During our stay in Hopiland, we have been staying at the volunteer house at the Hopi Mission School, which was established by the Mennonite Mission Board in 1951. It currently houses classes from kindergarten to seventh, but there are hopes to open it to eighth grade in the fall. The long-term plan for the school is to open a high school as well.
While staying here we helped out in classrooms for 3 hours on Tuesday through Thursday this week. We split into groups of 2 or 3 to assist the teachers in every grade and got welcoming hugs every day we went to school. In the classrooms, we helped cut out classroom activities and helped kids with classwork.
We led mid-afternoon chapels for both the younger and older students for the three days. After chapel, came lunch with the kids and then of course no school day is complete without recess. Everyday the energetic recess was full of piggyback rides, swings, basketball, and tag.
All of us enjoyed meeting the kids and had a lot of fun playing with them. Piggyback tag was clearly the most popular recess game. Some of us also received sweet letters from the kids on the last day.
After a great week at the school working there and learning about Hopi culture, we are now headed for our home stays with Navajo families for the weekend and will head to Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado on Monday.
