18 kids, a Boat, and the Indian River

Friday was one of the best days I have had here on Dominica! I spent pretty much the entire day with my first grade class.

The day started at the school during assembly. Each class lines up and stands in order in the courtyard. There they all pray together, sing religious songs and the national anthem, recite the pledge of allegiance, and listen to the announcements. All while being quite and standing in rows with their arms folded and paying attention. Can you imagine trying to get an entire school of 300 to do this at home? No way! I uploaded a video if you dont believe me. :)

Then it was into the classroom. We started they day off with a test on family life, aka basically sex ed for first graders. They had to write what parts a boy has that girls dont, and what girls have that boys dont. Oh man I loved some of the answers/spellings that were turned in. Here are some things I learned, boys dont have long hair nor do they wear skirts. And girls have earrings. Cleary not the answers the test was looking for. It was also pretty funny when they would come turn in their test with these answers and the teacher and I would have to prompt them to think a little harder about what the real answer could be, then you could see the light bulb go on and they would get all shy and run away so funny!

After the test, which took way longer then it should have the kids got to make Mothers Day cards! They loved it! They each got to pick out what drawing they wanted to color, then the Mrs. Baron and I glued them to construction paper and they wrote a message to their moms. They turned out so good, and I upload some photos of the kids with their cards for all to see! This took us up right to lunch so with a quick prayer  yep they pray before they can leave for lunch thanking God for their food  and then the kids went home for their lunch break.

After lunch instead of meeting back at the classroom, we all meet at the Indian River for our class field trip. Mrs. Baron and myself along with a tour guide took 18 first graders up the Indian River on a boat! I thought it was going to be crazy, but the kids were actually really great. I think mostly because the they were afraid of the water and falling in. The little guy sitting next to me was holding my hand for most of the trip. :)

The tour was great. We learned all about the wildlife and some history about Dominica! We even heard about the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, because the river is in the movie! Its where they go to find Calypso. I happened to see the movie on TV the night before and I thought it would look way different  you know it would be all Hollywooded up- but it looks exactly the same! The water really is that murky in spots and it is shallow enough for people to stand in. Of course it was during the day and there werent candles everywhere, or a village of people living on it, but still you could tell it was the same place.

Even with all the cool info the tour guide was giving us all the kids really cared about was pointing out every single crab they saw. And can I just tell you how many crabs there are on that river, probably one every 3 feet. Big ones, little ones, white ones, red ones; we found them all and got excited about every single one!

In the middle of the tour there is a little bar that you stop at, you know tourist need their bars. But we stopped and let the kids have their snack and run around a bit. It was a really neat place in the middle of the jungle. And we got some great group photos as well. We also saw a really cool lizard, but they kids wouldnt stop chasing him. I felt bad for the little guy!

After snack time we went back down the river to where we started. The kids had a great time on the boat and where a bit sad to be done, I was pretty much ready  those kids will wear you out fast! As we waited for their parents to come pick up the kids, our tour guide made me this really cool crane and fish out of palm trees leaves! Its probably one of the coolest things I have gotten here! I love it!

So like I said it as probably one of the best days here on this island and one that I will never forget! Nothing like a day with kids to make you understand why you are doing the Peace Corps.