Teaching Adventures: Jailbird Edition

In honor of the first day of the new school year here in TZ, I think it's only appropriate that I update you on some of my "extracurricular" teaching endeavors in the last month, sawa?

Being that my nursery school was closed for two weeks during the Christmas/summer holiday, I needed to find somewhere else to volunteer. Previously, I wrote about my day at Msamaria Street Center for Children, but as of yet, I've neglected to fill you in on my time at Magereza Nursery School & Tuleeni Orphanage. Fellow volunteers Craig & Randi (as well as Eduardo and Theresa) were kind enough to share their/these volunteer placements with me for a short while and it was a complete blast.

Magereza, in Swahili, means "prison" or "jail." Cool name for a nursery school, no? Actually, it has more to do with the location of the school than the school itself. Magereza School is plop in the middle of the jail compound/community in Moshi -- yeah, no, for serious. Preschoolers + Prison + Africa = Whatever. Prime real-estate. On the day I visited, two prisoners in dirty orange jump suits strolled into the school grounds ahead of us and started doing some unidentified yard work. NBD (That's "no big deal," Mom).

To its credit, in my limited African-school experience, Magereza has a pretty great set-up. Three operational swings, one wooden slide, and an odd assortment of jump ropes and soccer balls can be found in the large, grassy yard out front, and the school itself has three classrooms (two more than mine, haha), an office for teachers and supplies, a "sick" room, and a brand-new "porridge" building. Heck yeah! Upon arriving, we spent the first hour of the school day playing outside, which I was all about after weeks of meticulous lesson planning and teaching on the Amka porch. After endless turns of the jump rope and laps around the yard singing "Lou Lou, Skip To My Lou" with little girls on either arm (sweating under the already ridiculously hot morning sun), the learning half of the school day began (after a rousing rendition of the national anthem, sung by the children all lined up outside of their respective classrooms).

I spent most of the morning facilitating and refereeing Teacher Craig's brilliant math games and high-fiving various children as they practiced writing their names with crayons. After an hour or so more of learning (during which I totally geeked over a teachable moment with a handful of kids and a fabulous world map), it was time for porridge (i.e., more playing outside), so I was pretty much exhausted by the time our van pulled up to take us home. Terrific day, all-in-all. Tune in to the next post to learn about epic times at Tuleeni!