Niani reflects on Malambu

Today was the first day we spent teaching students at the Malambu School in the rural area of Monze.  it started off rough with the first graders and it didn’t go as smoothly as I thought. The language barrier was a huge problem because they couldn’ t really understand what we were trying to say. And it was strange because some understood better than others. It got better as the hour went on because our teacher Ms. Audrey helped us understand what the kids were trying to say.

Because the childern didn’t really understand English that well, the english activity we had planned was really hard to do. Although the activity didn’t work, we came up with some great new activity that the kids really enjoyed. In the math portion of the class, they were superstars. They knew how to count all the way up to 40 and I was very impressed. Also they knew how to do addition really well. These first graders are so smart and I loved working with them.

Later on in the day I was lucky enough to work  with the third graders.  They also had problems with English,  but excelled in the math section.  They knew how to multiply, add, and subtract. They also really understood fractions which was new material that they hadn’t learned before. It took them a while to understand, but in the end they did. This was an experience that I will never forget. I fell in love with the children and there was one in particular that really stuck out to me. Her name was Matron and she really had trouble in the beginning, but she kept trying so hard. She never gave up and I respect her so much for that.  I will be so sad to leave the Malambu school. And will miss all the time we spent with the kids and how close we got.(Niani Cunningham)