First Day of School

Today is the first day of school for the Rehoboth Early Learning Center. It is a preschool for the kids in the orphanage and also a few children from the community. It is mainly for 3 to 5 year-olds, but some of the older children that are a bit behind attend also. Dan and Clara have missed going to school ever since the school year ended on March 31st. So today is the big day to go back to school!



Everyone was very excited- especially Paul. I feel kind of bad for him since he won't be 3 until October. Poor guy was so excited to get his uniform on this morning! So I had to take his picture along with the other two. Right now he is eating a snack and watching his favorite cartoon. So I don't feel too bad for him.



Clara was excited to go but would not give me a big smile when it was time to record the event.

They have a different colored shirt for each day of the week. It is amazing how well that helps them remember the days of the week and the order of the days. So orange is for Monday.

There was no way to get this crew to give nice smiles all at the same time so I settled for silly.



It was only after our little photo shoot that I realized that all the other kids were not wearing their uniforms today. I think that it was because it was orientation day. So we rushed inside and changed shirts. It seems like I am always a little behind everyone else with stuff like that.

Here is the line to go into class. The teacher puts them in order of height.


The next three pictures are from a painting activity in the breezeway next to the preschool. This was a couple of weeks ago. All of the kids had so much fun. Some of the paint made it onto the paper at first but it was not to long before it was all over the kids and the walls!

The package said one size fits all but I think that it should have said one size fits most! Josh's feet are a little larger than average here. The socks that we brought for him have been worn out for a while so I have tried to replace them with not much luck. Amazingly these did not slip under his heel in his work boots. However, Josh decided that his sandals are much superior in comfort to the boots. So I think it has been more than a month since he has worn them.

Josh decided to climb up the water tower here to see the view of the fence across the street. The water tower is at the east end of the existing orphanage and the construction is to the west. Above is a picture he took looking strait down. I think that this one is mostly to show off his sandal tan.


This shot is actually looking east over the orphanage wall. This is a swampy area where so many LOUD frogs and toads live. The guest house were we are staying is right up against the east wall and very close to this swamp. Some times after it rains the chorus from the swamp is so loud that it is hard to have a conversation.
In this one you can see the playground in the foreground and then house two. Over the roof of house two you can see the tarps covering some columns of the new wall. The columns were being plastered that day and the tarps were to protect from the rain and also to make it possible to work despite the rain.

The roof in the foreground of this picture is the administration office/ preschool/ birthing clinic. The house to the left is house two and the house to the right is house one. House one and house two have about twelve kids apiece right now. House one has more of the babies and toddler and house two more older children. You can also see one of the care givers stepping through the pedestrian gate in the large gate. Strait across from the large green gate is the driveway in to the new property and the security wall under construction. Josh is hoping to get another picture from the water tower when the wall is completed.
Engineer Josh in the grassy area of the property. The grass was all burned down in early April and now it is about four feet tall in some places. I have a hard time walking through it when I can not see my feet! I am not a big fan of snakes.

This is where the large gate for the driveway connects into the column that supports it. I have to say that I don't even have the vocabulary to describe it but I thought that it looked pretty cool.

The gate is in! It looks great and works well. We were so excited to see it up and functioning!

Here is a picture of all the construction craziness by the driveway. Soon the driveway will be leveled, graveled, and poured with concrete. That will be so much easier than mud!