Settling down, Sunday February 1st

My first week at Sekei has been an intense experience. As I suspected, I was well and truly thrown in at the deep end: I watched one lesson at my insistence, then I got handed a timetable of 15 lessons a week, split over two classes. Standard 3b – the youngest you can teach – and Standard 6A – the oldest.
After a whistle-stop tour of lessons and deciding which classes to take with Mr Mkosi, we were ushered into a dark broom cupboard crammed with teachers behind mountain ranges of books. Welcome to the staff room! To be perfectly honest, we got a frosty reception. Perhaps they resented having all white volunteers trailing in and out of their school, or perhaps not. In being introduced to Mr Lugenge (6As teacher) – 3A haven’t got a teacher until March, so I am it! – I got a slightly surly look. Before I let you think it’s terrible, I have to say that the frosty welcome was not from the majority. I usually sit next to Ma Kessi who is in her 20s and we get on well.
So anyway, back to the teaching. Luckily I did a lesson plan on Monday evening. The next day I had to teach 6A entirely on my own. I did a lesson where I introduced myself and they had to write a paragraph introducing themselves to me. There were some hilarious results, because not all of them understood. Mpost cards wrote something like, ‘My name is Loveness Ware. I live in Yorkshire in Tanzania. Next year I will be going to University in Scotland’. The pupils had been well behaved but Mr Mugbmga walked past just as they were over excited about coloured paper and pens, so he canned every single child five times. I have never seen children look so distressed and in fear.
My lesson the next day seemed to go really well and I caught Mr Mugbmga hovering by the window and he gave a real complement on the way back to the staff room. Friday however was an utter disaster. I have been doing numbers with 3B so I came up with a game where we go into the field and each kid has a number, so they have to put themselves in order. They went berserk – running everywhere, screaming, shouting. Lots of the teachers saw which was galling because nobody had seen the lessons which went sell. With 6A I tried pair work, and it was evident that they had not understood the week’s lessons at all..

I have got the negative over and done with first so that I can tell you about the few fantastic highlights:
1 On the first day the kids all wanted high fives. One boy grabbed my hand and said; “You are white. I am black. We are friends.”
2 Teaching 3b numbers from a huge number line I have made. They loved it and they started clapping and swaying in time.
3 I taught a group of “too cool for school” lads how to do cricket bowling, surprising both them and myself! Thanks, Dad, for the – at the time – futile attempts to pass on any cricket skills... it obviously made an impression somehow.
4 The crowning moment of this week was teaching about 30 kids the Macarena. The group of very sweet – but very ‘teacher’s pet ‘– girls came over to teach us a calling and skipping game, which attracted much attention. I showed them the legendary British pub dance and they all clapped!! I have a fantastic video which I will try to up-load whenever possible.
We have seen the other volunteers quite a bit which is so refreshing. We have been in Enabuishu and they to us. The whole group has been out in the evenings for the last two nights. We are planning some fantastic parties!
I am not sure what direction to take after this week. On Thursday I had an upset stomach (I put it down to the staff-room Chi which is made from filthy water) and since then I have been pretty exhausted. We are close enough to town to make the long walk an option and to keep our food supplies pretty scant which is not ideal for me. Both of those issues could be resolved by moving to Nkauranga, the school furthest away, because we would HAVE to take transport and we would HAVE to have a lot of food. I am not sure I could face settling in again though. Maybe the answer is alternate weeks at each school.
In the meantime, I have asked if I can do fewer lessons, as I am doing far more than the other volunteers.
Anyway, next week could be an adventure.
Until next time –

Lucie xxx