Northern Ireland-Week 2!

Week 2 here in lovely Ireland is now over! We’re done with our internship now, and today we said goodbye to Mill Strand Primary School. I’ve realy loved it there! The kids are great, and the teachers have really accepted us and been very inviting and friendly.

On monday, the school had some visitors: the Mwamba childrens choir from Uganda. They were unbelievably talented! The youngest soloist was only 9 years old, and was performing like a pro! I was seriously impressed. I’m just regretting leaving my camera!

On tuesday I started my art project with the year 3 kids.(6 and 7-year olds). I had originally planned to make masks out of plaster with them, but then we couldn’t find any plaster anywhere, so I ended up doing paper mache instead. Which was very interesting, because I haven’t worked with paper mache since I was about 4 years old, and the school didn’t have the right kind of glue. Oh well, it all worked out fine. They glued newspaper on balloons and I planned on cutting them into mask-shapes once it dried.  The masks got a little thin though, and there was no time to do more layers, so I didn’t dare start cutting them up, in case the balloon inside would burst. In the end, they ended up making puppet-like things with cloaks. It took three days! One day to do the paper-macheing, then another day to do the painting and wait for it to dry, than another day to make the cloaks and get then stuck on the balloons. It was messy, noisy and sticky, but a lot of fun as well. I’ll post some photos later on.

On thursday, Eirik had his music project with the kids. He sang Tir’na Noir (a norwegian song) and had the kids join him when he sang Molly Malone. He also composed a song with them, using autumn sounds they suggested. It turned out pretty good, and the children loved it!

I’m realy going to miss the kids-they’re so sweet! One of the boys gave me a marble when I left so I would remember them, and I got a whole bunch of hugs! I just did not want to leave at the end of the day!

Yesterday, friday, we were invited to the teachers and parents Halloween party. It was held at a club in Portrush called Kelly’s. The headmaster was the DJ! It was alot of fun! We got free glowsticks, the music was entertaining, people were buying us drinks, and I even won a 5-course dinner for two! I never win anything, and now I get the main prize!! All in all it was amazing evening!