Volunteering at Red Rose

Hi! My name is Clare. I am an American student from St. Lawrence University volunteering at Red Rose. I teach Class 2 with Ms. Rose, a compassionate young teacher who really cares about the students. She and the rest of the staff put so much effort into educating and supporting the kids. I’ve been here for four weeks and every day has been wonderful!Most mornings we begin by playing a few games of Tic Tac Toe, Go Fish, or Hangman--in English and Swahili--to get the kids ready to learn. Then we progress to some lessons in English, Math, or Social Studies. The kids especially like going up to the blackboard to answer individual problems. They're been great about teaching me new Swahili every day, and their enthusiasm has created great opportunities for us to talk about different cultures.Later in the morning we have uji--Kenyan porridge--and I usually read a couple of stories. The kids love Curious George and Dr. Seuss! I've been teaching a lot of art lately, because the children really enjoy expressing themselves through drawing and painting. Yesterday we painted watercolor pictures... and the children ended up painting each other! After art we usually go outside for some free time and play kickball, football, marbles, and jump rope. It's always hectic!

After lunch we have computer time. The kids love spending time in the computer lab; we've been playing games and practicing typing almost every day. I brought a "Mr. Bean" dvd in last week as a treat and it was a huge success! The kids also like dressing up and playing with my camera... one day I painted their faces and they put stickers everywhere and pretended to be Masai warriors. Afterwards, we had fun looking at the pictures in the computer lab.It's been such a pleasure to teach at Red Rose. I've been lucky to work with the staff and get to know such bright and enthusiastic kids... I will miss them all so much when I leave Kenya in December-- I can't wait to come back next year! Asante sana, marafiki!