A Fun Week at School

This week was a great week at school. I've been trying really hard to focus on enjoying the kids and simply having fun at school, and this we were definitely able to do that.
Tuesday was Volunteer Clare's birthday, and she planned English party games for all the kids. It was awesome! First we played musical chairs with the older kids which was interesting--it didn't go exactly how it goes in the States, but the kids had fun and seemed to understand the rules. Next we played "pass the parcel," which is where you wrap a gift with layers and layers of paper, and each layer has a piece of candy in it. The children all stand in a circle and "pass the parcel" while music plays. Whoever is holding the parcel when the music stops gets to tear off a layer and gets to eat the candy from that layer. Whoever gets the parcel at the end gets to keep the candy/gift wrapped in the innermost layer. The kids really enjoyed playing the game, although we did have a minor choking scare with one of the little ones. Poor little Lucia was fine, but a little shaken up. Every time we greet her in the morning, she points at her throat now...yikes! Afterwards, we played pin the tail on simba, which was Clare's adorable creation. So much fun! We then fed the children tons of junk food--one similarity between American and British celebrations!

Scottie with the kids. Sooooo cute, right?

Little Lily. Love her.

Pin the tail on simba!

Thursday was SWIMMING DAY with kids. It was so fun. A bunch of volunteers from our house came along and helped, which was cool because they got to see what our school and kids are like. Our day started with a long walk from school to the pool with the children. It was a really scenic walk through this village alongside of Mount Meru. The pool was at a beautiful resort, and we immediately got the kids changed into their swimming costumes (mostly spare clothes and pajamas) and had them shower and took them into the pool. Pretty much none of the children or teachers could swim, so the volunteers had their work cut out for them, but luckily almost all the children loved the water. We only had two or three near drownings (including one almost drowned volunteer) so our day was pretty successful. After swimming we had a big picnic lunch with all the kids in a nice shady area and helped them change back into their uniforms and walk back to school. I think it's safe to say that both the children and the volunteers slept very well that night. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of swimming day because I took them all with my super heavy duty waterproof disposable camera.

On Friday Scottie and I visited our friend Kathryn at her school. It was great experience getting to see how different schools are run. Kathryn's school is very small and poor compared to ours. The "baby" class has 50 children crammed into one small, dirt-floor classroom. Aside from the conditions, the children were SO adorable and Kathryn did an amazing job singing with them and teaching them English. It was great to be able to compare Kathryn's school to ours, and we even got some good ideas for teaching our kids while we were there.
I've included some pictures of "town," to give you a feel for what Arusha looks like. Taking pictures is tricky here, because people don't like having their pictures taken and it can be dangerous to walk around with a camera; so these pictures are courtesy of the roof of our gym.

Note: daladalas, parked botabotas (motorcycle taxis), and rickshaws full of questionable fruit.

A view of Mount Meru.

Well, we are already one month down, two to go! Time is flying by quickly and I think Scottie and I are finally feeling a little more settled and confident with the way things are going, but we are still missing home a lot. Keep us posted on your lives and how you are all doing!

Much love,

Laura and Scottie