Burundi

Today I spent a few hours at a pre-school type program for Burundi immigrants. (It's not limited to Burundis but that is all they have now.) It's only a couple of hours and is intended mainly to expose the children to English. They also help the parents sign the kids up for kindergarten. When I first got there the kids were playing with playdo. One little boy had made a bracelet for each arm and was running around proudly showing them to each of the adults. I went in the playroom with the toy kitchen where a two year old (with a teddy bear tied to her back like a baby) attentively - almost absorbedly - brused my hair with a miniature pasta ladle. She experimented briefly with a plastic fork, but the ladle proved more effective (I'm guessing).
(this is a pasta ladle, in case you didn't know)
After playing for a little while, everyone cleaned up, washed their hands and sat down for snack. There were orange slices, apple slices, cereal, banana slices and carrots. Some of the kids liked one thing better than others, so some trading was done. The carrots seemed to be the one thing universally liked (which is funny because apparently the middle school aged children threw the carrots away before even trying them). Then everyone circled up and sang songs like ring around the rosie, the wheels on the bus, the hokey pokey. They loved it. The the slightly older kids (I'm guessing ages 3-5) went in one room to do some kind of lesson. (I think it was showing them pictures and/or objects, telling them the name of it and having them repeat it.) The youngest (ages 2 and under, though I think they were all 2) went to the playroom with the toy kitchen.

They also have a program after school to tutor middle schoolers. The kids are placed in grades by their age, not their ability. So some of the kids were in 1st grade at home, but are in 4th grade here. They are having to catch up on several years of learning while learning English. For most of them English is a fourth language. They know the tribal language, the "market" language, and French (because that's the language school is taught in). The guy who runs it said they mostly work on math because it's the least frustrating for them.

They also have a program one night a week to teach English to the mothers. (I guess most of the families don't have any sort of male figurehead).

I only went to the preschool today, but they all sound like really neat things. (And the preschoolers were so adorable!)