Another first day of school

Sunday morning the bus picked us up at 645am! We went a new route as we now picked up students as well as teachers. Now started our first day of school. Jamie went to the weaving room while I went to the ceramics room. They are both part of the vocational section where the students are probably high school – adult. I sat around for a while (if you haven’t noticed I do that a lot) and talked to some of the teachers that speak English as well as saying hi and introducing myself to some students and talked for a while with one that spoke good English. Many of the stared and I just tried to smile through it when some would try to talk to me or ask questions in Arabic. Finally I found out from one of the teachers that they were not going to do anything today and probably start ceramics next week. Jamie and I got to go to a snack break at 10am with some of the students that didn’t/couldn’t fast (not sure which one). Also the younger kids, I think under 10, got to eat. After that the day still went pretty slow still. We talked to some teachers and found out that Monday we would be placed in the school section for a couple weeks to see how we like it over there and then come back to the vocational side and then choose where we want to be put. Came home, now takes 1 hour and 20 min. to get back to our place, they drive crazy here, they go so fast and stop so fast, always beeping and there are tons of hills and small streets. I have been getting a little carsick and hope that will stop. Took a little nap and we went on my 2nd official run. Hill is still insane. Tonight was “on your own for dinner” night and we all walked down to a little snack shop to have a gyro type thing, called Shawarma.

Monday was now our day to go to the school section. We were both put in an arts & crafts room together. The teacher was very nice and spoke good English so we could talk to her and she could tell us what to do and what was going on. The first class was 2nd graders and she helped them make a decoration poster where they stamped a shaped with paint. The part I didn’t like was that the kids didn’t get to do much on their own. The teacher pretty much put the paint on chose where it would go and the kids helped press it down. The next class she asked Jamie and I to do the craft. Since I’m all about kids expressing themselves creatively, I decided to do it different. : ) I got 4 kids and Jamie got 4 so we each did our own. I let the kids put the paint on and let them pick where to put the stamp on the page, okay so ours might not have turned out to be the best looking final project…
We are not sure what will happen tomorrow, if we will stay in the art room or move around. It was nice having something to do and the day went fast. I sat in the front of the bus on the way home thinking it might help the car sickness, but not only did it not help but an added plus to see my life flash before my eyes every time I thought we were going to crash.

We have made a few admirers in the last two days as well. One very cute little boy, probably about 6 (but it is hard to tell age since some are really small depending on disability) would peek at us on the bus and always smile and blow kisses. Some of the kids from the vocational side would pass by the art room and wave, this might happen a few times an hour. We have another boy on the bus that likes to get our attention and wave; again, this happens several times throughout the ride. Some other boys kept “accidently” rolling a ball in the room we were in and pushing each other in and another would look at me and then when I would notice and smile back he would get a big sheepish grin and get embarrassed and put he face in his hands. It is amazing how much we can communicate without words and also how much we can figure out by going on visual cues alone.

One new picture today: this is Jamie in the art room.