Day 6: The First Day of School

Ooooooh child. Today was the first day of school! After rolling/carrying a sixty pound suitcase of books up the mountain (and across a two by four bridge above a little stream), we made our way to the Arlington Junior School, the primary school that just celebrated its ten year anniversary. They began the day with an assembly, where they did calisthenics together before greeting their new teachers, getting speeches from the Head Teacher Sara and Founder "Uncle John" Wanda. Then several of the students got together into configuration and sang and danced welcome songs for us for ten minutes! (I will try to send a separate email with an audio clip.) I was very busy volunteering throughout the day, meeting all the staff and teachers, getting a full tour from Marissa, reading a book to several classrooms ("The Day the Crayons Quit"), handing out sponsor letters to the fourth and fifth graders - and letters from peers from their American sister school, Arlington Traditional School (where Garen and I went, and where Holly has been the principal for 24 years), helping them read all of the letters, eating lunch with the staff, editing the students' response letters, and teaching a step routine to the fifth graders. (Yes, Sarita, THAT step routine!) The children were adorable. So enthusiastic and inquisitive and welcoming and adorable. Their little uniforms were so sweet and their smiles melted my heart. It was incredible! I really don't have the words. I'm pooped. Tomorrow I am working with the fourth graders to create plays of "The Three Little Pigs" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," which we will present on Wednesday to each other. The rest of my day I will be volunteering in the library, taping up all the abused books. They don't have that many books for their appropriate age groups, so the books that they do have lose their spines very quickly and have have beat-up, rounded edges, with pages falling out. I wish I could buy a thousand more books for them.