Sunday, April 29, 2012

Day 6: In the Village

We've had a busy, stressful, warm, sickie weekend. I'm the only one that is sick right now, but it still makes it hard to get anything done. We did do a couple of fun things, but I need to get through this Indonesia trip, so more on our weekend later!

On our 6th day, we switched up our routine just a bit. The kids had their free time in the morning, and then we went to the village in the afternoon. The Indonesian students were testing all week, so they wanted us to come in the afternoon when they were out of school to teach English classes.



Two of the female group leaders didn't want to teach the classes with the girls, so two of us taught classes for two days with two different groups.


We were teaching 1st-4th grades on this day, so we were introducing basic English words such as body parts, jobs, and clothing.



The boys had fun making up their own dances while the girls did old stand-bys like "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes".


I was in awe at some of the furniture in the classrooms and how few materials they had to work with. When we passed out paper for them to write on, they were stunned. Then a couple of the boys stashed it in their desks and asked for another sheet. This was one of the chairs in a classroom.


They were so excited to learn that when the classrooms filled up, they stood in the windows and doorways. It's incredible when you think about how so many students in the world take free public education for granted.


It was pretty entertaining to watch the girls struggle a bit with how to teach a concept and to see them try to adapt to the level or to the previous knowledge of the kids.


It was nice for them to get a little taste of what life is like for us five days a week!


And it was great to see the smiles on the faces of the kids!


Those who weren't in the classroom were continuing work on the wall in the hot sun and making some good progress!



3 comments:

  1. how interesting it must be to be in a different culture! thank your for your example of helping others....makes the world a better place.
    I am your newest follower..pls follow back if you can.

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  2. Looks a lot like the English teaching we do here in Thailand! Quite different from what I remember back in the States. :)

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  3. Teaching is one of those things I love, myself. There is something about helping kids 'get' something they didn't before.

    I had a friend who was teaching English in a third world country and talked about the challenges, but she loved it, too.

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