After another amazing day at Kawanda Secondary School where
Kathy taught as S6 lesson on the brain and Ellen and I went through the Science
lab to make a wish list for equipment, we have just returned to the Eva Ruf Resource Centre.
It is currently a hub of activity.
There are primary students (grades 1-6, ages 6-15) involved
in all sorts of activities.
Outside there is a group of girls playing “dangerous sport”
which is like dodgeball except the girls are running back and forth in the
middle while one girl on each end tries to pelt them with a sock with a rock
inside. They fly well and no doubt hurt so it is very important to avoid being
hit.
Another group is playing chase and the children are running
around screaming trying to catch one another. A third group has dragged some
chairs outside and are playing a game of checkers.
On the porch there are two young boys, about 7, who are
dragging each other back and forth with their feet. I hope their uniforms were
already dirty because if they weren’t before, they certainly are now! Another
group is using the base 100 blocks to build towers and is creating an imaginary
city where the blocks have to move around in a certain way. One boy is reading
and watching all the action.
Inside a group of students in P5 and P6 are working on postcards
for the students in Canada. Liz, our awesome volunteer teacher and current
centre director is overseeing the students working on the cards and making sure
they understand what is written from their Canadian friends.
Some students are playing Chinese Checkers, others are
reading, and puzzles are a popular pastime. The centre is full of smiling and
laughing children and there isn’t a chair available for the team members to
come and sit with the kids.
The secondary students however are very quiet. They are
reviewing for their final exams and are patiently awaiting 5:30 when the
primary students are shooed out by Apollo and the centre becomes a good place
to study. Justine sits on the patio reviewing her notes for her economics exam.
She is in S6 and is writing her A level papers (exams) in Humanities. Her
courses are Economics, Geography, History, and Religion. I told her that the
centre was not a quiet place to study at the moment and she agreed and laughed.
She knew the silence would soon arrive.
And through all of this the shipping container is being cut
with a metal band saw by a man wearing goggles and standing on a wooden ladder.
As the square or rectangle is cut all the way around, the piece of metal falls
crashing to the ground and everyone screams and jumps then giggles madly.
This centre is wonderful and so well used. I cannot imagine
it being a bigger success than it already is.
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