First day

First Day!

With a 06:20 local time alarm set the night before, getting up in the morning was always going to be tough for a uni student who's not used to getting out of bed till at least 9am at the earliest. Nevertheless, I was down in time for a quick plate of beans on toast (What a way to feel at home!) and out the door with the rest of the group by 7:20. 

The drive through Morogoro showed the city at the busiest we've seen so far, despite the surprisingly early rise. It only took around 10 minutes until we arrived at the first school, Mafiga, were 3 members of the group are helping.The others and I, however, had another 5 minutes to go until we reached Sua Secondary School.

Once there, we were warmly welcomed withe friendliest of greetings from the teachers at the school. Yesaya, an English teacher and also with the aim to be, in his own words, 'a billionaire by 25', gave us an extremely warm introduction and also took us for local at a nearby farm shop for youghurt and African style doughnuts. These dense, floury doughnuts made for a very filling lunch!

One thing we were somewhat prepared for was the use of corporate punishment by some teachers in the school. Within the first 15 minutes of arrival it was clear to see, especially during the use of this at assembly. It's definitely something that wasn't hidden away from us and also a topic a number of teachers spoke to us about. They also mentioned repeatedly that, encouragingly, they want to hear our thoughts, opinions and ideas and want to drive the school forward, words that even the acting (and likely future) headteacher and influential teachers shared to us.

After the yoghurt and doughnut stop for lunch, Yesaya introduced Laura (one of the 5 other volunteers in Morogoro) and I to his Form I class (around the age of 13-14, or year 8 in the U.K. system). We introduced ourselves and before we knew it, we ended up leading the whole 80 minute class with a mixture of English activities to keep them entertained! Despite the various looks we gave each other of terror from the lack of ideas on the spot, we seemed to do an okay enough lesson so that Yesaya left us to it again in the next class!

Games like hangman went down a treat with the class, which definitely helped ease the nerves on our part and also encouraged the kids to get active and involved in the lesson. We eventually moved onto turning sentences from positive to negative form and also threw in a 'countdown'  style game for them to create their own words. I must admit, I certainly didn't expect to be teaching English on this placement, never-mind on the first day! 

As I finish writing this post, we're half way through the first week of our time here and already it's crazy to be so caught up in this different world. It's hectic, chaotic and sometimes even borderline exhausting, yet I can tell this will be an experience that'll live with me forever!

Josh