Teaching

Eish, writing this post I feel I owe an apology to all the teachers that I gave a hard time to during secondary school. Alot of work goes into planning a good lesson so it can become quickly frustrating when the boys are either disinterested or are to busy messing around to do the work. But I would be lying if I said I didnt expect the first months to be a challenge. The boys are testing us to see where the line is and they are quickly finding it.

Classroom managment asside I do genuienly enjoy teaching, I teach 6 lessons a week in science whilst Tim teaches maths. Neither of us will claim to be fully qualified teachers, but we do our best. We are only teaching at a very basic level. The hardest part is trying to get the boys to understand the English as many of them only really speak Setswana.

Teaching at Bana Ba Metsi only lasts from 8 until 12, short hours. The setup at Bana Ba Metsi is very different to the majority of other schools in Botswana. There is not so much a huge expectation on grades, but rather on rehabilitation to allow the boys who often come from very troubled pasts to be able to find work when they leave or (hopefully) move onto secondary school. 

Outside of the classroom we are quickly bonding with the boys, we seem to be the happy medium between classmates and teachers. They can talk to us like friends which they simply cant with the teachers but also they can look up to us as role models (we hope). 

Twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays we have sports, the boys have the choice of Rugby, Volleyball, Table tennis, Chess, Football or art. I have somehow managed to blag my way into the role of football coach, call me Sir Alex. This mainly involves picking teams and organising matches, so far the boys seem to coach themselves. So nothing I can't handle...

As of the 13th we are in Maun for our 2 day rest, so il keep you posted. 

Also, as promised, pictures of our digs; 

First Day's of Term

By the time your reading this we will actually be a full month into term, however the first two days were so eventful I couldnt help but write about them. 

In order to get to Bana Ba Metsi we must drive north from Maun for 6 hours along a very poor stretch of road, before crossing the river and travelling about 40k back south to Bana Ba Metsi. Adding into the equation one three ton truck full of luggage (which me and Tim drove) and one 5 ton truck filled with 50 or so restless students. As bad as it may sound it was actually fairly enjoyable. By the time we arrived at Bana Ba Metsi there was little to do other then eat and sleep.

We woke up early in order the next day in order to get breakfast, I may not be so quick next time as The soft porridge (made from maze) is not the nicest of meals, and thats being kind. But beggars can't be choosers and foods food. We we're formally welcomed to the school at assembly before the whole school was given its list of duties. The first day of term is a cleaning day, the boys clean the dorms, classrooms, TV area, de-weed the gardens and collect any litter left lying around. Surprisingly, the list of cleaning which was supposed to take 3 hours only took around 30 minutes, so the majority of the day was spent playing football.

Many of the Boys are very sporty, which is a fantastic way of bonding and getting to know the boys, football knows no language barriers. It seems easier to gain their trust and respect by running around all day kicking a football then failing to converse with them in Setswana. Im sure for the first couple of months I will be working hard to gain their respect but I know in time this will come. 

In the afternoons we take on manual work, today we were sent to collect firewood. Me, Tim and a teacher rounded up a half dozen boys and took the truck a few kilometres into the bush. It became clear very quickly that we were both amateurs at picking decent wood, however it dosent take Einstein to use and axe. 

At the start of each term it is somewhat the norm to slaughter a goat, as it is fairly cheap in the long run and provides alot of good meat. Me and Tim headed over to our colleagues house to firstly kill, then butcher the goat. Coming from my uber comfortable life back in Stevenage I have never killed nor witnessed first hand the death of the meat I consume. Little did I know that we did not have the simple task of killing it straight away as we'd have to catch it first, the goat had broken free from its rope and was making a break for it! We ran around like fools trying to catch this goat in a fairly small garden, before the goat decided he'd take his chances on the school football pitch. Luckily the boys were on hand to round it up for us. The goat knew he was in for it, so was less then happy to be dragged back to his post. For my over sensitive friends, the goat did not suffer, and tasted delicious. 

I have so much more to write about but I do not wish to bore you all to death, I shall save the rest for future posts. Im still in shock that this is only my first week, it has been so eventful and I have a year left ..

Until the next time