End of Week Three
It is Saturday and we have just finished our third week at CCS Rau. It was a good week, not as structured as the first two weeks (which is nice), but still busy. A large group of volunteers are leaving today and tomorrow, and another group is arriving. Lots going on around the home base but Chris and I have no plans. I’m going to be planning some lessons for classes next week. The volunteers that I have been working with at the school have left, and I don’t know yet if I’ll be on my own at Kilimehewa or with new volunteers. It has been difficult working with one of my partners in particular and I wasn’t too sad to see them go to be honest. Different styles is putting it lightly.
On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons there is a tutoring class at Kilimehewa. This week I went in the afternoons with Claire, a volunteer who reminds us so much of Morgan!! She is great and we had a good time. In the afternoons, kids can come for additional tutoring and adults can come for conversational English. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I am! On Tuesday we had 4 women, and on Thursday we had 6. What a group of sweet hearts. Whenever one of the ladies read out loud, or answer something correctly, the group high fives, and there is the occasional high pitched “lalalalalala” while hands wave over their heads. On Thursday we were constructing sentences “I am happy because…”, “I am worried because…” - we were talking about emotions, beyond “I am fine”. My favorite lady, Yasinta (I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but I can’t help it) was asking me how to spell “fis” - I thought she meant fish, but turns out she was saying “fisi” which means hyena. Her sentence was “I am worried because I am a hyena”. When I explained that she was saying the equivalent of “Mimi ni fisi” or “I am hyena” she and the others laughed for 5 minutes. Basically she was trying to say “I am worried because I saw a hyena” — these ladies are all farmers and hyenas are seriously bad news! She had the right idea, just the wrong words. They are a keen little group. They won’t leave for home until they have homework to work on, and they ask if they can come to school with their children as well. Its nice to see.
The week was also good with the kids. The classroom is jam packed every day and it is nice that I’m finally picking up some of their names. Its a good group and I’m learning a lot. They are super competitive and learning games get crazy loud.
We went to a fundraising concert at a local primary school trying to raise money for building a new classroom. Every kid here has such amazing rythm. The kids were adorable and I’ll post pictures soon.
Anyhow, thats all I have for now.
xoxo
Paula
August 11 2007 09:16 am | Tanzania
August 11th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Hey!
I can only imagine how rewarding this whole experience must be…its seems like everyone you talk about so wants to change their situation and all they need is a little support and push in the right direction. Reading all your posts makes me want to go to Africa so bad I can almost taste it! Paula, I am trying to log into Google talk but I cant seem to remember my log in info…I will keep trying so we can chat. Say Hi to Claire for me, she sounds like a lt of fun! Oh - I almost forgot, how was the Rwanada tribunal in Arusha?
Love and miss you guys!