And we are back...

After a three week battle with malaria, I have finally recovered and back to 100%. Three weeks ago, I helped plan and organize an all day event for World Malaria Day...too bad, I missed most of the day due to...malaria.

Anyways, here is a quick recap of what has happened in the past few weeks:

1) Term I has ended for the primary students. Our students go to school all year round and have three breaks during the year. So the students had a break for about a month, and Monday was their first day back for Term II. It was wonderful to see their smiling faces back at school again. The school comes alive when they are here. We also had many volunteers from the clinic come up and work with the students. Some read to the students and others taught them math dice, a game involving quick mental math skills.

2) During Term I break, the secondary students came to Arlington for a two week program. This was my first time meeting the Arlington graduates who are now in Senior Secondary 1, 2, and 3. The students came every morning for tutoring, volunteer work, and games. I also talked to the students about the challenges they are facing as well as let them ask me all about America.

3) Arlington also hosted a teachers' workshop for two schools in the area as part of our outreach program. During the workshop, we split the teachers up into P1-P3, P4-P5, and P6-P7 to discuss teacher responsibility, scheming or lesson planning, and other strategies and ideas. The workshop was a success. The P1-P3 were teaching each other "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to teach the students the parts of the body, P4-P5 were explaining how to use the environment and items they already have to teach, and P6-P7 were giving strategies for encouraging students before the exams. All of our teachers were excited and worked so hard to encourage the community teachers. The most encouraging part: I had them take a post-workshop survey asking a range of questions, one being: "How can Arlington best help your school?" A large number responded: More workshops just like this one!