Our collegue, Leonard Chumo, Director of ICRI Africa, picked us up to visit schools today. Leonard was our fearless leader throughout the day and we could not have found our way through Nairobi without him. Because traffic in Narobi is horrific, we spent hours in traffic. Even though Leonard was creative when weaving through the crowded city, the routes that were meant to be short cuts often were overrun with traffic.
Our first stop was a small school called Lampros Educational Center. We were greeted by the school head master and his colleagues along with lots of curious childen dressed in red and blue uniforms. As we entered the classroom, the children sat wide-eyed at their wooden desks, hands folded, prepared for us, the visitors. The classroom was lined with letters from the alphabet, shapes and descriptions of what a family looks like. The chalkboard had the lesson outlined for the day: Sharing. The teacher, Jane, taught childen that were 4 & 5 years of age. Jane was pretty creative and innovative because she drew what sharing looked like on the chalkboard while describing the concept. Hearing the children's voices recite the concept of sharing and spell the word was heartwarming and inspirational. They each drew what sharing was from the board using different examples such as bananas, avocado, local cuisine, a smile and a hug. They got it! We had done our job. Plus, Jane not only understood how to teach the concept of sharing, she was very creative with her students.
The second stop we made was a preschool whuere we saw another teacher, Jacky, teach sharing to toddlers that were around 3 years of age. The children wore blue outfits that resembled Nike jumpsuits.These little kids were quite restless by the time we arrived and distracted with us sitting and watching them. They showed us what sharing meant by demonstrating how they shared with each other. It was evident that although they were tiny, they were able to grasp the concept and were having fun sharing with each other. The teacher was able to create a variety of things for the children to share, and each child was rewarded by the teacher when they demonstrated. Before we left, they waved good bye and gave us their award wining smiles. So cute. Unfortunately, the next and a half hours were spent in traffic. Although it was not what we wanted, we had the opportunity to learn about Leonard. We really enjoyed getting the time we spent with him, laughing and at times joking about the traffic. For those of you who currently live in LA, or have ever lived in LA, we can assure you that LA traffic is nothing compared to Nairobi traffic. Nairobi is known for their horrible traffic, and boy did we get to experience it! We made it back to the hotel safely, but tired.
We enjoyed a pleasant evening outdoors, reflecting back on our journey. Today marked the last day of the Speak to Children program in Africa. It has been a long, but rewarding excursion creating outrageous goodness in Ghana, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Our hope is that the teachers we trained will be more mindful of how they treat children in the classroom and that they will pay it forward, training other teachers along the way so that we can reach more teachers and children.
We express our sincere appreciation again to all of you for supporting us and following us on this journey. We imagine as the next few days go by we will continue to digest all that we felt, saw and learned.
Until then, we send a gratitude shout out to each of you.
"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.”
Cheers,
Giulietta and Melanie
Kids hanging on as they ride on the truck in front of us.
ICRI director, Leonard.
Jane teaching sharing to her students.
Students drawing what they learned about sharing.
Preschool pic!
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