Today was the first day of my internship at an orphanage. When I met with the staff last week I was instructed to return at 8am today to observe the facility’s on-site school. When I arrived I was told to return at 9 am as the teacher had not yet arrived. This is Africa, thus things do not always happen on-time – no biggie. But when I returned at 9am expecting to find a classroom full of students and a teacher teaching, I saw only 2 students and one adult in the room. The two students, young girls about age 8, were reciting the months on the year in English. The adult, seemingly the teacher, was sitting at the back of the room reading. Since little was present for me to observe, and my presence felt awkward, I asked the teacher if it was alright to take over. Without hesitation, he agreed. I had no prepared a lesson plan but luckily I had brought some word flash cards with me. After about an hour with the 2 girls, 3 more girls came in the classroom. We then played games using verbs. Although none of the day went as originally planned, I tried to make the most of it.
Later in the evening, my classmate & friend Kelsey and I hung out with some friends. We ended up in a music studio with Kelsey serenading us with her lovely voice, and then discussing programs to address street kids in Dar es Salaam. Yes indeed, today was a good day.
