First day at St. Louis Primary By: Nathan Windfeldt and Matthew (from the Bible) Wedin

Today, Whitney, Joe, Allie, Sophia, Will, Nathan, Jeron, and Matthew went to the St. Louis Primary School, while the others went to Upendo orphanage. After arriving at the school, we met the Academic Master, Mr. Moshi who showed us every classroom. He had us introduce ourselves to each classroom after explaining who we were and where we were from. Mr. Moshi made a mistake and thought our chaperone Whitney was Mr. McMorrow’s daughter while introducing us in the first classroom. Whitney, being the nice woman she is, decided not to call out Mr. Moshi in front of the class. So now 700 students think Whitney is Mr. McMorrow’s daughter. Mr. Moshi also made the interesting choice of calling Matthew, “Matthew from the Bible,” when he met him. We were surprised when Mr. Moshi called a kid with glasses “four eyes” in front of the whole class, especially since Mr. Moshi also had glasses. After introductions, we went outside to play with the kids during their break. All of us interacted with the kids in different ways such as playing soccer, ping pong, jump rope, reading, and just talking. Many of the younger kids would walk up to you and just hold your hand. They were so happy to see us that you could not hold back a smile. The kids liked us so much they would push other children away so they could continue holding our hand. At times, there would be multiple kids holding on to you in places you can’t imagine. The girls seemed to be the most popular by having more than 6 kids touching them for most of the time, although Joe was up there too. After the whole school had a break, some kids stayed outside and spent time with Joe, Whitney, Nathan, Will, Allie, and Sophia while Matthew and Jeron went to help in the technology lab by answering questions the kids had about their new tablets.  Outside, we played soccer and jumped rope with the kids until the rest of the school came out to play again. Near the end of our morning Will was getting beaten badly by a teacher in ping pong and everyone else was worn out from all the kids… we left shortly after, but promised to come back. While walking back to the lodge exhausted we discussed how much fun we had.