The first day...Cut short

My Reading Cafe!






This is just one angle of my classroom.



My desk...note the photographs of all the people I love!

On Thursday, KICS opened the school doors for the first time. I was excited and ready to start the year out well. The students arrived from 7:45 to 8:15am, I was in charge of standing on the road to welcome our students. Once all of the students had arrived, classes began.

My class consists of 4 boys and 1 girl. I have an Arkansan, Canadian, American adopted from Madagascar, Rwandan/Finish and a student from New Hampshire. We are quite a diverse little group. The day began with introductions and a "field trip" around the school grounds and classroom. My class willingly participated in many team building activities and the students wrote and signed their own Class Contract. The day was going perfectly!

Unfortunately, sickness in Africa can hit the body when least expected. Just before lunch time, I began to feel quite queasy and tired. Strange thoughts started circulating through my mind. I began to ask myself if being at KICS would always make me feel nauseated and whether I made the right choice to come here. Suddenly, all I wanted to do was run back to America and get a comfy job at a air conditioned candle shop or book store. I could not believe I was thinking such thoughts on the first day of school! I am aware that there will be occasions that all I want to do is leave Rwanda, but on the first day of school? Surely not!

Well, I dismissed the students for lunch and felt pretty good about faking my energetic teacher self. All along wondering how long I could keep this up until I cracked! I wandered around the school checking out how things were going with each class. The nausea was only increasing with every step and when I finally ran into our Headmistress, Belinda Bauman I let out the truth of what my body was telling me. I let her know that I did not feel well, but that I was going to make it through the day. Soon, I was running to the bathroom every couple of minutes ready to vomit. I kept telling myself and Belinda that I was just fine.

Thankfully, directly after lunch my students went to Art class. As my students were drawing and shading possible KICS mascots, I was in and out of the bathroom still denying this ever increasing illness. Finally, Belinda came up to me and said, "Okay, time to go home." I did not put up much of a fight. I jokingly told my students that they had already made me sick and I was leaving them with the PE coach. Only deep down inside was I questioning the reality of this joke. I quickly made my way to Belinda's truck. On my way out, Jana Jenkins handed me two beautiful roses to congratulate me on the first day. I'm afraid the color of my face probably matched the green leafy stems.

Belinda, was an amazing nurse. She gave me Papaya juice and took my increasing temperature and called the Philipino doctor in town. I think KICS is the only school where the Headmistress is also the nurse, hostess, spiritual counselor and mom. My temperature increased and fear of Malaria circulated through my head. The next day, I was tested for a number of possibilities. The result...E coli!

I am now feeling much better. I am taking Ciprofloxacin to kill this mean bacteria. Today, I was able to walk a couple of miles to the school building and I have decided that my negative thoughts were simply the E coli talking. Even though Ecoli is not as romantic and hard core as the tropical disease, Malaria, I am thankful to be free from that possibility.

A friend of mine called the night before my first day of school. She asked me what she could pray for and I listed off several needs for KICS, the upcoming school year and my desire to instill good character into my students. I failed to remember that living in a densely populated city in Africa can make one quite susceptible to sickness. Please remember all our KICS staff as we try to remain healthy and fit for our students.