In country - 25 May 2017
I have not posted as of late as I am very deep in country- the place where we are staying is very far out in the countryside .... we have electric and some internet but must limit usage. We arrived here Wednesday - after a great deal of travel!
My team is wonderful! They are doing amazing work - each in their own specially - On Wednesday we did a total examination of the buildings and grounds, inside the classrooms for use of space, etc. The team made short work of the task and we moved on to some of the classroom observations. I did a great deal of Amin work, setting up meetings, meeting with people, and the like. Thursday - we did multiple assessment of the teachers. Brooke was well into her medical appraisals. Everyone kicked into high gear and are a bit ahead of schedule!
We had a meeting with the parents of the school who are so appreciative of our work. At the meeting we did introductions and Brooke did a sample exam one of the team. The parents are very impressed! In the questions and answer time a number of good questions came up with great questions - the most important to me was the condition of the latrine - the boys side has a lock on the door on the inside, a cement floor and is able to be cleaned. The girls side has a dirt floor, a door that does not lock or even close. The dirt is hard packed and because of that the floor is always wet! Not good. My team had already seen and were working on solving this problem!
The children are wonderful and I spent time today teaching them how to brush their teeth. They laughed when I went to spit! Of a group of 22 only 3 owned a tooth brush, of the remaining 6 did not know what the tooth brush was... this seems to be a common theme as Brooke is seeing an overwhelming about of tooth decay! I also taught the Hokie Pokie - to teach left and right !
The best part of the day was having the team teaching the children how to play frisbee. Every game we teach we are trying to reinforce English language skills. Except for football (soccer) it is no hols bard rough and tumble play. Viterbo University and West Salem Middle school had donated 12 soccer balls. We gave the school 2 and broke them in with a long game. By the time recess was finished so were we.
I have a great many stories to tell but my time is up! and sorry no pictures - Limited internet.
I suggest that you tune in to the Open World Cause web page (https://openworldcause.org/) as we are dedicating our bandwidth on the Webpage as it reaches a grater number people.
My team is wonderful! They are doing amazing work - each in their own specially - On Wednesday we did a total examination of the buildings and grounds, inside the classrooms for use of space, etc. The team made short work of the task and we moved on to some of the classroom observations. I did a great deal of Amin work, setting up meetings, meeting with people, and the like. Thursday - we did multiple assessment of the teachers. Brooke was well into her medical appraisals. Everyone kicked into high gear and are a bit ahead of schedule!
We had a meeting with the parents of the school who are so appreciative of our work. At the meeting we did introductions and Brooke did a sample exam one of the team. The parents are very impressed! In the questions and answer time a number of good questions came up with great questions - the most important to me was the condition of the latrine - the boys side has a lock on the door on the inside, a cement floor and is able to be cleaned. The girls side has a dirt floor, a door that does not lock or even close. The dirt is hard packed and because of that the floor is always wet! Not good. My team had already seen and were working on solving this problem!
The children are wonderful and I spent time today teaching them how to brush their teeth. They laughed when I went to spit! Of a group of 22 only 3 owned a tooth brush, of the remaining 6 did not know what the tooth brush was... this seems to be a common theme as Brooke is seeing an overwhelming about of tooth decay! I also taught the Hokie Pokie - to teach left and right !
The best part of the day was having the team teaching the children how to play frisbee. Every game we teach we are trying to reinforce English language skills. Except for football (soccer) it is no hols bard rough and tumble play. Viterbo University and West Salem Middle school had donated 12 soccer balls. We gave the school 2 and broke them in with a long game. By the time recess was finished so were we.
I have a great many stories to tell but my time is up! and sorry no pictures - Limited internet.
I suggest that you tune in to the Open World Cause web page (https://openworldcause.org/) as we are dedicating our bandwidth on the Webpage as it reaches a grater number people.
It sounds like everyone is doing amazing work! I cannot wait to hear further updates on how everything is going. I have been looking forward to reading every blog post I see!!! Keep up the great work!
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