Week 3 in Zimbabwe 2012

Week 3 in Zim was full of fun with our new friend Chappy, plus we got to pass out some wonderful reading textbooks to the primary schools. On Monday Abby needed to be picked up from the bus station after her weekend in Harare and Chris thought if I went into town with Norma it would be the perfect opportunity for us to look for some school supplies. Remember this post and this post about our generous donors and school supplies? Well, it's harder than you think to come up with a good way to use donated money. You want to leave the schools with some great things, but you don't want to buy supplies that are not useful. We decided that we wanted to use the donated money to help create libraries in the schools, since the books came in while we were in Zim. So we were searching Bulawayo for library cards or index cards to use for their check out system. No luck! So I am sending cards with a friend in a week and then we left the rest of the money for Chris to use to buy bookshelves or trunks, whichever the school wants to store their books.
Tuesday we started passing out the reading textbooks. We went to Silobi Primary and Sigiti Primary. The teachers at Sigiti were so fun to watch. They immediately began flipping through the textbooks and talking through ideas together. It really energized us and made us feel like we were really making a difference.

Teachers at Sigiti, so excited about the new text books! 

Our picture before Chi Chi's "first day of school"

 Wednesday Chi Chi came to the schools with us. She was precious! She came to Chris and Norma's ready to go with the cutest outfit and a back pack full of supplies. As we rode down the bumpy roads she would pull different things out of her bag, chapstick, a half eaten lollipop, etc...She was going with us to visit a new preschool we were told about. At Dobi Primary Abby took the Grade 0 class out to the courtyard to "draw" the Zimbabwe flag, they were trying so hard and it was very cute to see the whole class sitting on the ground drawing. I got to take the whole Grade 1 class because their teacher was acting as the Head for the day. Oh, there were a lot of kids, who didn't speak english, and they were very naughty. I tried so hard to make it fun, by taking them outside, but man oh man, they were crazy once outside! At Isotcha it was a different story. The kids were so good, the whole class sat through "Are you my Mother?" and made all the animal noises, it was so cute! Abby played duck, duck goose, or what she renamed Monkey, Monkey, Baboon with the Grade 0 classes, and even got the teacher up to run around the group!

The group at tea break

Chappy posing with the flag pictures they made

The Grade 0 teacher playing Monkey, Monkey, Baboon

We visited the preschool and gave them some supplies to use. The moms and kids were very grateful for what we gave them and did a dance and sang some songs for us.

Abby and I handing out supplies at the Preschool

 Thursday and Friday we continued the book sort. I separated all the math supplies among the 6 schools and could not help but get excited at all the really cool things they were going to be able to do with the supplies. Abby learned how to sew and made a cute giraffe stuffed animal for Norma's sewing group to make and sell. She was very excited, and I think her creation was so cute. Saturday and Sunday we cut out more patterns for the stuffed animals and finished sorting all the supplies!

Math supplies sorted by Primary School

Abby sewing her first giraffe stuffed animal

The library books all sorted! 

And I will leave you with this picture, oh sweet Chi Chi! She had just gotten her hair braided and it was in a pony tail. She was so proud and kept whipping it around, so cute!