Club 1/16/13

Clubs started this week.  Clubs are after school, from about 3:45pm to 5pm.  Six people signed up for my Arts and Crafts club.  The school made a requirement that kids must be in one sports club, so this trimester fewer kids will be in the non-sports club.  There aren't any gym classes.  Every teacher is supposed to have a club.  On Monday, it was decided to give the students a choice of playing or watching a soccer match between the 7th and 8th grade, or doing club.  In an hour an a half, I had taught about six girls from different clubs to make a couple of origami boxes and a cootie catcher.  One girl already knew how to make a cootie catcher, and I'm not sure any of the other ones had seen one.  I think they all enjoyed it.  Jen made one too.  With a cootie catcher, you choose numbers and end up choosing one of eight random saying.  It was pretty funny when my choice revealed "No boyfriend" in Jen's cootie catcher.

In the market yesterday, Ryan and I picked up some yarn.  I could get by, but it was helpful that Ryan could say the colors of the yarn I wanted to the lady who was selling the yarn.  Ryan's Mom was here last week.  She taught the girls how to knit, and they have really enjoyed knitting.  Gloria told me the price of the yarn so I didn't get have to barter or get the mazungu (white person) price.  The yarn was  less than a dollar each (1200 Burundi Francs) for each of the small yarn bunches, and that's not too bad.  I haven't found embroidery floss or other string.  The stand with the yarn only sells about a dozen different colors of yarn and some plates and bowls.  So...yarn will have to do for friendship bracelets.  I taught the girls how to make twisted friendship bracelets, braiding, knots, and a pattern called Chinese staircases.  I had dreams of having everyone's undivided attention patiently waiting for my instruction, but alas, that's not how things went.  Instead, it was more like organized chaos of scissors and knots.  It all worked out, but I'll never forget holding four or five bracelets that girls were working on with my left hand, and then having one free hand to show another girl how to make the patterns with my right hand.