Chop Wood, Carry Water

Yesterday was my favorite day I’ve spent in Africa so far. Reading under the big tree was such a sweet experience. Since we read while the older kids were in school we had an average age group of about 3 years old. They had no idea what the books were talking about, but they loved to turn the pages, look at the pictures, and make up their own stories (mostly in Swahili).  I wrote a blog about it that I’ll publish as soon as I can get wireless on my phone, so I won’t bore you with the details now.

Yesterday we taught in the “private” school of Shimoni, which is fee based school that most of the kids can’t afford to go to.  Even being a private school we had 16 kids crammed into the smallest classroom you’ve ever seen (3 per desk) and nothing to use but a rusted chalkboard and a few pieces of chalk. It’s amazing what you can learn about teaching when you don’t  have any materials to do it with,however. I’ve learned in a short time that it doesn’t take much, except a whole lot of creativity.

I’ve been working hard on a poster of  Antarctica for our Wildlife Club after school program. We teach the kids about different continents, natural resources, and ways that they can help the environment. Depletion of natural resources is one of the major problems facing the people of Shimoni. Their rainforest is disappearing at an astonishing 1.1% each year, and currently oil companies are begging the Kenyan government to do testing on their sea bottom to search for oil.

Anyway, enough for today. As I said, I have a bunch of blogs on my phone (complete with pictures and videos of choir practice 🙂 that will eventually be posted.  I share a structure (and a computer) with 17 other people, so I better be mindful of my time spent online.

Love!