A Time for (Online) Work and a Time for Play
For the first time since I started kindergarten twenty years ago, I am not enrolled in school. I have no new professors whose names I pray to pronounce correctly, no terrifying homework, no assignments that boggle my mind, and no lengthy lines outside the campus testing center. No, instead I am the new professor whose last name nobody can remember, who assigns terrifying homework and mind-boggling papers, but who stops short of sending students to... Read More
Rejection: More Than Just Classroom Antics
During my final week in Tanzania, something different happened in school. As our dalla approached the familiar building we could already sense something out of the ordinary. I felt very bizarre: a sensation like those in movies where a mystical character senses that something is not right. It took us all by surprise, some reacting positively, some negatively, when we walked in to find a lonely girl sitting on the very edge of the desk. She was covered... Read More
An Unexpected Week for an English Teacher
This is my third summer living in Prague, and since I’m currently in between jobs, I’ve had lots of opportunities to travel. Originally, I was going to write about my trip to Slovenia which I took with two of my good friends during the first week of July. I also thought about writing about my weekend in Berlin with my parents, or my current stay in England. I love writing about my first impressions of new countries, and I love England. But,... Read More
Back in Time
Let me take you back in time, to 2009 when I first experienced Africa. Since the sixth grade when I first heard about my high school’s Tanzania Exchange Program I knew that I had to go…I was four years too young and probably didn’t know exactly where Tanzania was but I had what some describe as a calling. I knew that not going to Tanzania was not an option- I needed to get there. For five and a half years I kept Tanzania in the back... Read More
Last Day of School
It’s strange when you get what you’ve wanted for a long time. After eight months of working as a Kindergarten teacher, and one month of longing for the end of the school year, the last day (yesterday) was surprisingly poignant and lovely. It was really only the final month at the school that was a struggle. In early May, I was still planning to renew my contract and stay at the school next year. This was second job in Prague, and my first... Read More
As the Semester Commences, It Feels like Fall
While I feel like I was just saying this a couple of months ago, I once again find myself on the brink of autumn. After one month of sweltering summer temperatures (imagine all of the humidity of an East Coast summer without the high-powered air-conditioning and you will get a better idea of why I could not be happier to see the season begin to change), the heat and humidity broke a week and a half ago in a climatic thunder and lightning storm. ... Read More
Michaela’s First African Experience! (Part 1)
As you may already know, I am a very lucky girl and have an awesome job working for one of the UK’s leading Gap Year organisations, The Leap! I basically spend my days helping to organise volunteering projects overseas for Gap Year students (spending most days chatting to people about amazing tropical places, which is never boring)! The best perk of the job is that I also get to do plenty of travel myself, jet-setting around the globe and road... Read More
Hitting
SMACK. A hand comes down upon Lidia’s body while she sits in class. You can hear the crack of the teacher’s hand from across the room, I know. No one looks up. Her body coils back in pain. She starts to cry, heavy hiccups that she silently lets loose while tears build in her eyes and flush down her cheeks. I’m sitting next to Lidia and I am in pure shock. Sitting right next to her and helping her to paint a picture as the hand comes... Read More
Matènwa
I didn’t know what it was when we first approached it: some sort of circular autodrome-like structure made of cement walls and a tin, silo-like roof. The walls reach about four feet high and the rest of it is iron grating in the shape of hearts and rectangles.To get here, we have taken a 45-minute plane ride on a private four-seater from Port-au-Prince to the island of La Gonav. After that, we drove for nearly three hours into the middle... Read More
Culturally Illiterate
By Beth I set my notebook down on the table in front of the teachers. Today is our day to review the computer program that we have developed, to look at basic computer troubleshooting, and to think about the classes that will pick up after Christmas break. It is Friday, which is when we usually meet up and plan our lessons. It is also my last week in São Tomé e Príncipe and I am trying to leave my teachers self-sufficient, so that they don’t... Read More
