Our new classroom at Cheka

Jeff (a volunteer with another organization) has been building a new classroom for us.  It has been amazing being able to help and watching the progress each day.  The classroom (if you can even call it that) we are using right now serves as the chicken coop at night.  Each morning is spent picking up glass, metal, chicken droppings and any other dangerous items we may find laying around.

Chicken runs

Glass we clean up before the students arive

New classroom foundation

 Zach and Lochie (two other volunteers at the house with us) have been working a lot with Jeff on putting up the roof and laying the floor.

PAINTING!!!!!! So much fun! 

We are going to do a big mural on the wall and have the kids put their hand prints up to decorate.

Arika, myself, and Amy

A few of my favorite things....

Ally's excitement when  playing with blocks

Neema's cheeky smile!

Petro's butterfly he was so proud of

Simba Class flying butterflies

Robinson flying a paper airplane he made

Faraja's paper airplane

Simba class playing nicely together

Naughty Kelvin behaving when you find something he is interested in

Seeing Toni make amazing stars and animals out of playdough

Rizi making a snake

Isaaya playing with play dough for the first time an hearing him giggle when he saw a picture of himself with the play dough on his face!

Other favorite things: 

seeing the kids play with bubbles for the first time
seeing the kids play with sidewalk chalk for the first time
seeing the kids play with balloons for the first time

all of which caused them to go BONKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update

The past 3 weeks have been pretty crazy but amazing.  The school I am working at just opened a few months ago and is a mess.  This past week I have managed to create an entire curriculum for the school, assess the kids, and create progress reports.  Two other volunteers and I have also purchased them all desks, a chalk board, and their school supplies including a backpack.  My next project is to set up HIV testing for all the kids and create a sponsorship program so that they can be sent to an English Medium school so they can actually have a chance at secondary school.  I also got to visit 5 of the kids homes so far and are going to 5 more after school tomorrow.  It was heart breaking to meet their families, see where they live, and hear their stories.  The kids are so beautiful and so naughty!  There are two types of students in Africa, the amazing ones that stand and greet you when you enter the room and are amazingly well behaved and then the kids that I teach that beat the crap out of each other!  They want us to hit them with a stick but I refuse!

The house is still bonkers... living with 31 people!  We have not had water in days.  People think Im African but really Im just dirty!  This past week I have been on 4 modes of transportation that have either broken down or just kicked us out of because.  

Last weekend we all went camping and played soccer against an HIV team.  I am going to post some new pictures soon. 

Things people never tell you about Africa: Safari is freezing and bring laxatives

Days without a shower: 4 (not bad, my record is 10)

What I miss most: washing my hands

I miss you all and hope you are all doing well!

Volunteers vs. HIV

Emanuel (a director at one of our placements) started a soccer team for people living with HIV.  The goal is to promote a healthy mind and body to extend their lives.  It was super hot but amazingly fun!  When we got there and saw their uniforms we were scared we were going down but actually ended up winning 4-1.  Is that bad?  The team was great and we had a lot of fun!

Safari!

The giraffe that lost his legs

We could touch this guy from our Jeep

We saw the great wildabeast and zebra migration.  There were thousands and thousands for miles and miles as far as the eye could see.  

Leopard about to make an attack

We saw dozens of lions in the Ngorongora Crater

Hip-hip-hop-hip-hop-pamatopus

Tree of Life.  Also saw "Pride rock"

Looking out over the Serengeti

There were thousands of monkeys at Lake Manyara

All you ever needed to know about Safari I learned from The Lion King!  We literally saw the entire circle of life from lions mating, to a leopard making a kill, or a cow giving birth.  This is just a taste of Safari.  I have a about a zillion other pictures to add of worthogs, elephants, leopards, lions, rhinos, giraffes, hippos.......

Desks!

We are making progess at Cheka!  We have bought them desks and are waiting for the chalk board.

Field Trip

We took the kids to Lake Duluti for the day.  For a lot of these kids it was their first time in a car.  We packed two dala dala's full.  A few of the kids got so excited/nervous we had some accidents involving different bodily fluids.  I thought taking 60 kids to the zoo for the day was exhausting.  That is nothing compared to the 3 mile hike we did was 30 3-5 year olds.  By the end I had a kid on my back another around my neck and I was dragging two on each arm.  It was an exhausting day but definitely worth it because it was such a treat for the kids and they had a blast.  Can you imagine no seat belts or permission slips?