“I’m hungry!” the students chant in Sesotho immediately after I dismiss class. Whether or not their stomachs are actually growling, they always use it because they know it’s one of the few phrases that I can understand up to this point. Even though my Sesotho learning curve is quite slow (I still have not gotten used to the spelling), my students have taught me quite a bit about Basotho culture as I assimilate more into my surroundings.
This past weekend I partook in two unique experiences to Thaba Bosiu. On Saturday, several students accompanied Beth, Beverly, and I up the Thaba Bosiu Mountain. I was shocked to find that there were no steps on the side of the mountain! Every mountain I’ve climbed (which were all in China) has steps that lead to the top, but I guess those do not count as real mountain climbs. Nevertheless, the trek was tiring but enjoyable as our students entertained us with song and story all the way up. At the top, they gave us a very comprehensive tour of the mountain and how it played an important role in Lesotho’s history. Our students were really generous to spend their weekend with us, and I enjoyed the time we had together.
On Sunday, all four of us attended a local church service nearby. Even though we have been here for over two weeks, we still followed “American time” standards and arrived on time to find that no one was there yet. Not surprisingly, the service started about an hour later, but it ended up being a very special and unique experience. I could see from the service that despite having many struggles in their daily lives, many people here still had much hope through their faith and the close community and family around them.
This week in Camp Challenge we finished up the problem solving model with the last three steps that involve proposing and implementing a solution. I noticed that our students struggle the most with implementing a solution. They were very skilled at coming up with solutions, but they could not devise ways in which they could carry out that solution. This might explain why some have the mentality that they cannot solve their problems. Hopefully, in the coming week, I can work on this area with them to ensure that they learn how to think creatively when planning out a solution.
I did witness some small changes in the way that they think. When we were teaching about the final step of taking action, the students made short five minute skits to demonstrate. I was quite surprised (in a good way) by the complexity and thought that they put into their performances, and many of them really took on their roles. One student was acting as the teacher who never explains anything and assumes his students understand the concepts, and I almost became confused as to whether or not he was acting or just being himself! His character came to life, and I was pleased with his great effort. Instances like this show how some of the students have started to warm up to us, and it is rewarding to see our teaching produce positive results.
One of the challenges in teaching our students is that because of the large class size I find it difficult to make sure all of them understand the material. They are all at different levels of thinking and comprehension which creates obstacles when we try to arrange lesson plans according to the students’ needs. Luckily, yesterday we offered our students a review session for their problem-solving model test on Friday, and several students came. Although they did not have questions about the test material, they did ask us about different subjects they are learning in school, especially math and physics. They really benefited from the more personal attention that they received and were able to get many of their questions answered. We decided that this could potentially be a very valuable use of our and their time, so we announced to our students that we would offer tutoring after school each day for any subject (except Sesotho, accounting , and agriculture) if they would like. This will give the students a chance to review material and also become more familiar with harder concepts.
Starting next week, we will begin applying the problem-solving model to real world applications, such as math and science, career decisions, and interpersonal relationships. I am extremely excited because it will push our students to think more creatively and hopefully fuel some intriguing discussions!