good morning miss!

so, after a good rest (24 hrs of hard sleep), i awake feeling much better and ready to work. since our orientation day was cut short, we call our project coordinator to see if it will be continued today. we're told to go to school #1 and see what happens as no one has time to show us to the 2nd school so off we go. as we approach the school and as we enter into each classroom, the kids all shout in unison"good morning miss" in the sweetest sing songy voice imaginable. this alone makes my trip here worthwhile! we're first brought into the nursery level class to help the teacher assist some of the little ones with their work. sadly, they have no idea what they're supposed to be doing (and i don't think they should at their age) so it's somewhat useless but they're soooo adorable, i just love being there and pretending to help them. their constant pleas for our attention "miss!" "miss!" show that they love us being there too. after the lesson/work session we're told to do rhymes with the kids. silla and i are a bit rusty on our rhymes and it goes pretty quickly so i suggest i read a story to which the teacher agrees. i read one story (penny the dog) and it seems to go over really well with the children grinning from ear to ear and laughing hysterically with a look a kid at home may have on christmas morning when i show them the pictures. it was priceless! i then read a longer book and can tell i'm losing their attention as they don't understand but i keep going b/c i have no idea what else to do with them. they laugh at me and there's a bit of chaos but what can you do?! we're then given class 4 to teach but have no idea what they know or need to know. soo, we wing it doing our best to make the hr useful. after that we go home for lunch and then come back for "library" where kids come to play and also can do their homework. we don't have a plan as we've been ill so the kids stare at us looking for an idea. so, we decide to play football and have a great time playing with these little gems!! we then come back for some quiet game playing; silla leads them in a game of hangman which they enjoy... it's fun. we return to the house absolutely exhausted and a bit overwhelmed but feeling pretty good.

day 2 on the job we thought we were supposed to be taken to school #2 but never got the call so we headed back to school #1. we arrived there at recess time and were told we could go to the field and play with the kids so off we went for frisby, skip rope and some other games with like 40 kids!! we get on to the field and are greeted with our "good morning miss"! all the kids want to hold our hands or to be on our team or just to have our attention for whatever. it's a bit chaotic but so much fun! the bell rings and the kids all rush us, wanting to hold our hands or wherever they can grab on... i'm dripping with children and loving it! we're then given class 3 and start teaching something but, before long are called out... we're supposed to go to school 2. so off we go. school #2 isn't as nice as school #1. the rooms smell like basement, are dank and dark with little natural light (windows are boarded due to past trouble), there is no bathroom (this is lacking at the other school as well) and many of the kids sit on dirty blankets on the floor. it's very sad and i sooo want to help but they have a strong advocate and plans to have the school fixed thanks to an irish company that started a trust so it's hopeful things will get better soon. we're brought into each of the classrooms to greet the children and are then brought to meet the teachers and headmaster where we're asked for ideas on how to better the teaching in the school. they want us to give them ideas on how they can change their curriculum and teaching techniques! we have no idea what to say as neither of us are teachers... we give them a couple of simple ideas and then we're given two classes to teach. we take the students outside and make up some lessons which help us realize how little confidence these kids have and that their english skills are quite weak. we end the day with rhymes and games (i taught them the little teapot song but kept changing the words around b/c i wasn't sure exactly how it went and i kept forgetting how i had sung it before). ugh! later that afternoon we went back to library at school #1. this time we had some word find puzzles we had made up and a couple games like "spin the pencil" with flashcards of stick figures doing silly things so each time the pencil pointed to a student, they were shown a card and had to perform the silly act. it was great fun and they really enjoyed just being silly! i then tried to organize something like pictionary but this was chaos and wound up in a chalkbag fight... white faces, chalk in the eyes... mayhem!!

anyway, i won't bore all with all the details but in short, i'm having a rewarding experience and really love these kids and wish everyone could see the conditions they study in. it's so unfair as on paper their school has been fixed but the money has gone the way of govt corruption and it just breaks my heart. lesson to all: appreciate what you have because we all have so much!

i've posted photos of the mtn view from glenburn and tea pluckers at work. it's really beautiful to see, tea pluckers with their colorful umbrellas dotted through the brilliant green tea bushes and ohhh the himalaya!