Hello parents! I know you are all desperate to learn about our day 5 adventures. My name is Vivian and I am the journalist for the day. Today, the girls were woke to the sound of chickens and then had a nice breakfast with our homestay family. There were cookies, noodles with spicy cabbage and sweet tea. Our homestay is so nice, they always offer us more food to make sure we are well fed. When the big group met at the local school we discussed some deep moral questions. They were mainly about the meanings of service and the concept of voluntourism.
Our work for the morning consisted of either collecting small rocks or crushing the small rocks the others had collected. The crushed rock will be used in the construction of the new building. After 2 hours of hard work, The Small World staff made us some refreshing lemonade for break. The school then had a welcoming ceremony for us. A teacher from the school gave a lovely welcoming speech, and we again felt welcomed into a larger community we just met. The students also presented us with Katas, which are silk scarves given to show gratitude. Some girls performed native dances and then we all danced together. It was definitely a wonderful experience, the local music is great to dance to.
In the afternoon we did another activity “if the world had 100 people”, where we guessed statistics of different scenarios. The questions really made us reflect on how we live a privileged life. I was really surprised to learn that nearly 48% of people live on less than $2 a day. We finished the day at the construction site for a new building and began digging out the foundation for the new building. It’s incredible to see how much work is required without the use of machinery. We finished the night by playing games with the boys and having a delicious dinner. We were all exhausted and headed to bed early in preparation for another hard day of work tomorrow.