Yesterday was a complete bust for teaching Form 1 but today was slightly improved. I learned from the other teachers that there is a section of the English Orientation course that the science teachers are supposed to cover. I decided to go with the first measurement lesson because I thought it’d require little actual speaking. I grabbed a half dozen “meter” sticks from the staff room so the students could practice measuring height and length. My plan (and the lesson in the book) was to have the students measure one another’s height. However, try as I might to explain, the students didn’t seem to understand what I wanted them to do. Maybe they were just shy but I did my best to force some of them to measure on another. I learned that I really need to look up a lot of words in Kiswahili if I am going to survive teaching Form 1 this year. As I left though, they did pasha and choma for me – the Tanzanian hand-clapping equivalent of 3 cheers. For some reason or other they enjoyed my debacle of a lesson…or I am entertainment just because I am a mzungu (white person).
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