A School Day

Eight o'clock and we gather for teachers chapel. One teacher assigned for playground duty. The rest gathered around the table. Twenty minutes for devotions, sharing, and prayer. I have enjoyed the blessing of fellow teachers who are focusing on the same issues and struggles and who are together seeking God.

8:20 the bell rings. Kids scramble to their lines, assigned by grade. Shirts tucked. Shoes tied. Basketballs handed over to teachers. 

"Ms., I finished my homework." 

"Ms., Josiah stepped on my foot." 

"Do we have Language Arts test today?"

Sometimes it takes long to quiet them, or get them in a straight line. Sometimes I send them running around the school for not obeying promptly. 

Then we file in. We have 10 minutes in our classroom before chapel. Pencils grind sharp. Books and papers are set in my desk to be scored from yesterday's homework. Assignments written on the board are copied into notebooks. Lunch is ordered. And hopefully we make it to chapel on time. 

Some days the church rings with their enthusiastic voices. Other days moody faces and bad attitudes emit from students and teachers spend the time correcting. 

Chapel dismissed, we begin class time with Bible memory, then jump into Math. 

"Speed drill, page 61. Everyone ready..."

"Wait Ms."

And Math is begun. 

We roll thro the day. Sometimes discussing as a class sometimes working individually. Often hands are up. Sometimes work questions. Sometimes other questions. 

"Ms. What is clam chowder made out of?" 

"Ms. When it says Gideon had a small army, was it a small group of people or were the people small?"

"Ms. Could we have something like 9-11 here in Grenada?"

At recess basketballs thump in knockout. And the younger ones play dodgeball in the hot sun. Others spin on the lopsided merry-go-round. Laughter and shouting emit from everywhere. 

Lunch time can be a struggle. Josiah comes with a large container of macaroni with ketchup dabbed on the top. Sometimes hotdogs snibbled in. Sometimes without. 

Anton shoves his face full of dry hotdog bun and sits for most of break trying to chew and not choke.

Shachri comes with rice or maybe noodles with chicken or maybe fish. Often he gags and spits out various pieces of bones and gristle into the plastic lid of his dish. 

"Oh geed!" 

Geed is not a swear word like I first thought. It's their way of saying disgusting. 

After eating the chicken off the bone, they crack and suck the marrow out, often leaving only pieces of ground bone as the remains. 

Lunch can be a fun time too. Laughter and stories. Faces alight with the tales. 

At break and after school the snack shop is open. Popular are Tea Times, similar to Oreos,  Dixies,  similar to Ritz, and X Bars, a kind of candy bar. Friday's are fruit days. Students can only purchase and bring fruit for snack. 

After school children often hang around for a while waiting for a ride, sometimes to long. And we teachers finish our next day prep. 

Days are loud, sometimes long, and most of the time hard. But God is good. And He has been working in the lives of us teachers as well as students.

He gives grace. For the hard days. For the bad grades. For the sullen attitudes. And He gives joy. Abundantly. When Selena lifts up my co-worker in prayer. When Josiah gets a good grade. When they all are enthusiastically gathered around the table.


It's hard. And it's good. Kinda just like life.