In English class today, the ladies were working on a writing assignment when I casually told them not to call me “madam” and instead address me by my first name. Immediately, their heads popped up with horrified faces on each one. Sarah looked at me and loudly asked, “Why?” while Ella and Thokazani shook their heads saying, “No, no, no, no.” I was a little surprised by their reaction and started explaining that I respected them all so much and felt that if I was calling them by their first names then they definitely should do the same. Regina cut in and said, “Madam, it is our culture, we will always refer to a teacher with a term of respect. It doesn’t matter how young you are.” I made a face at them, laughed, and said, “Fine, I’m calling you all ‘madam’ then. Just try calling me ‘Erika’ sometime.” They laughed at my reaction but still adamantly refused to call me anything else.
Preschool went amazingly well today! It was a huge improvement from our first day there. Everyone went to the bathroom where they were supposed to and there were no tears, so that equals a huge success!
I went for another little run to see how the foot was doing today (pretty well) and when I came back found Rachel playing with the little kids in the woods. As I was walking over to join them, they came sprinting towards me yelling, “Teacher! Teacher Erika!” and jumped up on me to get hugs. I’m beginning to understand early elementary majors more…these little kids have stolen my heart. We played hide-and-seek for a while and at their request sang “The Ants Go Marching.” I felt a little corny marching around the lawn while the seminarian students looked at us like we were crazy, but as long as it makes the kids happy I don’t mind.
We have exactly eight more weeks here. If I think about that too much more, I truly would start crying. I don’t know how I’m going to say good-bye to these people. I am so attached to so many people here and the thought of leaving and never seeing them again is heart-breaking.
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