End of week eight!

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March 5^th, 2012

Dear Readers,

This is what I have learned this week:

1. Red Rover is extremely fun and extremely dangerous. I forgot how much fun that game is. It is probably only fun because of how dangerous it is, like a lot of things. It was nice to play with them, though. I had been having a bit of trouble connecting with some of the more mischevious kids, but playing a rough game is apparently the best way to do so.

2. I find it crazy sometimes that if a child hit another in Canada, that they would be suspended, and that if a child was running on top of a desk while spitting on another child, that they would be assessed. I often wish that I could do more than I can for these kids, but I really am trying my best. I don’t know why they feel the need to hit and attack each other so much! That is certainly not something that I can relate to.

3. I definitely feel the two steps forward, one step backwards thing. It is the strangest and hardest part about international development work. I am getting better at not thinking about “them vs. us”. Everyone is the same, because we are ALL different. I always knew that all people are people, but it is hard to remember when immersed in a culture so different from my own!

4. Cat birth is the weirdest and coolest thing that I have ever seen. (that’s right; I saw a cat give birth). Did you know that the kittens come out still in the placenta, and then the mother kitten eats the kittens out of the placenta? It is disgusting, but incredibly cool! I was with about four kids and I was able to sneak some pictures of their reactions without them noticing. The pictures are hilarious because the kids look absolutely horrified. The day was one big birds and bees lesson for some of them. I think that parents here are not as open and comfortable discussing where babies come from as they are in Canada, so the kids had many questions for me. They seemed surprised that I was OK with answering stuff and that I was not uncomfortable with it at all. We also had to save the kittens from some dogs who were trying to eat them. I have now officially held a cat that is less than ten minutes old.

5. Sunday school here is very similar to Sunday school at home, except that the one here has no rice krispie treats. It is hard to believe that the kids still come without them. I am not sure if I would have had that motivation without the free food. I also read the kids a bible story, and then we had them all draw a picture of the story we read. One of the younger kids drew me a nice picture of a helicopter. That pretty well sums up the Good Samaritan, right?

Thank you for reading,

Love,

Laura (treble)

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