Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Student Becomes Teacher



Sometimes it’s the little things in life that amaze me.  The students arrive at school early every day and begin sweeping the classrooms, the courtyard and the sidewalks.   No one tells them to do it.   Everyone shows up here in clean pressed clothes.  Some of the students don’t have electricity or water.  They walk for miles or take the daladala to get here.  How can anyone ride a daladala and not end up with wrinkled clothes.  Somehow they do it.  Can you imagine any of this happening anywhere in the US?




Today one of the GHTA students, Shadrack, asked me for some help after class because he didn’t understand some English vocabulary.  He wanted to know the difference between the words “ordinary” and “ordain.”   We sat and I explained the differences between the two words.  He then told me that the Swahili/English dictionary he used had the same definition for both words. English is hard enough without but having a confusing dictionary makes it even harder.   I have to admit that I was really amazed that he thought to ask the question.  How many of us would have looked in the dictionary for a definition and said, “Oh, so that’s what that means.”  Guilty!  


No comments:

Post a Comment