Pulling Teeth and Awkward Silence

So the start of the new year has been great! The new school year has started in Botswana, which means one of my projects is finally underway! I am leading two abstinence clubs at 2 junior secondary schools in my village. I met with Mpho, a young woman who works as the in-school youth coordinator at Nkaikela Youth Group (an NGO in Tlokweng) awhile ago about working together; and now its finally happening! We had one or two meetings before the end of year but I didnt want to get into anything since the students would be going on break. During the holidays I came up with a tentative schedule and topics list.

I'm sure most of you at home are thinking...Abstinence club?? Well, at first I wanted to change the name to PACT (Peer Approach to Counseling by Teens), but I asked the students if they thought the name was ok and if they thought it was deterring other students from joining. But they all said no. I told them we would not only be talking about abstinence; and that we should all have an open mind. So I plan to have a different topic for each session including: study skills, stress management, sexual health, HIV/AIDS, STIs, peer pressure, decision making, nutrition, exercise, values+attitudes, etc.

So far I have had 3 meetings at Matlala JSS on Thursdays; and Mpho made it out for 1 meeting at Tlokweng JSS on Monday. (I missed the first meeting, as I was told I had to attend a workshop. But Mpho told me we had over some 90+ students show up!! Thats crazy!! Im excited to have that many students but also not really sure what to do. I mean 90+ students is a lot; and can be hard to have discussions with them! So im thinking if it continues to be that many students; Mpho and I will have to split them up!) And I actually had a conflicting project come up (more to come..) so our Tloweng JSS club will now be meeting on Friday!

During our first meeting at Matlala JSS, we had introductions; set ground rules; and held open nominations for student led positions (vice chair, secretary, vice secretary and treasurer).

Our 2nd meeting was more nominations and voting (the kids werent quite getting that they could only vote for 1 person...so we had to re-vote several times); expectation cards (they all wrote their expetcations/hopes for themselves and the club and I told them we will look back at them at the end of the year); and a quick team building game with hula hoops.

Our 3rd meeting was this week and we started talking about study skills. I asked the students what kinds of study methods they use now. And boy was it silent! Ha. Finally someone spoke up and mentioned note taking and reading. But that was pretty much it. So we started talking a little about time management--and I introduced them to a hour-by-hour time management sheet. We started to fill it out--but I think I just confused the students. It was a bit difficult since everyone’s schedules were the different and they just copied each other. I prepared a study skills tips and test taking tips handout for the students before the meeting; but unfortunately the calendars took up the entire session, so we’ll go over tips and such next week. I felt pretty good after this meeting since I had one girl come up to me and ask if we could please have meetings every day of the week; and than about 4 other students asked if we could at least meet two times a week. So apparently I'm doing something right?

It was interesting trying to teach this kind of stuff; because it seems like they just don’t have a solid foundation on how to study. It was kind of like pulling teeth when trying to understand how they currently study; but it seems like the ideas of flash cards, outlining, re-teaching, etc. all seem like somewhat foreign concepts. When talking to the students, they all said they only spend about an hour studying/doing homework at home...if that. They have an hour of study time during their school day, that they said they use to study.

On a side note-a Bots8 volunteer sent out an email a bit ago; asking for any Bots9 volunteers who might be interested in taking up her project. Apparently another volunteer, Nicole and I were both interested! I have yet to get all the details...but on Mondays I will be co-teaching a community involvement/service class at a private school in Gaborone. Nicole and I will each have a class of 23 students; and the previous volunteer has come up with a curriculum but she informed us, that we can pretty much do whatever we want. She said she did 2 awareness projects; and 2 fundraisers. I am veryyyyy excited for this project and really hope I can think of some fun community related projects for them!! I’ll be meeting with the volunteer tomorrow to go over more details; and next Monday will be my 1st day at the school teaching!

So again, on a completely different note...something I have been struggling in dealing with here-is the lack of critical or out of the box thinking! I think I’ve mentioned it before-as I was at a workshop once, where everyone looked to me for the answers and when I did say something, they never stemmed away from my idea. On one hand I want to shout out ideas to help; but on the other hand, anything I say is pure gold and ideas from other people don’t flow off what I say. It’s been difficult because things that seem like second nature to me; are completely foreign ideas to another.

In relation to my students for example: At our 1st meeting, we were doing introductions and I told everyone to say their name, what class/grade they were in,and one interesting fact about themselves. Well the first student went and said her name, her class, and her hometown. And than the 2nd person did the same...and the 3rd, 4th, 5th,etc. So after 30 some students...not a single person stemmed away from the hometown “interesting" fact. Just me...I said I went paragliding in South Africa. Than, last week we had voting for positions. I explained that all those that were running needed to say a few words to everyone as to why they would be a good (vice chair, secretary, or treasurer). I think pretty much everyone just said... “I think you should vote for me because I would be a good vice chair, secretary, or treasurer.” I tried to get them to say more-in terms of the duties of those positions. But again...I was pulling teeth.

These students that I am working with are so shy and quiet spoken. I mean literally...I can barely here them when they’re sitting next to me-and everyone’s supposed to hear them. I keep trying to encourage them to shout and to not be afraid to say what they’re thinking! Usually after I ask a question...theres a good 15 seconds (what feels like HOURS) of awkward silence. And its usually only broken because I say something. I know we’re only a few meetings into the school year, but I really hope the students start feeling more comfortable to talk soon.

One of my friends here mentioned on her blog that she tried something out with some of her students. When walking into a class room and she says “How are you?”; all of the students in unison and somewhat like robots say “I’m fine, teacher. How are you?” And I know a lot of us in the US usually just say fine or good in response to that question...but it’s different here. It’s like its the absolutely only answer that can be said to how are you. So she decided to say to them...HOW can you ALL be fine?! Thats just craziness! She than told all the students that they each had to say a different response than I’m fine. She said it was a good 40 minutes of pulling teeth, but at the end of it got several new responses. Her list included: “Im fine. How are you?”; “Im not fine because I have a headache.” “I am shy.”; “I’m singing.”; and “I’m dancing.” (The last two were obviously started by her.

So I think next week, this might be an exercise I do...and than just mayyybee...I’ll start to get more responses. If you have any suggestions as to how to get students talking/thinking about of the box--I am all ears! I am not all about the awkward silence that occurs after I ask a question.