I’m not going to lie, I have spent most of my time at Son Rise, AND I LOVE IT!
I went to Welcome Home Orphanage on Tuesday with Sophie (who by the way just called me fat!!) but if I’m honest we felt a bit like lemons there – the kids have toys, climbing frames, slides, colouring books and crayons with a fair few helpers there already so after a few hours of attempting to get involved we swiftly left. Son Rise in comparison has the bare minimum - only a few toys, not a lot of outdoor play space…and not a lot of indoor play space for that matter, and you feel so much more involved with the kids which is probably both good and bad.
In the evening Marianne (HYT girl who happens to be half french too!) and I cooked a mean jacket potato extravaganza for 12 which in all honesty is surprisingly difficult when you’re not sure if there’s enough gas for the oven…
Wednesday, I went back to Son Rise with Sophie and Liberty. Little legend Mark seems to be a big hit with everyone, Liberty didn’t let go of him for about 3 hours! We took them out into the garden/patio area and the kids went MENTAL. Apparently it was the first time they’d been beyond the balcony of the front door in weeks because of children in the area being taken from gardens and used in tribal sacrifices. There’d been 4 murders in the last few weeks alone. I was so paranoid we were going to lose one I was doing head counts every five minutes! But that’s another reason for us to go there, something as simple as having a couple more volunteers means the children can go outside. A couple more from Son Rise (we apologise for the sweatiness, it was a particularly hot day!) …
Brenda (who is the smallest one year old I’ve ever seen due to malnutrition and now has an ear infection):
Sophie with Gift and Livvy with the legend that is Mark!:
Gift, she’d only returned to the orphanage on Monday as she was in hospital suffering from diarrhoea and fever:
Edwin and Catherine stealing our shoes!:
And Thursday, I TAUGHT MY FIRST LESSON!! It was to a Senior 2 (Year 9 equivalent) class of around 50 kids ranging from 13 years old to at least 17 years old (!!) - if a family can’t pay senior education, their children’s education can be delayed by years. So I taught Biology, more precisely Insects, more precisely the legs of the honey bee and the life cycles. Needless to say I had to learn all of this from scratch in the days leading up to my lesson! At first I was so nervous to get up in front of all those faces staring at the mzungu attempting to spit out some words, but it got better! By the end of the lesson, they were getting involved in my mini pop quizzes and shouting out answers, laughing at the way I spoke so I ended up laughing at them laughing at me :) not the best way to show authority but at least they were warming to me and hopefully learning at the same time! Next week is mid term exams (naturally delayed by two weeks) so I have no idea if I’m teaching or not, but I know I’m finishing off the butterfly with S2 at some point, then moving onto Grains. Exactly the Biology I love. Not.
Needless to say I then spent the afternoon at Son Rise again :D
In the evening we had THE BIG NIGHT IN. Connor whipped up an awesome meal of marinated chicken with rice and fresh peas and carrots from the market, then we all slobbed in front of ‘The Notebook’ with only 4 girls and 2 guys making it to the end crying our eyes out!
Today, Connor and I went to Lake Site Primary SchoolIt’s a poor – it’s rural school over a gorgeous setting of Lake Victoria. We had our first experience of anger at the culture difference, let’s just say we’re a bit unsure of going back next week.
View from P1 Blue classroom:
Lake Victoria from a boda:
Loveeee x
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