Holding On to His Promises

A hymn of praise rang through the open rafters, a song made more beautiful by the stark devastation which surrounded us. 

Six buildings and not one of them was left untouched.

A rope hung from the cross where the mob had tried but failed to pull it down.

A window shuttered closed became the recipient of a glaze of glass melting from the window above.

A beautiful building about to be dedicated was burned and broken right down to the newly tiled floor.

A man stood beside the goat he rescued from the mob, behind him the Sunday School room he taught in but was unable to save. 

Devastating.

And this was only one church among almost 70 across the country.  

Where does one even begin to wrap one's mind around what happened here?

Today, I sat with my children telling the story of Jacob running away from Laban, headed back to the land God had given to Abraham and the land he had promised to Jacob himself.  We reflected together on what Jacob must have been feeling.  Fear, no doubt, as this return meant facing a brother who had wanted to kill him.  "But why would he have been afraid when God promised him that the land would be his?" one little guy asked.  Good question. And so we talked about how we need to hold on to God's promises when we are afraid.  Then I just threw the question out there, "Is there anything that you are afraid of?"  It was quiet for quite a few seconds and I almost moved on but one little girl raised her hand and confessed, "I'm afraid they will keep on burning churches."

It's hard to say what fears reside in the hearts of those who have been affected by these events. But as I listened to my students' fears God brought Romans 8:35-39 to mind and I shared it with them,

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And so we hold on to His promises because He has been faithful through the ages.

And while we are at it we may as well fill those open rafters with a song of praise or two!

Flying High Without Ever Leaving the Ground

Every year the First Graders take a field trip out to the airport to visit SIMAir and see what we can see.  This year the Firsties were so excited, they were flying high!  I invited my friend, the elementary principal, to go with us and we were literally busting a gut because of the things coming out of one kid's mouth on the way to the airport.  They were so hilarious that we had to write them down.  Good thing I brought Bev along to transcribe them!

The two boys were sitting on the very front seat of the van where there are seat belts enough for three.  But at one point during the journey one of the boys looked down and saw an unbuckled seat belt and got scared that his friend didn't have his seat belt on.  When he realized there was an extra and his friend was still buckled in he exclaimed, "You scared me!  I thought I was going to have diarrhea!  What is diarrhea anyway?"

A little bit further down the road, we were discussing the train tracks that have just been built out near the airport and I quote the same kid, "I wish I could be a train and ride on the skis of awesomeness!"  Haha!  I don't think that that thought has crossed anyone else's mind in Niamey!

Just as we were about to turn into the airport the same kid, sighed admiringly, "I love the airport!  It's my favorite place to go for inspiration.  What is inspiration?  I don't know but I just like to use that word."

Alrighty, then!  With that kind of attitude there's no way that this field trip could be a bust.  

So we were off and running getting a quick introduction to the plane, how it moves,

and sitting in the pilot's seat.  

This little one was so excited to get to see her dad at work.

Then we got to make paper airplanes and fly them.

After which it was off to the Airport Fire Station where we got to try on the Firemen's helmets, 

watch a plane take off,

see the firetruck spray it's foamy mixture,

climb inside for a visit with the driver,

and even see the jaws of life at work!

Normally, this is where our field trip ends but this year a helicopter company has set up shop next to SIMAir so we got to climb on board a pretty big helicopter.  It could seat 12 people and can be used to medically evacuate three people.  Because of the nature of their work, I promised not to post any pictures but I did get a good laugh out of the fact that this part of the field trip appeared to be a field trip for the SIMAir pilots too, all of whom climbed on board with us and proceeded to have a discussion with the helicopter pilot about autorotation.  You know it wasn't the first graders who brought that up!  Though I must say that they did sit there with rapt attention.  Their attentiveness was rewarded with a bag of American Skittles from the helicopter pilot.  A sweet end to a very fun field trip!

Ice Maker Ice Breaker

My feelings about ice are no secret.  If you hang around me long enough, you're bound to figure out that I quite like it.  Even my First Graders have picked up on that little fact.

One afternoon, out of nowhere, this little guy asked me what I would do if I had a million dollars.  Before I even had time to answer the question he said, "I know, you would buy an ice machine!"

Asked and Answered! :)

After recess one day, this kid was having trouble getting any water around the big block of ice in his water bottle so he turned to me and said, "Miss Botheras, since you're an ice expert can you break this ice out of here."  Chewing ice every recess qualifies me as an ice expert...if you have any ice problems, you know who to call.

So I was sitting across from this little one crunching on my ice when she looked across at me and inquired, "Do you like ice?" I happen to have quite the long history with her family, having grown up with her dad and his siblings.  I looked across the table at her and began to wax eloquent, "In the long history of Botherases and Cs (being her family name), the Botherases have always been lovers of ice and the Cs have never been." She probably looked at me like I was crazy but it was the truth. A water cooler in the Botheras house is chock full of ice but in the Cs house the water temperature is nowhere near as frigid.  However, being the kind and thoughtful people they are they always stock up when they know a Botheras is on the way.

Which was a bit of a concern for me when I unexpectedly had to evacuate my home and impose upon my friend Bev.  Would we survive?  There had been no time to prepare ice. Worrying, I know, but I'm happy to report I made it!

Compound Word Day

This is what happens to you when you plan a special event, forget and then have to do some last minute scrambling!  Yep, that's right...you spend the day looking like a fool but it's all for the children, I tell you.

So I ran across this fun idea of having a Compound Word Day.  No better way than to start the new year with a little fun, the goal being that everyone would come to school wearing as many compound words as possible.  So on the actual day my mind was elsewhere and I completely forget that I planned to wear my t-shirt with "sunshine" and my "baseball" cap and "earrings".  You know, things that normal people wear!  So when I got to school and remembered I had to improvise.  After consulting a list of compound words, I decided that I could quickly transform myself into a "waterfall" with a "rainbow".  So that's how I ended up spending the day looking like this.

As for my students, they did a much better job of remembering and came up with some fun compound words.

Toothbrush

Sunglasses, headscarf, lipstick, necklace and snowman

backpack, necktie, swimvest 

(not sure about this one but hey, we were all looking crazy together)

bathrobe, butterfly, handbag, baseball, sundress

Compound Word Day was awesome!

Don't be surprised if you see me wearing my super smooth costume again next year!  Ha!

Christmas 2014

No sooner had school ended for the Christmas break than I headed out with some friends to Burkina Faso.  People always talk about Burkina admiringly because it has quite a few more stores than we do and often has treasures that we only dream about getting here in Niger.  But one thing that is not better is the road!  It was full of potholes and 70 something speed bumps by our count.  However, a change of scenery is always interesting because just a country a way, they can do things so differently.

For example, women ride bikes.  There are bike parking areas and they neatly line up motorcycles and bikes on the top of buses and vans so that the people can ride inside.

Here we all are crossing the border out of Burkina and back into Niger.

After our quick trip to Burkina, it was time to get ready for the annual Christmas with the R family.  That equals fondue and family fun - like a nativity.  I think this year might have been my favorite as the story of Jesus birth was told via song styles through the ages.  Here we have the wise cowboys serenading the baby Jesus.

We ended the evening with a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Grandpa R to his grandchildren.  Those naughty boys in the background!

After Christmas, I returned to my apartment only to find that something unexpected and quite unwanted had come to visit - A RAT!  I was standing at my kitchen sink when I heard a rustling in the cupboards that was quite unusual so I threw open the door and came face to face with a rat.  We scared each other.  While he ran to a dark corner of the cupboard, I retreated to my sink leaving the door hanging open.  After a few minutes, I came to my senses and realized that leaving the door open was quite a silly thing to do because technically, I had him trapped if the door was closed.  So I closed it and began to consider my options.  A trap - that had been wholly unsuccessful the last time there had been a rat in my apartment.  A cat - what cat wouldn't want a free meal?  That seemed like the sure solution so I called my friend Jeannie and asked if she would kindly lend me hers.  And that was how Puddy came to visit on Boxing Day.

Look at those claws, doesn't he just look ready to kill a rat?

Was it performance anxiety?  Was it a shrew and not a rat?  We will never know.  But we can say this for sure, Puddy wasn't too keen on killing it.  The rat ran back and forth directly within the sight line of Puddy multiple times as I chased it back and forth between rooms.  Puddy sat calmly in just about this position even during the moment etched in my brain where the rat scurried across the floor, hit my green tupperware bowl and went airborne.  I've not seen or heard from the rat since that day so I'm hoping that the mere presence of Puddy scared it away for a long while.  And that my friends was Christmas 2014!

Christmas Tree Ornaments

I remember back when I was a boarding student at Kent Academy, my elementary teachers would always take time at Christmas to help us make a gift for our parents for Christmas.  They were simple but they were cherished.  One of them was a little container that my Mom kept stamps in forever!  Anyway, because I know how special it was to be able to give my parents a little gift that was a surprise to them, I always like to help my students make something for their parents for Christmas.  

I was at home during the Christmas of 2012 and did some after Christmas shopping, hitting up the sales where I found this little ornament.

It caught my eye because it looked like something a First Grader could make and after looking at the construction of it, I was convinced.  So I started gathering supplies and packing them in my trunks to bring along.  Thankfully, the container got here before Christmas this year so my class could give it a try.

Here's the supplies we used:

Strong Wire (or in my case a long twist tie)

Jingle Bells

Christmas felt - Cut into various size squares.  I had about 4-5 different sizes and tried to keep them sorted that way.  I also cut a little hole in the middle of each square for threading.

Small felt stars enough for two per child 

Sequins or fuzzy balls for ornaments

Ribbon for Hanging

We each got a long twist tie and threaded a jingle bell on to it.  I helped each child secure the jingle bell.  Then we began threading the largest squares on to our twist tie.

After adding the largest squares, we threaded on some medium sized squares.  

Halfway there!

Some of them paid attention to turning the squares, others didn't but the beauty of this ornament was that it didn't seem to matter.  

We added smaller and smaller squares until there was just enough room at the top of the twist tie to make a loop for hanging.  Then it was time for some finishing touches - sparkly, fuzzy, little ornaments.

For the top, each student had two stars which they glued around the twist tie and then held in place until they were secure.

All that was left was a ribbon for hanging!

Tada!  A simple, fun gift for parents and all with very little mess!

Irresponsible

Who put me in charge of this little piece of blogland anyway?  I've been an utterly irresponsible owner.  I'm not sure it's even possible to catch you up so I'm going to hit the highlights.

In October my students made Synonym Rolls and ate Cinnamon Rolls and I hung weird things on my apartment wall just to prove that I do decorate once in a while (a real highlight, I know!).

My First Graders had an awesome cheer for Spirit Week!

In November, my friend Kathy celebrated her 60th birthday.  We all enjoyed a night at Parc W and an early morning safari.  Kathy is on the left in the blue scarf.  She is an amazing lady.  My life would be minus a whole lot of laughter without her!

We had a praying mantis and a walking stick join us for the safari.  They enjoyed seeing the water buffalo with us which was a first for me!

 It was also the first time I had ever seen a baobab tree with leaves on it.  They were so colorful that it kind of reminded me of fall.

What's not to love about the dawning of a new day?

November saw the return of my students' Kindergarten teacher.  She took time to come in and sing their favorite song from Kindergarten with them and share an awesome book.  They were over the moon!  If they could, I think they would sing this song every day. :)

We also had a staff retreat during the month of November which was a huge blessing to me personally and to many of our staff.  November is also the month of our annual field day but I'm not sure where those pictures have disappeared to.

So I'm off and running trying to catch up. Hopefully, December's highlights will be right around the corner. :)