Marble Works 2/26/13

In Hanna and Gloria's house, I came across a box with a construction kit for marbles.  Something called Marble Works was my favorite toy as a child.  I would put together the tubes and ramps, and spend hours watching the marbles roll to the bottom.  For a long time, I ignored the box, and it just sat on the shelf.  Recently, I put it to work.

I took it out at the Children's home.  I set it up in my open living room area, and used a mosquito net to capture stray marbles.  First, the older boys played with it.  The oldest boy put it together.  Next year, he may go to the school I teach at.  Then, I played with the youngest kids that don't go to school yet.  I would stack up the blocks, and inevitably the youngest would accidently knock it down and I would have to start all over again.  After about four times, I called it a day.  The next day I was sick, and I recruited Jen and Allen to help.  Allen is from Bujumbura, and helps us on Sunday morning  lead worship at school.  The kids at the Children's home really like Allen, and his English is really good.

I took the box to school and made a lab for the students.  It was difficult for them to put it together, but they enjoyed it.  They would also play with it during break, after lunch, and even put it together when parents came to visit on a Saturday.  I'll take it back to the Children's home this week.

We played a game with the staff where all the staff tape a piece of paper to their back, and everyone goes around writing compliments on each other's papers.  The computer teacher wrote, "Lost all her marbles in Physics class."  I have all the wooden pieces to take back to the Children's home, but I only have about five marbles left!  I was quoted the mazungu (white persons) price of 20,000 Burundi Francs ($12.50) in the market for a new bag of marbles.  I talked them down to 5000 BF, but haven't gotten them yet.  Kids in many parts of the world love to play with marbles.  Often, the kids at the Children's home will play with bottle caps on the porches.