A funny story from class today

The kids that I'm working with are all 4 and 5 year olds, pre-school age. I've really been enjoying it because they are all very sweet and very starved for affection, so just giving a squeeze, a pat on the head, or high five feels like it's having some effect. Too, they're at the age when concepts like ABC's and 123's are changing from something they've memorized or sung about to useful tools and every once and a while you can catch the smile or the proud gleam in an eye when it's clicked that they can read a word, add two numbers, or understand my English instructions (all of the kids speak Swahili at home and many live with grandparents who speak no English).

All that said, the school is in desperate need of supplies. Much like the school that Krista mentioned in her post, there is no running water and just about one pencil per child. The kids love using molding clay because it's creative and interactive, but it's expensive here so, filled with energy and ingenuity and aided by our host family's cute kids, Morgan, Maureen, and Maurice, I decided to make homemade play-do, printed a recipe off the internet, and made great big batches of pink, purple, blue, and green play-do.

Last night it was looking pretty good, but this morning after I passed out a hunk of play-do to every kid in the class (about 40!) I realized that it hadn't really set, was too wet, and stick-to-your-hands-impossible-to-roll-or-rub off. It could be washed off but have no running water!!!!!!!

The play-do stuck to everyone's hands. All the kids panicked because the dough was not coming off. We had tears from the youngest ones, lots of hands in the air pleading "teacher, teacher, help", play-do stuck to the desks, hanging in kid's hair, and very eventually we had laughter...

Anyway, Teacher Cate (as I'm called) if I'm not being called "muzungu" (white person) by the cheekiest kids made her first flop as a teacher today. Tonight she's going to add some flour to the mix and hope that works, but if anyone has any play-do insight, I'm all ears!