Mma Johnson

I admit that I had a case of the first day of school jitters. I woke up extra early on Friday morning so that I would be prepared for my first day of volunteering at the Naledi Education Centre. School starts at 7:50 and once I was at the school, I officially became Mma (pronounced ma) Johnson or Miss Johnson and was going to help Mma Rugwe in Standard 7. The subjects covered in Standard 7 are Setswana, English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, Religious and Moral Education, and yes, oh yes, Agriculture. Yay! There are 17 students in Standard 7, from maybe 14 years old to a few women that are in their mid or late 30’s.

A woman that was sitting close to the teacher’s desk started a conversation with me before class began. Her name was Loreto (meaning Love in English) and she had the kindest smile that calmed my first day jitters! My eye also immediately caught a student’s poster in the back of the room---It about a soil profile! Something familiar! I took those both as good signs!

The classroom was very basic, with just desks, a chalkboard, and a bulletin board. For their lessons, there was one math book, so Mma Rugwe wrote the homework problems on the board for the students to copy and complete in their notebooks. The students were so quiet as they were diligently working! I was not used to a classroom that quiet! There isn’t any Teachers' Editions of many (if any) of the texts, so the teachers make their own grading keys. So I did that for Mma Rugwe and then graded their assignments and soon found one major difference between American and Botswana education! Here a checkmark means the answer is correct and an X next to the answer means the answer is incorrect! Quite different from what I am used to! So, I then had to go back and re-grade the assignments according to the grading procedures here! Just one of those cultural differences that I am learning through trial and error!

Later in the morning, the entire school had an assembly to thank and receive textbooks that were donated to the school. Everyone was so thankful and appreciative for books. The students and teachers sang (literally!) their praises so joyfully for these books. For something that I, as an elementary and secondary school student, took for granted all those years.

School is dismissed at 1pm and I then helped a handful of boys in Standard 5 plant a garden for a school project. I have no experience with the soil or the rainfall or the best planting practices here in Africa, but I suppose this will really test if I have a green thumb or not! It was very good, though, to get my hands in the soil here! It is so different than the soil back at home!

What a good first day of school in Africa!