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Published: July 15th 2013
15th July
I got up early this morning, about 6.30am. At 8.30am, we left for the school. We can pretty much pick the class we teach, and so I decided to go to the pre-school/montessori, as I teach older ones at home. So thought it'd be fun to try someting new!
The kids in my class are 4-6 years old. When I got there, they had just started copying from the board "Africa, Oh Africa". They had to just write it out again and again and again. They learn by rote repetition and copying here.
The school itself is tiny. The whole grounds are no bigger than the hall I skate in. There is a playground in the middle, and 4 or so outdoor structures dotted around it. That is it. They're pretty much falling down, and are not really classrooms per se - more ramshackle huts, with a roof, but open sides. The kids sit in rows. After they'd finished copying, the teacher, who they refer to as Auntie (although she is an African woman named Lucy) had to go and do something, and told the class I'd teach them. I was horrified, haha, and chaos soon descended and they were running around. A teacher from the next class came in to get them settled again, as you can see the next classroom due to only a half-wall between the classes.
She started doing poems and rhymes with them, and soon they were all singing rhymes that they knew, with me standing at the front. They did things like "baa baa black sheep" and "Incey wincey spider", as well as some more religious stuff like "Jesus loves me, this I know". All I could contribute to the mix was some skate chants! "Everywhere we go", that we tend to sing on the bus on bout day! It took them a while to get into it, but they did eventually. Tomorrow I will at least know what I am doing, and I plan on downloading some pictures of farm animals tonight to show them on my laptop, so they can name them. Then we can sing "Old MacDonald had a farm" and I can point to the animals for each verse.
The kids themselves are so funny. They just hit each other lots! You look around, and one will be bashing the other really hard and then get a smack in the face back. They were quite taken by my tongue piercing, and kept asking me to stick my tongue out and show them. They asked what it was - I explained "An earring". All they kept saying was "Move it! Blood will come!" in their little African accents - so cute.
The kids literally go to the toilet behind the hut - it wasn't a lie when I was told that!
At breaktime, they all clambered over me and wanted to sit on my lap and grab me...very strange. And yes, they did say "Obruni! Obruni!" at me lots, which means "White person".
After school was done for the morning, I went with Linea (Swedish girl) to "The Brigade" which is a big street with market stalls etc. Got my money changed into Cedis, and took a few photos. A taxi driver took us everywhere we needed to go, and as I had heard was the case, he was extremely happy to take Obrunis around, and tried to get our numbers. My screen saver of baby Oliver came in very handy - he shall be "my child" for the forseeable future if needed!
Off to the orphanage this afternoon. Apparently, my job is to play with them, love them, and cuddle them.
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Marilyn
non-member comment
Sounds Great!
Sounds great but don't envy you with the 4-6 year olds. Give me under 5's any day. Sounds like you enjoyed it though. Keep us updated and let us know how it went at the orphanage. You have my admiration & love of course. Moomas xxxx