A Typical Day Part 2

So, I thought I’d make this a two-part series, as a typical day just isn’t all that typical for me in my fellowship. Today, which was a whole world apart from yesterday, is such an example.

                I knew today was a ‘field’ day, and after some experience I now know how to be prepared for such voyages. I make sure I take plenty of provisions: food, water, toilet paper, sunscreen, Advil, a fully charged phone and camera, a notebook, and a pen.  You never know when you’ll return, and you never know what you might see. (One day we ran into a green mamba snake – the cousin of the most deadly snake in the world: the black mamba).

Mwambara Primary School
(The preschool is sharing space within the primary building)

               

                  I was prepared also to interview the teacher in order to write a School Profile. I explained what that was last post.  What many people would not be prepared for was to suddenly find themselves single-handedly taking over an entire preschool while the teacher attended a meeting.

                Only one teacher was present upon our arrival. Many of you (especially teachers) will gasp when I tell you that she was managing a class of 64 students –somehow, all at once.  So imagine, 64 kindergartners (from about 3-5 years old) all staring wide-eyed at me as I introduced myself as their substitute teacher for the day.  How was I?  I was excited, full of ideas, and ready to go.

The teacher had them in three groups, working on a puzzle of pictures of fruit.  I could see fruit was the theme of the day.  I set to work, going from group to group to see if they could identify the fruit in English.  Their puzzle skills weren’t on par, but we managed to work on ‘banana’, ‘tomato’, ‘pineapple’, and ‘mango’ among others.  Things were going well as they stayed in their groups, but a few minutes after the teacher left, the groups became less distinct and kids just kind of piled onto me. 

Figuring out the puzzle.

Learning from my visits to other schools and from my previous experience teaching kindergarten, I changed the game plan and grabbed some picture books. “One two, make a circle” is the mantra for Kenyan kindergartners if you must know.  Like magic, the kids were shouting the mantra, gathering around me, and sitting down. 

Reading a story book in Kwale District, Mombasa can be hot and tiring. Kids were sitting down at one point, but next thing I know they are piling onto me again - each trying to get closer, either to me or to the pictures in the book, we’ll never know.  I’m sweating buckets, I’m trying my best to keep them seated, and all the while reading the story as best I can to show everyone the pictures. 

With story time over, the mantra comes in handy yet again. “One, two” is all I have to say. “Make a circle,” they reply.   I am attempting to get the kids, all 64 of them, in a large circle standing up around the classroom.  It’s as difficult as it sounds. I think about 15 minutes later, we were ready for song time.  Knowing that the hokey pokey would take hours to teach them, I threw out “Happy and You Know It” hoping they were happy, and that they did know it.  Success.  I then tried my all-time favourite song I used in China: “Hello Hello How Are You”.   Before you know it we’re singing “This is the Way I Brush My Teeth”.

I was lucky.  I had a super-star assistant next to me who knew most of the songs and sang them loud and clear, leading her fellow pupils along. Once I ran out of ideas, and I glanced around the classroom with that almost panic of “Ok what’s next?”   My lovely assistant  whispered something into my ear.  Unfortunately, not being fluent in Kiswahili, I had no idea what she was saying.  But I had a feeling it was song related. I urged her in English to go for it, to sing her heart out.  And she did, after I managed to charade the message out.  She led the whole class into a round of Kiswahili Kindergarten songs.

The singing was over, and the teacher was still away. Ok, blackboard time.  Let’s talk about fruit.  I put my artistic skills to the test and drew some fruit. If you can tell me how a papaya and a mango, or a apple and tomato differentiate in appearance -  please do tell.  Otherwise, the kids seemed to figure it out.  We identified the fruit and counted out loud.  We did this for what felt like ten minutes, and then I was lost for more ideas, hoping that the teacher would stick her head in the door.  She didn’t.  But then something amazing happened...

 The children grabbed their notebooks and pencils, and sat quietly in front of the blackboard, studying it.  I watched them for a while. They were copying down my hopelessly creative blackboard renditions of mangoes and apples, and writing down the words ‘apple’ and ‘mango’ as well as the number of mangoes and apples they could see. 

Copying down our fruit work.

                

I can't get over how well they behaved.

                   

    

            Afterwards, they came to me, one by one, gallantly presenting their work and seeking approval.  I made sure they could repeat the words as I pointed to them and count all of the apples, oranges, and papayas.   After saying “nzuri sana” (very good) for what felt like a million times and losing a few more litres of sweat, I finished up my day as Teacher Kristy at Mwambara Preschool.

How many apples are there?

Group Shot!
(Left: teacher; Upper Left: Head Teacher and School Committee Chief)