Today is my second to last day at school! Claire is coming with me tomorrow to help out and also take pictures of me with the kids on her super nice camera. Hopefully Dave will come too to help. I'm planning to bring balloons, candy, and little goodie bags for all my kids with crayons, pencils, bracelets, etc and then I'm going to do a cake-walk with the alphabet for them to get their goodie-bags. I hope it works out how I envision it!
My kids have been getting stir-crazy at school this week, I think mostly because they aren't learning new stuff anymore. When they get stir-crazy, they get hit a lot more. I have no idea what to do when the teachers start beating the kids...it is probably one of the worst things I've ever experienced. They are babies...why would you ever hit them? Please pray for the teachers to change their discipline methods.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Last week of school....and I'm campsick
I now only have 4 days left with my babies!!! Friday is gonna be really bad....its so heartbreaking thinking I'll probably never see any of them again :(
We're doing fun artsy projects every day this week. Its hard to do that stuff in a big group unless I want it to take up the whole class-time, but since my kids are brilliant, they don't need to learn anymore so we're just having fun this week!
I have a lot of plans for the next month because I'll be free to travel whenever I want. I'm hoping to go next week to our house-guard, Zach's, Massai village for a few days. It will definitely be an experience. For those of you who don't know much about the Massai culture, if you look at any National Geographic about Africa you will probably see some pictures-they wear very bright red and purple and blue pieces of cloth and a lot of beads-they have the stretched ear-lobes with beaded earrings hanging through them-and the kids faces are often covered with flies. Some of the kids get their faces branded with a horse-shoe-shaped brand so that the flies are attracted to those wounds and not their eyes (flies in the eyes can easily carry diseases that will blind them). They live in family villages in huts made out of cow dung...apparently smells pretty bad. Zach's father has three wives and so there are going to be a ton of kids everywhere...he has a LOT of siblings. The animals (cows and goats) often live inside the houses too. On some safaris people spend a night in the Massai villages and most of them say its impossible to sleep. I guess I'll find out for myself......
I'm also planning to head back to Zanzibar with Claire. YAY!!!! I love it there, and hopefully will explore a little more this time!
This coming Saturday Claire and I are going to be in a wedding! Our friend's landlord's brother is getting married and he wants four wazungu in his wedding procession and we were asked to do it! Before the weddings here there is a procession through town with decorated cars and a brass band in the back of a pickup truck, then you go to the actual wedding, and then to a party afterwards. I'm pretty excited except for the fact that our dresses are orange.....
Time to go to school! I am taking loads of pictures this week and will try and post some of them later!
We're doing fun artsy projects every day this week. Its hard to do that stuff in a big group unless I want it to take up the whole class-time, but since my kids are brilliant, they don't need to learn anymore so we're just having fun this week!
I have a lot of plans for the next month because I'll be free to travel whenever I want. I'm hoping to go next week to our house-guard, Zach's, Massai village for a few days. It will definitely be an experience. For those of you who don't know much about the Massai culture, if you look at any National Geographic about Africa you will probably see some pictures-they wear very bright red and purple and blue pieces of cloth and a lot of beads-they have the stretched ear-lobes with beaded earrings hanging through them-and the kids faces are often covered with flies. Some of the kids get their faces branded with a horse-shoe-shaped brand so that the flies are attracted to those wounds and not their eyes (flies in the eyes can easily carry diseases that will blind them). They live in family villages in huts made out of cow dung...apparently smells pretty bad. Zach's father has three wives and so there are going to be a ton of kids everywhere...he has a LOT of siblings. The animals (cows and goats) often live inside the houses too. On some safaris people spend a night in the Massai villages and most of them say its impossible to sleep. I guess I'll find out for myself......
I'm also planning to head back to Zanzibar with Claire. YAY!!!! I love it there, and hopefully will explore a little more this time!
This coming Saturday Claire and I are going to be in a wedding! Our friend's landlord's brother is getting married and he wants four wazungu in his wedding procession and we were asked to do it! Before the weddings here there is a procession through town with decorated cars and a brass band in the back of a pickup truck, then you go to the actual wedding, and then to a party afterwards. I'm pretty excited except for the fact that our dresses are orange.....
Time to go to school! I am taking loads of pictures this week and will try and post some of them later!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
NO MALARIA!!!!
Just had my second Malaria test since I've been here and I am still parasite free!!! That is exciting. Everyone at the house is going to be mad at me though because they all take medicine and still get it. Muahahaha. Anyways, even though it is not malaria, I have been sick this week and missed school yesterday and today :(. At least I have some time to plan my lessons! I started this week off with shapes, and when I drew them on the board, they already knew them! What are the chances.....anyways, time to think of something new!
My kids are all really smart. School is ending on the 30th of May (so soon!!!) and I'm going to try and do some sort of individual evaluation for each kid, but it is really hard when I'm the only volunteer. I have to find some way to distract the other kids while I do one-on-ones with each one. I think all the 6year olds are definitely prepared for primary school next year, and probably most of the 5 year olds as well. That is really good.
Things at the house are exciting as always. We have 17 new volunteers coming this weekend which could be interesting. It does get old welcoming new people so often...all of us 'old' people are kind of tired of it. I think it will be good to have a bigger group though.
Tonight I am going to my first choir practice! There is a choir in Moshi (mostly wazungu) and they are performing on June 7th, so I'm going to sing with them! I miss G&P choir, maybe this will help ease the pain.
Since I have less than two months left here, I think a lot about going home. It is going to be really, really strange and I have very mixed feelings about leaving. There are some things I am really looking forward to, mostly seeing family and friends again. I'm also pretty excited to get a job; I don't like the feeling of not having income, it scares me. I know I'll really miss the spontaneity of my life here, and meeting lots of new people all the time, and speaking kiswahili with random people, and my little kids at school. Going home will just be really wierd and probably kind of stressful.
My kids are all really smart. School is ending on the 30th of May (so soon!!!) and I'm going to try and do some sort of individual evaluation for each kid, but it is really hard when I'm the only volunteer. I have to find some way to distract the other kids while I do one-on-ones with each one. I think all the 6year olds are definitely prepared for primary school next year, and probably most of the 5 year olds as well. That is really good.
Things at the house are exciting as always. We have 17 new volunteers coming this weekend which could be interesting. It does get old welcoming new people so often...all of us 'old' people are kind of tired of it. I think it will be good to have a bigger group though.
Tonight I am going to my first choir practice! There is a choir in Moshi (mostly wazungu) and they are performing on June 7th, so I'm going to sing with them! I miss G&P choir, maybe this will help ease the pain.
Since I have less than two months left here, I think a lot about going home. It is going to be really, really strange and I have very mixed feelings about leaving. There are some things I am really looking forward to, mostly seeing family and friends again. I'm also pretty excited to get a job; I don't like the feeling of not having income, it scares me. I know I'll really miss the spontaneity of my life here, and meeting lots of new people all the time, and speaking kiswahili with random people, and my little kids at school. Going home will just be really wierd and probably kind of stressful.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Ok, so my mom suggested that I write little things whenever I'm online because I don't have time to write long blogs very often...so anyways, here goes.
I was in Zanzibar this past week and it was amazing. I went with my friend Sam from the volunteer house and his brother Tim, and we met this guy Dave on the ferry who was staying with his friend Adam in his apartment so we got free board while we were there! We stayed in Stone Town and it was so cool. The roads are really twisty and narrow and the buildings are really tall and old. Its so hard to describe, but I think everyone should go there. We ate most nights at the street market. It opens at 7 at night and its just a bunch of booths all down the street selling kabobs of wierd fish and sharks and squid and octupus, and also Zanzibar pizzas which are really wierd, but really good. Don't really know what was in them though. We spent a few days on the beach, went on a spice tour, and just hung out. ITs fun traveling here because you always meet really cool people along the way.
Ok, time running out...try and do this again tomorrow or something!
I was in Zanzibar this past week and it was amazing. I went with my friend Sam from the volunteer house and his brother Tim, and we met this guy Dave on the ferry who was staying with his friend Adam in his apartment so we got free board while we were there! We stayed in Stone Town and it was so cool. The roads are really twisty and narrow and the buildings are really tall and old. Its so hard to describe, but I think everyone should go there. We ate most nights at the street market. It opens at 7 at night and its just a bunch of booths all down the street selling kabobs of wierd fish and sharks and squid and octupus, and also Zanzibar pizzas which are really wierd, but really good. Don't really know what was in them though. We spent a few days on the beach, went on a spice tour, and just hung out. ITs fun traveling here because you always meet really cool people along the way.
Ok, time running out...try and do this again tomorrow or something!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Well, I am officially a terrible blogger. Its so hard for me to make myself sit down and write something that makes sense on here. Anyways, I'll try for an update....
School is going well still. I've been doing 'body week' this week and last week and its really fun. At the end of most days we do the hokey pokey and I let the kids pick which body parts to do. Their favorites are shoulders (they like to shimmy), stomach, and tongue. Tomorrow I am going to make a giant person-puzzle and give them all a piece and have them put it together. I hope it works, sometimes stuff doesn't go as smoothly as it does in my head!
Two weeks ago a new kid named Amani came to our school, and from the very first day he just cried his eyes out the whole time he was there. It was really hard to teach with him always wailing in the background, and some days the teachers actually had to lock the doors to keep him from running home. I decided I needed to do something about it so one day I just sat and read him a book over and over and over until he stopped crying. Then I let him pass out the pencils to the other kids, which was really funny because he was acting like me and telling them to say thank you when he gave them out. After that he was much calmer, and he hasn't cried at all since then! When I get to school he is always waiting for me in the doorway.
No more time!!!
School is going well still. I've been doing 'body week' this week and last week and its really fun. At the end of most days we do the hokey pokey and I let the kids pick which body parts to do. Their favorites are shoulders (they like to shimmy), stomach, and tongue. Tomorrow I am going to make a giant person-puzzle and give them all a piece and have them put it together. I hope it works, sometimes stuff doesn't go as smoothly as it does in my head!
Two weeks ago a new kid named Amani came to our school, and from the very first day he just cried his eyes out the whole time he was there. It was really hard to teach with him always wailing in the background, and some days the teachers actually had to lock the doors to keep him from running home. I decided I needed to do something about it so one day I just sat and read him a book over and over and over until he stopped crying. Then I let him pass out the pencils to the other kids, which was really funny because he was acting like me and telling them to say thank you when he gave them out. After that he was much calmer, and he hasn't cried at all since then! When I get to school he is always waiting for me in the doorway.
No more time!!!
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