Well, training is winding down way sooner than I thought. I’m through my first week of Model School with one more to go. Model school is where we bribe children to come in during their summer break and let us teach them classes with the promise of free cookies and a certificate at the end of everything. As far as teaching training went, as of week 5 I had taught one section of a 10 minute lesson with three other people involved. Now all of a sudden I’m supposed to teach a 45 minute lesson solo?!...right. We practiced in front of our fellow PCTs first and I crashed and burned. The hard concept here is that they do not take active notes nor do they get any sort of text book so what ever I write on the board is what they are going to be learning and studying from. My lesson plan was a mess and I got about 10 minutes into it and had no idea so I just quit and re-grouped. Luckily I think I was able to re-group quickly and the next day I presented a clear and concise, well-organized lesson on the muscle system and exercise. Big relief.
I did our very first class of rules and an intro to biology on Monday to 4 students which happened to be a fellow PCTs host sisters so it went great (they were already accustomed to crazy Portuguese). Then on Wednesday I did my muscle lesson with no major problems. I now feel like I can actually do this job. Although thinking about it, going from 4 students to 60 is going to suck. I’ll worry about that in February J
Thursday we find out where our site placement will be. This is going to be where I’m living for the next 2 years (by the time I post this I will know where I’m going) and it’s a big deal. I could be living in a teeny tiny village with no electricity and no other volunteers in a 6 hour radius, or I could be living in a pretty good sized city with electricity and running water and a fellow PCV for a roommate. It all depends. My specific requests were: 1) safety whether that be living very close to other houses or with a roommate; 2) I would like to live on a school campus to be more accessible to students; 3) I would not like to visit Maputo very much because it’s so big and crazy; 4) If I am opening a new site (aka There has never been a foreigner in that town before) I would need a site-mate or someone very close for sanity purposes. I guess I’ll see what I end up with.
This weekend I’ll be heading to a beach right by Xai-Xai for “mental health break”. It will be our last time to hang out as a group before swearing in and going to our sites. Once we go we could easily not see each other again for the next 2 years. Crazy to think that this little comfort zone I’ve created here is about to change once again. After mental health break we have one more week of model school and the next week is a whole bunch of administrative stuff, swear-in and then we fly away to our regional capitals. That means I have less than two weeks left here with my host family…which may break my heart. It’s so great. On the other hand I’m excited to be in control of what I’m eating when, and especially how much I’m eating. It’s about to be a whole new adventure, so wish me luck!!
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