4 weeks of blessing

About 4 weeks ago I began teaching an intensive ESL class - this means that I taught M-F, 4 hours per day. Yes, 20 hours of English per week for one month is what we offer refugees who have just arrived in America! It's pretty rigorous, but they have so much to learn! So, for the past four weeks I've been teaching vocabulary about household items - from appliances to furniture to rooms in the house, food, health, jobs, action verbs; how to count money and make change; how to tell time and I'm sure more that I can't remember just now! My class was 11 students - 2 Kunama Eritreans and 9 Karen(this is a group who live in Burma). To read more about the plight of the Karen from Burma to the refugee camp in Thailand, you can click on this link. To read more about the life of the Kunama people, you can click on this link.
After a 4 week intensive class, the students then begin attending a regular ESL class, which meets twice a week, 2 hours/day. So, they go from 20 hours a week to 4 hours a week after just one month. Of course, there is still so much to learn!

I said goodbye to my students yesterday because they will be joining an already established class that meets in their apartment complex. Saying goodbye is never easy, especially after spending 20 hours a week with these precious people! They walked me downstairs and out to the parking lot where I would get in my car. They hugged me or shook my hand goodbye, then they stood there, waving and looking at me as I got into my car. It was like they were still in their refugee camp in their country, and I was leaving their country to return to America, never to see them again. It was so sad! They stood there with tears in their eyes as I drove off. They definitely stole a part of my heart! I think I'll visit them soon!