Monday, June 13

Moni!

This morning we had a new driver because Wellington left us to take the North Carolina group on their last adventures. He drives pretty fast, so we made good time to school this morning even though we left late. Today, we had a ton of kids greeting is changing "alendo"! It was a great welcome on a cloudy Monday morning. Before we started the activities, we observed a class participating in a lesson outside. They were all practicing their numbers while holding hands and galloping around in a circle. Abby asked the teacher if they were exercising or just keeping warm and the teacher said she just wanted the children to stay warm! It was pretty chilly today. I thought that was such a smart idea!
We decided that we would have the children play a familiar game today - soccer! Classes of all ages absolutely loved it! From standard one to standard seven there were smiles all over their faces. We did a lot more watching today and just let the kids make the game their own. It was not a traditional soccer game however because we had up to 25 people on some of the teams. To me, it seemed like way more of the students (especially the girls) were involved in today's activities. It was such a fun Monday for all! Tomorrow, we are going to do LEA with soccer, but with different questions since it is a game that they are already familiar with!
We left around 12 today to head over to Government School to meet Pat and Sandra. They have been working on a project to create reusable pads for young girls in the hopes that it will encourage them to stay in school. They are called Petal Pads! We have heard all about the project during our trip, and we were very excited to have the opportunity to be a part of it. Today, we learned how the pattern is set up, how to sew it (overwhelming for people like me who have never picked up a sewing needle), and then got the chance to teach the girls how to make them. We each had a group of 8-9 girls in standards 6 and 7 that we worked with. The girls were amazing! Luckily, my group knew how to sew, so I didn't have to rely too heavily on other people to assist me. According to the rest of the group, all of the girls were awesome and did a phenomenal job with the sewing! I was so impressed with my group! I can't wait to go back tomorrow to finish up the pads. Each girl will receive three pad covers that they sewed themselves and 13 reusable pads that go inside of the covers. I think we all feel so lucky to have been included in this experience!
After that, we all had a nice, quick trip to town before settling back in at Annie's for dinner and bed!