First Day of School

 

Whew…I just finished having 2 first days of school. With 4 classes it took me two whole days to have a fist day for all the children. I don’t know what to say about it, but it was amazing…I loved every minute of it. I must say, the children are much more reserved than I expected. I have interacted with the children here on many occasions and I have never had them be so calm and tentative. However, I assume that once all the children become more comfortable with our schedule, the classroom, and teachers (especially me), then I will wish they will be just like they are now.

 

Usually I would just set the children loose to interact in what area/center the children would naturally be interested  in, but since none of these children have ever had toys to play with, or crayons to draw with, they have no idea how to use anything in the classroom. Each day I am hoping to introduce something new to the children that way they can pick and choose in the future how they want to manipulate the materials in the classroom.

 

 

Of the things they have played with, cars is a favorite. They love making car noises and moving them across the floor. Some even get creative and bring in the blocks or legos to their car play and make obstacles for the cars to drive around and in some cases drive through them. Some of the friends enjoyed playing with the animals and the trees…they had all the animals lined up around the basket, they would sometimes hold one up to ask what kind of animal it is and we were able to teach them the English name. In one of the classes, a few of the girls found puppet dolls and immediately found bandana’s to put the dolls on their backs, just like the moms and girls do to carry the babies here. It was so adorable, the whole day the waked around with puppets on their backs.

 

With all the teacher drama, I only have one teacher now, but she is the most amazing teacher. She picks  everything up so well and is enjoying being with the children. Medis, graduated grade 12 at Kalomo High School and has been teaching at a local community school here in the villages. She has worked there for 7 years and she says that they usually don’t even pay her, so in my heart, I feel like she does this for the children and not the money, which makes her a perfect candidate to work with children this young. I am praying that she will stick with the program and want to ‘take over’ the administrative rolls when the time is right.

 

 

We are hoping to hire one or two more teachers so that we can have 1 teacher for the 3’s and 4’s and then another teacher for the 5’s and 6’s. I hear there are not anymore women in this area who have a grade 12 education, but I know that God has a plan and he will provide the right teachers at the right time. It will also be nice to have an assistant helper when the class sizes are too big for one teacher to handle.

 

 

It is all in God’s hands…He got us this far, I am confident that He will provide as we need! Just continue to keep us  in prayer as we get into more of a routine in the coming days. Thank you for all your support and making this dream a reality! The children love it and wish they could come every day…