Small Great Things: Monkeys, alligators, and spiders oh my!

I had a very long day today. I was picked up at 7:30am so that I could see the morning gathering of children and watch the Wednesday morning worship in the church with the kindergarten and nursery classes (there are around 450 children in all of the kindergarten and nursery classes combined). At the end of the service, I was asked to teach a song. I taught the "good morning" song that I remember from the girls' preschool days. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day, as I was asked to teach more songs to other classes. I went around teaching "5 Little Monkeys", which hand motions and basically tells the story of monkeys getting snapped up by an alligator for teasing him. The kids and teachers both loved it. I also taught "The Teeny Weeny Spider" (they didn't understand the term "itsy bitsy"). All afternoon, I sang those two songs. That's a lot of monkeys, alligators, and spiders to sing about! But it was great. I was in my element teaching these songs 😀.

Morning worship

More of morning worship.

I also visited the day care. Those kids were somewhat frightened of me, but that didn't stop them from crowding around to touch my skin (one kid kept pinching my belly! Ha!) and my hair. They were so cute! I was making funny faces at them, so got some amazing belly laughs from them. Little kids' belly laughs are contagious no matter the culture!

Overall, it was more of the same. Anytime I was in a classroom, the children were more focused on me than the lesson. I felt bad for the teachers. I feel like I've been such a distraction. I haven't been going out in the yard during breaks anymore because it causes such a riot! The kids want to touch me, and it quickly becomes chaotic--with kids pushing and shoving each other. So, I stay in the office and sit on the side where the door blocks their view of me. Otherwise, they are crowding around the doorway to see me. So when I do peek my head out, they get very excited.

Spent some more time in the library after school, where word must have gotten around that the "oberoni" was there, because 10 times the number of children showed up today. I feel most helpful when I am at the library. I feel like I am useful, instead of just a distraction. The kids who come to the library are just as curious, though. Today, the same girls who stayed to talk to me yesterday stayed again today (an some additional friends). I love this time with them. They are getting more bold with me, so today they were touching the skin on my arms and remarking how sweaty I felt! Ha! They also were very intrigued to see the veins in my hands/arms and that the veins were blue. One of them asked me an interesting question that I wasn't sure how to answer. She asked if black people in America felt "odd." I told her I didn't know because I'm not black, but I think in some places of America, they don't feel "odd", but in other places they probably do. Not sure if this was the right way to answer, and I'm sure it wasn't the definitive answer she was looking for. But it was an interesting question, and I hope that they feel comfortable enough to keep asking me these types of questions.

Preparations have begun for the traditional wedding ceremony tomorrow(Manny's youngest sister is getting married). The house is filling with guests and tents have been put up in the yard. Should be a fun day tomorrow. No school or library for me tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll have a lot of interesting things to write about anyway!