First School Visit

My first school visit was VERY interesting. The school was actually called "Pig Farm" and I have pictures to prove it! The school grounds left much to be desired, as you can see in the pictures, yet the kids were nice and seemed glad to have us there.

Although I didn't expect that an African school was going to be the same as Canadian schools (I've seen many before), this trip was still very eye opening to how lucky we really are. We have schoolyards free of giant wholes in the ground and burning piles of garbage, among other things. It's SO different (unless you visit one of the many very nice international schools around!)

The presentation was very good and the kids were quite well behaved. Kingsley the presenter is very animated and the kids like him a lot. Even in a tough crowd he was able to get them laughing and participating.

Many of the children were staring at the 5 Obruni's (white people) for most of the presentation, which was slightly awkward. It got more awkward towards the end of the presentation when the speaker suggested that they should feel special in the presence of 5 Obruni visitors. I'm not sure that this is at all true! We are no more special than them, their parents or their teachers, especially since all we did was observe.

We got a picture with the Audi that was driven all the way from France (crazy, I know!). It was pretty funny trying to get them positioned and I was a bit worried that a fight might break out between all the kids fighting for the front!

This is going to be very interesting work. I go to another school on Friday, and then meet with both director and Africa director to hash out the details of the project.

Hope everyone is enjoying getting back to school, work or whatever!