I love teaching. It is really hard. That is for sure but I love it. I never imagined in my life I would be a teacher... let alone, have 90 pupils. Life loves to throw curve balls.
I teach every weekday. I teach 40 minute classes everyday except on Friday it is a 80 minute class. I use Fridays for compositions and comprehension type learning.
The school is pretty bare when it comes to resources but I am doing my best. I love to make posters and hang them up everywhere. This week I made a poster about verbs and adjectives. I bet you can guess my plan for this week... NOUNS!
We made class rules this last week. The favorite rule is: "If you are late... you have to dance for the whole class." There has been a lot of shana (dance) in the classroom lately. I hope this encourages them to come on time. I do what I can. There are other rules but none as good as that one.
The levels of understanding is so varied. Some of my pupils are brilliant. They are so bright it scares me and then I have the flip-side. I have pupils that cannot even greet me in English. Okay, that is drastic but their English is very bad. I am hoping that a pen-pal program will get them excited about English so they can communicate with their new found American friends. Who knows? Anything can happen. (I am listening to Ellie Goulding right now.)
What else?
I love my village. My bataata treats me like a princess. Just this week he had the ladies in the village come and weed my yard. He also told this drunk man to never talk to me, look at me or even think about me. It was great. He has my back. He also likes to find out when I have visitors so that he can get the ladies in the village to come sweep my yard. He is too good to me.
I have a blackboard on the side of my house. I am SO excited about this. The village kids are going crazy about it. I have to monitor their chalk use. I feel like there are so many possibilities with this chalkboard.
My cousin is digging me a garden and building a fence. I am excited about this also but we all know that I don't know a ton about gardening. I am totally ready to learn. The village kids are really stoked about it for some reason.
I have had 3 PCV visitors at my place. Emilie, Adam and Jahtay have visited me for a few days each. It has been lovely each time. It is good to hangout with other volunteers. It is a way to reboot and see your village through someone else's eyes. You need this sometimes. But now I am the village slut. You only invite a man over if you are going to have sex. I guess there has been a lot of Megan going around.
I went to my first funeral. It was awesome. I know most volunteers are on funeral number 983 by now but I guess the health is good where I am at. Just imagine me walking with 60 of my pupils through a village with rolling hills of banana plantations and they all break out into perfect harmony in a song about flowers meeting you on the other side. I was constantly asking myself, "Is this real life?!" I would say that funeral number 1 was a success. I am looking forward for the next.
I have a dog and a cat but the dog just came. I named him India but we call him Indie. I have a belief that all wandering souls end up in India. This dog is a wanderer. I love it and hate it. He freaking found me deep in the bush when I was fetching water the other day. "Where did you come from, Sir?" By golly. One of my pupils dropped him off at my house at 06:00 hours while I was sweeping my insaka. Not expecting that at all. He was so cute. I could not pass it up. The next day I took him straight to the vet. I can't have a dog die on me again. I am pretty sure the vets hate how much I text them. "Uhhh... I think his poop is weird. Should I come in?" If this is any sign of what kind of mom I am going to be... oh boy.
Victoria Falls for NYE was incredible. You should go! Serious. It is a World Wonder. What are you waiting for? I had the same feeling at Vic Falls that I had at the Grand Canyon, "How can anything be this beautiful?" My goodness. To make the trip even better, we swam in Devil's Pool and were escorted out there by a man that was chiseled by God himself. Just being honest. It is a few kilometers walk out on the top of the falls. I slipped a few times. I broke off 50% of my toe nail and got a good bruise. Totally worth it. One more time I am going to say, "Go." That's all on that.
I went to 2 workshops in Lusaka. One was on GBV (gender based violence) and the other was PEPFAR (HIV/AIDS). Let me tell you... PEPFAR was so much better than GBV. I loved learning about HIV/AIDS. Condoms and circumcision for all. I am a free spirit while talking about this subject now. Nothing is awkward. Let the questions come. Kalibu.
Christmas was okay but the 2 weeks before hand sucked. I have never been homesick in my life. Never want that to happen again. I also tried to go to the nearest church to have something familiar to make the homesickness go away. It was an awful experience getting there and home. I was told 2 hours and it turned into 4 there and 5 home. I have vowed to never go again to myself and my PCVL because it turned into a safety problem.
We have 6 student teachers at the school right now. I guess they can be my friends. Just kidding. The 3 boys are super cool and the 3 girls only greet me. You win some. You lose some. I am hoping a beautiful friendships bud with these folks. None of them want to be teachers but it is the easy thing to do to secure a job. I wish people had the chance to follow their dreams. I will encourage them as much as possible.
The rains have came. Let them stay. I have water again and everything is so green and lush.
These are my goals for this next month:
1. Start a boy's club and a girl's club.
2. Have an HIV/AIDS meeting and start bringing awareness.
3. Have a community meeting about the needs of the community.
4. Track down the Makonde Woman's Club and become a member.
5. Have Kate (RAP volunteer) come and hold a meeting about fish farming.
These are very attainable goals. It is good for me to see this too. It will be an excellent month.
I teach every weekday. I teach 40 minute classes everyday except on Friday it is a 80 minute class. I use Fridays for compositions and comprehension type learning.
The school is pretty bare when it comes to resources but I am doing my best. I love to make posters and hang them up everywhere. This week I made a poster about verbs and adjectives. I bet you can guess my plan for this week... NOUNS!
We made class rules this last week. The favorite rule is: "If you are late... you have to dance for the whole class." There has been a lot of shana (dance) in the classroom lately. I hope this encourages them to come on time. I do what I can. There are other rules but none as good as that one.
The levels of understanding is so varied. Some of my pupils are brilliant. They are so bright it scares me and then I have the flip-side. I have pupils that cannot even greet me in English. Okay, that is drastic but their English is very bad. I am hoping that a pen-pal program will get them excited about English so they can communicate with their new found American friends. Who knows? Anything can happen. (I am listening to Ellie Goulding right now.)
What else?
I love my village. My bataata treats me like a princess. Just this week he had the ladies in the village come and weed my yard. He also told this drunk man to never talk to me, look at me or even think about me. It was great. He has my back. He also likes to find out when I have visitors so that he can get the ladies in the village to come sweep my yard. He is too good to me.
I have a blackboard on the side of my house. I am SO excited about this. The village kids are going crazy about it. I have to monitor their chalk use. I feel like there are so many possibilities with this chalkboard.
My cousin is digging me a garden and building a fence. I am excited about this also but we all know that I don't know a ton about gardening. I am totally ready to learn. The village kids are really stoked about it for some reason.
I have had 3 PCV visitors at my place. Emilie, Adam and Jahtay have visited me for a few days each. It has been lovely each time. It is good to hangout with other volunteers. It is a way to reboot and see your village through someone else's eyes. You need this sometimes. But now I am the village slut. You only invite a man over if you are going to have sex. I guess there has been a lot of Megan going around.
I went to my first funeral. It was awesome. I know most volunteers are on funeral number 983 by now but I guess the health is good where I am at. Just imagine me walking with 60 of my pupils through a village with rolling hills of banana plantations and they all break out into perfect harmony in a song about flowers meeting you on the other side. I was constantly asking myself, "Is this real life?!" I would say that funeral number 1 was a success. I am looking forward for the next.
I have a dog and a cat but the dog just came. I named him India but we call him Indie. I have a belief that all wandering souls end up in India. This dog is a wanderer. I love it and hate it. He freaking found me deep in the bush when I was fetching water the other day. "Where did you come from, Sir?" By golly. One of my pupils dropped him off at my house at 06:00 hours while I was sweeping my insaka. Not expecting that at all. He was so cute. I could not pass it up. The next day I took him straight to the vet. I can't have a dog die on me again. I am pretty sure the vets hate how much I text them. "Uhhh... I think his poop is weird. Should I come in?" If this is any sign of what kind of mom I am going to be... oh boy.
Victoria Falls for NYE was incredible. You should go! Serious. It is a World Wonder. What are you waiting for? I had the same feeling at Vic Falls that I had at the Grand Canyon, "How can anything be this beautiful?" My goodness. To make the trip even better, we swam in Devil's Pool and were escorted out there by a man that was chiseled by God himself. Just being honest. It is a few kilometers walk out on the top of the falls. I slipped a few times. I broke off 50% of my toe nail and got a good bruise. Totally worth it. One more time I am going to say, "Go." That's all on that.
I went to 2 workshops in Lusaka. One was on GBV (gender based violence) and the other was PEPFAR (HIV/AIDS). Let me tell you... PEPFAR was so much better than GBV. I loved learning about HIV/AIDS. Condoms and circumcision for all. I am a free spirit while talking about this subject now. Nothing is awkward. Let the questions come. Kalibu.
Christmas was okay but the 2 weeks before hand sucked. I have never been homesick in my life. Never want that to happen again. I also tried to go to the nearest church to have something familiar to make the homesickness go away. It was an awful experience getting there and home. I was told 2 hours and it turned into 4 there and 5 home. I have vowed to never go again to myself and my PCVL because it turned into a safety problem.
We have 6 student teachers at the school right now. I guess they can be my friends. Just kidding. The 3 boys are super cool and the 3 girls only greet me. You win some. You lose some. I am hoping a beautiful friendships bud with these folks. None of them want to be teachers but it is the easy thing to do to secure a job. I wish people had the chance to follow their dreams. I will encourage them as much as possible.
The rains have came. Let them stay. I have water again and everything is so green and lush.
These are my goals for this next month:
1. Start a boy's club and a girl's club.
2. Have an HIV/AIDS meeting and start bringing awareness.
3. Have a community meeting about the needs of the community.
4. Track down the Makonde Woman's Club and become a member.
5. Have Kate (RAP volunteer) come and hold a meeting about fish farming.
These are very attainable goals. It is good for me to see this too. It will be an excellent month.
