Crossroads

Now I have come to a crossroads in my life where all the heart stretching is put to the test. Five years of learning, growing, and changing have come to the boiling point. The opportunity arises to make a second trip to Tanzania to teach in the New Life Band School. The big question is…should I stay or should I go?

Collage I made about Crossroads.

September 2012, the New Life Band again visited the states to share their mission of helping the people of Tanzania. During their three month visit, they came to Wisconsin for two weeks. This visit became very personal because Peter and Eliud stayed at my house. During their stay, I attended several of their concerts at local churches and ate at their favorite restaurant, Burger King!  They were beginning to feel like family as we watched soccer on tv, sang around the piano, and laughed about their interpretations of our society. I remember once when I asked one of the new members if he wanted to grill a hot dog. He just stared at me and didn’t know how to respond. Later I found out that he thought I was going to cook our dog. One day Peter asked me what I did all day since I had so many machines in my kitchen like a dishwasher and wash machine to do all my work.

To me, the most memorable part of the visit was when they
came to my school where I taught.

They performed a concert for the whole school and then came to my classroom for an interview with my students.

 This time spent in my work environment really brought home how close I was to this band.

Afterwards, we had many discussions about the differences between Prairie View and the New Life Band School. I had been teaching for 13 years and the New Life Band School was going into its fifth year.

During these conversations, the seed was planted about their desire to have some American teachers come teach in their school. They also had a great desire to incorporate some technology into their lessons. They were most fascinated with our classroom Smartboards. 

 As they talked to me about their dreams, I could feel their excitement and real desire to reach their students. They wanted to give their students the best education they could offer.

The day before they left Wisconsin, Hope 2 Others, held a meeting with the New Life Band and anyone interested in going to help their school. I remember thinking I probably wouldn’t be the one  going to Tanzania but I would go to support the meeting and throw out some ideas. There were seven people who showed up and we listened as they explained to us what they needed in Tanzania. I threw out a few ideas of having a few teachers go and teach English, bringing a Smartboard for their classroom, and bringing ideas for enhancing literacy. The New Life Band members were excited about the ideas. During the meeting, I was feeling really torn on the inside. I really cared about the New Life Band members and I wanted to help them but I had already decided that I was not making another trip to Africa. How do you tell people you care about, that going to their country is too hard, too uncomfortable, too expensive and the problems are too big? When I left the meeting, I felt overwhelmed with the idea of going to Africa again.

I couldn’t shake this feeling from inside of me that I was to go and help at the New Life Band School. This was the same feeling I had 5 years ago when I felt the nudge to go after that first concert. I began talking to friends and teachers about the possibility of a trip. Within a month, there were about twelve people who were interested in going. It seemed like an ideal trip of teachers so I started to think that I could do this again. With all this support and enthusiasm gathering, I found myself suddenly changing from “I will never do this again” to “I want to do this again.” The excitement started growing and the idea began to grow into reality so the planning began for a trip in July of 2013.