Teaching (June 30)

Even in the short amount of time I’ve been here, I’ve learned a lot about people, and humanity in general. It’s difficult to express how I felt today standing in front of all these kids trying to teach them about birds in English, and having them stare with all the interest in the world. When they didn’t understand what we were saying, they pretended they did, or gave it one hell of a try to come up with the answer that they thought we wanted. When we bent down to show them the correct way to measure a line in our Math lesson, they would all crouch around us to see how we would position the ruler and count our numbers. They went above and beyond what we asked just so they could get a few extra check marks next to their problems, not necessarily because of the work they had done, but because they wanted our attention. It amazes me how much influence we can have on these kids by being here. At this point, we can’t do any harm. We are teaching in English, a language that is so incredibly valuable to them that without it they may never be able to have a shot at education beyond Standard 5. Simply hearing us speak, and them working to understand us, is a lesson in itself. I’m hopeful for their future, and I have a lot of faith in all the kids I’ve met here even if I haven’t been able to form close relationships yet.

For English we read a story about birds, and taught them vocabulary pertaining to birds. When it was their turn to read aloud, it was a struggle, because they mostly read by repeating, but we were able to get through to a good amount of them towards the end. Fortunately they were able to actually understand what we read to them, because they could answer our questions about the story, in English! I think at this point they’re not very used to Jess and I standing in front of the class instead of Katherine. It took a little bit for them to do the things we asked them to do without looking to their teacher for approval. They’re definitely getting used to having us around though, and when they are more comfortable, we sure are too. In math we taught about measurement. Not all of the kids have rulers so they had to share, and some didn’t really get the concept. After class we went into town and bought them a class set of rulers to give them tomorrow, I’m sure they will be excited. Anyway, while Jess and I went around to grade their work, each time a student got an answer wrong, we would sit with them and explain to them why. We taught them the correct way, had them re-do it, and came back to check off the correct answer. In America, this is something we’re accustomed to. It’s how we learn. Here in Malawi, this is unheard of. To have a student being paid individual attention and to be told why something is not correct is rare. Teachers here simply do not have the time with classes so large. Consequently, some children don’t learn, some never will. It took way more class time doing things how we did, but I could tell in just one lesson that the kids were actually learning. I felt amazing, and I was so incredibly proud of them. It took a few kids multiple times to do it the right way and when they did, they were so happy! They were proud of themselves, and that’s so important.

Katherine let us teach music. This was interesting. Jess and I taught a few songs, including Old McDonald Had A Farm and The Ants Go Marching 1 by 1, or whatever it’s called. They LOVED the ant song, because they got to beat on the floor, and in Africa they’re all about percussion. It was so cute because we have awful voices, we don’t exactly sing during every occasion in the states, so we’re totally off key, but they wanted to us to keep singing over and over. We got them to sing with us and that was fun because they caught on quick and they were so excited to be learning some of the songs that we had learned when we were young. During free time the class sang to us, and let me tell you, I may never hear anything more beautiful once I leave this country. It always makes me emotional listening to the kids sing around here because the happiness they have when they’re singing radiates through absolutely everything. It’s like they wouldn’t rather be any other place in the world than singing to us. You can’t help but feel amazing and touched afterwards. I can’t wait to go home to share the videos I’ve acquired from the singing at all the different schools. Hopefully they’ll sing to us everyday during their downtime if we continue to teach their music lesson! Needless to say, I can’t wait for class in the morning. J

By the way, I saw the monkeys today! Tons of them. Adults and babies, everywhere. They take bananas right out of your hands! So adorable, they are tan colored with little black faces. They get so close too, but it’s neat because they aren’t that afraid of us. I have tons of pictures to show everyone.

Goodnight!