School has remained a bit frustrating. The level 2 teacher was absent on
Friday and the level 3 teacher was supposed to combine classes but
instead asked me to take over the level 2 class after lunch. I thought
it wouldn't be a problem since it would only be for an hour or so but I
was very wrong. The students couldn't (or chose not to) understand me
and were acting crazy. They were beating each other up, crawling under
tables and running around the classroom. One of the students asked me if
they could leave the room which I assumed to mean use the toilet, but
once I said yes, the whole classroom ran out the door. I had to call
them all back in and try to get them to sit down for instruction. I
eventually went out to get another teacher to come in since I could not
control the class and he just told me to let the students leave. The
school does not have very effective discipline since hitting children in
school was only outlawed 4 years ago... So they have not come up with
anything else so far. After I talked to Mama Betty about my day, she
thought it was pretty funny, which I guess it was, but said that they
were not supposed to leave me alone and I should let the head teacher
know if I have immediate concerns during the day. The same teacher was
late this morning and they asked me to watch over the class until she
got there, I said noooo, thank you!
Besides the discipline, there are a few other things that I disagree
with in the classroom. The level 2 teacher has the tables grouped with
more advanced students together and less advanced students together. She
expressed to me that she could not understand why the less advanced
table was so much slower than the rest of the class. A few of those
students have even been held back and are still behind. I asked if they
had studied learning disabilities and she said they had and that there
were a few teachers at the school who were specialized in these areas (I
have never seen these teachers). I don't think they do anything for
students whom they suspect have a learning disability besides hold them
back. I'm not sure this teacher really understood what I was talking
about or has a grasp of the concept of a disability. When we were doing
math races in the board, the student who gets the problem wrong or does
it slower than the other gets "wake up, (their name)!!" Chanted at
them... Which is started by the teacher. Some get very upset and the
teacher tells the students to say it again. This instance and a few
others are particularly frustrating because it is not my place to tell
the teacher what to do.
I have asked for the lesson plans a day ahead of time so that I can
prepare and possibly teach myself a bit of Swahili about the lesson. I
will try this for a few days and then I will need to decide and discuss
with Betty if my presence in the level 2 classroom is more of a
distraction than helpful. I have been approached by the older grade
teachers who request that I come into their classroom so maybe that
would be a better option, but I don't want to give up right away.
Saturday, I jumped in for a ride to a nearby town, Sangalo. There are
very large, mountainous rocks here that weeks before, Svetlana and Rob
had went to climb. They ended up wandering off on their own and losing
each other. This place has no trails and can be a bit dangerous so it
wasn't the best thing that they lost each other. A local small boy who
was playing around on the rocks helped them find each other (I doubt
there were very many other Mzungus on the mountain). I was also about to
rain so this boy, without saying a word, led them the fastest and
safest way down. Svetlana and Rob took pictures this day and decided as a
thank you to bring some prints to the boy. So, that is why I was going
along for the ride, Svetlana needed to go take the pictures to this
boy's house. This was also an opportunity for Colin and I to see where
this place was so that we could go another weekend. Svetlana, Colin,
Maurice and I drove the car there and found the boys house. I thought we
were going to leave right away but Maurice had some pictures to deliver
as well and showed them to the boy to find out where to bring them. It
turns out that we needed to climb over the mountain to get to this girls
house. I was so glad this was the case because it was absolutely
amazing. About 10 or so local kids led us over the rocks. I held my
breath almost the whole time watching this kids make life endangering
jumps from rock to rock. The thing is that these rocks are basically
their backyard playground and it seems they know what they are doing. We
came across a church in one of the caves where people were worshiping
and fasting. A man preached to us for quite some time but I didn't mind
because we were sitting on a rock overlooking the whole town and it was
beautiful. The kids led us back down and it was a great trip...even if
there was a stick stuck in the car key hole from someone trying to break in.
We went to church on Sunday which was nice..and long. But they welcomed us very openly and are thankful for everything we do.
The U Indiana students got here tonight so now I have two roommates! I'll write again soon.
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