all good things

the tree that looks like an old man

the dusty road

It is the end of our final week in Rock and it couldn’t have ended better!

We had a slow start to the week, with no school on Monday and very little time with the kids on Tuesday, but that gave us plenty of time to properly spring clean the classroom in time for the open day. We even had some free time to discover that balloons of different colours have different tones if they are hit, and Vera and I spent a happy morning working out how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb with balloons! But on Wednesday we had a wonderful day of origami; making paper snowflakes, cranes and doves with the kids and making mobiles with them to add to the displays in the classroom that we have become increasingly proud of. Also, the teacher spent part of his lesson time, teaching the older boys a game that was comprised of cartwheeling and jumping over and under a length of string, a game which the older boys blatantly found very emasculating and that the youngest ones tried their best to copy:

Everything we have done so far culminated in an Open Day on Thursday which was meant as a chance for the parents and villagers to come and see the work we have been doing over the last seven weeks. As it turned out, no villagers actually came, but that didn’t dampen the mood of the event. We spent the first hour of the day productively, Vera making an excitingly large and colourful Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Buffalo, and me setting up different games and creative things for the kids to do. Then at 8am we began playing the game Vera made with the kids, which they found hilarious. The kids all crowded round to watch each other attempt to pin the tail onto the buffalo’s abnormally large bottom. They figured out, way too quickly, how to cheat at the game, feeling with their hands the indents in the paint where the red cross showed where they should put the tail. But that didn’t matter. The giggling and cheering that the game inspired was perfectly satisfying. Gilly, Bella, Sitha and Bunthen arrived at 8:30, in time to see the game in full swing before the kids all broke off to do the other things we had set up for them. By 9am there was a sea of children in our classroom and on the school’s platform, making sand and glue drawings, painting, doing jigsaws and playing with dominoes and attempting to blow up the left over balloons which I gave out.

the joy of balloons

the one who only smiled when something was REALLY fun

 There was an atmosphere of calm and it felt like the children really were completely comfortable with us, and vice versa. When we finally packed all our things onto the boat and hoisted our rucksacks onto our backs to leave, they all hung over the railings of the school to wave us off. Vera and I experienced the complete satisfaction that we had managed not only to teach the kids something, but also to build up a relationship with them, despite the language problems, inspiring their memories and encouraging them to continue to use some of the skills we gave them.

waving good-bye

Vera and I after by our river before we leave Rock for the last time

I may be be exaggerating in my positivity and faith in our actual impact over the last seven weeks, but needless to say, I am pretty proud of myself and am now convinced that all the frustration and insecurity I have been feeling led to some kind of positive outcome.