Rose Arue

Miss. Rose Arue.

If you ask Rose Arue how old she is she will look up at you with a muddled look then say in her coarse boyish voice, “Erikina!” (I don’t know!) My guess is around eight. This little girl is a constant cause of amusement for me, in that she is so exceedingly naughty without having the slightest intention of being so.

 All throughout the school day you will hear me say “Arue, pay attention” or “Arue, I said 'put your pencil down', “Arue, stop talking", “Arue…What are you looking at?” "Arue, I said, 'no eating your corn in class!'  Then there is also the disciplinary act in which she is certain to receive at least once a day, “Arue, run to the grinding mill five times.”  When receiving this penalizing act, Arue will jump out of her seat and look at me as though I just gave her own exceptional mission in which she must complete as swiftly as possible.

Arue's grin!

 Arue is nearly always in a world of her own, in which I am constantly calling her back. As soon as she hears me from this world of hers she jumps, startled then gives me one of her half sided smiles as if to say “Opps.” She is very bright and other then her crazy A.D.D tendencies is an excellent student, I am constantly surprised with how much she can retain while she appears not to be listening at all.

Today, I gave Arue the task of teaching a new student the first three letters of the alphabet and their sounds.  Arue, at first, was enthralled with the assignment and held up her homemade flash cards with A, B and C on them. She was shocked to find that the new girl, who was older than herself, had no clue of the letters or their sounds. She shouted out while I was with another student (Also against the rules) “This girl doesn't know anything!” I went over to her, put my hands on her shoulders and said “Yes, Arue that is why I chose you to teach her because she needs a good teacher.”  I left her and returned to the other student, as I looked back on her I saw her whole demeanor change. She turned toward the girl in a caring sort of way and said “See this? This goes A, ah ah ah and this one goes B, bu bu bu…That was close, let’s try again.” I couldn't help but smile as I saw this familiar look on her face and the phrases she was using, they were mine… Yet, she added her own spice to it. "Now let’s yell it!" I almost told her “No!” but I restrained myself until she was finished. The new student had her A B C sounds memorized by the end of the class. I was proud of Arue. She is an excellent teacher.

Me and Arue.

Pray for little Arue. Pray that she might come to know and love Jesus as her savior. Pray that she would seek for truth and find it. Pray for her home life and its difficulties. Pray that I would have patience and be able to show Gods perfect love to her.

That Place Wez All Gotted Learned.

Guess what day it is?

It's the forth week of school day! I bet you didn't guess that! Anyway, yes, school is in full swing! Each morning we begin the day with Bible class where we are going through the Bible chronologically, then we continue throughout the day with math, literacy, English and social studies or science. I have a small class of students this year as I am only teaching first grade and not first grade through third like last year. It's been a delightful past three weeks. 

I want you to officially meet the gang!

Lino, Samuel, Naken, Akajo, Kocheta, Me, Arue, Peter Ebalu, Margat and Kiki (Not pictured- Achilin)  

How my life resembles Anne of Green Gables.

 Number 1. “Mathews proud of the way I look”

There is an older man here that is as sweet as pumpkin pie, he is not Didinga but from another tribe in Sudan. He speaks strictly Arabic and I am only learning Didinga, so our words are few. “Ita kweis?” “Ai, ana kweis” (“Are you good?” “Yes, I’m good.”) Kim and I christened him ‘Mathew Cuthbert’ because he is just the cutest old man ever. Well Mathew is a tailor and true to his (christened) name, he made me a skirt. Previously, I had wanted a skirt I could wear to school every day and had asked if I could get one made.

One day Mathew Cuthbert brings me over to his little shack where he does his sewing and hands me a mass of the green school material. At a closer look I saw that he had made me a school skirt. I was so thankful, How very sweet! “Quise?” asked he, “Ai Quaise!” I said. So, the green skirt is pleated to high heaven and makes me look like I weigh two hundred pounds as it shoots out from my stomach. I could hide a small family of elephants under that skirt but never the less…I wear it every school day.

Number two: “I dyed it!”

34 goals this year, 34, all written down on note book paper, pinned to my mud wall. 29 accomplished, four yet to complete and one utter fail! Number 25: “Grow my hair out.”

Last month I was in a Nairobi super market in Kenya. There to my astonishment was hair dye for white people. I looked at the brown dye and walked away telling myself “No, Abbi you are not dying your hair!”  Three hours later I had my head over a bathtub and some ladies saying “How exciting!” Exciting my foot! I am an idiot! Well, the first couple days it seemed to be a nice chestnut brown but for some reason the bottom of my hair seemed darker then the top…Days past and the top got lighter and the bottom turned completely black. I looked like a witch gone wrong. People where looking at me and saying “Why is this part so dark and the other so light? I wore it up, I wore hats…People still noticed! Finally Kim, told me straight…"You have to cut it off, Abbi…It looks terrible!” I knew she was right…I had to cut it.

Well, Anne pulled it off much better… I look like a two hundred pound boy.