Coach Connell's African Adventure: Day 11, June 19, 2014

Day 11, June 19, 2014

Got up this morning at the Hotel Eel and had a lucious bath which I haven’t had since we left. Then I had a good breakfast at the hotel. Morris came to get me and said we would travel as the Africans due today by walking everywhere we go. We walked to his school and I tried to blog from yesterday. He has configured his schools wifi so I can get my laptop on it. So I checked my email and Facebook. Then blogged. I would guess 10% Kenyans have cars, 10 % have motorcycles and the rest walk or ride a bike. 80% walk everywhere for miles. We walked to Monica’s school about 3 miles. Simon, Jeff and Joseph carried all our bags like porters. By the way Komnen’s second wife had a baby girl, so he had to leave to go back to Maasai Mara millage. I met her while I was there and had no idea she was pregnant. She wasn’t showing a bit. Komnen is 28 years old and this is his fifth child. So we walk into the gate to the school and all of the children started rushing to us screaming and yelling. They were grabbing me and I could hardly walk. The teacher called them back. Then I introduced Bright School. They said teach us like they do at Bright School, so I taught them how to do "morning meeting”. We divided up into 4 groups of 9 about. We spread out around the yard and sat in the grass in a circle. We greeted each other around the circle by saying our name and shaking hands. Then one person who wanted to shared something special and the others asked them questions about what they had shared. Did I get that right Denise Cooper? Then I put the groups into stations with an adult. Mercy, Morris’s wife translated for me. Morris did a math lesson which I created acting out word problems. The children acted out flying bugs and added them together. Judy did arts and crafts using the materials the Bright School children had sent, Monica did letter sounds by using rocks to make the letters and then acting out something that starts with that letter, like A and animal. Then I read stories with lots of charades and Mercy translated. After each rotation, I would bring all the groups together to do a physical activity. First we played a game called “Hoppin’ Mad” where they grasped right arms, stood on one foot hopping and tried to pull the other across a line on the ground. Then we rotated the stations, then we did another activity. We played “Dead Bug” using old tires instead of hula hoops. Everything went well except for all the local children that would come in. My heart ached for them for they are very, very poor and ragged, but it made for too many people for the game to work right. But as they say in Africa, “Hakunna Matata” (no problem). As we said good-by to the children all the local children followed us down the dirt roads. I felt like the pied piper. After being in Nairobi, Nukuru and Elburgon, I understand the meaning of minority. I have not seen another white person. They call me “mzungu” which means white girl. We walked the three miles back, but I couldn’t even swallow my throat was so dry. It was like we were celebrities, cause everyone waves and says hello to me. I’m an oddity. Tomorrow we will rotate thru the next two stations. We stopped at a grocery which you can’t imagine and bought a big box of tropical juice. I drink about half of it right then and there. Came back to Morris’s school and worked on blog.