One of my favorite moments during our time in Budaka occurred one afternoon, after teaching a 3-day P5 (think 5th grade) English lesson. I’d been asked to teach some writing lessons and decided I was going to challenge them to try something outside the box. They have a very strict curriculum they must follow there, so to be invited to teach something outside of that & in a different form, felt like precious time that I wanted to make the most of for the students. I didn't want them to dictate something, working towards a write or wrong answer. I wanted to give them an opportunity and space to create and share freely, their thoughts, ideas, and feelings; not right or wrong, just theirs.
At first, I wasn’t really sure how this was going to work or if it would work at all. The first day, we had to do a lot of background work, briefly going over the writing process, different types of writing & writers, how we’d like to become writers, pretend we are real authors when its time to write, and then specifically, touched briefly on poetry. Then I walked them through the process of writing an “I AM” poem. I modeled each step, creating an example of what they were going to be doing. They seemed so excited to get started and were eager to learn but I couldn’t quite tell if they were totally getting it all. Regardless, it was time to move on.
On the third and final day devoted to this lesson, class time was over and I needed to leave to be at my next assignment. They students were to go on break, a long recess basically, but they weren’t finished and desperately begged me to let them. Unlike in America, students are left alone to create chaos in classrooms here quite frequently. So I left and said I would return later on.
90 minutes later I returned to find the kids dancing and singing about their work and reading their poems to all the younger students that had piled in and gathered around one at a time to listen to what they had written. They were so excited it was crazy! They were declaring and singing that I AM a writer… an author… a story teller, etc. It was one of the sweetest pictures of chaos and joy I’ve ever seen! So fun to help kids learn and experience things in new ways.
Gloria is a boarder at Cornerstone. She attends school and lives with the orphans but then goes home for some weekends and holidays.
Ronald is a Cornerstone orphan. One of the older boys, very biright, driven, caring and such a great example to the other kids.
Helping Daka- a day scholar.
Natasha- A Cornerstone orphan
Breanda- the oldest Cornerstone ophan and such an amazing leader!
Sweet Moses is a precious boy. He was a delight to meet. His father is a pastor in the local village and he comes to Cornerstone Learning Center as a day scholar.
