Educating-Mosquito-Children

No the title of this blog entry is not a statement, rather they are three separate words describing my last few weeks in India.

The first word is "educating." While I am here I am required to have an internship that works with and for the community. What better way to care for a community than educating it. I have been working with the nursery section (aka: kindergarteners) at Holy Cross English School. I absolutely love it! Everyday I leave with Maria around 8:30 to catch a taxi that brings us to the bus stop where we are either picked up by Sir George, the school administrator or a bus. When we get to the school I go straight to the nursery section where about 100 little ones are there to greet me with a smile and say "Good morning ma'am!" Every morning before classes start all of the students stand in lines, say a prayer, national creed, and sing a few songs (usually "where is thumby" "twinkle, twinkle little star" and "the wheels on the bus.") After that they go to their respective classes.

Each class has about 30 students. While they are walking to class the teachers will talk about something then one will come up to me and say "Teach my class today." With a wobble of the head and quick feet I go to my assigned class. Since this is the end of the school year the students are preparing for their exams which test them in English, Maths, Malayalam, Hindi, and Evironmentals. My job is to go over all the material with them. It's a lot of repetition and memorization so I use a lot of the skills I've learned reaching Sunday school and VBS classes to make the material easier to manage. The most difficult part of working there is trying to explain instructions. Since they are young they are not fluent in English yet so going over instructions is a challenge every time, but we manage.

The second word is "Mosquitos." Seriously if you are reading this please stop and pray at I don't get bit tonight. I have over 40 bites and its only been three weeks! That's an average of 2 bites a night. Gross! Sometimes they form clear bubbles that remind me of bubble wrap. The only thing is I can't pop these. They are super thirsty and seem to love American blood. Great just my luck. So if you could please pray against these devils I would greatly appreciate it :)

The last word is "children." This last week I stayed at the student hostel at the school. So far it is is definitely the highlight if my time here. There are 16 children who live there. All have traveled many miles away from their homes to live at attend school. When I got there last Saturday I didn't really know what to expect. After a few games and songs we had a good time. Aside from the games my favorite part of being at the school was being part o their worship service. It was truly an honor to experience the sweet sound of children singing praises to their father in heaven. It is a sound like no other and the atmosphere their voices created was pure worship. The Holy Spirit was definitely there delighting in the joyful noise.

Another highlight was going up to the roof of the 4 story school. The meaning d Kerala, he state I am in, is God's Own Country. When we got to the top of the school I could see why. The view from up there was absolutely stunning. It was as if God wanted me to see a small piece of what his creation is supposed to look like, pure and untouched by human hands. What a treat!!!

Sorry this was such a long post. I didn't have connection at the hostel. You read it all the way through I really appreciate it!! Please continue to keep me and my studies in your prayers. I know God is getting ready to rock my world a little bit more and I cannot wait!!! Also since this is for school I have to pay tuition prices. It comes out to about $10,000. if you want to make a donation to help me pay for this trip I would greatly appreciate it!! Just shoot me an email at astricking09@apu.edu and I'll give you the information from there. Blessings family!! Love ya!!!