I’m going to sum up teaching today with some silly things that happened while teaching. My morning started off with R. He’s 11. We were going through some new flashcards and the word was “curly” and it was a picture of a cartoon poodle with curly hair all over. After we established that it was curly, he kept pointing to the picture and saying “And then you have to dance!” I have no idea what he meant. I tried to get him to explain it, but the language barrier wouldn’t allow it. He’s also the kid who teaches me Nyanja words. Today’s was magogo (glasses). Then English class. The women nurse their children often. It’s weird that I’m used to it, but I am. Today my group was doing charades and the women had to call on the next person to come up and act out. J was feeding her son and got chosen to come up. I was hoping she wouldn’t act while feeding him! Nope! She pulls him off herself, fixes her shirt, throws him over her back, and comes up to act. The action actually needed a child, so he became a prop, and then she went back to her chair and kept nursing! Then tutoring number one in the afternoon. It was cold (I was even wearing long sleeves!) and M was wearing a tshirt. She pulled her arms up inside of it to stay warm, but realized that she wouldn’t be able to write this way. So she stuck her hand and pencil out the top by her neck and wrote that way for awhile. Kids are funny! Then my time with A. I taught her to say No way Jose today in response to “Are we going to give up!” when she gets a wrong answer. She cracks me up with her intensity of doing flashcards and writing letters, too. J
Other highlights of the day: 1) Going through the MOUNTAIN that is the ESL materials and sheets. I separated them by category and took pictures of ones that we want to use in the future, made copies of some important ones for the next group of teachers, and separated them by lady to hand back. It was a large accomplishment!
2) M, one of the high school girls, attempted cornrows in my hair today. I’ve had it done before, but she wasn’t used to braiding mzungu hair, so she was getting frustrated. It still looks fine and I’ll keep it in for a few days. She’s already plotting how to improve it for next time!
3) I went on a different running route right before supper. It was starting to get dark and I was a bit lost. I knew I could turn around and make my way back, but I didn’t; I kept going. And I eventually found my way home before I was in the dark, thankfully!
4) I finished lesson planning for the WEEK before dinner tonight. Success! Now just Sunday school for Easter retreat and teacher training two to finish. Unfortunately, the Internet has not been cooperating for the past few days, so that doesn’t aid in doing such.
5) So, since I can’t plan anymore, another movie is in order! I can’t believe that we’ve watched a movie every night…but there’s not much else to do when it’s dark and I’m done with all my work for tomorrow and I’m on my last book of the trip. So The Day After Tomorrow hit the screens. T and I enjoyed making corny jokes of how we were safe in the Southern Hemisphere if that were to really happen right now.
6) It was COLD today. I put on long sleeves twice! Definitely somewhere in the 60s….And apparently the rain decided to return, too! I thought the rainy season was done! Ugh! Oh well. Hopefully it’ll just be for a few more days!
7) The Internet has NOT been cooperating at all the past two days, but when it decided to grace me with its presence, I got an email from the school I was student teaching at saying my kids knocked the socks off the WKCE! 100% of the eighth graders were proficient or advanced in reading! Wowza! Way to go guys!
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