Cultural challenges! A teacher and a learner

If you ever want to learn about yourself; what inspires you, what you believe, what pushes your buttons, what your culture has ingrained in you, what matters most to you and how privileged and blessed you truly are, then immerse yourself in a culture that is completely different to your own.

School started back two weeks ago. My role while I am here is to work a long side the class teacher and her assistant in a mentoring role. So far this has involved observing lessons and offering suggestions, modelling lessons, planning with her, testing children for reading and arranging them in to reading groups, showing and planning reading activities, taking reading and writing groups, helping her to take differentiated lessons (catering to those who struggle and those who don’t). Encouraging her to plan ahead and prepare for her lessons in advance and to transition from lesson to lesson. At first so much time was wasted because things were not prepared in advance.

 I was worried that I wouldn’t know enough or have enough experience for this role, but as soon as I stepped foot in the classroom all my learning from teacher’s college, and practicums came flooding back. To the point that at first I was probably overwhelming the teacher with suggestions of things that could be done differently. Things that to me seemed like second nature because not only was I taught them at teacher’s college but also experienced them in my own schooling.

I have been extremely challenged this week and at times overwhelmed because I want to see things happen quickly. When I test child after child who can’t read at all, or when they do read can’t tell me about the story, it’s discouraging. It’s because I keep making comparisons to a New Zealand context and that’s not fair on anyone. There are so many factors that contribute to these issues. For starters English is their second language and they ae still very young. It’s likely the only place some of them hear English is at school. They don’t have iPad’s and TV’s to teach them English and then at this age they are only at school from 8-12.30. The children also have limited experiences they can’t afford to take holidays or go on day trips or on safari. But what they do know about they are experts in. Some of the kids in my class would be expert farmers and would look after their family cattle. If I asked them questions about this, in their own language, I am sure I’d learn a lot! Another factor is the majority of parents believe that it is the schools sole responsibility to teach their kids, so they don’t help them with their homework or read to them. There is also limited resources. Joshua school is more resourced than most other schools here but still compared to NZ there is a lot less and we can’t just print off all our lessons and planning.

I soon realised that the things I have learnt are partly experience but also cultural. The teachers here grew up in an education system that is completely rote learning and lecture styled, in classes of up to 100 children. This has produced a culture that can follow instructions but lacks initiative and the ability to problem solve and think outside the box. Fortunately, the Joshua school is here to change that. They teach their teachers to think, to problem solve, and to engage their students in learning. To use different methods of teaching and be creative. They challenge the cultural norms and keep the class sizes to a maximum of 30. So there are some great things happening here. Joshua school has now become a model school to other schools with teachers coming in to learn from the teachers here. They are empowering and raising up locals to lead, to train and to empower others. That is why I am here as a mentor and not to take the class because the goal is for the locals to capture the vision and run with it. They have a vision of seeing schools like this in every district of Tanzania. Lynda and Wendy are going out to lots of schools to mentor teachers. I will be able to go out with them some of the time to. However change takes times so there are still a lot of teething problems and cultural challenges. It’s not always easy at times and can be very frustrating but I am learning so much.

It’s easy to think that we know best and that our ways are the right ways but I think it’s important to celebrate the richness and diversity of different cultures. My culture is not all knowing and all sufficient. While I am here I am a teacher but I am probably even more so a learner. Some days I am exhausted from all I am learning, or reflecting on or being challenged about! Something I really appreciate and admire about this culture is their ability to take time to connect with each other. I had a whole Swahili lesson on just greetings because they have so many greetings here. They take the time to greet everyone they meet. On the buses you would think everyone already knows each other because they all chat away to each other. They also are unrushed. I realise how much I am driven by time and results. Here it’s (pole pole) slowly slowly. They get there when they get there and life’s not so busy and rushed.

I’m learning patience and to celebrate the small things. I felt God say to me the other day, when I was feeling like it’s all too much, to not ignore the small picture and the little victories because over time they become the big picture and big victories. I realise in the west we always want things to happen instantly and when it doesn’t we are tempted to quit. Change takes time and perseverance develops character and character produces hope. So despite some challenges I will persevere and celebrate the small victorious of which there have been many!

 

Village visits

I didn't doubt God's existence before I came here, but in a place like this Gods existence is so evident! I feel like in New Zealand life can be so comfortable and easy at times that I forget how powerful and amazing God truly is. Here people are getting healed in front of my eyes… you cannot deny that God has healed someone, when prior to being healed they don’t even believe in God or better yet believe in a different God and then start professing that the pains gone or they are able to do things that they weren’t able to do before. Or people who are influenced by evil spirits are set free in front of your eyes and their whole countenance changes. Or in a place where there is a lot of darkness you see the love and light of God in people’s eyes. 

Pastor Francis and his family with Jan and Rod

We went and visited a local Magugu pastor (Pastor Francis) and his family that Rod, Jan and the prayer team know. Pastor Francis was taking a service at a neighbour’s house. When we arrived we were greeted so warmly and there was so much love and light in their eyes. I felt like I had known them forever even though I only just met them. As Pastor Francis preached he spoke about how several years ago he had a dream that three mazungu (white) missionaries came to visit him. He told his church at the time and the leaders laughed at him. He later had another dream that 7 missionaries came to visit him, again when he shared this dream he was laughed at. On one of Jan and Rods visits to the village they came across pastor Francis daughter Rachel (such a great name!) and ended up going to their house this is when they first met Pastor Francis and his family. Then on their next trip to Magugu they were with Becky and Adam (Emmas friends) and Mel and Dave (7 in total). Both his dreams were fulfilled which again shows how God works things out and brings people together to fulfil his purpose. Now Jan and Rod and the team can connect the people they pray for up with Pastor Francis to be taught and cared for. They were such a beautiful family that I wanted to bless them with some money. At this point they expressed their fears of having us visit. While they were extremely happy to see us they also worried because people in the village assume we will bring them money or gifts and then they try to get them to give them money or worse try to steal from them. I don’t think their house had a door so it wouldn’t be difficult for people to rob them. It shows how poor this village is and how desperate they get. We prayed for Gods protection over them.

The children who followed us in the village

On our way to pastor Francis we collected a lot of children who walked with us the whole way. Every two seconds I would feel a child jump up and touch my hair, as they got braver they then held my hand they followed us all the way to the church service. I feel most content surrounded by children and I loved that all the village children were filling Pastor Francis neighbour living room and hearing teaching about Jesus. The people who owned the house were not quite as thrilled to have them there and told the children to leave a few times. It really bothered me because I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t want to invite children in especially to a church service.  Respect is a big thing in this culture and Rod pointed out to me that the father of the house didn’t want the children there so maybe he was feeling disrespected or felt that they were disrupting. The children were not put off by being sent away they just waited outside for us to come out and again bid for our attention. They continued to follow us almost all the way out of their village. As we walked along more and more children seemed to come out of houses until there was a flash mob of children around me all trying to stroke my hair, my arms, hold my hands one even licked my hand! It was pretty full on but very amusing.  I personally didn’t mind their attention. I figured if we were the first white people they met then I wanted them to feel loved, and special rather than to think we were scary, mean or standoffish.  If that meant getting covered in the dirt that they had all over their clothes and hands and having their not so clean hands through my clean hair so be it. After a while we had to ignore them so they would go back to their own homes and stop following us. By this stage they had learnt my name so as we walked off all I could hear was “Byeeee Rachel”

Earlier in the day we had visited a different part of the village where the team had already made some connections and lots of people came forward for prayer some gave their hearts to God, some were healed others were encouraged. It’s amazing how open people are. Once again we were also surrounded by children. This particular group of children were much calmer. They obviously had seen white people before. A young girl Rachel and I connected over the fact that we had the same name and she came and sat on my knee. She chatted to me in broken English and I chatted to her in broken Swahili. I took a photo of her and soon all the children there were crowding around wanting to have their photos taken.

I had gone to Magugu a day earlier than the prayer team with Wendy and Lynda. They had a different purpose for being there, they were there too mentor and prepare the teachers in the school in Magugu for the coming school year. On Monday they taught about the participatory method (involving students as opposed to just lecturing at them) As I listened to Lynda teach, I soon realised that although this approach is something I was taught and experienced through my own schooling and teacher training, for the teachers in Magugu it was a foreign concept. They had not been taught to question or to think outside the box. Lynda’s questions that seemed so obvious to me challenged the teachers a lot. It made me realise how much I have taken for granted the quality education I have received and I feel inspired to teach and to use what I have been taught, because if I don’t use what I have then it loses its value. I want to use my training to empower people. Lynda talked about how research shows if we are lectured to we only remember about 5% of what we are taught but if we have opportunities to teach others we remember 90%. I found this really fascinating. Sometimes it takes seeing the opposite of your own experience to really appreciate what you have. A week of eating Rice, beans, and soggy chips, and egg omelette makes you appreciate fresh fruit and veges. I had a chicken wrap last night and I swear a chicken wraps never tasted so good! And Squat toilets make you appreciate normal toilets!

Joshua school here in Arusha, starts back  Monday. That is where I will be spending the majority of my days, with some visits to other schools and to Magugu again as well… I am looking forward to it.

My schedule is going to be a lot busier now so these blog post will probably slow down a bit too.