Goodbye My Learners

Yesterday was my last day with my learners and it was the hardest goodbye I have ever had to say. At the staff meeting we showed the staff the poster we had made with pictures from our time at Steenkamp. They were going to laminate it so that the learners could look at it too. They said it would become a part of Steenkamp's history. 

During the second period I taught Life Skills to my 5B learners. We just took some notes about studying, because they were learning about study skills. At the end of class I gave the learners half of a Post-it Note and had them write down a study tip for others. I then made a poster with all of the tips that they had come up with. They were really good. One person wrote, "when you study you must give your ear, eyes, and mouth to it." During English we continued to work on letters to my learners. 

I had made it to break and I had not cried yet. At break time all of the teachers went to the staff lounge to "send us off in style." They had bought us cake and all of our cooperating teachers stood up and said something about us to thank us. My teacher thanked me on behalf of grade 5 for everything I did to help the students and that I had taught her a lot. She also commented on how patient I was. It was very nice. It was quite funny because Liz was shared between two teachers and they had gotten her a shirt with two zebras on the front and then their picture on the back. It was super cute. 

In the reading period I started to do a read aloud and then my teacher came in and had them say their goodbyes to me. They came up one by one and said a few words to me, gave me hugs, and I lost it. I had come prepared and had brought a box of tissues. Many of the learners asked if they could have one as well. It was so sweet. They also sang me the following song with the lyrics, "Even though you are far away we will never forget you." It was kind of awkward though, because after reading I had to teach them English. We were not very productive, the learners who had not finished up their letters finished them and some of them finished their letters to me. 

With my 5E learners I read to them Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears  and we had sound effects for each animal. I held it together for the most part, except for crying a little bit when they all left and gave me hugs. I did the same thing with my 5D learners for the last period of the day, except the last ten minutes were dedicated to saying goodbyes to me. I automatically started crying and passing around the tissues. One boy stood in line to say goodbye to me and gave me a hug about five times, which provided some comic relief. My 5D boys also sang a song for me. It had the lyrics, "When I first saw you, you knocked me off my feet." I had momentarily stopped crying and then I went outside and was surrounded by many of my learners who continued to give me hugs. I had to go back inside of the classroom to get my things and Mrs. Beukes had to close to door so she could say her goodbye to me. 

I went out to the courtyard and many kids followed me and came up to me and started giving me hugs and I started bawling. However, when I got to the courtyard I found my colleagues were surrounded by learners and they too were bawling. We were all kind of hot messes. I hugged learners many times over. Then I heard a lot of:

"Miss, don't cry!"

"Miss, take me with you."

"Miss, why do you have to go?" 

Mrs. Kamahane, our principal, had said that we had to go to her for a gift for us. We somehow detached ourselves from our learners and made it to her office. They gave all of us one-minute devotionals! It was very sweet. There was more hugging. We went outside and there was more hugging and crying. Our van arrived and it took us quite a long time to get over there and to the van because we were surrounded by learners clinging to us and telling us not to go. One of my learners who I was very close with, Wynand, who had kept telling me not to cry now had tears in his eyes. Melanie and Rayna, who were already in the van had burst into tears just from watching us. 

In order to leave we had to pry several people off of us and out of the van. We were all still crying when we arrived at the BNC. I thought I was just going to continue crying, however, I was able to pull myself together with the help of some of my learners. At the BNC we did a Rounding Rap and at the same time practiced our beat boxing. Then we did some writing. 

When I got back to Casa we were all emotionally exhausted. I was tired from crying so much. I am just so thankful that I am sharing this experience with fourteen other people, so I am not alone. We all reminisced together and really understand what these goodbyes are like. 

That night we went out one last time at Joe's Beerhouse with some of our friends from Swakopmund and I did not cry. 

 Today I started getting mentally and physically prepared to go home. Then I went to the BNC in the afternoon. Lauren and I performed the coke and mentos experiment and we read the book The Kiss Box. In the book a mom makes a box full of her kisses, so that she and her son can be together even when they are not physically together. As we were leaving one of my learners blew kisses at me and told me to keep them close to my heart for when I needed them. 

After we taught class at the BNC, the choir sang for us. They were incredible. The last song they sang for us was the same one my learners had sung to me. They marched while singing it and went down the line and gave us all hugs. I was good and did not cry until the van was leaving. 

This is one of my learners I became very close with. I had  Rudolf at Steenkamp and at the BNC. He wrote me a very nice letter and I gave him a book. After I gave him to book he said it was very nice and wanted me to take a picture of him reading it. 

My Last Monday

When I woke up I was in an unbelievably good mood. I could not stop smiling because I was going to make the best of the last three days I had with my learners. We had been voluntold to lead devotion during our staff meeting. My contribution was leading "Peace Like a River." We were a little pitchy, but eventually got the hang of it. Afterwards our principal came up to us and told us how much she like the song and how she wanted us to sing it again before we left. Allison led the actual devotion for our staff meeting and then Liz led the devotion for the assembly. Both girls did a tremendous job and spoke to the message of fighting and beating. Allison challenged the teachers to make every interaction with learners a positive one and to question each interaction to see if it is positive. It was pretty well received. There were several "mmmhmmms" and "amens." One of the head of departments even took it to type it. Liz put a challenge to the learners to treat others the way you want to be treated, so if you get beaten walk away and pray for them.

After the devotion the guidance counselor invited us all up to say something to all of the learners. I just briefly thanked everyone for being so welcoming and told them that I learned a lot and that I would never forget them. I made it brief because I was about to cry.

 Within the last couple of years, the school has instituted a reading period right after break. Each grade level is provided with a reading selection to spend the entire week on. The reading selections are not ideal. This week's selection has two sentences. It reads (the capitalization error is included):

Arabs often give names to their camels. The name of the camel on the left is Camil. the one in the middle is called Hakim and Fredda is the name of the camel which is kneeling.

A picture is included with "Arabs" and their camels. Comprehension questions are included such as, "What are the men and women in the picture?" and  "In their country, there is never any rain. What do we call a country where rain never falls?"

It did not provide a whole lot to work with because it is so short. So, we labeled the camels in the picture (first we had to learn the trick for distinguishing right from left), then we voted on a name for our "class" camel. Kristin was unanimously chosen, which I am not sure if I should be flattered or offended. We then sang "Sally the Camel, except it was changed to "Kristin the Camel." They liked the "Boom, boom, boom" part.

When I was teaching English today I was interrupted by my teacher, who asked which of the students who of them had lost a parent. Probably about seven of my students raised their hands. She called on them one by one and asked if it was their mother, father, or both. It was required for school records, but still.

My day ended with me breaking up a fight with two of my learners. I had to physically tear them off of each other. They were sent to the office, but the sad thing is is that they were probably beaten in the office.

I feel like this blog post is not as positive as it usually is. I would not say that today was a bad day, but it was just a little disappointing. I recognize that each school, and each job for that matter has some frustrations and disappointments. My biggest frustration and disappointment today was just the fact that I did not get to teach as much as I would have liked, in my own teaching style. However, I arranged to teach a math and a science class tomorrow, so hopefully tomorrow feels like a more productive day.

To end on a positive note, I took my camera into school today. Everybody wanted me to "catch" a picture of them, so here are some from today. Enjoy!

Me with some of my 5C learners

My classroom seems a great deal smaller when there are learners in the desks

And The Rain Came Down

All students who enter the Education program get to take a literacy class, which is taught by the wonderful Judy Hassen. Everyday in class, Judy would model for us how to do a read aloud. On one memorable occasion, she read us was a predictable text that had the same repeating line of "And the Rain Came Down." When we knew it was coming, the whole class would read along with Judy "and the rain came down."

On Friday at school, we got out of the car and the rain came down. I had gone briefly into my classroom and found that somehow during the night we had acquired three cabinets wrapped in plastic. The new addition made it even more difficult to move around in the classroom. One of my students came up to me and asked, "Where is the ant?" He was talking about the ant that we had used for prepositions the previous day. The ant was folding in half on the desk. My learner then said, "Oh, the ant is sleeping." 

The school was already severely flooded. There are cement walkways to most of the classroom buildings, but everything in between was flooded.  A pathway of bricks had been placed leading into the office, so that learners and teachers would not have to step in about three inches of water. During our staff meeting the principal mentioned how she could tell who the late ones were because they were soaking wet. We had beat the worst of it though. All the Steenkamp teachers looked out the window, and the rain came down. It was decided that the teachers would rotate to their classes instead of the learners. 

I went to my classroom to find that the majority of my students were either soaking or they had stripped off their uniforms and were wearing what they wore under their uniforms. There were many uniforms hanging from the windows trying to dry. In addition to being very wet, we were also tight on space because three filing cabinets had been randomly delivered and were sitting in our already snug classroom. My learners informed me that they could not sit because they were wet, I decided to teach them a song. They were supposed to have Afrikaans, but I did not know where the Afrikaans teacher was or my cooperating teacher. I was going to teach them the song, "Singing in the Rain," but the one where you do various actions along with the song. Before I had time to finish teaching the songs, the Afrikaans teacher came and I went to my other classroom. 

I went to observe our guidance counselor observe him teach Life Skills. Afterwards, I had an administrative period, where I got to interview my teacher about her life. While I was going to the office on my way to interview the teacher, I ran into Rudolf, his mother, and his brother. Rudolf's mom came up to me and acted like she knew who is was. I was slightly surprised. She introduced herself and said, "We hear too much about you!" 

We then went and had two periods of 5E English. One of the most frustrating parts of education for me is the seemingly randomness of the materials and the curriculum. My teacher gave the learners the spelling words on the board, they read them several times, and then it was time for the spelling test. The rest of the period was spent marking work. When I have a class for 35 minutes, I would much rather teach than correct work. I always try to collect the learners' books and grade them rather than to take class time to mark them. During lunch I worked with one grade 5 learner, who cannot read. 

After break, I was going to finish teaching my learners the song, but a teacher called me to go teach 5D because the class did not have a teacher. We had had a rough day in 5D the previous day, but we quickly settled down in our seats. We acted out multiplication problems. So for the problem 1X1=, we had one person hold up an arm for one. One person was the multiplication sign and made an X with his arms. The other person would hold up one of their arms and then a person would hold up their arms parallel to be an equals sign. The whole class would say the answer and then the number of people would come up as the answer. The whole class participated, which was very nice to see. When we did 5x6 the whole class had to stand at their desks so we could get an answer of 30. 

On Fridays my teacher has two periods of Afrikaans, so I went to go see Jenn's grade 1 classroom. It was incredibly different than in grade 5. She has the same learners for the whole day, but one of her main issues is that the majority of her learners do not speak English. There was quite a contrast between her classroom and mine. Her learner get out at noon, so I was rather surprised when one of my learners came to pick up his brother from her class. I asked him why he was not in class and he said that school had been let out. I saw grade 7 learners also out. I asked why school had been let out and the learners said that it was because the rains were coming. 

Jenn and I waited for about an hour for our cab to come. The rains did not come down. I guess they wanted to make sure that all of the learners were able to get home before the rains came down. After school some of us went to a traditional Namibian restaurant in Katutura. They served a sheep's head with porridge. I tried some sheep brain and ear. The ear was pretty fatty, but it tasted okay. The brain was pretty mushy and tasted kind of like tofu, flavorless.

 We got back to Casa and the rain came down. We did not have internet when we got back and did not have it until this morning. 

Today we went into town and finished up some last minute shopping. And the rain came down. Here's hoping the internet lasts. 

The First Last

A week from tomorrow we go home, which make me incredibly depressed. There will start to be many lasts and many goodbyes. Today I did not have the best day at school and I had to remind the learners that I only have four days left so I have to make the most of it. The day started off with me ending up teaching Life Skills. I usually teach Life Skills once a week, so I had something planned. However, I was just taken a bit off guard by having to teach it. We are learning about study skills, so I had them do an activity that they seemed to enjoy. I read to them a list of fifteen grocery items and then after I was done reading they were to write down as many as they remembered. Then I wrote them on the board and they had a few minutes to look over them and try to remember. We then talked about why they remembered more the second time and then the first. They said that they got to see the items and read them. We talked about how when you are told something once, like by a teacher you do not always remember it. But when you study something it stays with you for longer. We then talked about why it was important to study and how we studied. I also put to use a management technique that the school guidance counselor, who usually teaches the class, uses. When someone comes in late, someone of the opposite sex has to give them a hug. In grade 5 it is a big deal to be hugged by someone of the opposite sex. I have also instilled it for fighting as well. If learners come up to me and say, "So-and-so wants to beat me," I have them hug it out.

I feel like one period today was a major success, and then there were only a couple small successes in other classes. A minute before class my teacher told me she wanted to teach prepositions. So we went over sentences identifying nouns and verbs and some students thought prepositions were nouns or verbs. It was the perfect segue into prepositions. So I introduced them to what a preposition was. Earlier I had been making a teacher's aid and I was going to say "anywhere a mouse can go." However, the learners I was talking with did not know what a mouse was, so I changed it to anywhere an ant can go. I had a giant ant on a piece of paper and I had the students put it in different places. The learners got very excited. One girl put it between her back and her desk. I asked her where the ant was, she smiled and said, "behind." It was just amazing feeling knowing that they understood. I taught the same lesson to two other classes, but they were less focused.

The last period of the day one of my learners came and got me because they did not have a teacher. I asked what class it was and, of course, it was Afrikaans. Except half of the class was missing. It was not a productive period. The other half of the class was "working" with the principal, which consisted of running around and playing around the school. So I would have the learners in the classroom quiet, and then one of the other learners would come in a throw off the whole class. It made my day incredibly unsuccessful. I was incredibly frustrated and down afterwards.

Earlier in the week, I had had my 5E learners write letters to my learners back home. Then my teacher said I should just have my 5C learners do it because they are better communicators. Today during class one of my 5E learners told me that he had finished my letter and he gave it to me. I read it and it made my day worthwhile. This is what it said:

I am Rudolf and you are Brendan. I am very happy for you because Miss. Walker is going to teach you. So I think you are happy to see her and I was so happy to be teach by Miss. Walker. She is the best teacher in the world and I think you must respect her. I also respect her and I respect her so much and I respect her so much I will miss Miss. Walker so much. So you must respect Miss. Walker and I love Miss. Walker as much as you do. 


It made me cry. I am going to be so sad when I have to say goodbye to my learners. Tonight was the first of our goodbyes. Uanee, our Etosha guide, came by for a farewell dinner. When he drove up, Kayla and I ran to his truck and I hugged him and he picked me up with his hug. He is the best hugger and a dear friend, whom I respect and admire a great deal. We were sad to say our goodbyes, but thankful we got to see him one last time. 

Uanee

Zonal Athletics: Show Us What You Got!

Monday was the Zonal Athletic competition for Steenkamp and many other competing primary schools. We arrived at Steenkamp at our normal time and collected the competing athletes. The athletes who qualified were the ones who got first our second during our athletics. I had many learners competing, so it was incredibly fun to watch. During the school-wide athletics, we had walked to the stadium. However, during zonals the stadium was far away, so we had to take the school "bus." The Steenkamp bus is really a 16 passenger van, so we had to take two trips plus learners piled into the back of one of the Head of Department's pickup. As I waited for the bus to come I noticed that my class did not have a teacher for the day because both my teacher and I were going to athletics. 

We ended up getting everybody there. The stadium was very nice and big and there were about twelve other teams competing. Our school was the only school who did not have uniforms. It was kind of strange seeing a German school, who had predominantly white learners participating. They not only had uniforms, but they also had spiked shoes and starting blocks. One of my learners noticed this and said, "Miss, did you see there are people with your color skin who have spiked shoes. You must get for me." I told him that it was faster to run barefooted and his face lit up. We may not have had the equipment, but we had spirit, yes we did. It also helped that the night before we had a sign-making party, so during athletics there were signs for our learners to hold up. 

Two of my homeroom learners before school started

Some of my learners holding up the signs

One of my 5D learners, Wrechell, who is a fellow shot putter

One of the German learners competes in long jump

One of the grade 7 Steenkamp learners competing in long jump

 During this competition, we did not have to work. Therefore, we all had fun going around and watching our athletes compete, cheering, and "capturing" pictures. I got to see my learners compete in long jump, high jump, shot put, running, and hurdles.

A Steenkamp learner, who ended up taking first in the 75 m hurdles

My learners worked hard and competed well. We left before the competition ended, but I do not think we won. We had some great performances though and I loved watching and cheering on my learners. The competition took a break and the learners got a lunch break, which Hungry Lion (KFC equivalent) was provided for all of the learners. It was well-earned treat that the learners enjoyed. As I was sitting with my learners, they asked me if I would sing for them. So we sang the paddle song and the Schoolhouse Rock noun song that I had also taught them. It broke my heart.

A Namibian Birthday

On February 16, I celebrated my 22nd Birthday day. It was the best birthday I have ever had. I was so fortunate to get to celebrate it with my learners. When I arrived at school I was greeted by my learners, who instantly wished me a happy birthday. All day I had learners I knew and learners I did not know coming up to say happy birthday to me. I also got many cards and birthday hugs. One of my learners got me a plant and one of my boys got me a set of multicolored heart barrettes. I was just in an incredibly good mood all day. I could not stop smiling. One of my learners even asked me why I was so happy. I told him, "It's my birthday, can't I be happy on my birthday?"

I brought my homeroom, 5C, learners cake. However, since there are about 43 learners in that class, there is a rule put in place by my teacher for who gets cake. On a girl's birthday the girls get cake and on a boy's birthday the boys get cake. Therefore, only the girls brought cake, but I brought some sweets for the boys.

So I got cake and I also got sung to by all of my classes. I was just so happy that I got to spend my day with my amazing learners.

After school I went with Liz and our school's guidance counselor on a home visit. We visited one of my grade 5 students, who I teach English to at Steenkamp and I also have at the BNC.   It was so nice to see that Mousie was concerned about Odette's education and well-being. She asked us if Odette talked too much in class and her face lit up when we told her that Odette was always very focused in school and set a good example.

Mousie, lives with her four children in a room that is probably about the size of my dining room at home.The room contained a queen sized bed, a dresser, a fridge, and a table with hot pots and a hot water cooker on it. Even though by my standards the room was small, it was clean and decorated nicely with artwork and plants. There was a hanging plant suspended from the ceiling. We told Mousie and Odette that we had those in America. She told us that plants in your home shows that you have an open heart.

Liz had brought Almond Roca to give as a gift for opening their home to us. Mousie said that even after the Almond Roca was gone, they would keep the box on top of the fridge to remember the time when the two American women came to visit them. Odette and her mom started speaking in Damara. Suddenly Odette went outside and brought back a plant. She told us, "My mom wants me to give this to you. It is the only green one we have right now." It was just so sweet, which was a theme throughout the visit. Odette took us on a tour of where her extended family lived next door. They were also very friendly and it was interesting to see the contrast of living situations. For example, next door they were playing FIFA World Cup on their X-box.

After the wonderful visit, Liz and I went to the BNC. I taught English to my grade 4 and 5 kids, who also had made me cards. We read, did some writing, and I taught my grade 4 students a new song. My grade 4 students love music. I came home a little bit tired, but feeling extremely good about the day.

We had planned to have dinner as a group, just sharing pizza from the place down the street. I was incredibly, pleasantly, surprised though when all of my colleagues showed up in my room singing happy birthday with a lit cake. We ate our pizza and cake and discussed some of the classic lines that we hear from our learners. It was a great ending to a great day. My colleagues made me a card that said, "Would you rather have a birthday or a Namibian birthday?" Hands down I would rather have a Namibian birthday.

Monday + Valentine's Day

Here is a summary of my week, and I have to say it was a great one! My week began at 5:30 Monday morning, when I get up to start getting ready for school. I eat breakfast at 6 at Casa, and then we get picked up by cabs at 6:30 to get to school by 7:00. Allison, Alicia, Jenn, Liz, and I get dropped off at A.I. Steenkamp. We get greeted by our uniformed students, who are on their way to school. Everyday before school there is a staff meeting where there are hymns, a devotion, prayer, general announcements, and a message from the principal. The bell rings, which sounds like a siren, and then we go to assembly. At assembly all of the students are lined up by their grades and classes. The classes are grouped by their ability level, so 5A is supposedly the most capable, then 5B, 5C, etc. The most evidence of this grouping can be seen in the behavior of the class, but more on that later. During the assembly the prefects (Yes, just like in Harry Potter) lead hymns, the school song, and the national anthem as well as keep the students in line and disciplined.

On Monday, my teacher did not show up to school, which meant I was on my own for the day. Absenteeism is a problem with teachers. It is something that is addressed frequently during the principal's message. Teachers will just not show up to school and then there is nobody to watch their class. Some of us have had the pleasure of finding a classroom without a teacher and then scrambling to figure out something to teach them. Some of my other colleagues' teachers will also just leave the class because we are there and they do not have to teach. My teacher is good about coming to school, I have been left by myself before though.

When my teacher leaves, my biggest challenge in the classroom is behavior management. I have about 45 students in each class in a very small room that is very hard to move around in. Furthermore, even though corporal punishment was made illegal when Namibia became independent in 1990, it is still practiced throughout the school. The students do not behave as well for me, because they know I will not hit them. What is incredibly sad to me is that they will tell me that I need to beat them because otherwise they will not learn. Another thing is that the modelling of beating can be seen through the students when they beat up on each other. I have had to break up several fights inside and outside of class.

So on Monday I had some behavior management issues. Allison helped me teach in the afternoon. I wrote the word Valentines on the board and could take letters away if they were not doing what they were supposed to be doing. If they had one letter left we would play Valentine's Day Noun Bingo. My homeroom class lost all of their letters, so we did not play on Tuesday. 5E, which has the most behavior problems, was supposed to take a spelling test, but we could not get them to be quiet enough to take the test. 

In Namibia primary schools are like high school, where they switch classes along with the subjects. Each class period is 35 minutes, which is extremely short. Since my teacher teaches not only English, but also Afrikaans on Monday I had to teach Afrikaans. During the first Afrikaans class they taught me some Afrikaans and I taught them some Spanish. For the second class we just sang songs back and forth. It was fun. 

After school I went to visit the home of one of my students. Supposedly her uncle is a famous R&B singer. I got to see her home, which was interesting. It had a sheet metal roof, which was typical of houses in Katutura.  I talked with her aunt and her sister, as her mom was in bed and did not want to talk to me. It ended up being more like a conference than a traditional home visit. 

So my schedule for the week is that usually I go to Dolam Children's Home on Tuesdays and the BNC on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Dolam is a place where children can stay if they do not have a good home life. There are about 16 children there now, and I get to play and hang out with them once a week. It is amazing and is always a highlight of the week. The BNC is a after school program that is similar to the Boys and Girls Club. The children who go there get to play for awhile, then we teach class from 2:30-4:30. Last week I went to the BNC on Monday because I went there right after my home visit. I ended up not teaching, but doing some remedial reading work with some of my students. I also helped create a reading program for a couple of the students in grade 4. 

So Tuesday was Valentine's Day and I was super excited. All of my students were allowed to wear red and white instead of their normal uniforms. It was so cute seeing all of my learners super dressed up. One of the highlights on my day was going to the classroom next door to observe. My students had to give addresses to their secret admirers in front of the class while we listened to romantic music. The romantic music consisted of Celine Dion. Most of the students' addresses were like, "I want to wish a happy Valentine's day to my friends, parents, and teachers." They were all very embarrassed though. With 5E, we played Valentine's Noun Bingo. It was a little bit of a struggle for them to understand how BINGO worked. I called one word and they put up their hands and said, "bingo! bingo!" It was pretty fun though, now they ask me everyday if we are going to play Bingo. 

Since I have about 140 learners, I could not make each of them a Valentine I just brought them candy. I also had several students come up to me before Valentine's Day and asking if I would be their Valentine's partners. During one Afrikaans class I had a girl come up to me with a card. Inside of the card it said, "Dear Miss, will you be my Valentine's partner?" Then I had to check a box either yes or no. It was like a middle school flashback. I said yes of course though. I tried to ask her what being a Valentine's partner entailed, but she seemed confused by that question. I had several partners, who I made Valentines for. I also got quite a lot of cards from my learners that were incredibly sweet. 

Since my class lost Bingo, I read them the book "Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You" by Nancy Tillman. They loved the illustrations. The book's illustrations are of a boy with different animals. I had them predict what kind of animal  would be in the picture. The text was "whether you are sitting with friends" and had a picture of a boy sitting with pandas. I asked what kind of animals they would like to sit next to. One of my boys said Senovia, who is a girl in the class. She was really embarrassed and put her head down on her desk. Ah, young love. 

There are nine class periods in a day, including one reading period. During the reading period, we are given these awful passages to read with our classes. The one we were given this week was about canoes, so I taught them the song, "My paddle's clean and bright." As I sang, we mimed paddling canoes. During the song there are several parts where it says, "Dip, dip, and swing," so we dipped, dipped, and swung our paddles. Then at the end we say "dip, dip, and swing" three times, getting quieter each time. They loved it. It was so much fun. They asked to sing it everyday last week. 

After school I went to Dolam. I was incredibly excited to spend Valentine's Day with them, and I made them all cards. That day we played dominoes, like we usually do, slapping the dominoes on the table as hard as we can. Then we made Valentine's cards. Two of the girls, Bianca and Prisilla, made Valentines for everyone in our group even though they have never met some of them. Dolam is always a highlight of the week. I will write about the rest of my week tomorrow. It really was a great week last week. It makes me incredibly depressed that we only have less than two weeks left of our trip!