Saturday, July 2, 2011

A low-key Friday :)


Friday, July 1:
            Today was a pretty uneventful day, seeing as it was Friday so only half of our students were at school and all of us teachers were still exhausted from the “go-go-go” mentality we’ve been experiencing.  Katie and I took the students pictures on disposopal cameras last week (nearly impossible since the second you pull out a camera they all jump in the picture).  We had two students in each picture, holding up a piece of paper with their name on it, and after we got the pictures developed we cut them in half, and glued each students picture on their own piece of construction paper.  We tried “cropping” the pictures while cutting so that they were the focus of the picture, but some of the students were literally surrounded by others. Oh well.  We wrote their names at the top, and called them out one of by one this mronign to hand them their paper.  They were so excited, for it was probably the first time they’ve owned a picture of themselves!  Then we handed out string, markers, and crayons and they each had to put their full name, their birthday, their village, and how many brothers and sisters they had underneath their picture.  On the back of their papers they had to draw a picture of their family (again, amazed at their artistic ability), and when they were done they put the string through holes at the top and had their own sort of “dog-tag” that they could hang on doorknobs, exc., at their houses.  This took a lot longer than expected because they were in admiration of the pictures for the first part of the class. 
            After about an hour of us being at the school, us teachers were all called into a room were we were measured.  Apparently, on the last day of school, the teachers all make us traditional African dresses and we wear them around that day (they’re interesting, for lack of better words!).   I am really excited though because it’ll be a great keepsake and I know the teachers are all so grateful for us and will be so excited to give us these outfits.
            Katie and I went back in our classroom while the students finished up their “dog-tags” and we taught them the Malawi song that our drum teacher, Innocent, made up for us on Tuesday.  The song is in Chichewa, and I think our students thought we made it up on our own, so they all cheered and clapped after we taught it to them.  They then sang it with us, and then volunteers came up to sing it by themselves to the class.  It was a hit!  We ended the day singing, “Peel the Banana”, “Baby Shark” and “Down by the Banks” before we parted for the weekend.  I cannot believe next week is our last week, but Katie and I will probably just do fun activities every day.  The children’s attention span is quickly dwindling every day, because usually during these two weeks after their exams are over they don’t learn lessons in school, they just play.  School kind of turns into a daycare center during those two weeks, so Katie and I aren’t going to try to keep teaching them.  We both agreed we just want them to have fun, feel loved and remembered when we leave on Friday.  I really can’t think about it though, because I’m already starting to get so upset.  Anyways, we are all just chilling tonight before a long and eventful day tomorrow, as we are going to the Orphanage with Peter.  Cross your fingers that I don’t fall completely inlove with some orphan and sign adoption paperwork.  Kidding, but not really!  That’s all for today, peace, love, Malawi. 

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