End of week one...already?

Friday July 24, 2010-Created by Deborah

Valerie read her journal for Thursday and Michelle contributed the message. After breakfast, the school volunteers were delivered to their schools. I worked with an 8th grade class. The principal visited and questioned me as to how the children greet me. “Do they call you teacher?” I had asked them to call me Deborah. “In our culture, they must call you ‘Miss Deborah’ or ‘Teacher’”. Miss Deborah it is.

My blackboard writing is awful, so I put the students to work with the chalk. They practiced making sentences using present and past tenses of the verb to be, also sentences using different prepositions. I noticed there is some confusion around prepositions.

I asked the principal for some books with short stories- he said he did not have enough for all the students, however, later he brought a collection of early reader books- renditions of old folk tales. They seemed to enjoy them. They learned some new words.

Just before noon, a student asked me to bring in my money on Monday. For lunch time, we made sandwiches in our kitchen and exchanged impressions of some of our experiences. At about 3:30, Susan and I took a walk turning right at the gate and down the hill. We passed a young woman coming towards us with a large basket of wet clothing on her head. She was accompanied by a collection of small children. Then we passed a large pen of goats and sheep- grasses for the sheep and plastic bottles for the goats.

A local woman appeared. She spoke English and offered to take us to see her hen house and pig sty. On the way we passed colorful round houses and ahead of us was a magnificent view of the golden rolling hills which ascended from a river (the one for doing laundry). Then we arrived at the homes of pigs and chicken, you should all see this for yourselves. We returned home where Michelle and Valerie were entertaining two children.

At 5: we all met in our usual spot, Tanya asked us to think about our first week in terms of colors, smells, and sounds, then off to delicious dinner.

Thought of the say: “The first thing to do is to give of yourself” –Rev Spiwo