March 11 Tuesday
Trip Start
Feb 08, 2008
1
13
26
Trip End
Mar 29, 2008
Moshi,
Tanzania
Monday, March 17, 2008
What a day! I got up at 5:30, prepared for my placement, had breakfast (fresh papaya, peanut butter and toast), got dressed and left at 7:30 to go to the nursery school. There were 12 of us volunteers in the van, each of us going to a different placement. It is definitely not your normal drive to work! It is all dirt roads with goats, chickens and children going to school. You drive on the wrong side of the road here, but on the dirt roads, you drive wherever you can!
I was the first to be dropped off. It is in a rental house. There houses are made ofconcrete with open barred windows and a door. The teacher. Tina, rents a one of the small rooms for her school and a space for herself and her baby. (2 month old, Calvin.) Many other people rent in the house also. We teach 9 students ages 3-6 yrs old. They wear red uniforms. They pay to come to school. It is mostly taught in English, so this is considered a very good school. They greeted me happily, with cries of "Teacher, Teacher!" and big hugs and clinging to my legs! We went inside the school, which is approximately 10'x12'. Very small and very old desks (small tables) and chairs. They each have a workbook, similar to a composition book. There isn't any other paper. They had a few pencils, but not any crayons or scissors.
The teacher went over the schedule with me and today, she was the teacher and I was the aide. They do not use creative fun teaching; everything is learning by rote. The children can basically sing the 'ABC song', but they can't recognize any of the letters individually. Same with numbers. They all have a porridge break, which isn't very appealing looking and then we went out to play. They have one old soccer ball and no other toys. It is a dirt yard. They play in the dirt and run, kick and hit each other! They received a lot of 'time-outs'! (but very short ones) I had brought some bubbles with me, which they kept calling 'balloons'. They loved them! Squealing and running all over the place! I also taught them the 'Hokey Pokey'. When you get to the part about putting you fanny (butt, behind, whatever), you have to skip it, Tanzanians are very modest and that would be inappropriate. Ooops! I am missing my Swahili lesson! Talk later! Bye!
