Tour of the Ark Refuge/School
Today we got to go see the school we will be working at, called The Ark. It is a refugee housing and education complex. Many of the children at the school are orphans, so they live at the school in tiny bungalows with bunk beds. They are beautiful children, very excited to see us. Each classroom we visited rose and recited "Good day to you and may God bless you," and the second graders recited The Lord is my Shepard from beginning to end in their broken English accents. The language will certainly take a while to get used to, but I am very excited. I am working in the second grade classroom, although today I only observed, didn't help out at all.
During the tour, we met several fascinating people, including a woman who was probably about 90 years old but clearly a child at heart. She was very excited to see us and pleaded with us to take her picture while she posed like a beauty queen. She was very sweet. Later, we visited the daycare center where the preschool, toddler, and infant classrooms are. The children in the daycare are absolutely adorable and we all just wanted to take them home with us. Upon entering the toddler room, Katie was immediately bombarded by about 5 toddlers who wrapped themselves around her legs shouting "Hello! Hello!" It was so cute! I am very fortunate in that my second graders get out of school two hours before some of the older classrooms, so during that time, Katie and I (and possibly others, I'm not sure), are going to be able to work in the daycare until our peers are finished in their classrooms. Our school days will go from 9:30 until 12:30 and then we will work in the daycare until 2:30. The school atmosphere is quite a bit different here and it will definitely take some getting used to. They still allow corporal punishment here, so that is very hard to accept and watch. The students are also fairly far behind their grade level in comparison with America, since they are nearly all English as a Second Language learners. Today, my second graders were learing the difference between "his" and "her."
The Ark is an amazing place. While it is very impoverished and runs entirely on donations, there is a very strong community of people there. The people who live there also work there as payment for being provided housing. Everyone has a job there, including the children, whose job it is to go to school each day. Since it is a Christian-based refugee complex, they are also required to attend church services in order to remain living there. The complex houses everyone from single elderly men and women to single abused mothers to orphan children. I am just truly lucky to be given the opportunity to work at such a place.
Tomorrow is a holiday, so we will not be attending the school. Instead, we are taking a group trip to a winery and some hot springs. Tomorrow night, Tara and Karly (the girls who were still awaiting their passports) are expected to arrive, so then our house will be complete. It will be great to have Tara here finally, although Eric is a great roommate. It will just be nice to know that the two girls aren't missing out on anything else after tomorrow. I may not be able to update this tomorrow, as we will be out of town for the day.
We met our host family's daughter Amy last night. She's 21, and she's very sweet... and Cathy you'll be happy to know she's a big fan of tea, so I will be drinking a lot of that while I'm here I'm sure. Anyway, I'm slowly but surely getting comfortable in the house with the family, and am now fully unpacked. John and Liz, the host parents, told us great stories last night about their trips to the game reserve we'll be visiting in Namibia, so I'm very excited about that trip now.
Thanks to everyone who commented on my last entry... I look forward to continuing to hear from all of you! And I will have pictures soon I hope. I took many great pictures of the children today which I can't wait to share with you.
Until next time, love,
Meg
During the tour, we met several fascinating people, including a woman who was probably about 90 years old but clearly a child at heart. She was very excited to see us and pleaded with us to take her picture while she posed like a beauty queen. She was very sweet. Later, we visited the daycare center where the preschool, toddler, and infant classrooms are. The children in the daycare are absolutely adorable and we all just wanted to take them home with us. Upon entering the toddler room, Katie was immediately bombarded by about 5 toddlers who wrapped themselves around her legs shouting "Hello! Hello!" It was so cute! I am very fortunate in that my second graders get out of school two hours before some of the older classrooms, so during that time, Katie and I (and possibly others, I'm not sure), are going to be able to work in the daycare until our peers are finished in their classrooms. Our school days will go from 9:30 until 12:30 and then we will work in the daycare until 2:30. The school atmosphere is quite a bit different here and it will definitely take some getting used to. They still allow corporal punishment here, so that is very hard to accept and watch. The students are also fairly far behind their grade level in comparison with America, since they are nearly all English as a Second Language learners. Today, my second graders were learing the difference between "his" and "her."
The Ark is an amazing place. While it is very impoverished and runs entirely on donations, there is a very strong community of people there. The people who live there also work there as payment for being provided housing. Everyone has a job there, including the children, whose job it is to go to school each day. Since it is a Christian-based refugee complex, they are also required to attend church services in order to remain living there. The complex houses everyone from single elderly men and women to single abused mothers to orphan children. I am just truly lucky to be given the opportunity to work at such a place.
Tomorrow is a holiday, so we will not be attending the school. Instead, we are taking a group trip to a winery and some hot springs. Tomorrow night, Tara and Karly (the girls who were still awaiting their passports) are expected to arrive, so then our house will be complete. It will be great to have Tara here finally, although Eric is a great roommate. It will just be nice to know that the two girls aren't missing out on anything else after tomorrow. I may not be able to update this tomorrow, as we will be out of town for the day.
We met our host family's daughter Amy last night. She's 21, and she's very sweet... and Cathy you'll be happy to know she's a big fan of tea, so I will be drinking a lot of that while I'm here I'm sure. Anyway, I'm slowly but surely getting comfortable in the house with the family, and am now fully unpacked. John and Liz, the host parents, told us great stories last night about their trips to the game reserve we'll be visiting in Namibia, so I'm very excited about that trip now.
Thanks to everyone who commented on my last entry... I look forward to continuing to hear from all of you! And I will have pictures soon I hope. I took many great pictures of the children today which I can't wait to share with you.
Until next time, love,
Meg