Day one at the School - Monday

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Today was our first official day at the school. After we arrived at the school and finished our second breakfast of the day, we were escorted around to meet all of the classes. Starting with Baby class (Kindergarten), we walked in with our clowns in full uniform. The kids were all a little unsure as to how to react. Most of them have never seen white skin let alone white skin with a big red nose dressed in all these crazy colorful clothes. It didn’t take long for them to warm up though. As soon as the bubbles and balloons came out, they couldn’t help themselves. They were screaming and laughing in excitement and jumping all over the place for the balloons. It was so much fun. The volunteers were so great. They had just as much energy with the last class as they did with this first. You wouldn’t think much of that but after 9 classes, about 20 minutes in each class, in the sweltering heat with some of the clowns in polyester you can’t even imagine how exhausting it can be.
We were then able to serve the kids lunch. The cooks portioned out the meals and we gave each plate to the kids. They all waited patiently in a line while we all took them their plates. It was very emotional for many but it was a great experience. The kids are always so polite and every child said thank you “teacha”.
Lunch time came for us giving us some time to pull ourselves together.
That afternoon, we were able to play with the kids in the schoolyard. I will be honest, I was extremely overwhelmed. There are 400 students and about 15 of us at the time. We tried a few games but we were unsuccessful due to the chaos and language barrier combined with the fact that these are all small children that don’t really understand rules of games in the first place. Then we made the very dangerous mistake of bringing out 1 ball. I was so afraid. There was a stampede. As bad as we felt, we ended up putting it away and tried some quieter games consisting of me sitting in the shade quietly panicking inside, wondering what the heck I am going to do. While all of this was going on a couple of the volunteers were going through all the medical supplies that they had brought. Nurse Janet was so overwhelmingly happy. It’s going to take them a couple days to get through it all.
We left around 4:00pm as that is the end of the school day and some of the kids go home after school, while others stay. Going home was fun. We all really enjoyed walking through town because everyone was always so shocked by the appearance of our group. They would either stare, point and laugh or in the case of some small children, cry. Every time we walked through we would wave to all the people sitting outside their little stores and street vendors. Every time we go through town they become more and more comfortable with us.
After returning back to the hotel and washing up, we all met for supper. One of the clowns, Marissa, had a great idea. She coordinated everyone into groups to take on the different grades and teach them a song or something for a final presentation that would take place on the last day (Thursday). Kristina and I took the Baby and Nursery class. This will be so much easier to coordinate the kids and really enjoy them without feeling totally overwhelmed. Some of the ideas that came out consisted of a puppet show, a fashion show of jewelery that they get to make, a choreographed dance and a song. Who knows if it will all work out but it is definitely a start.

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