A TYPICAL DAY AT SHALOOM

Some of you have asked what a typical school day at Shaloom is like, so I'll try to give you a glimpse. Of course, no two days are ever the same, and the only thing predictable is "nothing is predictable"! When I arrive at the school around 8:45am, most of the children are already playing in the outside play area. I open the school and the classroom, and tidy up a bit. The children play with toys inside the building after washing their hands outside. We try to start class by 9am, but some of the children arrive late because they all have to walk, and some of them live far from the school.

Kasi & Justina play with the babies

Most of the children don't have toys at home so they enjoy this time very much. It doesn't usually matter which toys they play with, as long as they get some time to use their imagination. The girls generally like to play with the baby dolls, and I get a kick out of the way they try to carry the babies on their backs, the way the woman do here. Building blocks and Legos are a favorite for most of the boys. They also like to play with the hundreds of bottle caps that have been collected over the years. Some of the children count them, and others make designs on the floor.

Buseleke & Omari, and Jeremia in the background

Kasi, Tobiasi & Jeremia

Once the toys are all cleaned up, the children and I meet in the smaller classroom to work on English. We practice greetings and I have them identify familiar objects in English. We also work on songs in English, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Head, shoulders, knees and toes". I brought my computer into the classroom a couple of times and played these songs for them on You Tube. Check out our You Tube video below! We've been practicing without the video each day since we recorded our little video, so I don't think it will be too long and they'll have it down pat!

Practicing "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes"

While the children and I are working in the classroom, Rehema is preparing uji, a nutritious type of porridge. After an hour in the classroom, the children move out into the larger area for their breakfast. The children usually don't get breakfast at home before coming to class, so this period is very important. They drink their uji and have fruit, hard boiled eggs or mandazi (a type of sweet bread). We give the children uji every day but try to give a variety of the other foods. They don't ever complain about what they're given. They appreciate it all.

Following breakfast, we have a half hour session on learning numbers and counting in Kiswahili. It was a little challenging, at first, for me to teach all of the numbers in Kiswahili because they are so different than English. But I've finally learned them well enough that I can stay ahead of the children and catch when they say a number incorrectly. Most of them can already count to one hundred but recognizing the numbers will come later. That's what we work on most of the time. I'm impressed with how far the children have come after only a month in class. They don't get much help at home because many of their caregivers are illiterate, or poorly educated, at best.         Next on our schedule is outside playtime...

 

Following a half an hour of outside play, we move back into the classroom. We work on Kiswahili letters next, which unlike English, are taught by sound only. I find this a bit more challenging because the sounds of the vowels are different than in English. The "a" sounds like "ah", as in bah humbug. When I teach the letter "e", I have to say the long "a" sound, as in hay. The "i" sound is like our "ee" sound, as in beet. Luckily, "o" is the same as in English. The "u" sounds like our long "u", as in Luke, but isn't called "you", as we say, it's simply "ooh". The consonants are taught by their sounds, as well. On a positive note, there are no silent letters in Kiswahili words. This makes pronouncing the words a bit easier. The letters always have the same sound, and every letter is heard.

The last period of the day is spent on being creative, coloring, learning colors and shapes, or learning a little something about Tanzania. It was during this period we made our little huts and Valentine's Day cards.

We had a group picture taken at the end of the day, recently. A new student named Dollos, joined our class this week, so now we have 13 students. A couple of the parents had come to pick up their children so they were invited to get in the picture, too. The parents are the adults in the center of the back row. Rehema and I are also in the back row, as if you didn't already know that. James, my language helper, is the one who took the picture. He works in the office at Shaloom Center, and has been helping me with Kiswahili for the past couple of weeks. What a blessing he is!  THANKS FOR VISITING OUR CLASS!! See you again, soon.