Early Week Round-Up

Tuesday 8th October

Update: we have a new volunteer! Her name is Veronica, she's from Portugal and she's at Dada's with me and Jennifer. Jen had her first day yesterday and Veronica's was today.

I'm finding it a little difficult to find my feet with it all at Dada's - a new and different structure, culture and way of teaching in the school...I'm just so out of my depth and working to stay afloat! I'm doing ok, just being a helping hand and happy to do whatever they need me to - it's a crazy, kinda scary thing that I'm standing in front of class and trying to teach in a place where their first language isn't English! A lot of them have very good English though, but like at any school it just takes a bit of time for the kids and a new teacher to get comfortable with each other and suss it all out. Makes it a little more challenging for sure but I'm enjoying it, I do have fun when I'm there, there's just a part of me that still wants to do more.

We had a mini meeting yesterday with me, Jen, Yvonne, Shei (I found out how to spell it now!) and Martha, the main coordinators, about the Dada's placement and how best to utilise the volunteers - it's such a massive challenge that goes all the way back to the entire schooling system and Kenyan attitude/way of life, and right now that's not something I am in a position to tackle! It was an interesting and constuctive discussion and we've got some ideas to hopefully maximise the use of volunteers at Dada's - especially since we aren't trained teachers. It might take a few days to put into action over there but I want to keep going with it and do all I can while I'm here! I'm super impressed with Marifiki and the people who run this place, they have a difficult task and their passion, ethos and aims are really inspiring.

I'm having fun with Teacher Felix though, feel like we're getting a good little thing going now we're in week 2. I was with him in class most of the day today, we tag-teamed going through Class 6's science exam paper from last week and then the maths one after lunch, it was quite helpful seeing how he went about it and trying to make the revision a bit broader than just telling the correct answer and moving on. Made a bit of a fool of myself in maths, I mean I haven't done that kind of thing in 3 years! I do understand it and I can do it, but I do it a different way to how they are being taught and explaining it to a class is something else! I had to hand back over to him and carry on trying to work out how they do it! Bit embarrassing but if the kids can teach me how to do it it means they definitely understand!
Did some English in Class 4 too with Teacher Lucy, adverbs and adjectives, mostly shadowing and then going round and helping the kids with the exercises they were doing and marking their books. I'm gonna be teaching a lesson on tenses on Friday as they all struggled with that in their composition section of the exam - bit stressed but hopefully that'll be ok! Just gonna keep it simple, English is confusing and English people struggle to speak it properly so I'm not surprised they're struggling with the composition section, that's always the hardest part when learning a language!

Yesterday I was left to myself to do a few lessons. I taught some maths, naming lines and angles, obtuse/acute and all that, and revision about Egypt in social studies I think - just bumbling through with confidence and a smile, trying to make it all a bit more fun!

Because it was Jennifer's first day as well, we got a lil tour of the entire complex. It's not huge but it's pretty good and better than the preconceptions I had. I think it's all concrete buildings and they have western-style toilets and things - the rooms are just cramped and a little dingy, but so much better than the kids' alternative. I think it's all being bulit upon at the minute, the school building is all fairly new and still in construction right next to the living spaces. I got to see the kitchen round the back and orphanage section where 71 of the kids stay. They have more boys than girls there, all of them staying in bunk beds with the younger ones sharing a double mattress on the bottom between 2 or 3 of them. They have 2 rooms for the boys which are slightly bigger than the 2 for the girls, and a room with a dining table and a TV in for them too. There are 4 mamas who work there and cook and do the laundry and things, I'm not sure if they stay there too or what but they're always busying! They do have to cater for around 200 kids every lunchtime which can't be easy! They have a huge coal stove that's super warm round there, cooking up massive batches of rice or ugali and stew.
It's all another eye-opener for me I think, experiencing all these things first-hand is so different from reading about it or seeing it on a screen.

We've had some fun, silly evenings at the House though too - yesterday was drawing competitions on Corrie's whiteboards and today we were talking with Martha about a whole host of tbings - my favourite was accents. Me, her and Corrie had fun imitating British regional accents (she has lived in Ireland for a number of years and has a lovely hint of an accent!). It was funny, then Corrie put on a bit of Phineas and Ferb to watch with Megan, what a throwback!

Oh! Also it rained today!! My first Kenyan rain, only a small one but it was so good to see after so much sun! I've been told a lot here I'm so British - what can I say, love me some rain.

Tomorrow is a national holiday, Moi Day I believe, it's been revived after 7 years so no school tomorrow. I might still go in and see the kids who live at the orphanage and chill/play/chat with them. I'll take my mini whiteboards and colours and things I brought and see if we can have a bit of a mess about, should be good.


Word vomit and info dump over! I promise I'll get better at this blogging thing soon..!


Love to my family, appreciating and grateful for my life and everyone back home in so many different ways xxx