Literacy Under the Mango Tree

Latest news from the supporter e-mail scene...but I should have some new stuff up soon!

Dear worthy and inestimable supporters and beloved folk of all descriptions,

There is much to love about the African style of life. Nobody gets bent out of shape when you're not quite ready to go, because odds are wherever you're going isn't starting on time anyway. People enjoy the value of a good chat and recognize that a conversation, even with someone you never meet again, will last forever. And, even when you think you've got a lot on your plate, the pace of life remains slow and easy.

This is one of the things that I have appreciated most about Africa as a training ground for future ministry. How tempting it is to fill each hour of each day with appointments, errands, and even the busyness of recreation! But the pace of life here simply does not allow for it, every day cannot be filled, every moment cannot be scheduled and there are many hours, in which you look back on each week, in which no one really expected you to do anything in particular. And if that makes you feel insufficient or less than worthwhile, that is something that must be dealt with, rather than shoved aside with more doing. I wish I could ship boatloads of American pastors over here so that they could be forced to realize that you cannot serve others every minute of the day, not least of all because at times those others are napping, and there is nothing you can do but wait for them to wake up! So even though at times I have been frustrated that I'm just not doing enough ministry to justify my time here, I have felt so blessed by the grace of slowness, of rest, and of peace.

All of that, understand, was to qualify my next statement that I've been getting more and more on my plate lately as ministry starts to fall into a more predictable schedule. Now you can see that I say that as a relative statement, compared to my first couple of weeks here. But I think that I am finally beginning to find my niche in Jos. About three afternoons a week, I am down in Transition House, opening up the library. The most amazing thing I've discovered since beginning this is the kinds of books that the boys are interested in: when I open the doors, every one runs in and most go for either a dictionary or an encyclopedia!!! This is something I am going to have to ask some questions about, because I know for a fact that most of the boys are not at a high enough reading level to slog through an encyclopedia, and our set is not particularly well-illustrated either. Maybe this is a mystery I can get to the bottom of in the coming weeks.

I never really realized how passionate I was about literacy until I started doing this work. It is one thing to think about it in abstract terms, but to sit in this room with some really stellar books and see these boys stuck reading the simplest picture books just because no one has been able to spend the time to help them really breaks my heart. There is so much more for them to discover than the pictures in the big book of Reptiles! Having said that, it is an incredibly difficult task because reading level does not correspond with age here at all, so each boy is very much learning at their own pace and beginning in different places and I am in no way trained to do this kind of work, so mostly what it involves for me is sitting down with each individual boy and working through, page by painstaking page, a simple story book, trying to demonstrate things like "sounding it out" and compound words and the like. Part of the problem is that I don't think they've learned any kind of phonetics and are simply going on a word recognition basis. Anyway, it is slow work, but I really enjoy it.

I just have to say that this is the first time since graduating college that I've been doing something that I could see myself doing, if not for the rest of my life, for a very long time. Not that I necessarily having to be teaching ex-street kids in Nigeria to read for the rest of my life (start breathing again, Mom), but I so appreciate doing something that is meaningful to me, that meets my passions, and that I really feel is making a difference in the world. (This is so much better than temping!!!) I don't know how much I'll be able to do in the rest of my time, but I feel confident that by the time I leave, some of these boys will be better readers than when I got here, and that's something that they'll have for the rest of their lives. How cool is that!

In other news, in exploring other activities and opportunities to bless the kids, I was given a great gift to empower my ministry, a mighty tool by which all Nigeria might be saved. None other than the illustrious…duh da duh dum! flannel graph!!!! Now, those of you who grew up with these may be less than enthused, but words can scarcely express my excitement over finding this treasure. Though somewhat out of vogue in the States, everyone assures me that, because of the lack of televisions and the like here, flannel graphs are still a big deal for the kids. This particular flannel graph is extra special because I think it was made sometime back in the 1950's, so all of the illustrations look like they sprang from the pages of Fun with Dick and Jane. Furthermore, initially I was missing a few critical pieces, like all of my biblical felt men and women, but the set did include lots of "modern" looking people, so for awhile I thought I was going to have to put on, say, the story of Noah and cast this extremely Aryan man in his Sunday suit in the title role. How's that for enculturation? And that's not all, in addition to the 'graph itself, I was also given an explanatory book entitled…wait for it…Through the Bible in Felt. I love my work!

On that cheery note, I should probably toss out a few prayer requests, other than the one you've probably already made note of for my sanity. I have had my first touch of sickness this week, nothing that was even serious enough to keep me from work, but healing would be appreciated. Also, I think I've already mentioned this in previous e-mails, but it is really difficult to be here for the amount of time that I am when everyone else is staying for at least two years, especially as I begin to near the halfway point of my time here (eeeeeee!!!!). Please pray that I would have a long-term mindset, no matter how much calendar time I actually have, and that God would be able to use me to make a big impact in a short amount of time.

Yours with joy,
Shannon