Nursery

   As I am unable to volunteer at Aurora's nursery, Alessio's father, Emilio, suggested I do a day at the one he volunteers at, and so this morning, rigged with anticipation, off I went.
   The nursery was quite big, with separate rooms and age groups for the 130 children. Emilio walked me in and we were met with non-English speaking members of staff.
   'The Kenyan sisters will come now,' Emilio told me, but before they could arrive I was ushered into a classroom where about 20 children sat in a circle on the mat. The teacher introduced me, explaining that I was English, and I said that my name was Zoe. Some of them called out 'how are you?' and seemed amazed when I responded.
   The teacher sang a song with them and then read a story. By the second page I had a little boy with autism laying over my lap. At playtime he came up to me and we spent ages repetitively setting up and knocking over two small wooden people. He was then encouraged to join some other children playing with playdough, where it was discovered that he knew the entire alphabet in English!
   One girl asked whether I would be there tomorrow and I said that I wouldn't but maybe another day.
   For the second part of the morning I joined the younger class, which, upon entering, was chaos. One teacher to 21 children - and they were everywhere - tumbling on the mat, fighting over plastic dinosaurs, cooking in the toy kitchen, but above all, shouting over each other in soft squeaky voices to be heard. They took no notice of me, a stranger in their midst, until they were sat around miniature tables singing before lunch. I got a few cautious stares as I copied the actions to their song. As they took it in turns to go for a wee and wash their hands before lunch, the sister explained to them who I was and asked if any of them knew any English. They all called out 'Si!', but they didn't.
   Lunchtime arrived and with it more curious stares as the hall filled up with new children. A few of them smiled and waved, and then waved some more, giggling amongst their friends. After lunch one child ran up to me and asked my name, then ran, grinning, and sat back down again. Walking back to the classroom one girl held my hand and laughed excitedly. She was sat next to me and still holding my hand when it was time for me to leave!