Thursday 4-24-14

4-24-14 Thursday

                Alarm is set for 7:00 to get up and dressed; the kids however woke up at 6:30. Jove wanted to tell me about his dream about getting poisoned. The poison turned grownups into a machine and you eventually were made back alive again, but kids did not. Ayla just cried and repeatedly said that she did not want to go to school. We got the kids dressed, Ayla still cried. Asa asked her what is wrong and Jove looked at Asa and said “I know Daddy; I asked her the same thing”. Finally we got sick of hearing her cry and told her “fine, stay home with Bibi and you will be in your bed the whole time”. I am just so disappointed in her about this. I understand she doesn’t like being at the school without us (for the hour before school starts and the hour and a half for lunch). Jove was great all through this however. He went off to school with Joan, happy as a little clam.

                We went to school and when I told Jove I was going to have to be in the other classes since Bibi was at home with Ayla, he broke down and cried a little. But recovery was quick. I peeked in and checked on him a few times. Again, he said he didn’t try the breakfast, but whatever, one day he will get hungry enough and will try to eat it. Ayla now says she will try the breakfast tomorrow but is going to decide to not eat lunch because it is just too yucky. Asa and I started in Std. 1 working on math flash cards. We then moved on to reading. They are all reading a story about an Amish community. It comes in different levels so each class has a different book. It is fun listening to them try to pronounce some of the words. They have a pretty hard time with anything past tense; walked comes out as walk-e-D. Next we did some dice math. They take anywhere between 6 and 15 dice and roll them then have to add up all the numbers. They find any tens first and it makes it a lot easier. I was never good at math so I admire this ability they are coming into. Last are word problems. These are much harder for them. Std. 1 is about equivalent to first grade, or at least in most areas. The word problems are with pictures of items they may buy at a market written on the board with how much these items cost. One kg of beans cost 300tsh (Tanzanian shillings), a banana cost 60tsh, etc. Your mother gives you 2,000tsh and you must but a pumpkin, 1kg of rice, and two bananas. How much do you spend and how much will you have to bring home to your mother. These are fun because sometimes (mostly with the std. 2 and 3) we will trick them and they will not have enough. Or my favorite is when they are told they drop a 500tsh note and a goat eats it. These are the problems they get because these are the issues they face every day.

                We tried to go over emotions with them thanks to a book that my friend Alyson let us borrow and we were bad and never returned (sorry Aly). The book is “the way I feel” It helped her girls get through a lot of tough times and it helped Jove and Ayla so much, so we figured bring it here. Some of the emotions in the book are happy, sad, angry, jealous, disappointed, etc. The kids in std. 1 had a hard time of it because they either don’t know about that emotion or are not allowed to feel that emotion. Either way, it was fun to try and explain these. We had the kids show us the face of someone that would be mad, happy, sad, etc. Man are these kids just the cutest!

                Next it was time to switch over to the std.3 classroom. The class lesson starts out the same as it did with std. 1, flash cards of math, then reading. I had to leave during the reading to move over to chekechea to read them some stories. Story time is great for them because it allows them to hear all of these words from a native speaker. The accent is pretty thick here. Jove was very excited when I went into the classroom. He jumped up and gave me a giant hug. I had him sit back down like everyone else. I am trying very hard to make sure that Ayla and Jove are not treated specially. I want them to know and understand what it is like for these other kids. Not everyone is as fortunate as us. So, I read them two stories; “baby elephant, the story of tembo” and “curious George”.  The first ended up having a lot more facts about elephants, so it was a little boring for them, but “Curious George” made up for that, I think. They are still very shy about answering anything I ask them. If I ask them if they liked the story, they get really quiet and let nothing come out of their mouths. But if one of the other teachers ask them the same question they always answer “yes”. I think I enjoy being in Std. 1, 2, and 3 more. The little ones went out to play after story time. Jove just sat there. I told him to be a good boy and play and then eat his lunch. He said he would, but he did not. Mamaliz says it isn’t the best of food, but it is food, and it is what the kids all eat, so Ayla and Jove can eat it or be hungry enough to truly enjoy eating dinner. I came home for lunch to check on Ayla. She still was too pouty to go to the second half of school and one of the chekechea 1 (3-4 year olds) got sick so I took Ayla with me to help out over there. We spent the next hour helping there. We practiced with colors, numbers, shapes, etc. Ayla and brought a Curious George book with her and I think that we taught a few of them what a monkey is. They don’t know much English, sometimes have accidents in their bottoms, always seem to have snot running down their face, but in spite of all that they were so sweet. They were amazed by my arm tattoo, like everyone else here. I am famous for it. I have random people come up and ask to touch it, or know who I am simply because of that. Well, I decided to use it for learning. I tested the kids on colors by having them tell me what color a part of my tattoo is, or I would ask them to find me a particular color. I think it was pretty inventive.

                Once they let out at chekechea, Ayla and I walked over to the main school building to pick Jove up. He was in std. 2 with Mamaliz and Asa. He did not want to leave however. He was to busy coloring in the back of the room. Sweet boy! So Ayla and I went home on our own to get beans started up for dinner. Of course, as we start our walk back up to the house it began to downpour. It has been raining a lot today. So we got more than a little wet. Just a nice rinse of our clothes and skin, we are after all usually dirty hereJ. Our laundry was done this morning also by one of the village Bibis. She is coming now three times a week since the five of us make so much dirty clothes. It is extra money for her family though and that makes it fine by me. The rain is making it difficult for the clothes to dry outside, but again, just an extra rinsing can never hurt.

                So, they got home from school and turns out Jove did try some of the lunch. Again he said it was kind of good. They stopped by Bismillah café and picked up a lollipop for Jove since he was so good today and some half cakes. A half cake is kind of like a buttermilk donut with no frosting on it. It turned out to be a very good thing because my dinner of Quinoa and Beans turned out to be a bust. I guess I didn’t check them close enough because it all had grit and some rocks in it. Yuck! So we had the half cake, animal crackers, and a mix of peanut butter, nuts, and raisins. Asa and the kids are now playing their tablets while I journal our trip. Not too bad of a day. I would be nice if the rain would stop though so the clothes could dry.

                Tomorrow we may still have two teachers out from stomach pain and so I am going to be with the little ones again, Asa is going to take the chekechea 2 and 3 room where Jove goes, and Mamaliz is going to be with the older kids. We shall see how it goes. Today, Teacher Pascalina tried to give me complete control of her class. I guess when anyone white comes in they just relinquish control. I hope I can get them to fully understand that I do not want or need complete control. I just want to help wherever I am needed. Here is hoping tomorrow goes well.