Blog

Our morning was pretty much a repeat of yesterday and we expect that is how the rest of the week will be. Each day, as we pass each other outside of the school, we stop and make a few comments about how we are overwhelmed by the amount of children! We just cannot believe how many children are in a classroom, with 2 or 3 children sharing a desk plus some children sitting on mats on the floor. The teachers are doing a great job with hardly any resources. The kid’s pencils are stubs and writing paper is at a shortage, but they all have smiles on their faces and are very happy to be at school with their friends. You would not believe how quickly you can get 300 children, without saying a word, to come over to you. Just bring out your camera or some candy.

Today was David’s turn to help with lunch! Unfortunately he got fired from his volunteer job so I will be back on lunch duty tomorrow. He gave too much food at first then there was not enough in the end.

After some reading with the children, we took pictures of all of the parents and children who showed up to pick up the mosquito nets. We were able to print a good deal of the pictures on the spot and distribute them out almost immediately. The smiles on the parents’ faces made it all worthwhile. Next there was a demonstration of the proper use of the nets which involved a net, a child and a floor mat. That was quite the scene. We wanted to make sure the parents understood how to use them and made sure we got all their questions answered. We distributed 47 nets today with 253 to go! Tomorrow we will be back at the school for a second round of distribution and then walking to various homes for a personal delivery of some of the nets.

We are tired but happy.