Update Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Dear beloved community,
Classes began since Monday, and though it’s only been 2 days, it feels like I’ve been teaching all day everyday for a while. I taught advanced music theory and musicianship on Monday morning, choir and group vocal training in the afternoon. This morning was Christian worship: history, theology, and practice, and in the afternoon, Intro to the history of western music. Each session lasts from 3-4 hours, so I end up teaching the whole day and spend the evenings marking papers, and preparing for the next day’s classes. I have to get up extra early if I have to do laundry before classes. Hand washing all your clothes takes longer than one would expect. And right now, I am itching all over, I think because I did not wash all the detergent out of the clothes in order to save water. Hmmmm… maybe I should use less detergent next time. I have to use an old-fashioned chalkboard for the lectures, so by the end of the day, I am covered white from head to toe in chalk dust. So it’s a cold water shower every night, the kind where you use a small plastic hand-basin full of water and pour cupfuls on yourself. Even as I am shivering from cold, I am gratefully aware of the fact that it is a luxury and a privilege to have water available for me to wash in the midst of this dry season.
I have 8 students who are in their second year of study and 7 in their first, all together 15 in all. They range in ages 19 – 30. My students tell me that there are 2 more that are yet to come. I have a number of Rwandese students, 1 from Burundi, 1 from Sudan, and of course a bunch from Uganda. It’s remarkable to me that the students who came last year from Rwanda with almost no English skills can now communicate in English with impressive fluency. One of my Rwandese students, Modeste Nzabonimpa, who is on a work scholarship, was locking up the practice rooms late last night as a part of his work duties, when he took a misstep and cut the side of his foot on a sharp rock. Having no resources to get to a hospital or even a clinic, he simply washed it and put some salt on the wound. When I saw him this morning, he was limping and the cut seemed to me more like a large gash of scooped-out flesh about ¾ inch wide all around and just as deep. He persisted and sat in class all day, and by the end of the day, his foot looked like a balloon. When I suggested that he should get to a hospital, all the other students (Modeste included) just shrugged and told me he’d be ok. Please pray for him. Needless to say, I am more than a little concerned.
It looks like I will be visiting our YCVM friends in Kumi this weekend. I will take a bus that leaves Kampala at 7am on Saturday morning, and come back late on Sunday night. Please pray for journey mercies. Out of all of the times that I’ve taken the bus to Kumi, I think there were more times when the bus broke down in the middle of the trip than not. I’m sure I’ll tell you all about the trip and our time together after I’m back.
During this morning’s worship class, as I was sharing the African-American gospel song, “Anointing, fall on me”, Modeste, my Rwandese student, sang it right back to me in Kinyarwanda (Rwandese language), and the whole class had a blessed time singing it in the 2 languages and discussing the meaning of the song. Surely enough the song became the prayer of my heart; that God’s Holy Spirit would indeed anoint me , to empower me to do God’s will, both at RTC as I teach, and in Kumi as I meet with YCVM.
Until next time,
Aeri