Twinkle

The eyes of my five Papua New Guinean students twinkled when they were informed of our newest Social Studies topic- Papua New Guinea. As they sat up straighter I could see the pride well up inside each one. Over the next few weeks, the class would be studying their country. That meant...they were the experts. 

School rarely comes easily to these students. They have worked very hard to learn everything, beginning with the English language. So when the occasion arises like this one, where they don't have to fight so hard to learn something new, they seize it. They become the leaders.

I, on the other hand, struggle a bit with our Social Studies units. Each term we study a different country. So far we have studied Australia, USA, Japan and now PNG. Being an American who grew up in Colombia, my limited knowledge is evident. It's a good think I am teaching eight and nine year olds!

To begin our PNG studies unit the children were sent outside to find materials to build a traditional bush house. They were given the option of gluing it down on a piece of paper or building a 3-D model. This project may take a few weeks, but in my perspective, it has peeked their interest. 

Our classroom is currently sprinkled with kunai grass, twigs, branches, pieces of plants and banana leaves. Multiple students begged to skip recess and Music class in order to work on their houses. "Wait until tomorrow", they were told. As they left the classroom to go home, I could hear them planning with each other and comparing notes. Isn't it wonderful! They are learning and they don't even realize it!

Walking home today I thanked God for the ability and desire to learn. It doesn't come easily to all of us, and it certainly never has for me, but I am able. As a teacher, I hope I never forget the twinkle in the eyes of students, the dedication of the struggling, the accomplishments...even the small ones, and the pride of belonging.

No Water

In Ukarumpa we get water from two places: the rain and the river. The rain falls on our roofs, runs through our gutters and is deposited into a large tank, called a water tank. This water is mostly used for drinking. (this my sound disgusting to some but when you live in a county with very little pollution- in comparison, the water is much cleaner. But that doesn't keep some people from filtering their water)
River water pumps from the river and into our houses. We affectionately call it ram water. This water is often used in our toilets and washing machines. Which water is used when, depends heavily on the size of your tank and the size of your family. Being a single gal and living with another single gal in a house designed for a family of seven, our tank is almost always filled (if not, we have back up tank). The only thing we use ram water for is our toilets and our laundry room sink. Everything else in our house is on tank water. It is not uncommon to be at a families house that has ram water in the shower, the washing machine and some of the water faucets. (you can see the darker tint of the ram water in the picture below)

Now that you understand how the water system works in our little community I will tell you how it is not working at the school, at present. The first day back at school this term, we were informed that the water pump (connected to the rain water tank) on the Grades 2-6 side of the Primary Campus, was not functioning properly. The pump had been damaged and needed to be fixed. This meant that for a few weeks we had NO water on our side of campus. I am guessing it was because they didn't want to pump up river water while they were fixing the pump.

If you have ever taught in a school in America you would know that this situation would be DEVASTATING! School would probably close. Sanitizers would be bought all over town. If school weren't closed, children would bring in gallons of water to compensate! I can only imagine the problems it would cause. (I take this all back, because it wouldn't happen. A worker would come in and it would be fixed with in the hour. It must be nice to have resources readily available.) But this is not what happened here.

Unlike America, these kids get their "allotted amount of dirt" per day (not by any desire of their parents). They climb trees, play in mud, they are almost always...dirty. Even on Sunday, when their parents try hard to keep them clean, it is inevitable. I can't even keep MYSELF clean walking from my house to the school. We live on dirt roads. In a country where it rains regularly. So when everyone heard there would be no water...nothing really changed. My students didn't bother to wash their hands. In fact, I think they thrilled that they couldn't.

By the third day, I was a bit disgusted. I had run home that afternoon and the first thing I did, was wash my hands. It hit me then that there is really no reason why I couldn't sanitize my students. Before heading to school the following day I grabbed my faithful travel sanitizer. (Honestly, it hasn't been touched since I was in the village two years ago) Thankfully they all thought it was great fun to watch the sanitizer dissolve on their hands and were always begging for more.

Our days without water quickly came to an end, but now, I had another problem. Since our water hadn't been working for a while, my students would often go to the sink and turn it on. When no water would come out they would walk away, like any child would. Later that day we would return to class and the water would be pouring out of the faucet. This only had to happen one time before I made signs for each faucet. Now anytime the water does not come out of the faucet, we turn the faucet OFF (what a concept) and put the little sign on. They love putting the sign on.

Unfortunately, after only a few days of working, something connected to the water pump died again. We now have to order another part from out of country that will likely take a few months. The ram water was turned on again and now flows through all the sinks and toliets on the Grade 2-6 side. I have put away my sanitizer and sucum to the idea of my students washing their hands in river water. If they use soap they should be fine, right? haha! It won't kill them. If anything, they will have a better immune system. I still look forward to the day where I can fill my water bottle up in the sink again.