Second Day

Today we went to teach at the New Life Band School. Judy and I stayed up late the night before preparing our lessons to introduce the book "A Wreath For Father Mayor." We brought an overhead projector for the school and we were going to use it to teach with...at least that is what we thought.

We arrived at the school and the Headmaster asked if we were going to show them how to use the projector today. They had no idea how to use it and they kept looking at it like it was a strange item. So we go into the classroom and all the students stand up to greet us. The teacher told them Judy and I would be teaching today using this thing ( the projector). He said today we will all be learning new technology. 

Soooooo.....we got the overhead sheets out and was ready to begin. The men went outside to turn on the generator and it wouldn't start. Ok...on to plan B, which we didn't have. They said it would only be a few minutes, they needed to get a part for the generator. So we started using the whiteboard. We were brainstorming on what the students already knew about Catholic Religion. The whole book is rooted in this religion so we thought it was important to see what they knew. We had the students work in groups and write their ideas on overhead sheets. During this time, the men kept running in and out trying to get the generator to work. Finally, after 30 minutes the generator is running and we are ready to share the students overhead sheets. However, the projector doesn't come on so all the men are trying to figure it out and they decide it is the wall plug. So they grab some students and have them climb into the rafters, which everyone can see because they have no ceiling. We tried to keep going with the lesson but it was almost impossible with all the guys yelling things like "Not that wire", "Cut the red one", "Watch out don't fall." All of this is happening in the front of the room. We tried to start reading the book, that didn't go over so well. After an hour, we asked if the students could take a break until they finished. Finally the wires were fixed and all the students came back, turned the generator on......and......no electric! Everyone was so disappointed, we decided to wait until Monday to continue. 

The best part was we spent a lot of time just talking with the students. We made name plates to put on their desks. Some of the names are so hard, we had to practice them a lot. They think my laugh is funny. So every time I laugh, they laugh. It was a very interesting first day of teaching in an African school. There were more distractions in that two hours than all my teaching put together.

After class was over, they had an all school devotion time. We were the guests of honor. It was a real neat experience because it was student led. They sang songs using clapping, then had a short lesson, and some praying time. It was a unique experience for all of us.