Back at it again

And suddenly it's October and we've been in school for almost two months?! Amazing how time flies when you're loving life. This past two months has been pretty busy and exciting, here is a little update on what's been going on out here in Kigali...

School started up, I have a rambunctious group of kindergarteners; 5 girls, and ELEVEN boys! Being that it's my second year of teaching, the beginning of the year has come with some surprises. I'm able to more easily deal with problems in the classroom. I feel much more confident in my ability of teaching and predicting how students will do learning certain skills. I'm amazed at how YOUNG my kids are in September. It's so easy to forget how much these kids grow in a year. I left a mature group of 6 year olds in May, and now I'm starting with a very young group of 5 year olds. But still, they melt my heart with their adorableness (probably not a word, but I think kindergarten teachers should be able to use it).
Last year my class was mostly girls, this year they are mostly boys. It's remarkable the difference that is made in a class when the majority of the group is one gender. I have yet to have to talk to them about tattling on each other, but I spend the majority of the day saying the following, "Keep your hands to yourself," "No you can't jump off the ledge" "you need to apologize to your friend for pushing/kicking/poking/hurting them." "keep your hands to yourself!" "Let go of your friend"
Just the other day for the 3rd time this month, I had a student leave school to go get stitches. Not to mention a 4th student who came the first day of school with stitches in his head. Boys....

Outside of school, my "extra curricular activities" have are up and running. This weekend we had our first Wyldlife Club. Last year I was a Younglife leader, this year I am focusing on another section of younglife- "Wyldlife" for middle schoolers. We've got a great group of kids, I'm excited to invest in their lives this year.
It's been wonderful to be back visiting the littles at Home of Hope orphanage. I'm amazed at how much some of the toddlers grew in just 2 months this summer! It's been a joy to be able to go and see them realize I'm back after and still going to be around.
This quarter I started teaching swim lessons after school! Its been interesting finding ways to teach kids to swim with no equipment, but it's been really fun!

Last month I had my first (and hopefully last!) moto accident on my scooter. Long story show, I collided with a car that turned in front of me. Accidents are funny, I knew what was going to happen right before we hit. I could see the whole scene before it even occurred. We hit, I flew off. I don't remember exactly how I landed, but I stood up right away. I didn't hit my head, I didn't bleed at all, I didn't break anything. Praise the Lord! I did however have some very colorful bruises all down my right leg. It was pretty swollen for a few days and some bruises didn't even show up until the swelling went down. Almost a month later I'm all healed though!
But back to the scene of the crime, when accidents happen here, the reaction is a bit different than in the states. In America, if there's an accident, a few people might pull over to help and call 911, then a lot of people drive by slowly. In Rwanda, everyone shows up from everywhere and they all try to help at once. I had many people trying to take my helmet off, pick up my scooter, check out my scratches, see if I was ok. Not to mention the hundred or so people that had gathered around to see what happened to the Mazungu (white person) girl. Accidents cause a huge scene. Luckily, I was fine and my roommates came pretty quickly to pick me up. No one wanted to leave until they could see that I was leaving with friends.
Here's a picture of my leg the day after the accident...

And here are some pictures of my adorable class!! 

Door to the classroom. "Monkeying around in Kindergarten"