Day 3 From Mallory's Perspective
Preschool
Today was our first day at the preschool, of all the missions trips I've gone on that involved children, today was by far the most amazing I've experienced!
We started our day really early with a typical Rwandan breakfast (tons of bread, coffee and eggs). Then we started our 45 min walk to the school. The walk wasn't as bad I was anticipating but still a long trek.
The highlight of the groups day, at least mine, was on the walk. I was chatting with another guy, Josh, in our group, walking a ways behind everyone else when after what felt like forever we rounded the corner of this dirt road to hear the screams of children. When I looked up to see what was going on I saw about 40 children screaming with joy running straight towards our group! It was the coolest/cutest thing I've ever seen! The children ran up latching on to our groups legs with big hugs, fighting amongst them self over who got to hold the "mzungus" hands. They were all so happy to see us, with huge smiles on their faces, I've never seen such happy children! Nor experience such an awesome welcome before! As we walked Hand in hand with them the rest of the way to the preschool we quickly learned how much English they knew, they were asking us our names and greeting us with welcome and good morning.
As soon as we got to the school we toured the three classrooms (2 yrs, 4 yrs, and 5 yrs). Each class sang songs to show us their English skills and welcomed us. Everything from ABC to the "itsy bitsy spider". I was blown away by their English! We spent the rest of the morning helping the kids learn English, doing arts and crafts, playing soccer and just hanging out with them. We learned they LOVE cameras and soccer! After a morning of playing and learning, they all gathered on the grass to leave, and danced for us. It was the funniest and cutest thing I've ever seen! They were so good too!
After we said our goodbyes we caught a bus (a VERY crowded bus) back to the house to eat lunch. When returned to the school that afternoon we taught adults English! It was such a neat experience to teach them common phrases and greetings because at the same time we were teaching them we were also learning their language, the group loved it and soon practice their new knowledge on the children playing outside!
After teaching the adults we painted all the women's finger nails, which they enjoyed and appreciated! After a long day we headed back to the house to relax and eat dinner with the Rwandan national cycling team.
I'm so pumped to go back to the school tomorrow!
Today was our first day at the preschool, of all the missions trips I've gone on that involved children, today was by far the most amazing I've experienced!
We started our day really early with a typical Rwandan breakfast (tons of bread, coffee and eggs). Then we started our 45 min walk to the school. The walk wasn't as bad I was anticipating but still a long trek.
The highlight of the groups day, at least mine, was on the walk. I was chatting with another guy, Josh, in our group, walking a ways behind everyone else when after what felt like forever we rounded the corner of this dirt road to hear the screams of children. When I looked up to see what was going on I saw about 40 children screaming with joy running straight towards our group! It was the coolest/cutest thing I've ever seen! The children ran up latching on to our groups legs with big hugs, fighting amongst them self over who got to hold the "mzungus" hands. They were all so happy to see us, with huge smiles on their faces, I've never seen such happy children! Nor experience such an awesome welcome before! As we walked Hand in hand with them the rest of the way to the preschool we quickly learned how much English they knew, they were asking us our names and greeting us with welcome and good morning.
As soon as we got to the school we toured the three classrooms (2 yrs, 4 yrs, and 5 yrs). Each class sang songs to show us their English skills and welcomed us. Everything from ABC to the "itsy bitsy spider". I was blown away by their English! We spent the rest of the morning helping the kids learn English, doing arts and crafts, playing soccer and just hanging out with them. We learned they LOVE cameras and soccer! After a morning of playing and learning, they all gathered on the grass to leave, and danced for us. It was the funniest and cutest thing I've ever seen! They were so good too!
After we said our goodbyes we caught a bus (a VERY crowded bus) back to the house to eat lunch. When returned to the school that afternoon we taught adults English! It was such a neat experience to teach them common phrases and greetings because at the same time we were teaching them we were also learning their language, the group loved it and soon practice their new knowledge on the children playing outside!
After teaching the adults we painted all the women's finger nails, which they enjoyed and appreciated! After a long day we headed back to the house to relax and eat dinner with the Rwandan national cycling team.
I'm so pumped to go back to the school tomorrow!
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