The class with the kids was an experience! The children are very well behaved, reciting in unison – “Bonjour Madame Jackie!” and the same to “Dan” and “Pam” when we are introduced. I taped a map of the world on the wall. Pam showed that Haiti and Washington are not so far apart. She also showed pictures of the kids at Saint Mark.
We led the class in a number of activities using handouts created by Jodie from the Living Water Foundation. One is a laminated card the children hang around their necks that tells them to use clean water for drinking, brushing and caring for the baby but not for bathing or cooking (hope I got that right). There is a song about this to the tune of Frere Jacques – “Use this water, use this water, it is good!” and so on. We handed out the makings of simple musical instruments: comb kazoos, drums of plastic cup and beans, balloons.
Pam also read the scripture of Moses leading the Israelites through the desert. She tied a towel around my head. Now I’m Moses! She declaimed “God sent manna from Heaven!” and we threw candy in the air. That was a mistake! For then we had little kids (and teachers) diving everywhere among the desks. After that they surrounded with little hands out imploring “Manwe! Manwe!” and no matter how much candy I handed out they always wanted more..
So, in future classes we didn’t do the manna from heaven anymore. We did hand out “water wands” made of blue and grey yarn, and had the children wave them around when Moses split the rock and the water flowed…
