small fish and sleepovers

Hands of Mercy, Mwanza, Tanzania
Originally uploaded by ddboo

Thank you to everyone who donated! Once all the money is allocated and spent I will post a list of what it all went to. So far we bought a years supply of rice, took several sick kids to the doctor for a check up, bought some medicine, bought some chicken and took the kids for a day at the beach on Sunday (which was total madness..they have never been to a beach before...you can imagine).

Life has a good routine here now. Weekends are weekends once again. We get up at 8:00am, have breakfast and head to teach at 9:00am till about noon. Then we go home to eat and come back around 2:00 to teach again for another hour and play for the rest of the afternoon until we decide to go home. In the mornings I teach Grade 2 and Grade 1 in the afternoon. We were going to rotate but once you get to know the kids and there strengths and weaknesses we realize its better to have one teacher.

I have a whole new respect for teachers! in the morning i have Neema (6 years old) who is the queen of procrastination (having to go toilet 10 times in 1 hour) and loves to sing and dance during class, go play with the baby or constantly sharpening her pencil ...sound familiar dad? I also teach Samson (also 6) who is such a eager learner, he does this funny Africa bombata booty shakin' dance whenever he knows the answer and squeals... its so cute. If he doesn't know the answer he yells "acha!" and snaps his fingers...hilarious.

Its really hard to teach english concepts like pluralization or when to use AND or BUT to kids that don't speak engilsh. The best way is props.. but I still can't tell is they actually get it or just memorizing?! All these things we don't think about....our language is really hard to learn!

The kids I teach in the afternoon are in Grade 1. There are 8 of them. We are just learning basics like the alphabet and colours and numbers. Its difficult teaching 8 of them, their attention spans are comparable to that of a fly. I try to make it fun by playing games and letting them write on the board but kids will be kids - they will yell at each other and poke each other with pencils and cheat. They do all go to school, we are just there to supplement the learning and push english. We want these kids to go to high school and get educated and being able to speak english will give them a huge leg up. Also they need help with their homework and stuff.. things which parents usually do.

The kids are teaching me swahili and I am actually picking it up quite easily. Too bad the only people I can talk to are 6 and 7 year olds and say things like "lets play" or "who farted" or "its your turn", "quiet", "sit down", come here"... not so useful in the adult world although i can get myself a bottle of water and count to ten. I can also greet people and use my manners..please and sorry.

The thing that blows me away the most is the willingness to learn that we don't have in our world.. If we decide to skip teaching one day and play games or sports instead they are all disappointed and come over and say "can we please learn?", Its amazing.

The food they eat there is interesting to say the least. We have Ugali which is cornmeal and small fish like sardines that are fried. I have tried the Ugali and its not good. The fish...well I am not that brave yet. I will get around to it though. They also have beans and rice which is yummy. Gloria (mom) is a great cook. One night An and I bought chickens for all the kids and she cooked it for us. It was the best chicken ever....and really, really fresh....the chickens were alive when they brought them home and on our plates an hour later! And the sodas...the kids go bonkers for pop. I couldn't believe the rapid speed in which a child of 2 years old can down a huge soda pop. I am sure there were a few kids wetting the bed that night. After the chicken / soda party An and I slept over. I slept with Hannah and An with Irene. The kids sleep between 2 and 4 to a bed depending on the size. Single beds. Its a squeeze but it works. The sleepover was reminiscent of being 8 and having all my friends over for my birthday and sleeping all over the basement floor. Complete with "Dad" yelling down at us that its time to stop talking and go to sleep. Needless to say we didnt get much sleep that night (Hannah is a kicker) but we had alot of fun! The kids were up at the crack of dawn!

The one downfall is that I have had malaria twice. Its nasty.. Its finally gone now but I have learnt my lesson. I am now going through a bottle of repellent per week!