Guest Post 1: Volunteering at the Medi English School in Mtwara

Preliminary Information from Klaus:

Today I am allowed to upload the first of two guest posts. Nina has been with us in the house for a short time now and is helping out at the Medi English School. She was so kind to share her first impressions with us.

Guest Post by Nina:

I have been in Tanzania for just over two weeks now. Five more weeks are still ahead of me.

My first impressions of Tanzania were both positive and a little shocking. Understandable considering that I had never been to a developing country before. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness and calmness of the people in Tanzania, which made it easy for me to settle in after just a few days.

My 'project' is at the Medi English School in Mtwara, where I teach in the Babyclass Arts and support the teachers as much as I can. There are about 26 children in my class, aged 3 and 4. The children are mostly very happy and active, have a lot of energy, but no upbringing or behavior, which can make the days quite exhausting. However, behavior is not given much importance here, as long as the children obey after being warned 5 times. If that is not the case, a stick is sometimes used and the children get a slap. As far as I know, there are much harsher measures to discipline the children, but luckily not in my class.

In the Babyclass, the subjects of Mathematics, Science, Kiswahili, English, and Arts are taught (see timetable in the image gallery). It becomes clear that education is underestimated here, as there are no divisions into performance groups, which means that some are completely overwhelmed while others are underwhelmed. The 'teaching methods' that the teachers use to impart knowledge to the children are questionable. When a new letter of the alphabet is learned, it is repeated loudly by the class about 40 times. However, as soon as the children are supposed to repeat their newly learned knowledge individually, they fail at the simplest things.

To quiet the children down, the teachers command them to sleep or a movie is shown. It is even more difficult for me to create peace, as the children hardly understand any English. Despite the language barriers with the children, I have already grown fond of them and am curious about what awaits me in the coming weeks.