Wednesday May 11, 2011

Wednesday morning began with a group devotional at 9:45 and by 10, we began our work. Several went up to paint again and the rest of us went to John and Anna’s apartment and began boxing up their knick knacks and breakables into tubs to take up to the 6th floor for storage. After we finished with that, our group headed out for lunch. Several stopped at a restaurant called Big Nick’s, while Katy, Jared and I went on a bit further and bought our food from a street vendor. For $4, you can buy one of the tastiest gyros EVER! I’ve had both lamb and chicken, and they are delicious!
Once finished with our food, Jared and I headed toward Fairway, a market that offers anything from packaged Twinkies to organic food. The market was very busy and we only purchased peanut butter (all natural), strawberry jelly, and 2 packages of rice crackers. We then went down to another grocery store called Trader Joes and purchased bread and orange juice.
Shortly after we arrived back at the MNYBA building, we had a meeting with John to decide our evening ministry assignments. Six of us (Matt Lange, Lacey Colborn, Kyle Morrison, Erin Jeffries, Jared, and I) were to go to Harlem/Bronx to help Chris Clayman with English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for West African Muslims from Mali. The other five (Katy Aleshire, Dani Bothe, Brett Jones, James Leezer, and Seth Smith) traveled to Graffiti (a very well known NY church in the Lower East Side of Manhattan) to work with their homeless ministry. However, we later learned that they did not work with the homeless, but instead cleaned out the home of a man who had bedbugs.
The group I was in left our housing around 3:30 and headed to Central Park to walk around and begin our trip a little early. We left for Harlem/Bronx around 4:30 and arrived around 5, which led us on the search for supper. We found a small pizza place, called Obama Pizza, and ate our food outside.
Soon after that we headed to the place where we were to be helping with ESL. We arrived around 5:40 (which was a bit early seeing as Chris didn’t arrive until 6 PM and the class did not begin until 6:30). We sat on the couch and chilled until Chris arrived, and then he began briefing us on what we needed to know. People began arriving shortly after and we were split up. I worked with a lady named Fatka (I am not sure on the spelling). Her English, as far as reading went, was good, but her speaking (and understanding of what I said) was broken and a tad difficult to decipher. But we managed and laughed quite a bit (and if she did not understand at all, she asked Chris who either spoke to her in Bumbra or French).
Fatka and all of the other students left around 8 PM to go to a Muslim prayer time, and our group set out for Manhattan shortly after. That part of NYC was a bit scarier at night, but we made it back just fine, and in time for Jared and I to go to Starbucks again with James Leezer. James was heading for the airport so he could begin his cross-country adventure to attend a friend’s wedding in Spokane, Washington.
Working with the ESL class was amazing. Seeing the dedication of all of the students (25 years old and older) and knowing that many of them had only been in the States for a very short amount of time was such an encouragement. In broken English, Fatka told me that learning our language was very difficult, but I could tell that she was (and is!) determined to learn! She asked if I was coming back next week, and I told her that I would. Our group is going back and I am excited to help Fatka achieve her goal, even if it is only a little bit.