School Has Started - Sort Of

Lisa's on Cloud Nine

We spoke with Lisa this morning - as we were getting up and she was home from school for her lunch break. She was able to visit the Hostel next door to watch some of the Inauguration last night on MSNBC via Botswana TV -  the image kept breaking up - but she heard most of his speech and was very impressed. Everyone watching with her was delighted to see Obama take the oath of office - it was a very proud moment for our country! Africa celebrated with us!

It was a most auspicious day for Lisa - she was reading a book about Obama and she finished it yesterday - the 14th book she's finished since January 1st - as she said "not quite 44 for his Presidency but it looks close enough when listed in my Journal!". When there isn't much else to do a lot of reading gets done! Every time she's in Windhoek she both borrows more books from the Peace Corps library (returning the previous batch that she had borrowed) and she buys as many as she can from local bookstores.

She's sure boosting their book sales! Those bookstores will sure miss her next year when she comes home! GRIN GRIN All the books she either buys or we (and you faithful blog readers) have sent her will enrich the School, Hostel, and Community Libraries when she's done with them. Aroab is striving mightily to increase it's literacy on all fronts for both the learners and the adults in town and Lisa will be much more influential in that development that she realizes!

 

School

Her school is still waiting for 2 teachers to show up - so missing all last week due to her Peace Corps Training and trip back to Aroab doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. They still are running the equivalent of study halls till they know for sure if the teachers are coming or not.

Lisa explained that as to her classes there was good news and not so great news. The good news was that she would have 24 weekly classes vs the 36 a week she had last year (each class meets 4 times a week - with some variation with double periods and other exceptions to the rule) so she went from 9 courses to 6 - assuming the teachers they expect arrive - otherwise she'll be given another class or 2 most likely.

This reduction brings her more in line with what she's supposed to be teaching via Peace Corps guidelines. It also will give her more time to work on the secondary projects she's supposed to expand on during her second year as a Peace Corps Volunteer. (The school Library, Community Literacy etc.)

Her schedule right now is teaching 7th grade Arts -  she has 2 groups; 9th and 10th grade Life Science - she gets to move up with her 9th grade learners from last year which made her very happy though now she'll have a group to prepare for the National Exams!; 9th grade English; and 8th grade Entrepreneurship - which is a reasonably new course that's being taught.

Teaching Arts sounds interesting but she's not sure if there are any materials for it she doesn't think they even have scissors and doing something with 60 plus learners requires a lot of anything! - So in addition to regular school supplies any art supplies readers of this blog may be moved to send her will be greatly appreciated. Since the Arts curriculum is rather fluid (maybe nonexistent) she's at a point that "If you send it she will create a project to use it" colored paper, origami paper, markers, colored pencils, scissors, chalk, graph paper, stickers, etc - anything you have kicking around or that you think of would be useful and would make her life a bit easier!

Also any books or idea/project sheets you may have  using few or found materials that would work with 7th graders would be helpful Most of my art experience was with preschoolers - not sure if those projects will go over well (GRIN)

The downside is that she has a different smaller room without a TV or sink - she'll miss both - the TV for distracting and rewarding her learners and the sink was quite useful for Life Science. She'll have to find another faucet to get water for her garden! Ahh well. As compensation this room has more desks so with luck the learners won't have to share and they won't have the room to run around as much - and she's closer to where the bell rings so she'll hear it ring much better.

 

Thank You's

To Grayce Burian, Ann Bogdan, and Mom and Dad (aw shucks - GRIN-) for cards and letters she received when she got back to Aroab. She does appreciate all your good wishes!

 

As always - have a good week one and all - I'll Blog again this weekend!

 

Susan Rothman