In less than 72 hours we will be sitting on a plane and headed for Sierra Leone. This past week has been needless to say VERY hectic for both of us. We have sacrificed sleep for a few consecutive nights just to ensure we get everything done. On top of our teaching placements, being evaluated, shopping and gathering things for Sierra Leone, we are both packing up our belongings and moving out of our houses as the leases come to a close at the end of April.
Neither of us has been to Africa before and we cannot wait to get there! For the past few days we have been listening to songs from an African children’s choir on our half hour drive to placement. Tonight we went to the school to print off our tickets and realized that it is one of the very last times we will set foot in the door as a Redeemer student. Our careers at Redeemer are coming to an end and the next time we’re back on campus will be for our graduation at the end of May. At this point May seems like a lifetime away, however we both know that our time in Africa will pass by quickly.
In our current placement, we have partnered up with our students to create an “African Quilt”. This assignment had both an art and writing component to it. We gave each student a small rectangular piece of poster board where they designed a picture first with crayon or pastel and then used water colour paint to get the wax resistant result. Some students drew soccer balls, others flowers or patterns. For the writing component, we taught a mini lesson on letter writing and brainstormed as a class various topics on what they could write about (i.e. sports, holidays, traditions, food, family, school, animals etc). They were required to complete a rough draft first before composing a final draft. Each message was no longer than a half a page so that they could be glued on the back of their quilt piece. The final project was laminated and folds up nicely to bring along with us. Tomorrow, on our last day of teaching placement a photo will be taken with all the students with the quilt. This photo will be printed off and packed to be given with the African quilt. This project will be given to our host school in Sierra Leone as a thank-you gift at the end of our stay. After we have given the quilt another photo will be taken of the quilt, but this time with the recipients. Once we return back to Toronto, a letter will be sent with this photo to the school to whom the students were the creators of this quilt. This way, they are able to see and read firsthand about who received their gift.
If you wish, you can follow our journey and the experiences we are having over the next 6.5 weeks! We do have access to internet, but have been told the connection is not too reliable. Therefore, we will do our best to update you all on our lives in Sierra Lone.
We are grateful for your prayers so far and thank you for your continuing thoughts – we appreciate it!
As for our next post, we’ll be in Africa….eeek!
