Play time

I have not been to the internet in over a week so this is a little old. This blog post could be about really heavy stuff, but I do not think this is the right place. So instead I will preface and say after a really, really hard four days I was so rejuvenated by several hours of total silly play time with the students. I know last week I said I had a tough week. That was just the build up to hopefully the worst thing that will happen to me here. I will not go into too many details because first I want to keep privacy and second I am pretty exhausted with talking and thinking about it. But a girl who is one of our sponsored students that I am close with said she was sexually assaulted by another student at the school. I have been in many meetings with her, staff and parents. It later came out to be a more complicated, more lying and manipulation, but still a terrible situation. Others have also been to the police and hospital with her. Long and complicated situation, also a very different cultural reaction to the incident. I felt alternating guilt, anger, confusion, more anger, and helplessness. So last Wednesday, after my midterms were finished Monday, my visa was successfully renewed at the capitol Tuesday, I just played with the kids that were either too young for exams or where finished.

I leaned new jump rope songs and games. They braided my hair and were very amused by how it smelled. They taught me ampe; a kind of jumping/clapping/rotating rock, paper scissor game that I could not help thinking about how easy it would be to make a drinking game. All the bigger kids played a word game for hours on my computer.

Ampe game

I had to start a boy/girl rotation and a time limit so they would all get to play. It is amazing sometimes how excited these kids are whenever I bring in something new to play with. It is not that the kids could not jump rope or play these games on their own. But I think many times they are lacking a catalyst. There is a whole box of crayons in the library no one uses. But they all run, sometimes a little pushy and overwhelming, when I break out the 24 pack of crayola. I brought two jump ropes and two Frisbees, all free swag from events back home. Dozens of kids all shared, played chasing and jumping competitions, and with a little prodding allowed the little ones also to play. Giving an older boy my camera instigated a kind of dance competition on video.

The girls making my hair pretty, it was pretty painful.

One of the games in class

So it was a fun day just fooling around with the kids. Even though I am about a decade older than all the other teachers, I think that most adults here have a different attitude towards kids. Very loving and accepting but not very playful or silly. It is a very hierarchical system in the school and in the family and I assume other life and business situations. I do not think it is expected or maybe even accepted to act on, or play with the levels below you. There are certainly friendly and good relationships between adults and children, no question. But it seems to be more reserved. I am almost definite that I am one of the few people that the head of the school asks my opinions and says I have decision-making powers, and also allow kindergarteners to play with my hair and try to do their dances and getting laughed at by 40 little kids.