7/30/10 Crayons, coloring books, and more soccer

Today is Friday and we had a 10am appointment to bring our mosquito net coloring pages and crayons that we so laboriously brought to Tanzania. We made 500 copies of the coloring book and brought about 55 lbs. of crayons in our luggage. The school experience was fun but kind of sad at the same time. Since we have limited materials, we decided to involve the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade of two local primary schools. The general purpose of this event is to promote mosquito net use among children in a fun way. We would first have our translator explain that malaria is caused by mosquitoes, nets help prevent mosquito bites, and then briefly explain each of the 6 images in the coloring packet. Then we had the children write their names on the packet and color one chosen page. We then collected the packets back because we are taking them home to judge which student has the best colored photo and then award them a prize, probably a mosquito net, on Monday. Then on Monday we will also give them back their packets and also donate 3 crayons per child.
The sad part about visiting the schools is seeing the condition of the classrooms and education system. One of the teachers told us that there were 700 kids and 12 teachers which means about 1 teach for every 60 students. Each grade would consist of 50-100 kids crammed in one classroom probably fit for 30 children. The kids would share a small desk and wooden bench with up to 4 children per desk. The room is very bare with no fun posters, colorful art, or educational materials. None of the kids had their own crayons, markers, scissors, or anything near that. The teachers didn’t seem to have much chalk either. I thought it was incredibly sad that some classrooms full of an entire grade of students had no teacher. It seems like the teachers actually rotate between classrooms. We left at about noon for lunch and the kids returned at 2pm and we returned at 3pm and the 4th grade class did not seem to have a teacher that entire time before and after the lunch break. There was also nothing on the chalk board like some of the other classrooms indicating that they were working on some sort of lesson. A lot of children and teachers seemed to be missing. The number of students that we prepared materials for based on the total estimate given by the headmaster was significantly less than the children present today. The good thing was that they kids that were there really enjoyed the coloring and crayons. They were all so sweet and for the most part well behaved. I can’t wait to visit the second primary school and return to this one for prizes on Monday. Wish me luck on judging, its too difficult!!
At about 5pm today, I went back on the field sans translator but had the accompaniment of Melody and Louisa. Louisa is a German medical student that recently moved into the SHED hostel. She was smart enough to bring a full size soccer ball. I’m pretty sure all the secondary school kids really wanted to play with her golden soccer ball. We returned to the same spot where Pili, Melody, and I had played handball the day before with a tiny bit of soccer. Today was amazingly fun as well. Louisa, Melody, and I played handball for a long time with the girls. We then switched to soccer. Somehow I managed to organize teaching some soccer basics with no Swahili or Luo knowledge (and very limited soccer skills too). But all the girls lined up and we did dribbling, passing, heading, chesting, and stopping the ball. It was going amazing but then some girls had to leave and then a bunch of the secondary school boys started to join and hogged the ball showing off their juggling and long kicks. Today we had so many more girls than the 7 from yesterday, we must have had like 15-20 girls. It was so awesome, some of them started calling me friend and sister. I’m so thrilled to have local rafikis. The girls were so inviting and funny. Even though there was a huge language barrier, there were still general gestures that you can understand in any language. The girls were so amazing, they learned the basic soccer skills so fast and they were totally playing in their skirts the entire time and most were barefoot or wearing flip flops! They want us to return tomorrow and I want to continue this girl soccer building!! I am definitely loving it here in Shirati, I’m not ready to go anytime soon and am so sad that I basically only have 1 more week. I really wish I could stay a few more months, I’m entirely too happy here but learning so much at the same time.