A few months ago I wrote a blog (Post-workshop thoughts) about our recent Basic Literacy workshop talking about how this was just the start of the process (well, really there have been several stages before this but for our teachers it WAS the start!) of Basic Literacy work in Vwanji and Malila language areas. Unbelievably, two and a half months has passed since this time! For us this was in a whirlwind of branch conference, visitors, holidays, then office work and workshop teaching in between! For the teachers they had a holiday then have been back in their preschools teaching for almost two months. Therefore, it really was high time that we visited them to see how they were getting on!
As usual we had several items on our agenda for the trip to Uvwanji. We wanted to conduct a meeting at each preschool to inform the parents, pastors, church elders and village committee people about our work and why we think learning to read and write in your mother tongue is important. Also we wanted to catch up with the teachers to encourage them, find out how they are getting on, any problems they are having and to inform them when we will meet again. We also brought the teachers additional resources of small blackboards, consonant books, flashcards and flashcard holders that we hadn’t had ready at the workshop. All this for two preschools per morning! White people always want to accomplish so much (but we achieved it amazingly – although ‘morning’ did stretch to 3pm)!
It was really lovely to arrive at a Vwanji village in the middle of nowhere and to be greeted by many smiling little people in uniforms, many of them singing and waving branches. It was also a real blessing to see our teachers again who are so enthusiastic yet some of the most humble people I have ever met. The meetings came first. In each village we nervously waited in a church, unsure what reception we would have, as it filled with teachers, children, parents, pastors and other important people. We were greatly surprised at the number of parents that arrived. At one place people even came directly from a funeral that had just finished in the village when we arrived! The white visitors certainly attracted a crowd! People listened patiently to what we had to say and seemed to be open to our work, interested and encouraged to value their mother tongue more. Afterwards, they had words of thanks for us or useful questions such as when adults will be able to learn to read and write too. It was a great time for partnership and publicity (especially considering the dedication of the book of Mark in Kivwanji is coming up in October).
After this we were able to see the classrooms. In two of the locations they are building new classrooms for the children and in the other two locations they have great classrooms already. One had nice desks for the children and shelves for resources and the walls of the other were covered with pictures of animals and the letters of the alphabet. This shows a commitment in the churches (these preschools are all run by the Lutheran church in this area) to children getting a good start in life and in their education and it was very encouraging.
We were then able to provide the teachers with extra resources. At the workshop we had only enough for one teacher as it takes time to produce them so the other teachers had started teaching without any resources. They were very grateful to receive them and put them safely away. We just hope that they will use these things to attract the children’s attention and to help them learn effectively.
In talking to the teachers we found that they are getting on well with teaching, are using the teacher’s guide we produced and the children are learning well. The teachers are making swift progress which shows that they are motivated! Some of the children have already started learning the consonants so it really was beneficial that we were able to print and bring the students’ books with us. I just hope that they are giving time for sufficient exercises and review so that the children learn in depth. We were not able to observe the teachers teaching (we will hopefully return in a few months to see this) so it is difficult to gauge how they are really doing but all things sound encouraging. We have another trip next week to see how the teachers are doing in Umalila and hopefully the news will be as encouraging there.
We headed home laden with presents of baskets and a large sack of mahindi (maize) from the teachers. It should be us who is thanking them for what they are doing to help us in our work and to serve the children of their communities. As happens many times here, we are blessed so much more than we are able to bless others!
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