Botswana, Southern Africa, September 24, 2011: First Week on the Job

I have a few friends asking me how my 1st week went. I battled back and forth whether I should bother to write about it in a note, but then I thought, I will only have one 1st week in my life here in Botswana. Thus, I might as well keep a record of it.

My first week felt like too good to be true. I only taught only one class a day.

The same is the case with our 1st 3 weeks here in the African continent. We arrived a week after the school closed for the holidays. We were given a wonderful place to live with a nice garden, food and other amenities. Surely, we all loved having a bath tub! And have I mentioned that the school paid us for taking a holiday here for 3 weeks? Yes they did! They, on top of that, gave us settling in money.

The very warm welcome we had at the airport, continued for weeks. Our Filipino community here is strong! Oh were we busy socializing! The days were also very busy with shopping, getting settled and also we took a few days to do some sight seeing within the capital.

So, let me describe my new school. I love it! It reminded me of my school in India; it looked classic. We had stone buildings in India while we have brick buildings here. And the flowering trees are everywhere! The classrooms and library here have heaters (and airconditioning), just like my school in Norway.

The class given to me is interesting. I have about half Afrikaans speaking students. They are the South Africans of European descent ( I will try avoiding using colors to describe groups of people, since I don’t want anyone referring to me as “brown” or “colored”, and no one has yet so far – thank heavens!). The others are from the neighboring countries such as Zambia and Zimbabwe, and one has lived in a few countries in the region, including Namibia. I have a couple from here.  Most of them, are half European and half African. Here they are referred to as the “coloreds”, I am not too sure why, but they seem comfortable using that word themselves. I don’t know, but I’d rather not, for the same reason I just mentioned. I try my best, I may not always succeed. This is why I feel that international schools are perfect for my daughter, as she too, is half Indian, half Filipino. Hopefully, she won’t feel too different.

On the first day, I asked my students to write down their teacher expectations – and one of them wrote: “I don’t want a racist teacher”. My response to that was, if ever I may use words or actions that is suggestive of any nature that implies racism, please let me know, so I can correct myself. I told them, that I don’t think that I am a racist, HOWEVER, I believe that every human being has prejudice to varying extents. Our task is to be conscious and aware of it as much as possible, so that we can evolve from that. They smiled and nodded.

The school is comprised  of 37 nationalities where every continent is represented, but Antarctica perhaps. Many come from the region, yet we have Europeans, Asians, Middle Eastern, North and South Americans  etc. Our principal is Canadian. My coordinator is British. And yes, the entire leadership team is led by women.

Since I was not given any work other than to teach one class a day, I took the liberty to ask teachers personally if I could visit and join their classes. I had the most amazing and inspired time being in those classrooms. The students were engaged, the teachers were brilliant and sharp in their facilitation of questions and most of them had strong classroom management skills.

Like any other school, we have break duties and after school duties. Twice, I was on a break duty for the secondary school. I enjoyed my quiet time under the shade, as most of the students quietly chatted and ate their snacks peacefully under the shades of the trees and African  cottages. I saw that it is more challenging to watch over primary school as they tend to move and run a lot.

I also spent my week settling in by familiarizing myself with the various buildings, classrooms, offices, computer labs, finding the toilets, ordering materials, filliing in forms, knowing the systems etc. Not to mention, trying to remember the names of my colleagues of 40 or more.

I am blessed to have my own office of 3 long tables, two steel cabinets and an internet cable. I am yet to figure out what to do with them, but I heard that I may be having students to visit. In the near future, which could be next week, I might start the job that I came here to do, meet and mentor teachers on best teaching practices. I am excited yet I know that it will be very challenging. Working with adults require more sensitivity than working with children. Adults have more scars than children that one must be careful with. I feel that we, adults, need more affirmations, encouragement and validations. It is like treading on thin ice. The great thing is, children are the same anywhere in the world – they are angels! They are sweet, appreciative and can smell the authenticity of a teacher’s love miles away. I always love working with challenging kids, as they remind me of myself. It makes it easier for me to love them all the more!  Yes, I will be working with them in the next few weeks and I am so looking forward to it.

Anyway, I started this week by visiting classrooms without “mentoring” but just affirming the teachers’ strengths and getting to know them and establishing rapport. It is going to be one wonderful ride, and I’m sure this is not going to be any different from my journeys in India and Norway – I will, yet, have another STEEP LEARNING CURVE.

BUT, I can flop in my warm bubble bath at night, circle in my backyard garden and have tea with Rahul at sunset under the banana tree. Above all, its this magical experience that I have every morning on my way to school that sustains me throughout the day.. its seeing the low set large gentle white moon to my left and the grand pink orange sun to my right, amidst the quiet pink morning sky. And of course….  I’m in Africa!

So, Hakuna Matata!