We Are Teachers!

Though we missed yesterday’s day of introductions at the school, we were together as a team being introduced to individual classes. Montana and LuRue are team-teaching.

The day began with a small parade of volunteers through our room as our bathroom is the only functioning one in the building. We accommodated a few showers and “tire checks”. The problem was fixed by noon, so all is back to normal.

The school is about a 5-minute walk from the Mission House. We were met by the Headmaster and the Asst. Headmaster (the Big Potatoes), then escorted into our individual rooms. The buildings are old (we learned this evening that they were built in 1960.) The contrast to American classrooms is stark. There are chalkboards, but nothing on the walls, such as posters, learning materials, pictures, etc. In our room, there were about 60 students with desks so crammed together that it was barely possible to squeeze through. In spite of the large number of students, there was barely a murmur the whole time we were in the room.

We were working with Form 1 students…those who have been studying English as a reading & writing subject, but not as a spoken language.  Yesterday was the first day of the new term, so these students are barely beginning. The lesson of the day was very simple, with lots of repetition, but very few students got practice in speaking.  LuRue had a pen with her, so the teacher asked her to move through the classroom to help “grade” the written portion of the lesson. Montana had no pen, so she stayed in her seat & talked to a few students around her. She no doubt had more and better interaction than LuRue did.

After lunch we took a hot shower…African-style. Mama Tony brought us a large pail of hot water with a large plastic measuring cup. LuRue went first, standing in the shower area & pouring hot water over herself. After shampooing & lathering up with soap, another couple of cups or so of wonderful hot water rinsed the soap all away. There was plenty left over for Montana to bathe, shampoo, & condition her long hair. Better than those cold showers the others are taking!

At 4:00pm everyone went back to the school for informal sessions with small groups. Team Montana/LuRue worked with four girls & three boys, aged 12 to 16. All were extremely shy and reluctant to say anything, & even then it was barely above a whisper. We brought out a map of the world & used it to show where we lived while we showed a bunch of Alaska & Arizona postcards. That brought a lot of interest, but still very little talking.

After about an hour we thought it was time to go, but the skies opened up & torrential rains fell on the metal roof, drowning out our words & nearly drowning one of the students. Our group suddenly scattered when rain came through a hole in the roof, moving chairs to new locations.

Asking questions wasn’t too productive, so Montana & LuRue decided to teach some Beyoncé dance moves. That was mildly successful & led to one of the boys teaching us to moonwalk. Unfortunately, Montana’s breakdancing lesson didn’t go anywhere. The group sang some songs to us, including their national anthem. All were beautifully done. Unfortunately, when we tried to reciprocate with our own national anthem, even with the help of Lee, who was sharing the room, we totally butchered it, forgetting lines, singing off key, and suddenly changing octaves when the notes got too high. We sang Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music better than the National Anthem. We were pretty pathetic, but the students liked us anyhow.

Dinner was another nutritious, balanced meal. The best part came later during our evening meeting. Popcorn!!