Young men dancing the tides
Twotalk's latest update: a trip to the beach in Ghana, and Easter celebrations in Bucharest
- Kiara, SOS Children, Ghana
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One of the biggest challenges here at SOS International College is finding time to relax.
Because the school is a competitive, college preparatory institution, days are often filled with classes and nights are dedicated to studying. We do, however, squeeze space into our schedules to dance, sing, and have a few adventures.
This past weekend two of us from the English department took our combined 11th and 12th grade “bilingual” classes to the beach. All of the students are studying literature in their mother tongue or first “official” languages (Swahili, Amharic, and French) so English classes often consist of work in grammar and vocabulary development. We have wonderful conversations in our classrooms, but we don’t get to play as much as we would like. So, we decided to take the students to a nearby beach called Prampram to get them away from their books and out of the scorching March heat.
Initially, we asked the students to merely wade in the water. Because only a few of them know how to swim (some SOS villages have access to pools and instructors while others do not), we thought it best to keep everyone safe. This was great advice, but the pleasure of leaping over, around, and into the waves proved to be infectious. Before we knew it, the students were jumping (fully clothed) into the ocean. The fact that some of them were wearing stylish jeans and button-down shirts didn’t seem to faze them at all. Even our soccer balls joined in on the fun.
Before the afternoon came to a close, some of the students rode horses and others just chilled out on the sand. Even when their sticky, sandy clothes dried into their skin, they giggled, sang songs, and joked about the day. It was nice to see them smile and it was wonderful to hear them laugh. This was a “field trip” to remember.
- Oana, SOS Children, Romania
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April came and passed very fast this year. It feels like it was yesterday when we prepared for Easter and now it’s gone. But even if it passed so quickly, we are left with beautiful memories.
A week before Easter we had two exciting events. The first one was organized by our staff, starting from the idea of “One Program”. The Playbus, with their wonderful ideas of playing, meet our children in the Village to make some Easter objects. At exactly 2 o’clock in the evening when the hour for the activity was set, the children came excited to meet the pedagogues and make colourful things with their own hands.
The 3D egg, the egg basket and the egg support were just a few of the handmade objects that the pedagogues from the Playbus taught the children how to create. They’ve came prepared with the necessary materials and patterns for all these objects and the play started. Some of the children, like Lucian* (4 years old) learned for the first time how to cut a paper in zigzag. Others were so good at what they were doing that, after creating the pre-set objects, they started to invent other objects from the materials they’ve had. At the end, when the mothers came to get the children home, they were so enthusiastic of their objects and they showed them with so much pride and happiness on their faces…
Another day has come and another event came with it! Our friends from Dr. Oetker, proposed to us to come in the Village and cook traditional Easter food with our mothers. So they split in teams, every mother with her children and started to cook. They made Easter cake (“pasca”-in Romanian), they paint eggs in red, blue, yellow and green and decorate it with all kind of stickers; and the most important, the children had the occasion to play and cook in the same time. They each had some decorating colour pens and flowers to decorate the muffins with. Of course they have eaten the muffins as soon as they were ready; they were looking so nice the children couldn’t help it.
They all left the room satisfied with the work they’ve done, with beautiful coloured eggs in their arms and eager to try the Easter cake on Sunday.
Now, 2 days after Easter I can confirm that the cake tasted amazing, the weather was sunny and warm and the children and their mothers have truly enjoyed their Easter holidays.
*Name changed
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