Desperate for affection

Habrari!

So these past few days have been filled with much excitement!  Yesterday was the first day getting into the schools and today I taught my very first Math lesson in Africa!!!!

I am teaching Standard 2, grade 2, at Assumption Primary School where school starts at 8:00 and ends at 1:05 :)  We have the wonderful opportunity of walking to school.  The walk to school is about a 20 minute walk down the street, then right on another, than right on a muddy dirt winding road to the school.  The past two days we have had a personal escort to and from school to keep us out of trouble.  Tomorrow will be the first time without the comfort of a Tanzanian guide, so this should be interesting!  The route is pretty busy but the locals are starting to recognize our existence and realize that we are going to be staying for awhile!  The salesmen, for the majority, keep their distance! Haha

Assumption Primary School is a Catholic school, where the headmaster is Sister Agnus, and she means business.  The staff there are very welcoming and always let us know that we are free at the school and are at home.  It is a very young staff which is cool because they have many plans and places that they want to take us to around town.  I am cot-eaching with a Missouri State University student and the Tanzanian teacher that we are working with, Neema, a 23 year old Tanzanian who is awesome and doing some great things in her class!!  All of you teachers out there listen to this:  She has 47 students, no reading materials, no copier, no pencil sharpeners, no technology.  Simply only chalk and a chalkboard and exercise books.  She is wonder women!  She does some brain gym activities without evening noticing while also doing a lot of whole brain teaching where she is constantly asking the students a question and they have to respond with the answer for at least three times.  Due to the lack of resources, a lot of the day is spent with copying work from the blackboard.  In class exercises and homework exercises are both copied by the student for every subject.  This is very time consuming!! She does use the switch which was interesting to witness, but the kids are very well behaved! 

The math lesson that I conducted today went very well!  It was mostly a review about double borrowing with 3 digit subtraction problems.  However without knowing I gave the students the problem 103-78 which was a challenge for them because they don't have a conceptual understanding of place value.  So tomorrow will be interesting :)

Today, we also went outside with the kids during lunch and went to a orphanage.  My take away from the day is how desperate the children were for love and affection.  A simple high five,  a “good job, nice work” or a wink during school, made the kids sit up a little straighter with a huge smile and were so proud.  These kids are so lovable and have so much love to give.  They really respond well to affection :)

I am getting super excited for our 4 day safari trip this weekend! 

Definitely miss some good ole’ american food though.  All of these flavors and different foods are really making my stomach ache.  The past two nights I have stuck with eating some carrot soup :)  Im ready for a big ole’ burger and meat to chew on!! Haha

All is well in Africa :)  

Xoxo