First Day Jitters, Tuesday 2/9

My book bag is packed. Sunscreen is on and I have sprayed on my bug spray. I am ready for my first day teaching Nursery School in Tanzania! Our group has piled into the van and we are both excited and nervous.

I am the elder in our group, so I tend to take advantage of that and sit in the front row. Our youngest volunteer is a 19 yr. old boy from Ohio. Reilly’s face is red with sunburn from our day at the Rao Village, so I sit with him and check in on how he is doing. Like all of us he is nervous, he is going to a Primary School to assistant teach. I try to mother him a bit, and tell him to take care of himself. He seems to appreciate my concern. One by one, my fellow volunteers are droped off at their placements. Melissa is going to a Juvenile Center, which has street kids and some young criminals. She is in her twenties and from Canada. She is majoring in Psychiatric Care and appears to be well equipped for her assignment. Reilly and Andrew (20) are assigned together at the Primary School. The assistant program director gets off the van with them to introduce them and get them settled. Jay is in his 30s, he will be teaching at a Secondary School. Randy is in his 40s, (closest to my age ) and is assigned to the Hospital. Several are assigned to the Women’s Community Center, where they do business training, English classes and several other services. At this point we are down to 3 of us, Ali my partner and Dee Anna who is also assigned to a Nursery School. Her School is gated in and she is greeted by the Head Mistress. This school is considered very good, and the teachers speak English. We travel on, bouncing on the rough road going deeper into the village. The huts are rough, the worst we have seen. We come to a stop, and we see our students lined up outside waiting for our arrival. We are greeted by hugs, smiles and rehearsed “Hallos” and some funny little Welcome songs. The children file into the school and sit in their seats, so far so good. The two women who are at the school are limited in teaching skills and in English. Hai the lead teacher is about 21, she has attended a 6 month training to prepare her for her job as teacher. She is able to translate our instructions to the children, but we really can’t have a conversation. The other woman basically gives hugs, takes the kids to the toilet (hole) and wipes noses. One of the men , Leveng (Living) from CCS joins us to help translate and make sure we are okay (I guess) and he to is helpful.



The children appear to be eager to learn. And so we begin….We start with the alphabet and they do fairly well. We move onto numbers and again things are going pretty good, I think we must of gone an hour and a half? Let me remind you these little ones are 3 – 6, sitting about 3 - 4 on a bench with a desk in front of them and it is 100 degrees and we are all hot. So we attempt writing the numbers and I am amazed at the dexterity and fine motor skills they are capable of holding a pencil fairly well and are writing their numbers. About now they start to melt down, are start crying and hitting and losing it. I can’t blame them.



Breathing is Universal.



I introduce to them “Take 5” and we take 5 Breaths counting on their fingers and then go AHHH…. They smile. We do it again. They are quiet. Ali and look at each other. I have them stand up and they learn Mountain pose, tree, sun breath, and more.  They are calm and willing to sit and work some more.

To be continued.....