July 2nd- Teaching the Hokey Pokey!

This morning Tenison told us he has 3 girls and 2 boys. Two of the girls are married and he has 5 grandchildren.

We noticed that each school we went to this morning the students were wearing their everyday clothes and not their uniform. When we got to class we asked Macdonald why everyone was dressed up, and he said on Wednesdays they wash their uniform so they come to school in their normal outfits.

Macdonald was teaching a lesson on Self Esteem when we arrived. We asked if we could just sit in the back and listen. Turns out Macdonald had written about 6-8 sentences on the board about self-esteem, and he just had students raise their hand to read the sentences out loud. That was the extent of the lesson.

Next he handed the class over to us. We started by showing the students how to stretch their bodies even though they were squished in the classroom. Next we taught them head, shoulders, knees and toes. Krista had a poster of the bones of the body, so we went through each bone starting with the cranium all the way to the phalanges. We added one at a time and started from the top to help them memorize. They could do it with our help, but very few knew the words on their own. They are still learning English, so trying to learn Latin words is probably very difficult. But I’m glad we exposed them to it. Some kids were great and knew the bones when we would point to a random bone and ask. So it got through to some kids. They had a fun time standing up and being active. Next was my favorite, Hokey Pokey! Macdonald said it was okay to take them outside and form a circle. Krista explained the moves to one side and I explained it to the other side. “Do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around” is their favorite part! They also loved “put your whole self in and shake it all about” We did it together and it was a blast! As the kids were walking back inside to their classroom they were repeating the words and movements under their breath. As usual, Macdonald was enjoying it all! He asked us to go next door and teach the same lesson. So we went next door and taught them the same thing. This teacher was no where as interested or involved in the activity as Macdonald. No wonder the head teacher suggested working with Macdonald. We gave stickers to the class since we haven’t given them any gifts yet. I really feel bad for the classrooms who don’t have any VT students.

We went back to our room and Macdonald had the entire class practicing the Hokey Pokey while we were next door. He had each group stand up and show us a part of the song. They altered it a little bit that shows you how much of a cultural barrier we have and everything we say and teach probably gets altered in some way. But for the most part, they got all the motions. They said “and you shake, shake, shake” instead of “shake it all about” It was great!

Break time! We brought the Frizbees and twister outside since it went along with our body parts theme. There was hundreds of kids outside and Krista and I looked at each other and said we could see this either working out or becoming a disaster. Thankfully these kids listen, so it’s just trying to manage crowd control. We didn’t play the traditional way because we had so many kids, but I yelled out the color and body part and let them figure it out. I don’t think very many kids know their left from their right. We tried to explain to them that’s it’s a silly game and you are suppose to get all twisted up! Who knows if they understood. I gave the spinner to Macdonald and let him “run” the game. I didn’t even think of it at the time, but it was a great idea because now he knows how to lead the game. He even had a difficult time knowing left from right and foot from hand.

I started another game of Hokey Pokey! I have so much fun teaching that to the kids. After I taught them a song, I asked them to teach me a song. So they started dancing and singing and I slowly caught on to the words “Aids Aids Aids is a killer, makes the people die” It’s a very upbeat song and small groups of kids took turns coming to the middle with Krista and I to dance. Next, Macdonald told us the kids wanted to see Krista and I dance by ourselves. Yikes! But I went with it and let hundreds of kids surround me as I danced. For the most part I do not like that type of attention and feel very uncomfortable so I would never do something like this. But this situation was okay and I loved it!

I brought my camera and camcorder out and taped some of the dancing but when I was dancing I put it over by a tree-hoping it would be there when I got back. I went to go get it and two boys from my class were sitting next to it guarding it for me!

I walked back with Macdonald and he told me he has 3 boys that go to Domasi Demonstration School-that’s the school that costs $. Yesterday their English paragraph talked about groundnuts and I remember asking a child what they were and they explained them to me. Macdonald told me some students brought groundnuts to show us.

We got back to the room and it was almost time to go so we passed out pencils and eraser tops. We explained to them how to use the eraser tops and also told them their teacher would have sharpeners. I saw some students trying out the erasers. Two students gave us bags of groundnuts (peanuts) they brought from home. We were thrilled. Macdonald took a picture with his camera (It wasn’t a digital camera). Krista and I were excited- our first teacher gift. ☺

We left and headed to MIE to quickly eat lunch before we headed to a local catholic church for the choir to perform. Thankfully two boys from the choir came to MIE to guide us back to the church-we would have gotten lost b/c all the roads look the same. It took about 30 minutes to walk to the church. I really enjoyed the walk because it was overcast outside so it wasn’t as hot as it normally is. We got to walk through and get very close to many many villages. I felt like I was in the true Africa. There was no power or cars, just dirt roads, brick houses and bikes. We gathered quite the crowd following us. Lots of little kids and even some adults. And we saw goats, sheep and chickens everywhere.

The church was beautiful! We sat outside and listened to the choir sing and dance. I loved it! They finished their presentation and Dr. Kelly explained what an “encore” is and asked if they would do an encore and she requested a song she remembered from a previous year. The man said he will “accept” her request and he danced! I had just as much fun watching the crowd of village families that followed us. They sat in the back and made silly sounds. We went up to them and tried to copy it but they just laughed at us! Let me tell you, if your going to come to Africa you have to be prepared to make a complete foul out of yourself and be able to laugh at everything.

As we were getting ready to leave a little boy came up to me and I knew I recognized his face. And I think they all look the same so for me to remember a face means I really interacted with them. At first I thought he was in my class but then he told me I brought him the backpacks to his school. Then I remembered he was the smart little boy that I danced with! I can’t believe we ran into each other again and I was so surprised he came up to me! We started talking and he introduced me to his cousin who also walked with us. They are both in standard 7 but his cousin was absent the day we gave the backpacks because he had a headache. The boys ended up walking me back the entire way even though their home was right next to the church. We talked about everything. They showed me all the crops we were walking by and told me what they like to eat. I saw maize, potatoes, and bananas. The little boy wants to be a lawyer and his cousin wants to be an engineer. He asked lots of great questions about America. I told him I am a student at VT and he told me he has asked his dad to get his passport so he came come study in America. He asked if they had cars, bikes and motorcycles in America and I told him yes. He told me he walks 2 KM to school each day. It was a long walk and I wished I remembered everything we talked about but it was another one of my very favorite moments of the trip. I was walking in the dirt paths of Malawi talking to two very sweet and smart little boys. I opened my backpack at the end and gave them stickers, pencils, and a set of jacks. I’m so glad I always carry little toys with me for moments like this.

We got on the bus and a group of us got off in town to eat at Tasty Bites. They were out of cake. Bummer because I was craving something sweet. The meal was still a lot cheaper than Annie’s Lodge. Brian ordered fish and he didn’t realize the entire fish would come out on a plate-head and mouth included. We joked with him and told him he was eating Nemo.

I think I’ve finally got my eating schedule straightened out. It’s difficult because breakfast is free but it’s at 8am so you have to eat lots to last you for the entire day. Lunch is usually a PB&J sandwich you make at breakfast and bring some bananas/oranges and crackers. So by the time we get back to Annie’s Lodge around 4pm, we are hungry. We usually eat dinner around 4ish because that way we have time to digest and we are hungry when we wake up. It took us a couple days to figure out what times worked out best since I’m not used to a big breakfast.

We got back expecting Peter to have fixed out Internet, and he hasn’t. I’m upset! I feel like its been forever since I’ve talked to my parents. I walked down the hill to check my email on someone’s computer and we were all getting impatient so we wanted to see if Peter was coming tonight. We went to the office and they said he wasn’t coming until tomorrow morning and I asked if it was okay to call him. I apologized for calling him but he didn’t mind and I was really feeling like I needed to check my emails- it’s been 3 days. Peter called the company today and didn’t realize that they hadn’t fixed the problem. He was very apologetic and said he will make sure they reset it from the start so we get an additional 24 hours. He also said he would come by in the morning so we could get money from the safe.

I was glad to hear he called them and said we would talk in the morning. A few minutes later peter stopped by! I felt bad he probably came because I called him. Haha He remembered he had a universal password so he gave it to us to use until we get our cards back. I was ecstatic! I ran up the hill to try it out. Well that was short lived because only one person can sign on at a time. We have a sign up sheet to arrange for Internet time. I know, we are so silly. But it’s our only way of contacting our families and we have also grown up in a generation that relies on the Internet almost 100%. So I think its pretty good that we have adjusted this much. Through this Internet mess and walking all over Annie’s Lodge, we really wish we had brought walkie talkies!

Since Domasi Demonstration School only has 2 NC A & T students coming each day, I offered Brian some of my maps I have to take with him to the school. He gladly took them!

Krista and I talked tonight about retiring in Malawi. We have convinced ourselves that’s it’s the best decision financially and we are going to open Lexi’s Lodge and Krista’s Kafe!