Day 3

Day 3

The sky is clear and Kilimanjaro is out for us to see. It is a lovely morning.

We have been learning about the culture and we were told the children of Jenedeleze are the poorest of the poor. Our Program Director, tells us he was not sure it would work sending volunteers there, because it is so bad…. I find myself feeling defensive; it is not THAT bad, is it? It is funny how you get used to things so quickly.
We get dropped off early, usually we are the last to get dropped off… and it is 8:00, a half hour early. Only about half the kids are there and they are already inside. The lovely morning is already terribly hot….no clouds gave us a view but the temperature is soaring. The teacher wants us to start and we do. We seem to be in a small din of noise, but we move on. Letters, and numbers and we do some counting. Since we have nothing to count we count the children. They seem to get it, and they seem to enjoy our antics.

When it is time for something different we learn This Old Man and they have a tuff time with singing, “with a nick knack paddy wack give the dog a bone” but we keep trying and I break it down for them further and they do a pretty good job. The heat is getting to us all and we are ahead of schedule as we head outside.

They do the usual scary scatter and we hang in the front and play quieter games. This is by far the hottest day. The sun is beating down on the red earth. We all feel scorched by the sun. Stay in the shade, I tell myself and no Hokey Pokey for this Bibi (Be be – Grand mother). We play paddy cake, and do some Brain gym. I ask the Hawa if I can take a photo of each child. So she sits them down and I take their pictures they are very patient. I have this cool little printer a Pogo that prints out small 2-inch photos with a sticky back. Our plan is to put them on index cards and write their names on them and use them to decorate the bare walls.

No porridge again and we go back inside.

They are beyond out of control… they ask for La, La so I sing to them as some doze off. We are starting to have a routine. We still have a problem being ahead of schedule but we manage to fill the time with stories and songs and I ask if we can let them go a few minutes ahead of time. In Tanzania, nothing begins or ends on time and I think this is a good time to go with that flow… so off they go into the dirt roads and alleyways of this African Village.