Today at Magereza I taught the letters B & C (how to write them, words that start with them..) and the concept of more and less. The letters went OK but they really struggled with more and less. I was having trouble moving them from the concept of big/small to more/less, but I really love going there every day. The daily routine is something like this: the kids walk to school on their own either from within the prison or from nearby homes. They play together on a slide or swings until we arrive, and then we play with them. They line up in two groups based on age and ability in front of the school doors, where they sing a song and their hair and nails are inspected by the teacher for cleanliness. (I find this ironic because each kid only has one outfit that they wear every day, and they are always filthy. Their nails, though, are generally clean.) There are two lessons a day, English and math. The lessons are dictated by the volunteers, and I have heard that before Liz came and established a curriculum there was no structure at all. They have most likely repeated a few basic lessons over and over with each group of new volunteers. There is a break between lessons where they are served lunch. Lunch is a watery porridge with very little nutritional value. It is served out of a large bucket, like one used to hold paint. The students line up for their turn, and the teacher scoops it out for each child. They push and fight for the best sports in line, because only the first kids finish in enough time to get seconds. (Here is a link to the video Liz’s organization, Lee Oneness, made about the food crisis and features Margereza: http://www.leeonenessfoundation.com/.) After the second lesson the classes end and the kids play until the volunteers leave. When we leave, they go home.
On the walk home I got stung by a big bee and it swelled up a lot. It’s weird, because I’m not allergic to bee stings at home. Back at home base we had a delicious lunch of leek soup and crusty bread. I can’t wait to stop having diarrhea! Also, I figured out today that I can call Dave from the CCS phone, but he can’t call me. This is slightly inconvenient as each phone card only lasts 5 minutes, so I have to buy a bunch and keep entering the information every time the minutes run out.
The batik man (Sam) came to the home base in the afternoon and he taught us how to make paintings. We each made a small one, and it took about two hours. Some of us tried to draw our own pictures, which he thought was very funny. Mine was coming out really nicely, but then at the end I rushed and made the black parts bleed. It’s still cool, though.