Jan 30, 2013

Learning in Teaching.


Olekasasi Primary School. Our first days in there were just… Chaotic! Allow me to describe how I felt:
Growing up in Western countries, we both are used to western organizations, routines and rules; Facing poverty and african schools can be really rough on our young and naive souls… I was kinda prepared for what I was about to experience, but actually, living it is a completely different story…

The blackboards are simply an area of wall painted with black paint, desks and chairs are made of recycled pallets, the student's notebooks are re-used every year until they run out of blank pages, teachers books are re-used from last decade and they have a beautiful garden in front of each classroom.
Every morning, at school, must start with the African Greeting: hand shake and smile saying 'Good morning, How are you'. To your friends you can give a High5 again with a smiling 'Good morning, How are you'. By personal experience, they get offended if you don't greet them personally african style. A hand wave and a loud Good morning it's just not enough for these NICE, HAPPY AND CHEERFUL people.

After greeting, we sit down at our desk, that at this moment, we share it with another volunteer from the local university that has the task of plastifying books. Bonni does that all day around, everyday. I have been watching him doing his task. Seriously… He is an expert. The way he handles the tiny blade which he uses to cut the plastic and the tape is almost artistic, and the discipline that he has on the folding and pasting and cutting and pulling, can determine how strict and responsible he is 'in real-life'.
After a week of sitting and grading homework and give one class per day (if needed/arranged), me and Chelsea finally got some courage to ask for a proper timetable, on which we would have three or four classes that we would be responsible for. We approached Teacher Priscillah, and yes… She helped us getting a proper timetable. That was all it took: 'Asking'.

Now we are experts in giving classes of Math, Science, Social Studies and English. The first days were hard (we even asked Teacher Priscillah if we could be in the same classes together so that we would feel more confident when facing an average of 50 pupils per class), but now we are find it really easy and amusing, when facing all those pupils and teach them about the human body and correct spelling of words.

We encountered another difficult quest: Getting the books for the classes. English was easy. Teacher Priscillah gave us hers. Social studies and Science, Teacher Maurice helped us find one. Math, one week after, Teacher Samuel gave us his. So by now, we have everything we need to conduct proper classes.

Sometimes it is really hard to give attention and support to every single student in the class… There are so many! And each class is only 35min, so sometimes we find ourselves 'stealing time' from another's teacher class.

The school doesn't have a bell. Actually what they have is one student with an actual bell, and he is in charge of playing it every 35min, breaks and lunch time. We found out that that bell is improvised… Meaning that, it isn't a proper bell. But now the Head Teacher got a new one! And complained to us how expensive it was.. And it's true! In a country where meals cost 200SHS, a bell costs 35.000SHS!!!
I love breaks on that school. You see hundreds of kids on the field just playing! imagine what it is to see 600 kids happy on an empty field, playing ball, running, clubbing the only tree there, screaming and laughing. Sometimes we go outside (taking a break from grading hundreds of homework from the day before) and play with the kids. This is the time when we get to know better some kids and bond with others.

On Friday I approached Teacher Samuel and Priscillah, announcing that on Monday we would like to have a meeting with them to discuss sue issues. More on that on the next post ;)

Political campaigns and the Olekasasi Primary School in the back.

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