This Saturday, we count 34 atendees, 3 absentees. A few extra have managed to sneak in over the weeks, one jumps in while we're playing a game outside and another kid's mother pleads at the door for half an hour until they give in and accept her daughter.
For today's activities, J and I drew out a load of cardboard animal/insect finger puppets for colouring-in (mouths to be added by the kids). The children are taught how butterflies evolve and the English names for some of the most important animals in the forest. As they try to explain what an elephant is, N & J realise they should have brought a photo... none of the kids have ever seen one. The last elephant in Nyungwe (Kamiranzovu marsh) died before they were born.
In the break, tea is served, a balloon hit about outside which lasts 2 mins before it blows away and pops, and we play playground games similar to ones we played back in the day. I am tagged several times and have to chase kids round a circle then sing an ikinyarwanda song they chant back to me when I don't catch them before they sit back down.
N and I try to teach them the Hokey Cokey but don't get as far as the right leg and sing the chorus 4 times instead of 3 because its such a big circle and we can't move fast enough! They sing us a lovely nursery rhyme about a little bird which goes something like "little bird, please teach us to be like you, fly like you". J shows them how to fly a kite they brought from the UK.
Second half, the kid's "grow" their own paper forest and do some painting. Apparently most if not all the kid's had never held a pen or a brush before the club started and had found it very difficult to understand the concept of colouring-in. By this session I'm very impressed with the results. They're at their most quiet and well behaved when engrossed in their artwork. Scissor handling has improved. At the end they parade their animals through the forest in groups (colobus, chimp...) and get to take them home after many finger loop repairs. The trees were given out as trophies to the ones who could name the characters in English. Most popular answer was "animals"!
For those of you who donated contributions to the kid's club as N&J's wedding gift, this is where your money is being spent! So glad I was finally able to help out after cancelling one a few weeks back.
The funniest bit for me was when 3 girls took my arms and were tracing my veins with their fingers like I was a transparent freak show. Some of the boys loved to show off in front of the camera and were jumping into shot with their acrobatic skills or pulling the most hysterical faces. At one point 4 kids were fighting over who would get to hold my hands and one kid was literally hanging off my wrist, while the other squeezed my fingers tight. Simply adorable children.
A really memorable (and exhausting!) day... impressive watching N & J at work. They are such pro's.
