Happy November!

Friday was our usual PE day, but since it is so hot out now, we don’t go all the way to the park. Instead we stay at school. The boys made a small football field right by the classrooms and they boys actually play together instead of just the teachers playing like it used to be! It is a wonderful sight to see! The two oldest girls, Comfort and Lusie gathered all the little kids together and did “circle time” with them. It was so rewarding to watch them lead the circle and sing all the songs with the little ones that I sing with them every morning! They don’t really know all the words so sometimes they mumble through them, it was adorable and they had me laughing hysterically! They also created the cover of their books before PE started and I am so excited to give the books to the kids to take home! I know they are going to be ecstatic when they see that I have laminated them!

This weekend two girls, Piper and Isabel, whom I started my journey here with, left. On Friday, Piper, Cat and I walked around town with Piper one last time. Piper was talking about how it’s different walking through town, knowing it would be the last time that she saw certain things. She said it made her see things in a different perspective. I started to think like that and even in my short walk around town, I noticed shops and small details that I had walked by hundreds of times and never even noticed. Like for example, there are no glass windows here. In the houses, there are holes cut out that look like windows but that’s all it is, is a hole. Sometimes there are screens, sometimes not, and there are always a way they can close up the windows at night, like a small door on the windows. I had never really noticed that before, instead I just took for granted the fact that I see that every day. There are so many things that have become just a part of life here that would be so much not a part of life back home in America. Sometimes I wonder what it will be like to walk down a road that is paved, not have chickens roaming around the house or goats everywhere I go. It’s the small things that sometimes go unnoticed, and I’m going to make sure, especially in my last three weeks here, I make sure I take note of those small things!

Today at school I walked into the nursery to get some supplies and out of the corner of my eye I see a yellow dress with a blue and red pattern on it and tears that just melted my heart – it was ABRAH! The little girl that captured my heart the very first day I was at happy kids. I have not seen her for well over a month. She was crying hysterically and I bent down and said hello to her. I had to get back to my class, and she followed me out of the room. She continued to cry until I picked her up and as I was teaching she fell asleep in my arms. I laid her down on the floor of the nursery so I could get back to my kids – who by the way are still fantastic! After lunch, when all the nursery kids were shooed back into the room, Abrah refused to go into the class. Instead she meandered over to my room and I couldn’t help but pick her up and put her at one of the desks. She stopped crying as soon as she entered the room and was completely content just sitting in my class while I was teaching. Then she started falling asleep at the desk so I picked her up and she again fell asleep in my arms. The headmistress came over and took her from me and Abrah started bawling hysterically. She was kicking and screaming and looking helplessly at me. After Abrah was in the room, she escaped and came bolting towards me. However, before she reached me the headmistress had instructed for one of the KG students to grab her. Then the headmistress had to put a chair in front of the door so Abrah couldn’t escape to me. I went in and gave her a hug and a kiss and she tried to come with me. Talk about having my heart completely melt right on the spot.

During every break now, my kids ask to play hangman or charades which I introduced to them today! They are just so much fun and they are really impressing me lately with what they are showing me they have learned! I cannot believe I have less than three weeks with them – I am most certainly cherishing every moment!

As my time is starting to wrap up – if anyone has any questions about the culture or the kids they would like me to find out while I’m here just send me a quick email and I’ll do some research if I don’t already know the answer!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

Lots of love from Africa!
Steph