Squeals of joy has been the most common sound leaving my mouth these past two weeks, usually followed by excited hugs and mostly uninterpretable shouts of glee. My loves are back.

But they’re not back in my classroom. They’ve moved on. They’ve moved to a new grade, a new schedule, new teachers, and some even a new dorm. But they’re still here. It’s a strange thing to live on the same campus. Normally, the students I taught previously sort of forget I exist once they leave my class, but students here are used to interacting with adults, and I find these chem-graduates are a little different. They still have a place in my heart, and I think I still have a place in theirs.

Yes. There will be no-bakes at my house on Friday at the request of one of my senior guys (the ones in this pic doing the flag raising- an honor the Kenyan seniors are given each Friday as we gather to sing the national anthem before chapel).

But there are also new students to make no-bakes for- especially if I lose the bet I’ve already made. If the sloppily covered textbook makes it unscathed to the end of the term without the cover falling off no bakes for everyone! If it does fall off, welp, I think he’s going to make me chicken nuggets? Didn’t quite figure out what my end of that bargain was.

With over 60 new faces sitting in front of me each day, I’m eager to get to know my new students, while still figuring out how to love my old students where they are now. On the first day of school, I asked them to answer a series of questions for me to maybe gain just a little insight.

One of the most surprising questions was me asking, “Where is ‘home’ for you…?” A question to learn something geographical, but also to see what they consider “home” to actually mean. Some of them listed their passport country, USA, Korea, Kenya, UK, Brazil… but others listed the place their parents have chosen to do ministry, Uganda, Madagascar, Tanzania, Chad, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (amongst others). Yet other students chose not to choose, stating instead that home is nowhere, or everywhere, or wherever their family happens to be.

The questions I loved most was “What is one of the craziest things you’ve ever done?” I was laughing so hard at some of their answers, and feeling empathy in my heart for others. For some, the craziest thing they’ve done is very personal, like signing up for AP Classes, or standing up to a [very specific] peer. For others, the craziest thing they’ve done is very weighty, like getting in a car crash, or walking home from church alone in a not so safe part of town at eight years old. Some of them were very cultural, like skinning a goat, facing off with a baboon, or eating beef tongue or goat intestine! Some didn’t seem crazy, because of where I come from, but to someone living in Africa feels like a unique experience, like snowboarding, or riding a roller coaster (which, by the way, the student emphasized they will NEVER do again). My favorites were the things that truly seemed outlandish- or simply so random, I cannot imagine someone once decided to do these things. One student beat the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Another washed their hair in a toilet. Another has taken a bath with a crocodile. One has started to learn the bagpipes and the one that made me die of laughter is the student who shared he went skinny dipping in gator infested waters.

I’ve already spent some time starting to get to know these new loves, but I’ve also had plenty of opportunities to spend time with those I loved last year. This year two thing is a game changer.

My AP kids have already had me as a teacher. We’re slowly adjusting to a different level and pace of class, but I’m enjoying already knowing who they are. This past week we were able to have our masks off in the classroom for the first time in over two and a half years… of course it was my AP kids I asked if I could document the day with 😊

I’ve been telling students to invite themselves over to my house when they ask about seeing each other sometime. It makes things easy for me. There are so many I think are wonderful, and I could never possibly invite them all myself, but if they invite themselves, it works. They come with the friends they are comfortable with, and I end up with a home full of joy!

Friday last week was cookies on the front porch with some of my guys. They came after football (*soccer*) tryouts and demolished the pan of cookies in about four seconds.

Yesterday I had the girls who were in AP Chem last year for dinner! We sat around the table laughing between outbursts of joy. “WE HAVE TO TAKE A MIRROR SELFIE!” they said, so naturally we all crouched together. I love these girls to the bottom of my heart! Their outgoing personalities fit perfectly with my enthusiasm for life.

Tonight we had ‘variety night.’ A night designed for students to be out of their dorms in any one of a number of ‘venues.’ Some go to the gym, library, or upper field. Other venues happen when staff members invite students into their homes… because we’re finally allowed to with the lifting of COVID restrictions! These nights run from 7-9pm. I had six girls plan to come to my house for a night of sweet and savory! We made guacamole, cheese dip (think beer cheese without the beer), and chocolate chip cookies! We laughed some more, sitting around my kitchen table mixing batter, chopping veggies, and stuffing our faces with food! I hadn’t even realized that two hours had passed until shadows were walking across my front porch.

Somehow they always know. Remember those guys from my post about whining on my front porch about exams? Four of them were back. Seniors get something called ‘late studie’ where they alone are given an extended curfew. Venue night was over, and somehow, these guys figured out to come to my house… not sure why they thought coming to my house at 9pm on a Friday was a good idea, but with the girls already there, it worked.

They came in, found the cookies, then sat on the front porch. They were being weird. I asked them if they were going to come in and play mafia with us. They said yes. They stayed sitting on the front porch. The girls could tell they were up to something… I told the ladies I’d figure it out. First, I stuck my face in the window, right by where their heads were outside. One of them jump started. It was great.

Then, I opened the front door and joined them. “Miss Galloway. We have a serious problem.” They said.

“What’s up?” I asked as I sat down.

“We were playing indoor soccer all night. We took off our shoes to come in your house and our feet really really stink. Please can we wear shoes in your house?” They weren’t just being weird dumb teenage boys. They were being considerate. So we hatched a plan. I went back in the house, pulled the girls into my office/spare room/craft room to “show them something” (they were super suspicious- we rolled with it) the guys came in, grabbed their shoes and put them back on their feet.

Now we were ready to rock and roll. Let the mafia begin. After a rousing game, cards started flying around the room magician/ninja style. They laughed, goofed off, some even sat down at my new keyboard to play us some music! “All of Me” by John Legend in three part harmony rounded the evening out as we even got the ‘quiet’ guy to sing! His voice is incredible by the way. All in all, it was a night well spent.

Tomorrow, I have more coming. Tomorrow begins “Caring Community” a group of about 10 students that meets three times a term in various staff members homes. I have the BEST group of students. My group is full of high energy extroverts. Perfect. My friend Petra and I (who are leading this group together) are going to walk down to the dukas (shops) tomorrow- we’re going to buy all kinds of matunda & mboga for kachumbari… I mean, fruits and vegetables for salsa. It might be a little bit of a repeat of tonight, chopping fruit and veggies with music blaring as we chat, but with all new students!

I’m sitting on my couch as the fire dies, looking at chairs that need to be moved back to their proper places, two cookies left on the pan for me, and a small pile of dishes to be washed, my belly is stuffed of the yummy food we made together and my heart full of love.

You can’t convince me I don’t have the best job in the world.

Prayer Points

• Please pray the Lord would give me enough love for them all. I feel like there’s no possible way for me to love my new chem students (about 60) and the new freshman I’m sponsoring- which means spending class nights and class activities with (about 70) while still loving those who’ve graduate from chem, but are still here at RVA (another 80). In my own strength, it IS impossible. With God’s, it’s totally doable.
• Please pray that my connections and fun with students can lead to deeper impact. A friend of mine recently said something along the lines of “for every 10 hours of doing life, I might get one hour of talking about Jesus. It’s just the nature of how ministry goes.” And that’s a GOOD ratio that doesn’t count my lecturing-at-them-about-chemistry-time! lol
• Please pray that as the term continues, (I was going to say gets busy… but I feel like you hit the ground running here!) I would continue to carve out time to spend with the Lord. It can be so easy to stake my time and identity in “the students like me” or “I’m doing these cool or fun things” or “I love teaching” instead of in the Lord.
• Praise God for changes in the COVID guidelines! We get to thank the Ministry of Education for that one 🙂 Please pray we stay healthy on campus and can settle into a “new normal.”