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;