time but could instead make connections with the administration at the schools and do all of the other 1,000 things she does in a day. I also began planning the sports day with Sive (sports director) and 2 German volunteers. It's going to involve 300+ kids playing futsol (SA game similar to soccer) and basketball. We pretty much have more questions now than actual plans but everything will get worked out and the kids will have a ton of fun!

Monday nights I stay in Stellenbosch with Cindy and her husband to save on gas from Pnx. Cindy is American and we cooked an amazing American meal complete with Rachael Ray's breaded chicken recipe, a ridiculous amount of baked veggies, a huge mango and a salad! All the food groups I have been missing in my Afrikaans diet were present! And, to top it all off, I got real live M&Ms. Best. Meal. Ever. At Pnx the meals are very rushed and it was nice to enjoy a meal with good conversation and leisure...apparently a very American thing to do! Meals are such a great opportunity to have meaningful conversations and to share quality time together. Everyone's got to eat so why not make it a time to share and be together?! After dinner we watched a few episodes of the Office to add to a great evening. It's nice to have that back home connection every now and again. And, who knew chicken, M&Ms and the Office would be that connection for me?!

Today is my off day but I'm back to Kuyasa tomorrow and to the preschool Friday morning.

Another random section I've decided to include:
South African Terms That Confused Me
robot = stoplight