After the first 3 months at site, the education volunteers that all came in October went back to our original training villages for 5 days of training. We participated in training sessions including language, challenges at site, mental health and classroom management. Going into the training, I was so excited to see everyone again that I didn’t realize how long and tedious it would be, but I think it was nice for every volunteer to reassess his/her role as a volunteer in Lesotho.
Language classes lasted about 2 hours each day. Because I am located pretty close to the camptowns and am surrounded by Basotho who have a heavy western influence, most of the people I talk to want to speak English. (I probably do not even have to speak Sesotho, I do more for the convenience.) But since I have had little practice, I am in the slow learners class. It was interesting to see who had excelled in Sesotho and who really has to speak Sesotho on a regular basis. I still want to practice Sesotho more and get better, but when talking to all of the other volunteers, I have found that the volunteers have made stronger relationships with people who speak English really well. Not just because they don’t like to speak Sesotho, but because the people who learn English and practice English tend to be the more educated people who are leaders in the community and who want to help change Lesotho. And I’m grateful to have those types of people in my community.
We also spent a lot of time discussing the challenges that we were facing and sharing tips on how to deal with those challenges (mostly teaching). I wrote last week in my blog about the low test scores – while sadly, it happens to a lot of other volunteers, it is nice to discuss those challenges with people who are going through the same thing. Classroom management was also a reoccurring topic – related to test scores, students don’t know how to study, they don’t know how to behave in class without being beaten, and they are trained to just follow orders. This leads to a lack of critical thinking; I can ask a student a question like “what is a triangle?’ and get the response “Yes, Madam”. It was nice to vent to each other by finding the humor in it all and exchange ways that we cope and try to fix the problems.
At the end of the training, we drove for 2 hours on a windy road up into the mountains to somewhere called the “Trading Post”. (I’m not sure if this is the only one.) The Trading post was a beautiful spot, basically in the middle of nowhere, with nice suites and a backpackers lodge. We had lunch and got time to relax. We celebrated the birthdays that have passed in the last 3 months with cake. And enjoyed the time with all 26 of us – no one has ET’ed (Early terminated/gone home) yet!
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| Me and Federico at the trading post |
At the end of training I was completely exhausted, but I’m glad that we had the time to discuss everything that we did and to see everyone that we started this journey with. Now I am more than ready for my vacation in Durban!
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The group of PCV’s that stayed in the same training village with me
at our end of training celebration. |
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Great to see your village group. Happy Easter to you all!
I can't imagine how frustrating all of this can be at times – but I am sure that it is really rewarding which outweighs the frustrations. You look amazing! Are you wearing your contacts now? I don't see glasses in these photos! 🙂
I only wore contact for vacation because I had running water! I try to conserve water when I am at site and it's more work to keep everything sanitary so I still wear glasses for the most part.