Daily Routine - Ella

Note: Ella wrote this on the weekend, but due to some generator issues at the office and a trip to Makeni yesterday, I am just now able to post this.
Yesterday marked three weeks in Kabala already, and, being creatures of habit, we are slipping into a new routine.

Naomi is our early riser now, and the first one to sleep at night. So our day begins just before seven. It has taken a while to get used to the sounds of night here. Our house is situated on a hill and all the sounds from town and the houses around us drift up to us. In fact, the quiet we are used to in Terrace doesn't begin until 4 or 5am. So for the first week or so mornings were tough. I don't notice the noise as much anymore and only roll over now when the dogs are fighting it out. We fall asleep to the sounds of the bats(I can identify them now that we had one in our room), and wake to the birds.

Breakfast consists of bread and peanut butter or cereal, bananas, and milk with tea and a daily vitamin (plus anti-malarials on Thursdays). By the time breakfast is finished the first few kids getting a ride with us to school have arrived so it turns into a "hurry up, get dressed, brush your teeth, did you fill your water bottles? Jacob you still aren't dressed? Get going!" So far we have managed to get out the door by 8am. Everyone piles into the pickup, inside and out, and we head off to school. There are usually 11-14 of us. The CRC bus.

  At school, Naomi is in class II, Jacob is in class V, and Maria is in JSS I. I also spend the day at school. So far I have been there whenever the kids have, but I think that will change. A few people have asked what my role is at the school, myself included, and it is slowly coming together. The plan right now is that I will spend a week with each of the teachers at the school in their classrooms. During that week I will observe, encourage and try to be a support for the teacher. This past week that meant modeling reading aloud to the class, teaching a math lesson and a reading comprehension lesson, and discussing ideas for time management, reading strategies, lesson planning, and teaching methods. I have felt very welcomed in the school and given privileges that staff don't even have. The principal, JT Koroma, has even made a point of giving us fruit or North American veggies everyday so far.

The resource "room."

 

School ends at 2pm for Naomi and Jacob, and 2:30pm for Maria. Many kids (18) have clued in to the fact that Joel comes to pick us up with a pickup truck, and they all hop in the back, and bang on the roof when they need to get out. When there are no safety rules, common sense takes over and life becomes quite simple.

By the time we get home Adama, our cook and house cleaner, has prepared dinner and hung laundry out to dry, so we get to relax and play games with the neighbors that show up, or read. Joel usually gets back from the CES office by 4:20pm, and we try to eat by 5pm. Then the neighbors show up again and more games are played or adventures taken around the house, or walks in the neighborhood.

We usually head inside around 7pm when it gets dark to wash up, do our JUMP Math, and read or watch part of "The Blue Planet". We found the DVD set here when we arrived, and we all enjoy it. After that, the kids head off to bed, we read a little longer and then turn off the generator and head to bed ourselves.