Saturday Happenings

I watched some kids with fascination today and thought I would share it with you. Saturdays are a day mixed with fun and work. Today started out wet- very wet. And then it continued to rain most of the morning. After trying unsuccessfully to rid this computer of viruses, I organized some simple activities for the children to do in the dining hall area. I found puzzles, crayons, paper stencils and some books. The kids were thrilled. Children up to 10 we enjoying doing hello kitty puzzles and reading simple fiction books. It is amazing how the simple pleasures in life are enjoyed more then they are not considered the norm. All of the sudden the place started emptying out and all of the kids from Gr 1-6 headed out to the farm to plant. I was quite glad to stay with the Kindergarten kids and not get muddy. For fun, they spent 15-20 minutes copying out a hand made hundreds chart. They were so thrilled to be writing down numbers and excitedly showed me every couple minutes. I have yet to find a child who does not get excited about a paper and pencil. It is quite different than having to work really hard to get kids in my class to write notes or even just write anything!

I walked around the yard, checking what the kids were keeping themselves busy with and found three of the younger ones sitting perched on five gallon pails full of water. Of course, one of them was attempting to almost fall over, but they just sat there. Then an older child came with a scrub brush and scrubbed the legs and feet. A couple feet away were three boys sitting in the shade intently working with something. I walked a little closer and found a model of a van put together with sticks and mud. It had wheels that moved on their axis, an antennae, windows and all sorts of other incredible details considering it was made out of mud! Another boy was sitting with two long corn stalks and a five gallon pail lid. Later, I saw that he had found a nail or a stick and pierced the stalks on each side of the pail and ran around the yard guiding his stick with the two stalks.

The older girls did their laundry and directed the younger girls cleaning up their case of clothes. It is amazing that they all know whose clothes belong to who! Then, from what I can understand, some of the older girls took some of the younger girls into the shower stall with a pail of cold water and got them very clean (and very cold!). Meanwhile, the boys were getting dirty. The animal manure that is used for bio gas ends up in a holding tank that is emptied onto the garden and the field. They have a large drum (maybe 25 gallons) that they fill up by scooping out pails of poo and putting them in the drum. During the week, this job is done by the guy who does all the chores and manages the farm. Today, the oldest boy was on poop duty and had a crowd of about eight younger boys helping. The large drum is kept on a cart that is set up to be pulled by the bull, but seems to be pulled by people more often. Once the drum was full, the oldest boy arranged the younger boys along the side and he tried to pull the thing. I put two little boys on the back of the cart to make it a little easier and they loved it- while I cringed at the thought of poop splashing all over them! It was great to see them all work together to get past large rocks without spilling. They seem to enjoy work as much as play. It is all a matter of living life together and having fun regardless of whether you are planting seeds, spreading poo, cleaning your room, doing dishes, making supper, colouring, studying or whatever.

Although days like this leave me with a little too much free time and feeling a little out of place because I am not part of this routine, I love to watch the kids direct themselves, get jobs done, laugh together and enjoy life. It is inspiring.