After arriving in Tanzania a few weeks ago, I began teaching with another volunteer, Erin, in the primary and secondary schools in the Pawaga and Idodi regions. It was a little daunting at first – I’ve never taught before and sometimes we’re teaching upwards of 50 kids at one time. Despite my initial worries, it’s been a ton of fun. Most of the kids are really interested in what we have to say. Of course Erin and I have made some flubs along the way – mostly in our Swahili attempts. During our first lecture, we both introduced ourselves saying, “Jina langu nani Rachel” rather than “Jina langu ni Rachel.” The former apparently means “My name is who is Rachel.” Both the kids and our translators, Julius and Felisto, had a good time laughing at us.
The lecture that we’re currently teaching is about competitive interactions in Ruaha National Park. We begin the class by asking the students if they have ever been in the park. Usually, the kids that have been to the park can name more animals than the other students, but every class always names elephants, lions, giraffes, and zebras. From there, we teach the kids the difference between herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and scavengers. We then go over what animals compete over and the different types of competition, eventually leading to the reason why the students might see animals, like elephants, outside of the park – i.e. competition inside the park.
While the lecture is a really important one and a good starting point in our teaching curriculum, Erin and I both understand it can be a little dry…so we decided to end each lesson by showing the kids a video of a lion roaring as a reward. But first, we have the kids make their best animal noises. Erin usually starts the class off with a gibbon impression (sometimes forcing Felisto to make a vervet monkey noise or me to do a feeble pig snort) and then the kids will join in. It’s a good way to get some laughter after an hour of hard work.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my teaching experience. It can definitely be challenging (blank stares are never a good sign), but it’s been very rewarding. Here are some other highlights of my time in Tanzania:
- Every African baby that looks at Erin immediately begins crying
- Julius got the Land Rover stuck while on a park trip with the villagers – all of the villagers had to push the vehicle out while I laughed and took pictures. The villagers then proceeded to laugh at me taking pictures.
- Seeing lions mating on my first safari trip
- Julius and Felisto are expanding their English vocabulary – notable words/phrases include: biscuit, awesome, sneaky, cute, absolutely, and “breaking wind”
-Rachel
