I started "teaching" at Word of Life today. The day started off with a bang - I slept in by over an hour! I had only 25 mins. to shower and get ready before Kenneth picked me up at 7:00 to drop me and his children off at school. The best I could do was grab a banana for breakfast before I left. My stomach was already not feeling very well because I had taken my malarone (malaria pills) and vitamins just before I went downstairs. Not a good plan!
I was earlier than I was supposed to be there by about 30 mins. During that time, I got my first exposure to an African bathroom (a "good" one - really?). There was a flush "pit latrine" - hole in the floor with a porcelain bowl in the ground. There was no soap and no hand towel. I was told before I came that there was a "sit-down" toilet that I could use. Apparently, they dug it out and put this one in before I got here to give me a true African experience. (LOL)
I basically followed "Mr. Peter" around all day just to observe. We had a 5th standard math class at 8:15. Apparently, all the teachers push to get through ALL their curriculum in the first two trimesters and spend the third trimester reviewing everything they have taught to prepare the students for their standardized exams. It appears to me that their whole curriculum is test driven. Doing well on the test is of utmost importance. I wondered how they could possibly get through their whole math book in just six months. I worked my tail off clear up until the end of the school year trying to make it through our textbook. The difference might be that ours was about 450 pages, if I remember correctly, while theirs is about 120 pages.
Peter had a break from 8:50 until the kids' break at 10:00, then he had their break as well, until 10:45! All the teachers go to the Teachers' Lounge and drink tea and have plain bread. They said because they come so early to school (6:00 A.M.), this is their breakfast.
After break, Peter taught 4th grade Kswahili (their primary language). When I first walked to the back of the room to observe, one of the boys said, "You are very beautiful!" That made my day right there! I didn't catch any of the words being taught because the whole class was in Swahili, but he wrote a few words on the board. They were talking about diseases. I thought this was really interesting because he talked about elephantitis, A.I.D.S, whooping cough, malaria, tetanus, TB, and sleeping sickness. How many fourth graders in the US have ever even HEARD of most of those diseases? Yet these are diseases these students may have to face in their lifetime, and they need to be educated about them.
At 11:20, we went back to Math 5 and at 11:55 to Social Studies 6. I tried really hard to focus on every word that Peter said because he speaks very fast (or so it seems to me), and each of the classrooms are connected at the ceiling only by the thatched-roof, so the sound from other classrooms tends to drift in. I couldn't hear most of the students' comments because they spoke rather softly, and I was sitting behind them. I hope that improves as I get more used to hearing THEIR English. It's very different from ours.
Their lunch is from 12:30 - 2:00, so I was planning on going home for the rest of the day. I've decided I really don't want to eat from their kitchen! The students take their lunches back to their classrooms to eat, unsupervised (unheard of in the US), and then go outside to play. They have the same lunch every week on the same day (i.e. every Wednesday they will have ugali - a white pasty dish made mostly of a kind of white corn meal and water, and a shredded cooked cabbage dish - that's it! ). Even the teachers ate it all with their fingers! They said, "That's the African way."
After seeing how they ate at break time and lunch time with their hands, seeing what the bathroom is like, and having everyone want to shake my hand, I was SO READY to go home and wash my hands before I touched another thing! Tonight, I made myself a little "sanitation kit" to take with me tomorrow. I put toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, hand soap, hand sanitizer, and Wet Wipes into a ziplock bag that will follow me wherever I go! There were no hand towels (paper or otherwise) or soap anywhere, and I had to really look for a wastebasket. I don't think I saw one in any of the classrooms, either.
I had a problem getting a ride home, so I didn't arrive home until about 2:30. I'd eaten only a banana and an orange all day. I was ready for a nice bathroom, clean hands, and some lunch!
Well, that about sums it up for my first day at school. I learned quite a lot about the African way of life and how they teach today. I hope I've shared something that you, too, found of interest.
Take care and appreciate cleanliness in your life - I do!
Kadi
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