Bright and early Friday morning. It is COLD out – but with some hot breakfast and two cups of hot rooibos tea (plus one for the road) I am ready to take off. We are leaving earlier today so that I can make it to work to start a little earlier. We (Jen, Marena, Sarah and I) all trekked into town in just under an hour. It was a nice walk and we took the river path so it was a little more rustic!
Jen’s flight was leaving at 10AM, so I said my goodbyes and wished her lunch as she headed onto Chennai to help build a school playground for orphans. While we didn’t really get to travel much together, it was still great to see her. It was work all morning for me though!
We had received a draft of the curriculum activity booklet that we were going to be distributing to all of the kids! There was a lot of work to be done in my opinion. Basics like using football instead of soccer were easy. The more challenging part was commenting on the language and vocabulary. It was my job, as the person working with the kids in the classroom to gauge their knowledge and level of ability. I basically resorted to using examples from the classroom and to try and explain to them how I have made the curriculum work. The students care less about the words and more about the meaning and intention behind them (which is pretty mature), but a hard concept to grasp for some North American’s who work in curriculum and teaching. The other challenge was talking to them about the language barrier of English and Setswana and how to teach someone in a language they don’t fully understand or grasp. After submitting a long list of comments, I am looking forward to reviewing another draft on Monday!
It was a busy morning and I just managed to shove a rushed lunch with Marena and Sarah before I headed off to my afternoon presentations. This would be the last time that I would see Marena before the fall back in Guelph. She was the one person one the entire trip that I knew the best and had known for the longest. It was going to be weird saying goodbye to her. We always had such interesting discussions and she was one of the few people that really made me rethink some of my positions and thoughts on life.
We had lunch at this little hide-away of a place called RAW… which luckily served food that was cooked, but really just healthier and organic in nature. We had delicious smoothies and some toasted wraps and sandwiches. It is definitely one of my favourite places to eat in Maun now! So if any of you want to come visit me here, this is surely where I will take you, haha! After saying a quick farewell and taking one final picture that was one more person departed.
My afternoons have become pretty standard. We had five schools done and three to do today. It was an early start and going to be a late finish! However, the three schools were all great (actually they got progressively better) which made it all a lot smoother and easier. By the end of the day I could give the entire presentation without any of my speaking aids or notes. Know I feel as I could stand up and do this presentation to anyone on a moments notice. Now I think the challenge is going to be maintaining my excitement and enthusiasm for the last ten schools!
Sarah and I were the only two left staying at my place on Friday. We met up in the city and walked home together. I stopped at the bank…I have only spent two hundred dollars over the past two weeks!... the cost of living here is much more affordable! Though interestingly car gas (or petrol here) costs the same as back home?!...On our way home we also got sucked into the grocery store after smelling some fresh bread…I managed to down half of the loaf on the walk home…which was oh so satisfying! Then we spent the rest of the night chilling in North American style. We ordered in pizza and watched some movies – Uptown Girls and the Titanic – it was a really comfortable and home-y night!
I also realized that it is Friday the 13th back home in Port Dover. So shout out to all of you and hope the day (and weekend) is fantastic!
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