Well it’s more like 5 weeks now anyway it’s about time for an update:
We had a slow start to begin with, school kept being delayed by one thing or another – the classroom needed to be cleaned then half the students didnt turn up for a week because they were “still playing football in their villages”. But once things got going I started feeling more settled in. I really feel at home now.
First we had a couple of staff meetings which were really interesting dispite not understanding a word of what was going on. About 100 teachers gathered in a class room to listen to the head master then once he finished teachers took turns of the microphone and made very passionate speaches about problems they want to adress this year. There was lots of shouting and clapping which I couldn’t imagine happening in any British school.
All the English teachers are really friendly and keen for us to come and talk to the students so we have spent much of our time watching lessons and introducing ourselves to various different classes.
After a couple of weeks of observing I was offered to teach an hour of Mr Ba’s terminal class. It was a bit of a disaster at the start as I had totally overestimated the students listening ability and went straight into a listening exercise. But after some quick thinking and improvisation I got out my postcards from Scotland and my Kilt and got the lesson back on track.
Our host had to go away last week for a seminar near Saly so he asked us to cover all his classes at the lycee and the Catholic private school. This was a big step up from the one hour of teaching I’d done the previous week but nevertheless Will and I stepped up to the challenge. We split the classes doing 14 hours each and taking all levels of classes.
The equivient years are something like :
Terminal – S6 / year 13
Premier – S5 / year 12
Deuxieme – S4 / year 11
But student are up to 24/25 years old sometimes meaning due to the fact some people cant afford school so they have to wait to enroll or they resit a year if they didnt pass their class.
It was a bit worrying going into the deuxieme class as this is their first year at the lycee so their english is not so great and the class is massive (around 50 students). But this turned out to be one of the most fun classes! The students loved the games, all being very enthusiastic, and everyone seemed to have fun in my lesson. I even had some girls come up to me the next day just saying english words for food we had learnt.
I have learnt so much this week about teaching. The students have less problems understanding me. I’m talking slower, using more examples and have better lesson plans. Even my classroom control has improved a lot – getting 50+ teenagers to keep quiet is a big achievment for me!
Also English Club has started. We had our first contact just to meet all the members last year. They are incredibly friendly and lots of fun. I am overjoyed to be welcomed into their English Club family. Looking forward to working with these enthusiastic students.
Outside of school we have been taking the time to get to know the city better. On one of our various walks exploring the city we spotted the Kancoran (not sure on spelling). This is a scary monster/spirit who basically chases children with machettes. Personally I found it terrifying but all the children loved running around and screaming.
But one of the joys and favourite pass times here is simply sitting by the side of the road with some friends watching the neon lights of the Jakartas (motobike taxis) wiz by. By day Ziguinchor is sleeply but it really lights up at night, people line the streets, eating peanuts and drinking tea.
Other activities have uncluded going to a birthday party – unlike any birthday I’d been to. Basically there was a large semi- circle of people sitting on plastic chairs and then at the front there were a group of drummers, next to them a caller and the chorus chanting in Wolof. Then people came into the middle dancing in traditional mblax style which must take so much energy. It’s mostly improvised as well. My favorite moment was when the old ladies sitting on the chairs got up and started dancing. One even had a child on her back.
Also we met the American volunteers who are here with Fulbright. They are called Charity and Savana and Chairty is working at the lycee with us and Savana is at a middle school elsewhere.
In the next month I look forward to taking on more classes, developing a program for english club and hopefully exploring casamance a bit more!
Thomas In Senegal 