I’m braving the elements to write today. We’re desperate for
rain here (to such an extent that the
pupils had to say an extra rain prayer in Monday’s assembly ) and finally, the
usually clear skies are looking promisingly dark. And thundery. And
lightning-y. However, there’s more important news – today, we started English
classes for adults.
Running English classes for the Nowak staff and the community was mentioned in the application form that they sent to Project Trust, and with 5 volunteers here in Tses, it seems crazy not to take the opportunity to begin. And so start we did. At 4pm this afternoon, we had a small group in a classroom, all set and ready to start lessons. Things got a bit bizarre when we went from letter writing and group ice breakers to them asking for the definitions of “phlegmatic”, “vernacular” and asking me to sing Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Our newest recruits seem enthusiastic, and are particularly keen to learn more about business letters and forms. It’s early days, but I’m hoping that classes will be quite informal, and should be good fun. Hopefully once word spreads, we will have a few more faces, but in the 48 hours since we first mentioned the idea to anyone else, a class of 8 is not a bad start by any means.
The platform for putting the plan into action was the youth group of the village council. Sachi is heavily involved in the group, and all 5 of us now go along to meetings. Getting volunteers to use their experience and status to start new things is great; helping the community to take the initiative to do it themselves is even better. So far, one lady has started a children’s football team, one is looking into starting a girls’ club for young teenagers, and we have 4 Peace Corps volunteers coming on Monday to run a week-long workshop for locals looking to start their own businesses. Opportunities for young adults here are few and far between, so although the combination of African time and committees sometimes results in one heck of a lot of confusion, having the momentum to encourage and motivate activity is invaluable for this tiny community.
Life at school continues to keep me on my toes in the best way possible. We’ve set and marked our first proper assessment exercises, and I also gave lines to half of an entire class. I’m pretty sure they now think I’m, quite literally, the Wicked Witch of the West, but hey – that’s what happens when you don’t do your homework twice for Miss Mortimer’s class. In other school news, we may or may not be going to the school athletics on the weekend, the library is coming along nicely, and we’re helping with a science project on the Orange River that the school’s been asked to join in with. Add to this the fact that we’ve discovered a place in Keetmanshoop that serves burgers for less than N$40 AND has a free pool for customers, Namibia continues to make me one very, very happy volunteer.
Running English classes for the Nowak staff and the community was mentioned in the application form that they sent to Project Trust, and with 5 volunteers here in Tses, it seems crazy not to take the opportunity to begin. And so start we did. At 4pm this afternoon, we had a small group in a classroom, all set and ready to start lessons. Things got a bit bizarre when we went from letter writing and group ice breakers to them asking for the definitions of “phlegmatic”, “vernacular” and asking me to sing Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Our newest recruits seem enthusiastic, and are particularly keen to learn more about business letters and forms. It’s early days, but I’m hoping that classes will be quite informal, and should be good fun. Hopefully once word spreads, we will have a few more faces, but in the 48 hours since we first mentioned the idea to anyone else, a class of 8 is not a bad start by any means.
The platform for putting the plan into action was the youth group of the village council. Sachi is heavily involved in the group, and all 5 of us now go along to meetings. Getting volunteers to use their experience and status to start new things is great; helping the community to take the initiative to do it themselves is even better. So far, one lady has started a children’s football team, one is looking into starting a girls’ club for young teenagers, and we have 4 Peace Corps volunteers coming on Monday to run a week-long workshop for locals looking to start their own businesses. Opportunities for young adults here are few and far between, so although the combination of African time and committees sometimes results in one heck of a lot of confusion, having the momentum to encourage and motivate activity is invaluable for this tiny community.
Life at school continues to keep me on my toes in the best way possible. We’ve set and marked our first proper assessment exercises, and I also gave lines to half of an entire class. I’m pretty sure they now think I’m, quite literally, the Wicked Witch of the West, but hey – that’s what happens when you don’t do your homework twice for Miss Mortimer’s class. In other school news, we may or may not be going to the school athletics on the weekend, the library is coming along nicely, and we’re helping with a science project on the Orange River that the school’s been asked to join in with. Add to this the fact that we’ve discovered a place in Keetmanshoop that serves burgers for less than N$40 AND has a free pool for customers, Namibia continues to make me one very, very happy volunteer.
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