A Papuan Experience: TK Papua Kasih

One of my friend's Misi just moved to Malang(where I live in Indonesia) after being in Papua for the past 7 years. Papua is the western half of Papua New Guinea and is the farthest eastern island in Indonesia. In Misi's time in Papua, she opened a kindergarten, called TK Papua Kasih that serves the kids in the area around it, providing quality education in a place that is seriously lacking. Last week, she traveled back to Papua for a week of activities she had planned for the TK, as well as a yearly beach day they do with all the students and their families.
Because of my interest in education and desire to work with and serve children, Misi thought it'd be a great opportunity for me to join her and visit the TK. It was awesome to hear from Misi how things got started and see how far it's come and where the TK is now. As I have been thinking about what it might look like to serve children in Surabaya, I saw a few things that I have envisioned played out at the TK in Papua. It was awesome to see what those things look like.
The TK is held in a house that they have rented. The house is also where Misi(before she moved) and 2 teachers live and also serves as a girls home. Misi has taken in 4 girls(middle and high school aged) to live and provides for them to go to school. There are 3 classrooms in the TK(40 kids total) and during the day, the main part of the house is turned into a classroom. I got to stay at the school for the week and room with one of the teachers, Ade. I loved seeing the "family" atmosphere in the house that Misi has provided for the girls and how she has invested in their lives. They love her!
There are way too many pictures from the trip that I want to share, but I'll start with the ones of the kids and the TK. I will post more soon from other adventures from the trip.

In the front of the TK, where the kids get to play. The house actually has a lot of yard space(for Indonesia at least!) for the kids to play in.

One of my favorite things about the house was that you could always hear kids voices. There were always kids playing in the yard throughout the day!

One of the classrooms. There are 2 rooms in the house that are classrooms and one room that's turned into a classroom during the day, but then back into a family room afterward.

Working hard!! :)

The 2nd classroom...each day I helped in a different class

One of the fun activities during the week was making Christmas cookies!! They all got to use cookie cutters to cut out their own shapes.

 

Another fun activity was making snowmen out of playdough...I had to explain what a snowman was first :) Unfortunately the heat and humidity had the same effect on playdough snowmen as it does with snow. They went really limp by the end of the day.

This is one of my favorite close-ups, these kids are precious!

The last day of class was a "Natalan" or Christmas party. Here's Misi telling a story to all the kids

Then all the kids got to decorate the cookies they made in class the day before. Femi is one of the sweetest little girls. She's also the only red head Indonesian I've ever met. Her whole family is a family of red heads!

Berto & Celo showing off their masterpieces :)

Thanks Misi for inviting me along! It was amazing to see Papua Kasih and see the effect of your investment in the lives of these children and their families.