Day 3- Teaching day

Today we had our first opportunity to lead and teach classes. One of the usual teachers was out and we took turns filling in for him. We began by teaching English. At first it was difficult to figure out how to teach to kids who only speak Swahili but we finally figured out ways using pictures, books and basic words. I think we made some good progress. After English I began with some basic math and we worked on multiplication tables. The kids loved to show what they could do and we turned it into a competition.

Overall teaching was really fun and rewarding, although exhausting. Towards the end we let the students be the teachers and we sat while they taught us Swahili, it was a good opportunity to let them feel important and show them that have some valuable skills as well. Slowly I am learning the language, which I have figured out helps greatly when you are bargaining in the markets. After class was over we had some play time with the kids and we continued playing with the football I brought.

During lunch the kids really began to accept us as friends and invited us to eat with them. They were incredibly kind and kept trying to share their food with us, which was really amazing. One kid even tried to give me his entire meal because I wasn't eating. The kids are very respectful and not only share quite well but always return everything they borrow and even things that we give them to have, they still try to return to us. We were definitely left with some profound things to think about.

Later that day I went to collect the materials for building the chicken coop. It was really cool to go to the local shops and bargain for prices. We bought lots of wood, cement, foundation blocks, tools, nails, tin for the roof and a number of other items. There was a lot of heavy lifting but overall it was a good experience and we are all excited to work on the chicken coop in the coming days.