Monday morning and we're back at school. Today I was at Olives and the morning was informal – some drawing with the kids as well as some small group or one-on-one reading and math with the kids. I was working with a girl about 8 or 9 – we started with math as she was doing some multiplication exercises from a book. What I got an amazing sense of accomplishment from – for both her and me – was when I showed her a way to do 'larger' multiplication and then she used the same method again to solve another problem. She had learned a new method – how cool! Then we moved on to reading – she was reading a 'Dora' book (it made me think of my niece as Dora is one of her favorites!) - she was very good at pronouncing the words so we spent time with the pictures working on her comprehension. My disappointment came when I learned she is not actually in the school. She is quick and bright and wants to learn (she stayed in the room to study when other kids went out to play) - with the expansion of Olives, hopefully she will be able to get a place. I really enjoy being able to work with the kids one on one – there is something so rewarding when you see them make a connection.
I'm also realizing how much of a 'pull' factor we are – whether it is kids wanting to hold our hands and walk with us on the way to and from school, (and I'm sure out of their way) to kids wanting to hold our hands in the games – and then the tussles for who gets to hold our hand – with some of the kids getting pretty pushy about it with the other kids – figuring out how best to manage this is interesting ... my instinct is to not reward the pushy behavior and at the same time I can't help but admire their forthrightness :-)
One of our tasks in the afternoon was to help tidy the school – sweeping dirt is a never ending battle and we also went after the cobwebs and then rearranged the desks so that by the end the rooms were looking much more in 'order'. The school floors are concrete but they are old and in a real state of disrepair – we've had a couple close calls where the desk/chair units loose their balance. So Tess, the GVI Project Manager, has persuaded a local cement company to donate lay and new cement for the floors. They were by on Friday to look at the school and the floors and gave their thumbs up - everyone was very excited. We're hoping it can be done in time for the new term but that may be optimistic. Olives is a labor of love for Tess - she found the school when she was volunteering on another GVI project and convinced GVI to set up the program. She has amazing energy and does a great job creating opportunities for the school with a very strong partnership with Steven and Michael.
Once the work was done, it was back to games – including volleyball, which continues to seem more about the adults playing than the kids – but then I realized that it was also about engaging other members of the community, especially important as the school gets established in it's new home.
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