Haven of Peace Academy | Amy Medina

Another peek into the lives of our crazy kids at their amazing school.

Book Week

You can’t tell parents, “Take pictures of your kids reading in unusual places,” and not expect Gil to go all out.

Yes, we really do have a glow-in-the-dark bathroom….and they are reading in it.

Book Character Day: We’ve got Despereaux, King Peter, and Angelina Ballerina. We tried hard for Josiah to be Reepicheep, so that they would all be mice, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

Masai Day in First Grade

Kindergarten’s Trip to the Farm

Learning to milk a cow

Poetry Recital in Third Grade

Medieval Day in Third Grade

Football!

Gil coached after-school primary football this term, and Grace and Josiah both participated. He organized an intramural tournament at the culmination, and Grace’s team ended up defeating Josiah’s team. Oh, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!

GOAL!!!

Celebrating their victory!

Service Emphasis Week

SEW is one of the best things about HOPAC! This is Grace’s class (and some Big Kids) off to visit a local orphanage.

Sporting their SEW Week shirts

Enchanted? This incredible school still has staff openings for the next school year!

Nothing’s Inconceivable for HOPAC!

By Amy Medina

On March 1, 2015

In Other

Sometimes we get to do the coolest things.

Yesterday morning, HOPAC hosted the one and only Jane Goodall, which was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. At 80 years old, she is utterly fascinating, and still full of so much passion and vigor.

In the afternoon, we watched HOPAC’s very own production of “The Princess Bride.” It was just so much fun, and my kids now have a new obsession.

This is true love. You think this happens every day?

Anybody got a peanut?

killing each other sportsmanlike

twue wuv

We sure had fun stormin’ the castle!

(Photo credits: Rebecca Laarmen)

War on Thursday Mornings

By Amy Medina

On February 26, 2015

In Other

The sun is still rising at 7:30, and it casts palm tree shadows on the soccer field. The students have all jostled their way into their classrooms, a mess of lunch boxes and castle projects and blue polo shirts.

We sit on the picnic tables under the roof made of thatch, everyone in their classes or offices except a few lone gardeners sweeping, raking, watering. And us.

The sun hasn’t yet reached its feverish intensity for the day. The Indian Ocean blinks in the distance. The light filters through the leaves. It is indeed our Haven of Peace.

In a little while, all the elementary kids are on the basketball court, singing their hearts out. They are our background music. Oh happy day! Happy day! You washed my sins away!

We are a lowly band. It’s usually just Santosh, Melissa, Laura, Tracy, and me. We spread the lists out in front of us–every student, every teacher, every gardener and cleaner; and each Thursday morning we sit and we do battle over the names. Each week we tick more names off the lists, and by June we will have conquered them all.

And I can’t help but wonder, as we sit, relatively unnoticed, under the thatch, with our lists, what is going on in unseen places and hearts, as we battle for Peace in this Haven.

Those Kids: Term 1 at HOPAC

By Amy Medina

On December 22, 2014

In Other

Lily and friends during Pamoja Week (kind of like Spirit Week)

Grace joined the swim team….this is at her first Gala!

Kindergarteners are always excellent at walking in line

Grace in her Term 1 assembly

(This is one of my favorite parts of HOPAC….each class takes a turn each term to put on an assembly. By the time they get to fifth grade, none of the kids have stage fright and all are completely comfortable performing!)

Josiah’s first grade class

Little Miss Kindergarten

Josiah’s first grade assembly

Lily’s kindergarten assembly

Grace’s field trip to test out their hand-made boats

Josiah’s field trip to the tide pools

All These Children Are Confused

By Amy Medina

On November 9, 2014

In Other

This morning, Grace was looking at her VBS picture. They had attended in June at our church in California.

There’s a couple hundred people in the picture. “It’s easy to find us,” she exclaimed. “See, Mom? We’re the only brown kids in there.”

She’s not bothered by it now. But she was when we were in America.

Our church family, and everyone else for that matter, wholeheartedly embraced my children. But they felt different and they knew they stood out. Yes, it was hard for them, especially Grace. Sometimes, she cried about it. It was a difficult road to walk with her.

My children are thrust into the middle of several different worlds. The Caucasian American world, the Tanzanian world, the international ex-patriate world. And I worry. As they grow older, will they be able to identify with us? with Tanzanians? Where will they fit? Will they be able to bridge all these worlds?

And that is one of the many reasons I am thankful for HOPAC. Half of the students are Tanzanian, and the other half are everything else. Many, many of the children have no idea what they are.

There’s the group of kids who are half Dutch, and half Greek, but were born in Tanzania. There’s all those who are half Tanzanian and half something else–German, Danish, Japanese–who speak multiple languages and may have a passport to a country they have never lived in.

I asked a little African-American second grader what state she is from. She looked at me blankly. “I don’t know,” she shrugged. “I was born in China.”

I love it. My children, being born and raised in Tanzania by American parents, can be confused here, and fit right in. It’s beautiful.

Friday, we celebrated International Day at HOPAC. Always the highlight of everyone’s year. We sang and we ate and we waved flags, and some children represented two countries and some children represented more. It was a day to celebrate the beauty of our cultures and our confused children.