Teaching English

Teaching English at the embassy is going well—I love it!  It is certainly keeping me busy.  Sometimes I think I’m a little busier than I would want to be, but at the same time, much of my sanity is coming from teaching and the interaction that I’m having with these wonderful people.  One of the frustrations that I experienced for a few weeks, was the lack of teaching space in the embassy.  I don’t have my own room or designated area for lessons, so I was bouncing around from one conference room to the next to find somewhere to teach.  And whenever another section of the embassy needed those rooms, I was “kicked out” and had to find somewhere else to teach...sometimes ending up outside (that is fine, except that 4 hours in the heat and humidity of Luanda is not always fun!).  This sign demonstrates the number of times I was having to change locations from hour to hour.  Briant took a picture of the sign, but it was taken before I added one more change to it. :) 

  Needless to say, I couldn’t help but feel like a homeless bag lady carrying my three bags of teaching supplies with me up and down the different floors of the embassy.  I finally had someone in the leadership of the embassy walk around with me until we found that I could use a small kitchen that is usually unoccupied in the morning.  It’s a little tight, but it has a table and chairs!  That is where I am the majority of the time, until lunch starts and then the classes held during lunch are in a conference room that always seems to be unoccupied during that hour. 

My students are so fun.  I try to incorporate games, videos, music, etc. to liven up the lessons. 

  Last week we were working on forming questions so we played “Headbanz.”  Everyone wears a picture of something on their head that they haven’t seen, and they have to ask yes/no questions to the other players to figure out what they are.  It was a riot.  They love to tease each other as they play and they laugh a lot.  I taught them the English Idiom, “You crack me up!” because they seriously were making me laugh. 

 Savannah had a high fever one day so she missed school and had to come with me to work.  There happens to be a couch in the kitchen where the classes are held, so she was able to rest there.  It was cute when she said after the intermediate class where I taught how to use in, on, and at, "Mom, I didn't even know a lot of those things you taught."  I guess she got to go to school after all.  :)