wednesday

Wednesday

Another day at Spurgeons – indeed another very good day at Spurgeons.

Here is an overview of the day:

Gillian was released on good behaviour from data analysis in a dark office, and Oscar enjoyed having the chance to get out and be with the children. Having said that, Oscar also says just how incredibly helpful the past two days have been for him, working on school development plans.

Gillian’s new role for today was numeracy and literacy training for the lower primary teachers – Handa’s Surprise is now their favourite book (worth checking out if you don’t know about it already)!

Ally had a much more receptive and interactive group of staff for her mentoring and self-esteem workshops, and as a result they took twice as long to do, and there were lots of questions and discussion throughout on how to apply the concepts in the local environment. Her afternoon was spent with Jake working with more of the P6 class on similar activities to yesterday

Carey did her health ed lesson with the P7 class (oldest class is P8), and had a very good reception. One of the students said the class was the best thing she have ever done, and she will remember it forever – a high accolade indeed!

Like Ally, she spent the afternoon with Naomi working with more of the P5 class on similar activities to yesterday.

Meena had a very varied day, spending the first half of the morning in Ally’s workshop, and then the second half of the morning assisting Carey. In the afternoon she rejoined Rose and they did some more social work training.

Mary had another day at the sewing centre, sharing sewing skills with the ladies and learning more Swahili. Most of the shirts are now finished, with hand-sewn button-holes which was the main skill of today, and they are hanging on the wall in pride of place.

Helen, Chris, Jake and Naomi spent the morning teaching the P1,2, 3 and 4 classes – this time it was about emotions and feelings, and how we can show God’s love to others, just as God shows His love to us. It was definitely easier with the P3 and P4 classes, not least because their level of English was better, and we were without much teacher support due to them all being in workshops.

Chris then did sewing in the afternoon, Jake and Naomi worked with their respective mums, and P6 / 5 (see above), and Helen had a good meeting with Kenyanito working through a long agenda of items for discussion!

The final part of the day saw Helen, Naomi, Carey, Meena and Gillian go on a home visit with Elvina, a girl from P5. This involved walking down into the slums and here are some thoughts from Naomi on what she saw:

I was amazed how 6-7 of her siblings could live and sleep in a really small room! Also I was really surprised of how the walls by her house were made out of mud and water. I feel that I should help more , seeing as back in the UK we are much more fortunate than them, and how Elvina was not that lucky. I feel very shocked of where she lives and the environment, but I am at least still pleased that she plays and has friends and family to keep her company.

(photo's later!)