Question # 5: What do hungry children, upset teachers, false identities and amnesia all have in common?
If you said Grandmas, you are correct! Great job class!
Every morning, Amit and I make lunches for all of our students. We always make 39 sandwiches for our 38 students. On Wednesday, I passed out all the sandwiches and ran out before the last three students had gotten one. I was extremely upset; I knew we had made enough and I could not stand the fact that three of the kids would not have a lunch! So, Amit and I deviced a plan, because either the students had taken too many or the sandwiches had disappeared at the home we make them at. On Thursday, when we arrived at the teacher’s home where we make the lunches, we were greeted by her mothe-in-law as usual. As we were making the lunches, I kindly asked the elderly lady to please watch her cat today because we “thought the cat may have eaten a sandwich the day before” and some of the students had not received a lunch. The woman looked at me with a very confused look and claimed to not understand my english. (The day before she had asked me for a copy of the picture of her dog…) Amit and I just looked at each other and then proceeded to arrange all 39 sandwiches in an orderly (flower-like) arrangement. We then left for the school. When the lunches were brought, I removed the towel on them and found…. a sandwich was missing!! It WAS the grandmother!! Mystery Solved!!! Moral of the story: beware the kind, old woman in the Basotho blanket.
The kids at Koalabata are doing a great job with their gardens. They come before class to take care of them. This week’s lessons included forces, electricity, light, and atoms. Highlights include: the most hilariously curious faces I have ever seen when I said we were going to learn about “atoms,” creating atoms with peanuts and raisins, wheelbarrow races to teach simple machines, making Amit’s hair stand on end to show static electricity, listening to the students’ rap songs about electricity :), and milk carton car races for the forces lesson.
We are preparing for the HIV testing day at Koalabata next Friday! We met with people from a non-profit organization called “Kick 4 Life” who agreed to help with the event! We are so excited, because they are awesome! They will bring ten coaches to run a “confederation cup soccer tournament” for all the students involved in the event! I Amit and I will be teaching about HIV/AIDS all throughout next week. We are putting the students into groups to design projects about HIV. The groups include: prevention, symptoms, treatment, ect. They will display their work at the testing event. Thursday, I got asked the question if people had made HIV to kill Africans! WOW! I wasn’t expecting that one! It is amazing some of the things these kids believe.
Today was our last day at SOS; the kids go on a trip next week. After administering the post-test that simulates a PSLE, I found that the students’ scores had increase by 18% in science from the three weeks of instruction. I sure hope this correlates to an increase in their actual PSLE scores!
Oh, and one more thing! Amit and I are creating a scholarship fund for two students from Koalabata to attend secondary school next year. We learned that the reason some of the students are so old and still in our class is because they can’t afford to go to secondary school. Primary school is free. A year of secondary school costs roughly $250 (USD); this is a lot if your family lives on $1-2 a day! Applications will be given out next week.
Peace (Khotso!)