Mandur 1 – Howard – 24/10/16

This morning we visited the small pre-school, Madur 1. After quite a long journey by tuk tuk, we were made very welcome by the staff, greeted with flower garlands. Here we worked with 26 children. At first we introduced ourselves and had a group session, including a story, song and dance and doing the famous OST hokey cokey! We then divided into three groups, with Maureen and Baba taking a group inside, whilst I took a group outside for some sporting activities (running, jumping and throwing). After 15 minutes we rotated around each group. Maureen then read them all the story via an interpreter. After that, all the children were given a fish hat to decorate. This went down very well, with most the children being very engaged.

What struck me was how happy most of the children seemed despite their obvious lack of facilities. They had no chairs, tables, cupboards or resources! So all lessons have to be done sitting on the concrete floor. About 4 or 5 (20%) of the children had obvious eye problems which distressed me. After the outside fence between the pre-school yard and the road was a barbed wire fence, which also worried me. We were told these are to keep animals out, but hopefully these things brought to light during our trip are things Ocean Stars can help to resolve.

On the way back in the tuk tuk there was a terrific downpour of rain and I go soaked which was actually very refreshing and enjoyable in the humid weather!

I hope and think our visit made a difference to the school!