Day one teaching!

Hi again! I only have two minutes on the comp (because we have Swahili lessons), but I saw it was empty (which is very rare) and decided to jump on for a quick hello.

I had my first day at my placement today at Moshi Primary School. It was INTENSE... I might need to stress that again... INTENSE.

After getting dropped off by our van, we walked about 10-15 min down a rocky dirt path to the school. Children ran up to us and fought to hold our hands on the way there. They just walked beside us, staring up at us with big beautiful smiles the entire way.

We met the principal of the school who was a very nice woman, and brought us to our class. I am teaching standard 1 (7 yr olds) and standard 2 (8 yr olds) with another volunteer (Libby), which is helpful. The teachers were very friendly, but, unfortunately, expected us to come in today with lesson plans and materials! They thought we were actual teachers, and when we tried to explain to them we were not, they wondered if we are not teachers in America, why did we come here to teach? The question does make a lot of sense! We didn't do much teaching today, just introduced ourselves to the class, and had each child introduce themselves to us ("Hi my name is___. I am __ yrs old"). We also did fun songs (they LOVE the hokey pokey and head, shoulders knees and toes). Their English is very limited, and compared to speaking with other volunteers (working at different primary schools) our kids are a little behind for their age.

We sang and danced with the kids at recess and they were ADORABLE! All hanging all over me, kissing my hands, putting their hands through my hair. They are so curious about our culture, as am I about theirs. I can't wait to learn more.

Shoot, I have SOO much more to write but we have Swahili lessons now and God knows I can't afford to miss those. I'm going to try to get to an internet cafe this evening to research lesson plans and might have some more time to write a little more.

Stay tuned.... I'll write more later.

LOVE YOU ALL! And love my kids... I can already tell it is going to be so hard to say goodbye to their beautiful smiling faces. They are truly amazing children.


Love, Allison


PS - Sorry this is so sloppy.... I just have so much to tell you and no time at all!!!