We chose to break the Tuesday morning blues with some boys
versus girls Binball. This is a local dodgeball variant that seems to involve
repeatedly being hit in the face by balls gleefully hurled at a seemingly
impossible pace by what had previously appeared to be tiny, tiny 10 year-old arms.
The morning saw Gunners and I demonstrate a ‘water sucking candle’ that
certainly did not suck! Tash and Rita recording the soundtrack for the Tijimbat
kids’ upcoming music video, while Georgi and Jason unleashed the kids’
creativity in creating makeshift musical instruments – resulting in some very
loud drum kits and some equally impressive nail, plank and elastic band guitars
among a litany of imaginative instruments. That afternoon, the rest of the team
finally allowed me to unleash all that I have learnt in years wasted playing
computer games – letting me run a game of capture the flag. I was unsettled to
learn that real-life capture the flag actually involves running and catching
people. Furthermore, I found that I in fact have a much greater body mass than
a 12 year-old kid, rendering changing direction approximately 9 times harder,
and me approximately 30 times as ineffective at capture the flag.
While I do nominally cling to my tattered ideal of economics
as a (social…) science, my childhood dreams of being a real scientist (Hi Mum
and Dad!) were finally realised on Wednesday when Gunners decided he would
prefer to take a back seat for his planned activity in order to pursue his true
passion, beading and bracelets. While I was told my white labcoat and safety
goggles were unnecessary, being allowed to use a “poisonous substance” was
enough for me. I demonstrated to the kids (in a simultaneously skilful and
knowledgeable manner) a ‘density stack’ where liquids of different density are
poured in sequence into a clear cup, where they separate into different
brightly-coloured layers. I was left cursing the refusal of a labcoat as I
attempted to clean lamp oil, vegetable oil, hand soap and honey out of my
shorts after Seth’s particular enthusiasm in mixing up his cup, but elated at
the success of my science skill debut. In the afternoon, I sneakily avoided
demonstrating my devastating lack of basketball skills by designating myself
scorer in a numeracy/shooting competition, where I witnessed an incredible
inversion of skills and scores as the more capable basketballers chose only the
most ambitious targets, to their significant detriment. The most extreme
example of this was Estherlita, who made ten attempts at the hardest target
(worth the most points) landing none of them, and was shocked to find herself
in last place in her group.
Today (Thursday) was a focused marathon for Gunners and I,
who ushered 32 kids through the process of mixing, kneading and spreading pizza
dough, then after lunch, topping their pizzas with a smorgasbord of vegetables
and meats of their choosing. Only one vegetarian pizza was sent to the oven, as
Tyrone found he was too hungry to wait for his pizza to be cooked before
scoffing his salami. We scrambled to cook all these pizzas in our two ovens
(one propped closed with an upturned chair) before home-time, where the proud
kids all wanted their pizzas wrapped up to share with their brothers and
sisters after a satisfying first piece.
With tomorrow’s Sports Day, we will conclude our program –
the three weeks have flown past! While our impending departure is sad to
consider, I have no doubt that the next few days will be action-packed enough
to keep our minds off it.
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