A Beautiful Week!

This first week has been amazing. We have experienced so much in this first week that I don’t really know where to start... 

Last Saturday we all met in the lobby at Reef hotel with a lot of packing and full of excitement. It took us about 3-4 hours in a local bus to get down to Shimoni where the expedition would have its start, the ride was a bit bumpy but we got to see a lot of nice nature and small communities.  At the arrival to Shimoni  we had lunch together, and got to know each other some more, with a beautiful view out over the ocean. 



We work in a number of schools in Shimoni

Now we are basically divided into two different groups, some of us are out on the island and some of us are here in Shimoni. The group here in Shimoni does forest research and community work, this week has been a community week for me. It started off last Monday with some training and everyone in Community met up out on the island. The training involved for example roll playing when the staff pretended to be students and us volunteers had to step in and pretend to be there teacher. It was both hard and really fun when they were passing notes, talking, not paying attention or running away to know what to do and how to act. We also discussed what makes a good teacher, our own experience with good/bad teachers etc.

As Classroom Assistants we get to know the children

What we have been doing during the days this week in Community is basically being assistants in some classes, worked with lesson planning, sang “All you need is love” with the choir, read with the kids etc. The students are great and it is fun to be in the schools . Today, for example, we went to read at the kindergarten. When we arrived the kids run and took our hands and started to drag us in different directions because they were so excited. It was great to see how happy they actually were that we were there.



An amazing experience - so hard to explain!



It is hard to explain how life is here and what we get to experience. You have to see it to really understand. But this is a brief very cut down version of what the first week of my 5 week trip has been like. The time flies here and if the next upcoming weeks are anything like this one I know  that this will be a wonderful trip that I will never forget.

A Beautiful Week!