Family Day!

May 30^th, Thursday

            Today was a little slower start than usual. We woke up, had breakfast (no monkeys this time), and went on to our schools. We were a little earlier than usual so the kids were all in their classrooms, which meant there weren’t any kids to run and greet us. I have to say that I was feeling a bit off this morning. I’m not really sure as of why but I just didn’t have that little spark like I usually do but it all changed very quickly. Ellen and Lana (past post says Rana but sometimes it’s really hard to differentiate between the R’s and L’s here) greeted us both with hugs and were telling us how excited they were to see us. The moment Liz and I entered the room the class all stood up for us and welcomed us with smiles and lots of cheers! Liz and I made picture books while we were at home about our lives. Mine included pictures of the USA, Virginia Tech, my family, friends, and where I worked. The kids absolutely loved them, although they giggled when Liz and I showed them our pages of our cats because I am pretty sure cats aren’t pets here (yikes). When I was showing them pictures of my friends, they seemed to recognize both Ashley and Audra, who came on the trip last year! The teacher even looked at Ashley's picture and said, "Yes, she looks familiar"...yay! We passed both of them around and they sat in groups of about 14 and all looked at them for about 5 minutes a group. Liz and I decided that it would be a cute idea for them to draw their family for us, so we could get to know them a little better. We gave them some paper and crayons to share and it has been my favorite activity we have done so far. Just walking around and watching the kids draw their families brought me so much joy. These children are exceptionally good at drawing; the pictures they were drawing far exceeded my expectations. If there is one thing I have learned it’s that kids are kids, no matter what side of the world you’re on. The class loved showing off their work to Liz and I; it was great to see how proud of their family and work they were. These kids were so appreciative for the activity because many of them don’t get to use paper and crayons very often. Our class is so perfect. We have a lot of really intelligent, kind, and giving students. Liz and I were so lucky to be placed with the Standard 3B class.

            Our next activity was doing pronunciation. We had flashcards that Liz had from a while ago that had different pictures on them. We practiced with a lot of “r” words because sometimes they have some trouble with them. On one hand I kind of feel wrong teaching the students how to pronounce words the way we do in America because the way they pronounce them is so unique and beautifully their own. I never want to feel like I am trying to change them because honestly, we are the ones that need the teaching from them. After class was over the students sang the “farewell” song to us and we were on our way. We walked over to the Demonstration school were A&T teaches to watch Dr. Liz have a workshop with all of the teachers. They did this very interesting math game outside that even had me interested, which is hard when math is involved.

            From there we went downtown to the school supplies store and “The Wall”, where I saw some really wonderful carvings and paintings that I’ll definitely be back for. The rest of the night really all meshed into a blob because we were all so exhausted but it was the good kind of exhausted. I shamelessly ended my night at 8:30pm when my bed was screaming my name.

Until then,

xoxo