Disaster

     Due to the fact that we stayed up again last night, we were slow to get up.  Luckily we got to the train station in plenty of time, so that wasn't a big deal.  I went to the LSCE classroom and fixed Grant's monitor/projector (Thanks Daddy!) and then went down to the grade 8 classroom.  The first thing we did with the girls is play a 100% true, 100% false, and in between game where we read statements such as "Women are just as capable to play sports as men, It's only a woman's job to take care of the kids..etc".  We then divided up into groups to talk about a few different subjects.  Maureen's group was female role models, Vanessa's group was about self-respect, and mine was about femininity.  Mine seemed to end before the other two every rotation, so I showed them pictures of my family, Tyler's family, friends, and just whatever they asked to see.  The girls really REALLY liked Garrett's pictures.  I literally had one girl stand up and start clapping when she saw Garrett's picture.  It totally cracked me up.  I can tell the girls are starting to open up with us which is really exciting.  During the first interval the boys came in and wanted to look at my pictures as well, so I missed the scones, but it was ok.
     My second class didn't go so well.  The kids have been begging us to take them outside and do stuff, so we set up a series of team building games that we could use to teach them about teamwork.  They were TERRIBLE today.  I could not believe how poorly they behaved.  What is really sad is that Vanessa had brought her friend from Germany to visit the class and that is what she saw.  The first game we played was really successful, but after that it all fell apart.  A third of the kids informed us that they were bored and they wanted to play their games, another third wanted to play our games, and then another third decided to lay down and just ignore us.  When we finally got them all up trying to play one of the team building games that Vanessa prepared they completely abused the game.  It was a melting ice game where they stand on newspaper and we slowly took away parts of the newspaper as the "ice was melting".  We told them that they would have to work together to save everyone, but what they wanted to do was shove people on the ground and punch and laugh at the people who they were hitting.  Whenever we spoke they spoke over us and I literally tried 7 or more times to get their attention outside until we decided that we were going to take them inside.  I was very disappointed by now because we really planned an awesome lesson for them and made sure they were outside and doing something other than sitting in desks, but they pretty much just took advantage of it.  The worse part is when we brought them inside a boy named Kusanda was by the teacher's desk and he told me that the students said that Kusanda was the reason they were sent inside.  I could not believe my ears.  I told him it wasn't just Kusanda and he sent him back to his seat and the poor boy put his head down (probably crying).  I then asked everyone who felt they were sent inside due to someone else to put their hands up.  About 5 or 6 of the people put their hands up.  I then told them to put their hands down and to answer honestly if they weren't talking over us or whispering while we were explaining games.  None of them said they weren't.  We continued to talk to them about respect and how we want to do fun things with them, but if they don't cooperate we can't do them.  I have never been in a classroom that was that disrespectful and I have been in a class when a kid flipped a desk.  It was a total disaster.  We won't have class with them until after Spring Break, so I am hoping they come back from break with better behavior.  Mr. Williams said he would also talk to them which normally I would say he didn't have to do, but if they listen to him and it works then so be it.  I felt so bad Julia (Vanessa's friend) had to see them like that.  Maureen was super upset.  Most of the talking in the classroom was done by me and Mr. Williams actually made all the kids sit up straight and listen.  I just couldn't believe how they behaved today and I am really sad it wasn't as much fun as I expected.  I expected this lesson to be one of the kids' favorites.
     Tyler doesn't have as much to write, but I will add a little bit of stuff to it.  Tyler and his group are doing an around the world theme.  Today they talked about Ethiopia and Tyler had to find a lot of cool facts about it.  Here is what he has to say about it, "Today in class we talked about childrens' rights and then we acted out skits that the kids really liked. I talked about Ethiopia and found out a couple of cool facts. One is that when kids are born they do not take their parents last name. They take their fathers first name as their last so my name would be Tyler Barry. They are also very poor living off an average of about a dollar a day."
     We had roasted chicken and gravy for lunch.  After lunch we went outside and hung out with the kids who hadn't gone home yet and the girls in Tyler's class braided my hair.

     The girls then informed me that in class Tyler said that he misses and loves DIESEL!!!!  I was like oh really??  Now I have proof.  His whole class heard him say that Tyler loves and misses Diesel, so he can no longer deny it.  We went home after class and took about a 4 hour nap.  I know that's not really a nap, but I desperately needed one and I am sure Tyler was tired because he stayed up later than I did last night.  I made Mexican tonight for dinner =].  We can't do it a lot because the Mexican stuff here is a little expensive, but we made sincharonizadas.  I thought they were just quesadillas, but he said that in Mexico quesadillas don't have meat in them so they are sincharonizadas.

     They were pretty good.  I am skyping Julia right now which is pretty cool.  It makes writing my blog much easier.

Side note: Julia makes entirely too many cake pops for her own good.  Haha.  Well, that's about it.  Hamba Kakuhle.