This month was
actually really hectic. My roommate and I seemed to be very busy. Haleigh is
wrapping up her service so she was constantly traveling and we literally see
each other for a day and then we would be busy doing our own thing.
The first week , I
began my official community library project. My counterpart Derreck and I were
really excited to have a set schedule and guidelines of what we were doing. I
received about 165 Portuguese books to share with the kids. I was so excited because
many of you know my family and I are book nerds and LOVE reading. The first
day, only 5 kids showed up but by the end of the month we had up to 15 kids. My
plan is to work with at least 25 kids or maybe more. I really want to get my
project organized before I can think about opening it up to more kids. Even though it is still early these neighborhood kids are loving it! Not sure if any
of you have seen my videos on instagram if not you should or ask my family to
show you. So far they understand one book and connected words with the
pictures. This month they learned the letter A, and B. They can recognize the
letters and even write them. This is a huge accomplishment for me. The next
month or so they will begin learning the letter M and N. I work with these kids
every Tuesday morning, for about 45mins but some days we go for almost 2 hours.
I have three little kids that come over every day just to look at the books.
It's exciting to see the children so interested in the books and coming to my
porch just to read for an hour. I can't
wait to actually have bookshelves for the books and open a room for them to sit
like you would at Barnes n Noble. I will
keep you updated on how it is going. Meanwhile here are some picture of
"VAMOS LER"
Derreck showing them how to write the letter a in the sand
Read aloud!
My little classroom
My JUNTOS kids are
actually quite amazing. They have been holding their own meeting without us
since we've been busy with work. It's so great to know that we have such
responsible teens running such a great project.
Another event that
happened in the Manica Province was SCIENCE FAIR! Yes I said it science fair.
My favorite fair by far. We had one student in Vanduzi participate. He's mentor
was a physics teacher Laete who is also a very good friend of ours and an awesome
teacher. Also an important note I was helping my roommate Haleigh with the
science fair since I will be planning it next year. It was a great fair and the
students had amazing projects. All were very creative but very nervous to
present them. The student from Vanduzi made an environmental project to help
clean the lakes and rivers in Mozambique.
Before the fair
started though, three of the judges didn't show up so two other volunteers and
myself became science fair judges but remember you wouldn't be in Mozambique if
everything ran perfect! This science fair was really special to these kids because
not only they were able to share something they did by themselves in a subject
they love but if they won this fair they would go to Maputo for the national
science fair. Some of these kids have never traveled and if they did it was
probably local or to Tete. So it's a huge deal for them to make it all the way
to Maputo. All the projects were good so deciding who wins was really tough.
Science Fair Judges
Some Projects
Everyone that participated
After science fair
my roommate and I didn't get a break. English theater was right around the
corner. Haleigh has a group of students that love practicing English and
started their own English theater group. What is English Theater? Well it's a
project where the students are given a theme and they make a theater piece in
English. It helps them practice speaking and understanding English. It is a
great way for them to get practice outside the class room and also these
students love theater so each piece will be very creative and funny. We had 10
different schools participate in English theater and our students did an
amazing job! They won third place which is a big deal to them because they
didn't place last year. WE WERE SO PROUD of them. The theme this year was find
your voice and they did a story about two families one where their wife is
respected and has a say in the family and the other where she is beat and only
allowed to speak when spoken to until she finally finds her voice.
Vanduzi English Theater group
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