Morning tutoring was Dalitso and Gertrude. We continued reading James and the Giant Peach. They enjoy reading and drawing pictures on what we read. I still help a lot with comprehension after a few paragraphs or so. Then we look up pictures online too. Today we were looking up real life pictures of the insects James finds when he crawls into the peach. They loved looking at pictures of huge spiders! To finish off, we did Banangrams for spelling words. I did a few random words and then I picked a few more challenging ones from the book. Gertrude and Dalitso are pretty competitive with each other, especially when it comes to reading. If one of them is stuck on a word, the other will jump right in and say it. They want to be the one to figure it out. So doing a game with the spelling words was fun. They were pretty evenly matched.
Today in English we did another spelling test and then moved on to our “household chores” worksheets. Some of the ladies love taking these daily spelling tests because it’s something they can have instant gratification for. They study, take the test and feel as if they are learning English words. For some ladies it’s a real challenge but they all try so hard, and even if they can’t spell everything correctly they are learning what the word means and they’re hearing it said over and over again. We went through the new words for tomorrow, figured out their meanings in Chichewa and then used the words in fill in the blank sentences. To finish up the lesson we played Banangrams spelling again. I like using this as a closing for my lessons. By the time we get to the end of our lessons I feel as if the ladies have worked so hard on paying attention and trying to understand the English I’m saying, that giving them this fun thing at the end is a way we can all leave English class in a happy mood. The ladies are very respectful and call me Madam when they talk to me or have a question. Today I told them not to call me Madam, but to call me Rachel. I call them by their first names so they should call me by mine. Rhoda loved this! They started laughing sheepishly but since I’ve said that when she talks to me she calls me Rachel. When I greeted her in church tonight she also called me by my name. I like it a lot better too. I am not some great teacher who has authority over them. If anything, I respect them more. I am their friend trying to teach them English so I want them to be on a first name basis with me. J
As our little treat today Anne brought over some boiled sweet potatoes and told us to eat them with peanut butter. It sounded pretty strange but we tried it. It was actually good. Not something we’d ever thought of doing on our own, but still good.
We watched some Friends and read a little before our afternoon groups showed up. My group was Shadreck and Sovereign. We got so much done today! They were in a “ready-to-learn” mood, so we finished all our flash cards in record time. I was so impressed with how Shadreck was today. Complete 180 degree turn from Monday. Sadly, now that we’re on a roll, I won’t be seeing this group for a week and a half. We’ll be gone next Monday and Wednesday at Vic Falls and that’s when they normally come.
All day it’s been cloudy with only the occasional burst of sunshine. It’s been a lot more chilly as well, which I think is kind of nice. No more sweating under the tent when we tutor. It also started raining in the afternoon, but I thought it would have started sooner. Dark clouds have been looming most of the day.
We had to be at church an hour early to practice our choir songs so at 5 we headed over there. We were the first ones to get there and then the rest slowly trickled in. Charity was sick today so she said she wasn’t going to sing with us. We protested because we really need her; she has a gorgeous voice, she keeps everything in pitch, and she’s the one to start the songs. She gave in and sang with us, which we were very thankful about. It sounded pretty good I think. We didn’t mess up as much as I thought we would; let me put it that way. J After church we had supper waiting for us. It tasted even better than usual—maybe because we waited longer than usual to eat.
It feels like tomorrow should be Friday. I think it’s because this is the first full week we’ve had so far. Tomorrow is another busy day because we have preschool thrown in there. I'm excited to play with the kids again though!
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