Last Week

Last Week

This is it.  it is the last week.  The last week of Gaga’emalae as I know it.  The school that I have come to love will be demolished to build a new school building.  Throughout the cracks, leaks, holes, mold and unsupportive support beams, I have come to really love my school.  So many memories were build there, and I was taught of how to be a simple teacher.  A teacher without the frills and luxuries I had in American schools.  Luxuries like copy machines, paper, books, computers, resources, art supplies and more.  Instead I had to go back to the olden days of creating everything on newsprint for the students to see. 

Things of course have improved since my first days at the school because of generous donations, but they are still so much simpler than how life was in America, with laminating machines, white boards for each student, chairs and desks for each child, and a library that was full of helpful material that could help you teach any subject.  (To think I thought at the time we were not being given enough materials.  If only I could have known about the situation here, I would not have complained so much!)

Next week, our school will move to my village.  Vehicles will come to bring the mats, desks and benches out of the school building.  We will set up mobile classrooms in different people’s houses, which means I will have to travel around the entire village to visit each of my classes.  In the heat of the day, it is going to be rough! 

I am excited to see this grant through to the end, and happy I will have the opportunity to teach in the new school building before I leave.  (I am also anxious to see the demolition process!)

(Pictures are of some of the memories I have had at my school)