Wednesday May 25, 2011

The duties for Wednesday kept us in the MNYBA building for most of the day. Anna Ramirez gave us a check list of duties to do around the building. We cleaned the bathrooms on every floor, folded linens, washed and dried towels, bedding and personal laundry, emptied the 4th floor apartment of any items left by John and Anna Ramirez, and moved a few beds around to different rooms. Although it does not seem like much, it was more than enough to keep us busy for the entire morning and afternoon.
As with every Wednesday, that evening consisted of traveling to Harlem for teaching ESL. Katy Aleshire was able to travel with us this week and she thoroughly enjoyed teaching and speaking with Sory, whom I had worked with the previous week. That evening I worked with a lady who knew enough English to speak, but still did not know many words. It was a challenge trying to explain words to her when she did not understand the synonyms either. Thankfully Chris (the missionary who lived in Mali for a few years) was able to explain things to her in either French or their language, Bumbra.
We all left that evening a little saddened, knowing it was our last time to work with the ESL teachers and the people from Mali. However, we were happy in knowing that many more missionaries would bless the doorstep of that building and people of Mali. That whole experience had definitely blessed us and given us new skills in working with people.