Wow! Time has really flown this week and I have not even completed a blog! As our journey is quickly approaching the end, we have experienced many different events as well as emotions!
This week has been very unique and different from our past 3 weeks at Emafini! The students have dwelled away and we have only had a group of about 15 to 20 this week! Since the children have not been present we started a new project this week! To our surprise on Monday morning we were shown the library. Who knew that Emafini even had a library? Not us! It is at the back of the school and it is small but is filled with so many great books! This was exciting and depressing all at the same time! It was exciting that they actually had so many books to use, but depressing that we had been teaching for 3 weeks with no clue that this library even existed! This is heartbreaking because the school has all these great books that the kids could be reading, but they remain locked up and untouched. So, we began to organize the books and clean up the library this week! Our hope is once the books are more organized then the teachers and eventually the students will be able to take advantage of all the wonderful books that are in the library.
Since there have been a few students we have sort of taken turns hanging out and teaching them and then working in the library. On Monday and Tuesday Emily and I had the opportunity to hang out, play educational games, and read this small group of students! It was so much fun and they loved to read and for us to read stories to them! We had the opportunity to read outside as well, which I really enjoyed! It brightened my day as the little boy approached me with the Disney story The Little Mermaid in his hand and said “just one more please!” As we sat outside on this sunny day and read the other students slowly joined us! I had an audience range from grade 1 students to grade 6 students! I loved every second of that story and the joy that was on each of their faces as they sat and listened because their attention had been captured by this classic story!
Yesterday and today I worked in the library for most of the day! On Friday we will present our work to the teachers and Mr. January.
Also this week we have meet new friends at the market, South African and American; had dinner at Paul’s house (who is a professor at university, which was a barbeque but they call it a braai); and spent some quality time together as a group! We have an amazing group and I am so excited about the rest of our journey together!
