A Typical Day, Part II

Habari za jioni (good evening) from Moshi. I've owed you this post for a long time -- hope you enjoy it!

Our school ends at 12 noon. Every Monday and Thursday we run an afternoon program for the neighborhood kids, and every Tuesday and Wednesday we offer extra help for our students. Not many students stay for extra help, much to our dismay and prodding. The program for the kids is very popular (both among the kids and their parents!) -- so much so that the kids who live closest to the school are arriving earlier and earlier! One morning, 3 1/2-year old Aisha showed up at the beginning of school, thinking it was time to play!! I had to take her by the hand and show her the classrooms filled with students so that she would understand why she couldn't stay. This past Thursday, there was a tap, tap, tapping at the gate at 1:30pm (the program is from 2pm-4pm)!! Monique (a wonderful Kiwi volunteer who was with us for a month and just left yesterday) and I were the only volunteers at home and we were rushing to get some lunch (i.e., energy) before the onslaught and, at the same time, finish making the crowns that the kids were going to decorate as a little arts & crafts project. Why were we rushing? Because we have exactly 2 hours between when classes end and the little devils arrive (assuming they arrive on time rather than early), and this particular day we had to run an errand in town first (it's about a 20-25 minute walk each way). So, there we were, quickly shoveling food into our mouths and, at the same time, tracing and cutting crowns, while every 5 minutes the little ones were banging on the gate! Normally I just open the gate and tell them to come back at 2pm, after which they leave and come back 10 minutes later; I usually break down at that point and let them in. This time, however, I was under strict instructions from Monique not to go near the gate! So the kids just kept coming back, knocking and shouting out "hodi" -- the standard Swahili greeting when you want to enter someone's home. It was quite funny. At 2pm, I opened the gate and about 8 kids came running in. Usually the kids range in age from about 2 1\2 to 6, since regular school starts for them at the age of 7. However, when school is closed, we get the older kids too, bringing the count to close to 20!! Communicating with them is always a challenge. Usually for at least one of the two days we have a student help us out, which is FANTASTIC. When she’s not there, however, let’s just say that things can get a bit “wild”. We’ve taught the kids how to do the “Hokie Pokie”--they particularly like screaming out “hey!”--and “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”, but their absolute favorite activity is dancing, and you would be amazed at how even the youngest ones can move their hips (puts me to shame). Check out the video on my Facebook page, if you can! Jumping rope and playing catch are tied for second place among the favorite activities. By the time 4pm rolls around, we are exhausted, but we must drum up some remaining energy to make sure that all of the kids leave with the people they’re supposed to leave with (and with nobody extra tagging along--see my July post “Lost And Found”). And then there are the times when 4:30pm rolls around, and even 5pm, and there are still some kids hanging around waiting for someone to come and get them (but I won’t go into that now).

So, basically, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons (after extra help) are the only weekdays we can really spend any meaningful time in town. When we’re not with the kids or in town, we’re usually preparing lesson plans, cleaning, studying Swahili (those of us who are taking lessons), or doing what I’m doing now (i.e., trying to email or update our blogs).

Every Friday we generally have two home visits (see my June post "Home Visit" if you haven't already), one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They last about two hours each, on average, so, together with the time it takes to get to the homes, our day is pretty much occupied. These visits are vital to understanding our students better, being aware of their life stories, meeting their families, seeing their living conditions and determining who are the neediest ones. It is an eye-opening and humbling experience. I will add another post soon to tell you about some of our recent ones.

So there you have it, the end of a typical day--exhausting at times, but always rewarding and always a learning experience for me.

Kwaheri for now and stay in touch, please!

Victoria