A little late but Wednesday! =)

Okay, I'm going to tell you guys about my day (well yesterday which was Wednesday). Soooo we had the opportunity to get an inside look into some of the public schools. The [DR]eam Team split into 3 groups and was divided amongst 3 different schools.  My group went to one school where Makayla and I, went with some young ladies from New Horizons, through a neighboring community where some of the students lived. We went to houses of the students and spoke with the mothers to get some information about the reading program that Las Americas has started (which promotes the importance of reading).  They were asked information about the people who lived in the house, (name, age, & relationship to student). The mother was then asked if she had heard about the new reading program & it was then explained to her. The goal of going to the students' houses was to get the parents engaged in their child's education. The moms were given some activities they could do with their child to help further their reading skills.

When we returned to the school it was just about time for lunch. We ate our lunch and played a few games with the New Horizons ladies. After a while it was time for recess, where we got to interact with  some of the kids.

Later my group left and went to another school. Here we taught a few 3rd & 4th grade classes about germs. We did this neat activity  where glitter was put in the hands of the students. The glitter represented the germ that you have. They then went around shaking the hands of there classmates. At the end they ended up with many different colors their hands which represented the germs from everyone you touched. After they had to wash it off and it was explained how to properly wash your hands. The purpose of this was to learn about how germs are spread and the importance of washing hands.

While all of this was going on I was observing the kids. I noticed  soooooo many things about them. The kid were just like kids from back home. I noticed that no matter where you are in the world, kids are kids.They run around, laugh, joke with friends, sing songs, tease one another, EVERYTHING. The kids here seemed to be so free. It was like they had nothing to worry about, and were just loving life!
I saw this little girl, Jalessa, walking around and decided to introduce myself to her. just like that we were connected by the hip, she did not leave my side until our bus came to pick us up. Even though we barely understand each other, there was this I guess this internal connection. She introduced me to her friends and  teacher as her "new friend", we played hand games and shared a few laughs. It was great!

Jalessa and other students

From seeing and interacting with the kids at the different schools, I realized how we(people around the world) are no different. Yes we have different cultures and languages and other thing, but we are all people. We're all people who just want to be loved and live happy and free!

Kids playing during recess

-Brianna