Recess!

The bell rings, echoing through the halls- everyone knows what time it is. Recess!

The students squirm in their seats, waiting for the teacher to announce that they can leave. Walking in an orderly line and burning with excitement, the children slowly make it down the stairs and outside into a spacious, open court.

Along the fence on the left side people are selling various baked snacks and the Dominican equivalent of freezies. Many will first buy something to eat, enjoying their treats in the shade so they don’t melt, re-energizing for the second half of the day. As everyone is finishing off their food- or even still in the midst of eating it- the children start to play. On second thought, maybe they didn’t need that extra burst of energy. These kids are machines!

A favorite game- at least during the day I observed- is a game rather like cops and robbers (guys versus girls, of course). Here they call it police. It turns relatively chaotic after the first few minutes, and tends to become more of a free-for-all, fend-for-one’s-self fiasco. Kids began running around randomly, crashing and forming what I can only compare to a rugby scrum. The boys would lock arms and form lines, walking slowly and ominously forward to enclose the girls and take them to jail. Every so often a jail break would be issued, sending people running happily in all different directions; free to begin the madness anew.

Recess is in fact a crucial and beneficial part of what we do at TEARS School, ensuring that the students have a chance to blow off some steam and experience physical as well as mental learning. It gives the teachers a little break too; it’s an all around fun event, and often the highlight of the children’s day. Praise God for recess!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Missionary's View, T.E.A.R.S. School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.