We're Doing the Best We Can

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.
Colossians 3: 23-24

It’s amazing the difference a month can make.  That’s how much longer I’ve been at KEMPS now than I was when I first arrived here, before COVID hit and all of our lives were turned upside down. While during that first month here I definitely started to feel at home and get to know the kids, things feel different now.  I feel settled.  The kids, not just the ones that I teach, know me, and I know them.  They come to my house at all hours of the day and night asking for crayons and paper, or a band aid, or ice for their sore knee, or to watch cartoons, or to cuddle with the kittens, because they know that I will pretty much always say yes.  
I found that in teaching, and especially in missionary teaching, it can be really hard stepping into the shoes of the person you replaced.  In jobs like these, and many others, where so much of what you do is build relationships and simply your presence is a reminder to those around you of your predecessor, the beginning can be tough.  Of course I am way past trying to be anyone but myself, but I do try keep some continuity between my style and what the students are used to.  I observe habits that I want to change and try to navigate the best way to go about making those changes.  The students tell me happy memories of their previous teachers and I wonder what memories they will have of me.  There is always the fear that I am not doing enough- I should be starting this program, or working with these students on this subject, or teaching them more songs or games or dances.  It can be overwhelming, especially at a boarding school like mine where I am always surrounded by students, and there is very little “alone” time.  
But then there are those moments.  Like walking by the preschool and hearing the students chanting “Teacher Allee! Tufundishe! (please teach us!)” 
Like when my fifth grade music class is practicing a rhythm chart to the song “Fireball” and they literally cannot contain themselves any longer and they all start dancing.  
Or when we’re running with the seventh grade girls and three of them decide to be my running partners and stay with me the entire two miles, encouraging me to “just run to that tree there, then we can stop. Let’s go teacher!” And when we pray together after returning to school and they leave chanting, “Who run the world? GIRLS!”  
Hearing the sixth graders singing songs from music class as they do their chores and play around the campus. 
Or in second grade when we’ve finished practicing our dance for the upcoming graduation and we sit down to talk and the students pile in so close, each of them trying hold my arm or hand or sit on my lap, their sweet eyes looking up at me.
When the seventh grade boys come to my door and ask if I will teach them the songs that the fifth and sixth graders are learning because they can hear them practicing during music and they want to be able to sing together.  
And in the evenings when the living room is packed full of kids, fresh from bathing and in clean play clothes, singing along to the Spongebob Squarepants theme song and laughing with Patrick and Squidward until it’s time for dinner.  
It’s in these moments that I take a deep breath and remind myself, I’m doing the best I can, and good is coming from it.    
During this time when many of us feel like no matter how hard we try, it will never be enough to combat the insanity that is our world right now, I pray that you, too, can find peace in knowing that you are doing all you can do, and that good is surely coming from it.

Mungu akubariki,
Allee

If you would like to donate towards my work in Tanzania, you can send donations electronically using: 
Venmo: @Alison-Gomulka
Cash App: $AlisonGomulka
PayPal: PayPal.Me/AlisonRGomulka
Zelle: alisonrg24@gmail.com

If you would prefer to send a check, you can mail it to:
Alison Gomulka
15601 Shady Brook Lane
College Station, TX
77845


My fifth graders dancing to 'Fireball'

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