Frustrations

I have tried to make each entry in this blog be one of an upbeat and positive nature.  And truthfully, most every day is one that has so many positives that the negatives are not that important.....but today was one of frustration that was awful.....

Wednesdays we go to the school, at Kakudu.  This school has real uniforms, a higher socioeconomic group.  The classes are very large.....43 children today with one teacher.  These are also older children.  We were making masks......zebras...and these were of paper plates.  The goal is manual dexterity with the use of scissors and following directions.

The teacher of this class tends to yell at the kids and they in turn, ignore him some of the time.  I believe there is a wide age range in this class as some of the girls look to be 12 and some of the children look only 9 or 10.  There is one girl that is very aggressive and when she wants attention she will begin to tap you on your arm or back with the back of her hand and this increases in speed and strength until you turn around and meet her needs.  Some of the other children will also tap you but not as insistently.

Because all supplies are carried here from the USA, the crayons and scissors are cared for to make sure we have supplies to use in other classes.

Today right after the children began coloring we noted that 2 pair of scissors were gone from two groups.  When we asked where they were, the children said, we only had one pair in each box.  This was then given to our leader, MaryAnn, and she had one of the drivers translate that each box had the same contents and we needed the scissors to be returned.  The children insisted that they had received a shortened number.  Finally, the crayons and remaining scissors were taken from those two groups and were held until the missing supplies were returned.  Quietly two of the girls reached under their skirts and pulled out the scissors and slipped them onto their desks.  Then the crayons were returned and they continued their craft.

Here is my frustration......in some of the classes if we forget one small crayon that fell on the floor, the kids will run after you to return it......in those classes the children and polite and listen to directions and try their best to do the craft.  This particular class is so different.....rough, aggressive, grabbing things from one another, and now today taking of the supplies and then denying they did.

What do I need to learn from today?  I need to think about this.  I don't believe it is to ignore this behavior and just try to get more supplies......I do believe that MaryAnn who is a teacher did the right thing in stopping the craft with these children until they returned the supplies.  I know that I am very disappointed with this class and the teacher and yet I cannot imagine trying to teach this large of a class and I'm not sure how much teacher training he has had to learn the techniques to manage them.  So I need to think.....what is our purpose in going to the schools?  It is to teach these crafts to the children, to help with them thinking outside the box of education that is the rote style here and be creative.  And I'm sure it is to teach courtesy and kindness as well as respect of other people's property.....and mostly today, how to show appreciation of the efforts of others who add to our lives.

As I look at these masks on the children, I think of the masks that I wear.....to appear different from who I really am...to be more socially acceptable....to hide the ugliness that is inside of me ....and I guess that was my real frustration today....these children are not sophisticated enough to hide these parts of themselves.....and are just learning socially acceptable behaviors....so I need to learn more patience and kindness too.....and keep my focus on why we are doing the things we do.....and show grace to these little ones just as grace is shown to me by God and the others that interact with me on a daily basis.