We arrived at SEKUCO (Teacher Training University) just in time for their morning devotion and a very interesting and eye opening presentation about the college and its growth since it first opened in 2007. They began with a meer 128 students and are now up to over 2,000 in their 5 year! It was quite impressive to see and hear about their growth.... more to come on their "growth"
At 9:30 we began teaching our group of alumni and staff about TouchMath. They were very interested in our hands on math approach and many shared that they could see themselves using this with their primary and secondary students.
We broke for tea throughout our session and then had lunch and a break around 1. Back to teaching we went, this time about "books in a bag". Beginning with a brief summary, we then broke into 5 groups to work with the students on the different books in a bag activity. The students enjoyed our story "Chura na Jongoo", which was translated by our favorite driver, Efream! They loved the drawings made by our videographer Rusty and also enjoyed sharing more "tales" that they heard growing up. We collected their stories and are planning to make more stories for the "books in a bag project" we hope to get up and running in the coming visits :)
Following the afternoon session, we again had a tea break and got to visit with some of the students about their personal experiences. Marilyn and Valerie chose to meet with Mama Munga (the provost of the University) while the rest of us were ropped into going on a tour of the "new" addition (lecture hall) to the college.... this would be where the further converstation of growth comes in.... Little did we know that we would be walking through a MAJOR construction zone... WITHOUT hard hats! Needless to say we were scared to be walking through would looked like a disaster zone! There is NO WAY, OSHA, in America would have let us in to tour the building. We tried several times to make an escape without prevail! We had had enough fun we when we reached the 4th floor so told the manager our drivers were here and it was time for us to go. They showed us out through a small concrete opening. We had to crawl under a tunnel of wood pillars and climb down a rickety ramp construction of basic plywood. I was shaking, while holding on to AJ's arm, making our way to safe ground!
After a looooong day of teaching and touring we decided on a local hotel/bar for dinner. Bia Baridi (cold beer) was most necessary at this time! We all made our orders of adult beverages and waited the long while it typically takes at restaurants here. After all, we are running on "Africa time". It didn't seem like long, but we managed to make it through 3 rounds of beverages when dinner arrived. Making quite the hoopla, the manager asked our driver Efream to step outside with him. Upon his return Efream shared with us that the manager has asked us to either quiet down or move to the bar where it is a little less formal.... OOPS!!!! We were soooo embarassed so finished our drinks and headed out chuckeling! Tired and full we headed to bed... not long after we layed down, however, AJ =frantically began looking for her Ipod, which was no where to be found. I called Efream and we made our way back to the hotel/restaurant to locate her device. No luck! We then drove back to our hostel and searched the room.... SURPRISE! It was right where it should have been in her bag, where she ALWAYS keeps it :) Shut eye could be had by all now.
We are currently at the University on tea break and waiting for our lunch to be served. This morning we taught the students about the 5 pillars of Literacy. It was interesting to hear the discussions that it sparked from our students. It seems there is quite a difference in identifying sounds in the Swahili language compared to the English language. The students had fun making our story from the previous days into comics and also learning about several ways to teach their students about letter and sound recognition.
After lunch I will give my presentation on behavior management and discuss with the students the best way to approach changing or altering problem behaviors! On tap for tonight is to eat at our hostel (where they don't serve alcohol) so hopefully we will not get kicked out! Then catch some zzzz's because we have an early morning for our last day of teaching tomorrow. We are having a great time and the weather is beautiful. Currently the sun in shining the skies are clear and the temperature is about 65' in the scenic Usumbara Mountains!
Until next time! We miss you all and have been glad we are able to stay in touch with internet and cell service!
KWHERI (Goodbye)!!!
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