NSOBE BUSH SCHOOL

Today we took 9 students for the day on an excursion. Our first stop was the Nsobe Trust School which is a school in the bush that has about 200 community students. The students walk from surrounding villages and one little girl in grade 5 walks 7 km each way to school and home. The school has minimal supplies and funding, but they are sponsored by Seeds of Hope and are able to provide a porridge breakfast and small lunch to the children every day. The kids start grade 1 with no English and are learning the basics academically which will hopefully give them a chance in life. Next week Gerry and I are going to teach at this school for 2 days in the hopes of opening up the teacher's minds to different approaches to education rather than standing at the front of the room to deliver a lesson. After our visit to the school, we drove into the game farm which is a small but lovely location on a lake. It is a fish farm with some wildlife and a reptile area. The kids from Grace just love this field trip because at the end of the day they get to go swimming in a pool. This is a highlight for them as they rarely get to go swimming and a few times a year they might get this opportunity. The lifejackets are necessary because being around water is so foreign to them. It was delightful to watch them hanging onto the sides and splashing around with squeals and laughter.