I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for ICE CREAM!

I don’t want to brag about how great this project is going, but I feel I can because I can’t take complete credit for everything. Volunteering is a similar job to teaching; your best ideas are often borrowed, stolen, or inspired by something else you’ve previously seen. It is up to the volunteer to bring the charisma, the passion, and hope for magic. I’ve taken ideas from my fourth grade teacher (shout out to Mrs. Perry) and numerous volunteers to create Scoops. Something is going right with this school-wide reading competition. Classes compete against one another. The entire class (either all the learners or the teacher) must read a book for it to count as a scoop. Teachers add paper scoops to their class paper ice cream cone as they read books with the class. The class with the most scoops at the end of each month gets an ice cream party. The genius in Scoops is the fact that I do very little to keep it going. I made a cone for each class, cut out a few hundred pink pieces of paper, buy ice cream once a month, and occasionally make announcements at morning assemblies to communicate which class is in the lead.

In our first Scoops competition, Grade 6 and Grade 5 tied. Unfortunately, I had only purchased enough ice cream for one class. Grade 6 savored their ice cream, all 78 of them, on the 30^th of September, the day before a week-long break. Teachers anticipated that they would also get ice cream and were slightly disappointed that I hadn’t bought enough to serve them as well. Although it may have been a cultural no-no, it felt wonderful to expressively say, “Oh, I’m sorry. You are going to have to read more to your class if you’d like ice cream.”

With the school break and my trip to Pretoria, I asked the principal to buy ice cream and distribute it to Grade 5 on the Monday after break. I sent plenty of text messages reminding him of this, left a long note on his desk with the bottle of chocolate syrup as a paperweight. Now, you may think that I’m babying the principal a bit by over communicating about a silly ice cream task. I have learned otherwise and found unfrozen ice cream sitting in the fridge (not the freezer) upon my return two weeks later. Without ruffling my feathers, I verified that indeed the ice cream was now milk then brought the cartons to the store and asked if they would refreeze it. I’d come back in a few days for the 3-week-late celebration. Maybe this wasn’t the best kickoff to a project.

Today, on October 21^st, Grade 5 finally received their ice cream party. This may have disappointed the average American being much later than promised; these kids celebrated. Each one bowed, formally accepting their glass of ice cream, while exclaiming, “Thank you!” After all were served, I entered the classroom where 40 learners were smiling and licking their glasses clean. I looked over at their class cone and dramatically gasped, “You have only one scoop for October! Grade six has six scoops right now! Would you like more ice cream?”

“YEEEES!!!” They cried, suddenly realizing that their one scoop wasn’t enough.

“You must read to remain the Scoop champions!” I said, “Well, congratulations for the month of September! You’ve done well. Thank you!”

“THANK YOU!” They waved as I walked out of the class. I trusted that that little statement may spice things up a bit.

I returned to the main office to wrap up my day’s work. Soon a swarm of Grade 5 girls entered and harmoniously asked for a library book. I looked at the clerk, “Is this normal?”

“Yeah. They’ve started wanting to go into the library since Scoops.”

{Insert victory dance here.}

I happily escorted the girls and clerk to the library. He unlocked the door as they chatted about how good their ice cream tasted. I clarified that the rules of Scoops is that everyone in the class must read the books, not individuals. Their heads shook in understanding and busted into the library. Three girls returned a few books and others looked through the shelves singing a song I taught them:

“I scream,

You scream;

We all scream,

For ICE CREAM!!!”

The principal came in and summoned me to the office. After we sorted the latest issue at hand, I brought up the worry of allowing learners to take books home: perhaps the books will return damaged or worse, not return at all. We came to the (obvious) decision that the school must have a system for checking out the books before we allow for any other learners to take them home.

Four boys came into the office a few minutes before the last bell rang. Boys are always entering the office to request a ball; I figured they’d get rejected and a have short talking to because it is too late for them to play soccer. “Please sir. May you borrow us a library book?” I swung my head around the corner to take a look. The Grade 5 boys also wanted a book! The principal apologized and explained that the books cannot be brought home because we cannot lose them. They walked away with their heads down. I leaned up in my chair and smiled. It occurred to me that things were changing. Our problem is that kids want to take books home to read….?! Regardless of the motivation, that’s not too shabby.

The bell rang and I headed out the door. On my walk home, I passed Nomfundo, one of my favorite Grade 6 girls. She was showing off pictures she found in a magazine. She ran up to me out of breath and struck up a conversation. I asked her about what she was showing the children. She took out her Seventeen Magazine cutouts for me to look through. After we discussed every picture, she handed me a first grader book in isiZulu. I took the book and began to read it to her, playing up my need for her to correct my pronunciation. This quickly gathered a crowd of about 15 kids. We walked home together as I read loudly and showed off pictures. They giggled at my struggles with pronouncing challenging words but quickly helped me correct it. By the time we reached home, Nomfundo and I read two books and exchanged many laughs.

I don’t know how all this happened; and I cannot take credit for all this. But it feels like a culture of reading is starting to occur. After all the frustration and anger I’ve experienced towards the lack of reading, I’m finally stumbling upon success. It appears to be sprouting from my least stressful project that runs purely from motivation and encouragement. Although no skills are transferred (Sorry, Peace Corps.) and no sustainability is possible (Whoops!), I believe this little competition is doing a lot of good. Considering the non-reading culture surrounding them, the primary school learners are taking reading into their own hands.