A wonderful day

Wednesday, May 29^th

            I slept so great last night that I woke up 110% ready for today. Little did I know that it would be the most perfect day of all. Liz and I headed out for breakfast and they had a new item out, rice pudding! (Dad: I was so excited because it was truly just rice in hot milk and I added sugar. It tasted just like ours and in the moments of eating it I felt at home with you. Miss you.) After breakfast we all headed out to our schools for our full day of teaching.

 Attention: what you are about to read is 100% the truth; I am not exaggerating at all. As we were pulling up to the Virginia Tech School the children were chasing the bus and all of a sudden I heard a pack of voices shout, “Brianna, Brianna, Brianna, Brianna.” Just typing this out gets me choked up again. All of the girls on the bus were like, “Brianna, do you hear them calling for you?” I was in such shock. I looked out the window and saw my precious Standard 3B angels running right along my window, making me feel like the most important person in the entire world. I literally met these kids yesterday for duration of about 60 minutes and they remembered my name, it was amazing. I got off the bus and they ran right up to me and grabbed multiple parts of my arms and I think I was holding about 4 children’s hands all at once. Liz and I wobbled over to our classroom (wobbling is the only way of walking when you have 15 kids hovered so close around you). When we got to class the teachers greeted us with hugs and had us get started. We opened up class by passing out nametags that Liz and I had made the night before and had all of them write their names on them. This was excellent because ½ the time when I ask their name I cannot really understand them but when they have it written out I understand it so much better. The little girl, who I felt so close with so fast, ended up having a name that fit her perfectly: Beauty. We had many American names such as Kelvin, Alex, and Brian but then we had names such as Promise, Osman, and other super long ones that I will be studying later on tonight. The faces on the kids when we were handing out the markers for them to write with were priceless. Who knew that $1.00 packs of dry erase pens would bring so much happiness to these kids? After the nametags were made Liz taught them a song that comes from the Out of the Box kid show from years ago; we are going to sing it every time we leave the class. Liz also knew this great exercise counting game that the kids ended up LOVING. You wiggle your arms and feet while counting; it got them moving while also teaching them how to count down. From there we did an English lesson with animals, sentences, spelling, and pronunciation. After that we took the idea from the lovely Audra and Ashley: doing math problems using plastic plates and dry erase markers for a “dry erase board” alternative. The kids and teachers loved this so much! We were able to ask them questions and they could show us their answers very fast. There are only about 10 children in the class who own paper and pens so this was a chance for the kids to get to write their answers out for once.

After we finished our lesson we observed for a little and then the kids were let out for a break. The teachers wanted us to do something else after the break so I thought it would be a good idea to teach them the Hokie Pokie! We had to take the whole class outside and there were so many observers from afar. The kids were giggling non-stop and were enjoying the dance so much. I honestly don’t like singing or dancing but with over 100 children surrounding me, I would pretty much do anything to keep those smiles on their faces. We closed with a little fraction lesson and our farewell song. Knowing I will see them tomorrow makes the uneasiness in my stomach about leaving them a little less intense.

We then walked over to the A&T school to sit in a class for the teachers. Dr. Liz taught the teachers some strategies for teaching English and had them make books for their classroom. Around 3pm we left there and all went to downtown Zomba for about a ½ an hour. I went into the fabric shop for a peek again and then walked around the produce market. What I would do for some raw carrots and hummus right now is crazy. The veggies all looked so good but I wasn’t willing to take the risk of getting sick. We returned to Annie’s and went down for an early dinner. I haven’t been eating the dinners because my stomach hasn’t fully adjusted to the foods they make here but I did try the chicken tonight and it was actually pretty good. It’s now 8:00pm here and I am about ready to go to sleep. I guess if I want to pursue being an educator I have to start getting used to this lifestyle. I love it though, so I have nothing to complain about. Tomorrow it’ll be one full week of being in Africa! Crazy how time has flown.

Until then,

xoxo