Adventures a Little Closer to Home

The first weekend of December I needed to be in Atlanta. So I decided to make a little adventure out it since I was flying down there. Adventures don't only oceans away.

Atlanta is massive city and it's so spread out so I wasn't able to do much on foot. It also rained most of the weekend - so walking and taking in the sites was also a bit challenging!

I stayed in a Airbnb. I've been hosting since June, but this was my first experience as a guest. And I'm sold. It's so much nicer than a hotel. I used Uber to get around since the public transportation seems to be about as good as Indianapolis (not great in other words).

I went to the Martin Luther King Historic Site and toured all of the buildings except his birth home (it was closed for repair). It's pretty amazing how something can be both simultaneously historic and current. Many of the homes in the neighborhood are owner occupied by new owners since the 1960s and many are rental properties. And there are several that are still occupied by the same owners, or families as during Martin Luther King's life.

I also went to the World of Coca Cola. For a big flashy tourist attraction, it's actually quite interesting. You learn about the history of Coca Cola and see memorabilia spanning decades of Coke advertising. They have a 4D adventure about the secret of Coca Cola and my favorite part - you get to taste test various Coke products from around the world!

 

Sodas from Africa (Stoney is my favorite)!

The other tourist attraction I enjoyed was the museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts. They have a a section of the museum dedicated to puppets from around the world, which is pretty neat. But I really enjoyed the Jim Henson exhibit. Some of the puppets are the original puppets from Sesame Street and the Muppet's along with many other productions. Some of them are recreation or photo puppets.

Overall it was a good trip. It's fun turning quick trips into adventures!

A Little Hiccup and a Wonderful Week 3

As I mentioned in my last post, we've had a few challenges to deal with recently. One of those, we aren't able to host our camp activities at the school. We still haven't exactly figured out why, something to do with governmental changes in education and the school calendar. We are still able to serve breakfast and lunch at the school, but the activities are now being held at a church down the road. It's bit of a logistical hiccup, but we are making it happen!

Monday

Michelle taught the kiddos 2 new songs complete with movements. The camp hit is easily, "Elephants Have Wrinkles." It's a great kids song and even the older kiddos are getting into it. We can frequently hear them singing it quietly (or loudly) when they are working on something independently or when we are walking to the field.

Amanda and I lead 2 different crafts in the main church hall. We made flags representing the counties of the kiddos and volunteers - Kenya, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Canada and the USA! We also made owl pencil toppers out of felt and googly eyes. Somehow the two crafts morphed and we ended up with some hipster flags.

Tuesday

A day at the field. We taught the kiddos the game, "steal the bacon." It was quite humorous watching Principal Francis join in with the games!

Wednesday

Wednesday we practiced our songs and the dance to "Beat It" in preparation for our mini camp showcase on Friday. We also made catapults. They were pretty simple catapults made out of Popsicle sticks and rubber bands. We gave each kiddo a pompom to try to catapult it into a cup. I think this has been one of my favorite activities of camp. As I have said before, most of their educational experience is theory and fact based. They don't get a lot of hands on practice. It was fun watching them figure out how to turn the catapult so that the pompom flew in the right direction. They moved the base to make the pompom fly higher or lower. Definitely some good STEM learning happening today!

We also made musical instruments out of water bottles. We enlisted the help of all the volunteers in our home stay since June to save 5 liter bottles and smaller water and soda bottles for this activity. The kiddos decorated their drums and shakers and were quite pleased with the results. They were so focused on their creations, you could have heard a pin drop, until the instruments were done and then their was a glorious cacophony of percussion noise in the church!

Thursday

Amanda taught a science lesson about color mixing and we taught the kiddos about the color wheel. They were pretty impressed that all colors can be made from mixing primary colors together. We went to the field for games. When we came back to school for lunch, we had visitors from the volunteer organization we were affiliated with last year. They were really impressed with what we've been doing with the kiddos. It's nice to have validation from others in Kenya outside of the school.

Friday

Last day of camp, or as the kids call it, Camping. We had Little Einsteins with us again. We played games and made volcanoes! Even the adults were impressed with the volcanoes. So many smiles and so much laughter all around. Not only did they wear science gloves, they got to wear goggles!

We ate lunch a bit early so that we could give a little performance for the parents of all the songs and the dance the kiddos have learned over the 3 weeks. They took home their group animal masks (which we had completely forgotten about since we made them week one)! We sent each kiddo and each adult home with a certificate of attendance or appreciation and shed a few tears.

Teacher Michael got to the demonstration. He was so excited.

We will be back. Despite some setbacks, Camp Marafiki Pamoja was a huge success!

Week 2 Wrap Up

Thursday was the usual games at the field. I introduced the kiddos to some new tag games and we played for a long time! Kiddos were worn out and hungry. 

I also taught a lesson on tooth brushing. I had soaked hard boiled eggs in soda, milk, and water. The shells of eggs soaked in the water and milk stayed in tact, the shells of the eggs soaked in soda bean to deteriorate. Huge shout out to my friend Mary-Margaret for the idea. It really helped demonstrate what happens to teeth when you don't brush them and consume too much sugar! I demonstrated good brushing technique using the eggs and my fingers. You make do with what you have at Camp Marafiki Pamoja. It's all about creative thinking!

My dentist at home, Dr. Schroeder, donated enough new tooth brushes, toothpaste, and dental floss that all the kiddos got to take one of each home and we were able to give the teachers at the school one of each as well! Thank you Dr. Schroeder! 

Friday was a fly by the seat of your pants type of day. It was a bit stressful for many reasons that I won't get into here. But the other volunteers rocked it and made beaded necklaces and friendship bracelets with the kids while Amanda, Michelle, and I sorted out a few behind the scenes types of things. 

Earlier in the week, the older kiddos made shampoo with Jane. Once it was ready to go, we packed it up in empty soda and water bottles. The kiddos were so excited to take home something useful that they had helped to make!

Week 2

Remember when I said I was bad about taking pictures? We get so wrapped up in the activities that by the time I remember to get out my camera, it's too late! Needless to say, I forgot to take pictures on both Monday and Tuesday (Amanda took a few) so a few from Wednesday will have to do!

Monday the 3 groups rotated through making animal masks for their groups with Michelle, playing games with Amanda, and dancing with me! I'll certainly take photos of the masks - they were drying so the kids haven't worn them yet.

When the groups came to my rotation, I taught them a short dance to Michael Jackson's "Beat It." They were so cute. It's a pretty basic line dance that I taught in my own classroom when I was teaching PE. But, this style of dance was so foreign - literally- to the kids that it was quite amusing to watch. We all had so much fun. Even the teachers got in on the dancing after a while!

Tuesday was another day at the filed for games. We did relay races with much more success than last week. Not as many wipe outs, but we also skipped the 3-legged race! We played a big game of tag, or chase, as it is called here in Kenya. We were all worn out when we got back to school so we did a lesson on heart health and blood to wrap up the day. The older kids have been reading the BFG as a read-aloud and it's such a great way to unwind before lunch.

Team Elephant won this one!

No one can run as fast as Kenyans!

Red "Blood" Cells. Later we added white blood cells and platelets.

Today we did a craft in our groups to start the day. The kids each made one (or two or three) "God's Eye." It's a craft based on a Mexican tradition. We had so much fun! It was really interesting to me how limited some of their fine motor skills are. So much of their education is theory based and memorization that there is little time for creativity. Here's a link to an interesting article on some of the proposed changes for the Kenyan educational school system. It's also worth noting that most of these kiddos don't have access to crayons, markers, yarn and Popsicle sticks at home so they aren't getting the practice there either. While the little ones made colored hands and feet to make banners to decorate their school, the older ones made shampoo with Jane. Sounds like it was quite an expereince. I'll check out the finished product tomorrow!

Days like today are a great reminder of why we are here doing camp. It's enriching activities in a safe space for the kiddos. Exposure to things that are not necessarily essential to a good quality life, but certainly help prepare them for future careers.