Alyssa Tender Rabat, Week 7

Since the start of Ramadan the amount of work at the aids clinic has decreased significantly. People have, for the most part stopped coming into the office, and we have stopped going out onto the field. We were warned ahead of time that this could happen, so on Wednesday I and another volunteer switched to teaching English.  We are teaching at a community center, and since there is not much for children to do during the day during Ramadan the center is packed. The age and skill level of the children is varied there is a 3 year old still learning his first language and there are 14 year olds who can write a multipage story. The variety of skill makes creating a lesson plan challenging. But so far the kids seem to like what we have them do, the keep saying how much they like our class. 

It can be challenging at times since some kids don’t even have a paper and pencil, but it is also really rewarding. It feels really great when the children understand something they did not before. This week’s major accomplishment was getting them to say “I am 14 years old” instead of I have 14. Another challenge is that the children don’t have to be there so we get different kids every day, and some of the kids are just there to talk. But the fact that they are not required to be there is also nice because most of the kids who show up really want to learn English. I am sad that I only have one week left because I don’t know who will be there to teach them after I leave and I have seen them make so much progress in just the few days that I have been here so far