Anyway, it has been a fantastic day! I treated myself to a taxi ride to school with the excuse of taking a couple of bags of things that needed to go. It was nice to sit back and relax for the whole journey! I spent the morning doing bits and pieces of admin as well as taking all the Montessori equipment into the classroom we've allocated for it - the idea is that we set it up like the Montessori classrooms in the nursery we visited, with equipment on shelves and a carpet in the middle - no tables and chairs. Then I've timetabled slots for each class to use the room so that they can include Montessori techniques in their teaching without having to change the classroom layout they are used to etc and with all the equipment to hand. I hope it works! It should be set up by the end of this week and then I'll take photos.
One nice thing that happened today was that I was able to give a boy the first pair of the shoes that I brought from my school in England - thank you All Saints! He was extremely pleased with them, and with his socks (which actually had hearts on but he didn't seem to mind!). He had come in bare feet because one of his shoes got lost at home, and his dad was supposed to be looking for it and dropping it off, but he didn't come. It was such a rainy and muddy day and anyway the shoes he had been wearing before weren't waterproof. His new ones are a bit big but he'll grow into them, and he was so pleased!
I told him he looked very smart - a widely-used term of approbation here!
After lunch the children had to come in from the playground as it was raining. They were told to sit down on the veranda and there seemed to be something being organised... Before I knew it, I was given a party hat to wear and told to sit in the seat of honour!
There was some singing, and then a cake appeared!
I cut the cake, with a little help...
...and there was enough for everyone to have some!
Then I apparently stood around eating cake for a while...
Me with Benson (manager) and Lucy (headteacher) |
Me with Lucy and Sharon, a student |
After this the teachers helped me give out lollies that I'd brought for the children (this is definitely not England, it wouldn't be allowed in a 'healthy school'!!)
After this Lucy got out the bubbles...
... but it was apparently a cunning distraction, as the next thing I knew I had cake in my face! Apparently this type of thing is a birthday tradition... or that's what they tell me!
Once I'd cleaned up, there was little left to do apart from pose with the children!
I think they enjoyed their cake and lollies, and I certainly enjoyed my Mahali Pa Watoto birthday celebrations! But the day didn't end there... on the way home I travelled on the yellow matatu! There's one very distinctive yellow matatu that goes between Hardy and Karen, and I'd never been on it - somehow it always seemed to be avoiding me. But today, there it was! What a nice birthday present!
In the evening Dee and Peter gave me a lovely birthday dinner, and I spoke to family and Jon of course. Now being as I've featured in so many of these photos, I felt it was only fair to post one of Jon! He dressed up in his suit for our skype call, and he even made Anthony the ape a party hat!
What a lovely birthday! I am a very lucky girl :-)
PS Thank you so much to the kind people that gave me a birthday donation!
What a lovely way to spend your birthday :)
ReplyDeleteAnd by my reckoning, you've not long turned 30, so welcome to the thirties, it's not so bad, honest!
Well you really are 30 now.I can vouch for it-I was there! Glad you had such a good-and different day!
ReplyDeleteThat looks very lovely (bar the cake in the face!) also, I like the two toys that flanked you as you sat in your throne ;) Happy Birthday from us my dear xxxxxxx
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