School is back in session, at least for one day

Fellow Niekerkians,

Today our group went back to school for a day. It is probably a day that we will all remember as a great day but also a day that was one of our most stressful. As soon as we left the bus to enter the school, some of us knew that we were in trouble. Even though this week is English Week at the school, English wasn't able to get us extremely far with the students. Our day started out at the school with an extremely large group of elementary school students. We started out by splitting into different groups and we started our adventure by venturing into the classrooms. Many of the students were very excited, probably for some reason before we came in. As we entered the room, many of the students were happy to see us. Most of us enjoyed the time in the first classroom, "teaching" the students about different words in English. As our time closed in our first classroom, we felt pretty confident in our ability to handle the next group of students. Most of us were wrong.

As we entered the second classroom, we could tell we were in trouble. For most of us, if not all, there was no teacher in the room. We didn't have any clue what to do since the teacher wasn't there. As time went by, something unusual began to happen. It started in a small amount. A few kids came up to a few of us and asked us, by pushing a notepad and writing utensil, to write our name for them. At first it seemed okay. We were wrong. As time went on, more and more of us were surrounded by kids who wanted our names. In no time, almost all of us were swarmed by kids, even when we were all spread around the school. Let's just say that we all now know what movie stars have to deal with. We then went to lunch, leaving the elementary kids behind and looking forward to the middle school students.

For lunch, it was decided by somebody other than us that we would be going to McDonald's. We all had a fairly American lunch and then went back to the school to have a go with the middle school students. As soon as we arrived, we could sense a different environment. As we split off again, it became obvious that these students held back a little more. We did the best that we could, some of us having no trouble, some of us having quite a bit. As we finished up with the middle schoolers, we were all subjected to a whole new situation. We all had to deal with kindergarten students. This was the point where we all had some trouble, mainly because these kids knew all Spanish and little to no English. We all struggled through this part of the day and finished our school day off with watching volleyball as a few of us were surrounded by new friends.

We finished off our day with tacos and a nice reflection about what we can do back at home. We all had personal reflection time and ended our day with personal time yet again. Thanks for following along with our journey and we'll talk again tomorrow.

-The Fam