Today is the day that I truly understood the meaning of being thankful. While assisting the 3rd grade teacher at the Chitukuko School in Lusaka we sat outside on a wooden plank for a bench and the bare ground for the floor. Teaching under this mango tree I truly understood the meaning of being thankful.
As I looked at the teacher writing the math problem “18+21” on the small piece of chalkboard that rested on the mango tree, I looked at the children waiting for them to pull out calculators from their book bags, but instead they pulled out rocks and sticks to begin solving the math problem. While the children were placing their 39 rocks and sticks on the ground, I spent those few moments journeying back to my four years of high school. I realized just how much I never really understood the special meanings behind every object placed in my hand, every encouraging word that entered through my ears and the four walls that I look at every morning and every night. The daily things that I experienced in life would be more than a blessing to the children of the Chitukuko School. Something as simple as a calculator would bring happiness to the eyes of one of the children counting rocks in the dirt. From my experience today, I will never take for granted what (in my eyes) used to seem so basic. For this experience, I truly am grateful.
Niya Morris, Central High School