Today I was at the school without Ali. Ali went to Arusha to observe the Rwanda Genocide Trials which are being held here in Tanzania by the UN. She is going to law school in the fall and she was very excited to go. I was a little worried about handling the children without her but I was confident we would get through the morning.
When I arrived I spotted Fatuna, our injured girl, her eyes were bright and she was smiling. I told her I was happy to see she was feeling better. These kids are made of tuff stock. It is litterly survival of the fittest. No time to be a baby in Africa, grow up and survive.
We purchased copy books in town for .15 cents each. They are worth about 15 cents, but that is all they have, flimsy little paper books. The children were delighted! They cheered! Their old books were completely full, and it always took some time to find a corner to write on. Hawa inscribed the children's names on the books and then they practiced writing their names. Several of the older children can write their names well, and they were all proud of the new books. Today I needed to take the new pencils away from 2 children. They happened to be the 2 brightest kids in the class. The reaction was amazing. They were humiliated and both had their heads down. Now remember just a week ago, chewing on your pencil w as the thing to do. Now it was embarrassing. After a brief time, I gave them both back a nice pencil and we moved on. It probably is such a habit for them it is hard to break. I am happy to see that they care now.
I kept the pace going in class and the children were very good! Ali had given me a jump rope, and as expected it turned into an Olympic jump rope contest. Hawa was turning that rope so fast I could not believe it! These kids rock!
We had a nice day and I took some movies of them in the yard. Tomorrow is my last day and I leave on Saturday,
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