Pilot Project

I had this great idea today to take the exercise books that all of the kids use for school in Tanzania and have each class fill the blank pages with letters and drawings from each of the students. I could then bring back 16 small books back with the work of all the students in Tanga and give them to their corresponding classes at Key School.

The 7th graders have been particularly rowdy this week since there is usually no teacher around to teach them in the afternoon. I have not yet heard of such a thing as a substitute, nor do the kids go home if the teacher is absent or doesn’t come to class. If I have the time I go to their class to play Sudoku puzzles or do some other activity with them before going back to teach my other English classes.

All three sections of the 7th grade class didn’t have teachers again today, which must add up to something over 120 students. I thought they might make good guinea pigs for my new project idea since they are the oldest students with presumably the best English. I explained the project in Kiswinglish and they said that they were on board with the idea. First they would write a letter, then I would correct it, then I would go buy an exercise book for them to fill with their work tomorrow or after Easter break.

The result was somewhat of a mini disaster. The kids must have examples of letters in their books because I got several of the same letters from different students that made absolutely no sense. My favorite looked roughly like this:

Dear Chelsea,
My teacher told me about you and I am very excited to have you as my pen friend. She also told us that you are the first woman pilot. That is very interesting! What is it like to be the first person to accomplish something like that? I look forward to hearing more about you and what you do. Please write back soon.
Your Friend,
xxx