Helping out at AGC

Today we were able to visit AGC. (All God's Children School) When we arrived each of us went off to a different place to help. G.G and I went to the 2nd grade classroom to help with reading. We read them a book out loud called, "Working together is good". It was about a little boy named Saa who learned to help his Mama and Papa make Cassava cake. It was cute. The kids love visitors:) I was glad for the opportunity to sit down and rest, after walking everywhere, because my legs are sore! Yesterday we were home bound due to the rain, and had nothing to do. So Mom and I did 3 P90X videos. My legs were not happy with that.
~Meg


After helping the kids in their classrooms we all went out to recess. All the Elementary school age kids ran outside into the court-yard and immediately came over to Meg and I. They like to touch our skin, hold our hands and arms, and push on them to see it change colors. They also run their fingers in our hair and say "It's soft!". Their hair is very short and pulled back tight into little braids, so I don't think they get to play with hair a lot. These kids are a little rougher and more pushy than the kids back in the States. My arms got tired from all their pushing and pulling, so I raised them straight up in the air. They copied my movements exactly. I started to spin in circles; funny enough all the kids did the same thing. I started to run around and they all followed me with their arms still straight up in the air. Meg and I were laughing so hard! We wanted to tire them out, so we decided to teach them how to play sharks and minnows. We lined them up against one of the walls and told them to run to the opposite one without getting tagged by us, otherwise they would have to be taggers along with us. They gave us blank stares, so we ended up saying "Run to that wall...and don't let us touch you! We will eat you!" That seemed to get the message across, well, for the first few times. They didn't stay on the opposite wall as a base. They kept running around. But that was fine. About the fourth time we said "GO!" one little boy made a bee-line for me and jumped into my arms yelling. The next round all the kids did that same thing charging straight at us and running right smack dab into us! We stopped playing after that:)
-GG


I was taken to a classroom of about 20 kids to help with writing. Each student has their own composition book and a pencil sharpened at both ends (because thats all they have in case one side breaks). Every class period they write "Name, Class, Topic, Subject, Date" in their books and fill it out. The teacher was really nice and basically handed the class over to me. I didn't know what to do at first and the teacher only smiled and said, "Yes, you teach!" I decided to write sentences on the board, have the class read them out loud, and then write the sentence in their books. At the end of the class I had written 15 sentences having to do with school. The kids all had fun and so did I!
*M.C.*


I didn't have to stay inside the school like the girls did today. Harris (the assistant coach to the school) pulled me aside right away and said he had a job for me. We stayed on the outside of the wall that surrounds the school and mixed paint powder into a bucket of sea water. We checked to make sure it was thick enough and then started smearing it across the wall. The paint brushes looked kind of like the bottom of a broom. I had to go over the paint a few times because it was thin and not exactly white. But I had fun. I got some paint on my clothes, and Mom said that I can scrub them on a washboard outside. I wouldn't like that too much (:



While my children went off to help in the classrooms, I got to play school nurse. Louise, the real school nurse is training me to help her out. The difficult part of this job is trying to understand what the kids are saying. They speak quietly and a little too quickly. I had complaints of diarrhea, stomach aches, headaches, fever, some sores in one girls mouth, and a couple kids said it hurt to breath. So I treated for parasites and worms, vitamin deficiency, gave antibiotics for the breathing problems even though the lungs sounded clear, and tested a couple of kids for malaria. I gave the kids their medications in little packets with the directions written on them. Louise treats for everything and can even put in stitches if someone cuts themselves. One little boy came in and asked me if I would be his friend to which I replied yes. Later he asked if I would buy him a bicycle from the states. I told him that would be too expensive and asked if that would be fair to all the other children. He said "yes because we are friends." Then he said that I could just buy him some shoes instead! I love these kids.
Kim