Tuesday 10th February 2015
Tuesday began at 7, when we got up and
dressed, then had breakfast, which was amusing. Washed some clothes
quickly before we left; then AH taught me how to put my hair in a
proper messy bun. Woo for hair growth!
Off to nursery. Started with Mae's,
which we've visited before. We spent time in all five classes,
chatting to the kids, hearing them sing, watching lessons et cetera.
It was quite interesting; the quality of communication and
interaction between the kids and the teachers is great (though
focuses on repetition/call and response more than anything else).
However, the rooms are quite bare and, though there are all sorts of
posters, they focus on being more educational than child-friendly.
Maybe I'm going by Western standards, but it did seem a difficult
environment for children in terms of posters, surroundings etc. Over
the summer I think I'm going to make some bright/colourful
educational posters for them.
After Mae's, we went to another
nursery. This one was very very different; the rooms were really
dark, and they had pretty much nothing. It was harder to engage the
kids there, though we did get there in the end- I taught a couple to
play Pat-A-Cake; and, when we left, they all came out to smile and
wave.
Something else very unusual to our 'home' experiences here- one
of the nursery teachers was teaching with her small baby. We later
learnt that many of the women can't afford time off work, and there's
certainly no such thing as maternity pay- so they strap their
children to their back and get back to work as quickly as possible.
I'm not sure how to feel about this; if it works for them then it's
not our place to judge, of course- but compared to what we're used to
it seems very difficult and not ideal.
Went back to Farafenni Upper Basic
where we spent time in the classrooms. MW, SL and I went to SES
(Social and Environmental Studies- basically the equivalent of all of
our Humanities subjects). They were learning about colonisation. That
wasn't awkward at all!! I spent some time flicking through one girl's
book- the content is very interesting, but quite one-dimensional.
There seems to be very little teaching of how to think- it's all just
government-prescribed. Being someone currently studying four
essay-based, subjective subjects, that was a big difference to get
used to.
After that we sat in on French. The
French teacher is great, and the lesson was very interactive- they
had us up singing and dancing, then answering questions on the
board!!
At break, AH and I were surrounded by
people teaching us Mandinkan, which I'm really enjoying learning,
though quite overwhelming to be taught it by so many people at once!
Then it was back to lessons again- we sat in on a free period where
we chatted lots, then headed to another SES lesson, which was very
much akin to a lecture.
Went back to the AMRC for lunch, and
spent time relaxing. Felt a bit rough unfortunately. Spent a lot of
time writing, then we did some magazine crossword stuff as a group,
which was fun. At 5, we went back to the school. Played 3 games of
volleyball, us against the FUB students- I played in the second game,
but was placed between our best two players, so I barely touched the
ball! We won our game, but lost the other two so we lost overall; and
to be fair, our win was only because we had MR and Morro on our team!
When we weren't playing volleyball, we spent our time guarding the
bags (at Sass's request) and chatting/playing with the students. I
made friends- and also found a girl who remembered me from 2013- she
demonstrated the Macarena, which I taught them back then! Very
impressed.
Back to the AMRC for dinner. After that
we were meant to watch Frozen as a group, but it became a bit of a
sore spot. Long story short, some people watched Frozen and some of
us played cards then word games. After a while it was time for bed.