Step 2: Back to basics

Primary school children that I've spent some time with have given me some insight and valuable lessons, but I wanted to go back to the beginning. The logical conclusion was to also spend some time in kindergarten, since the first 6 years of a child's life are considered the formative ones. I wanted to observe the interaction among the children and with their teachers, to see how they play, what kind of activities they do and also what is the reason behind all of it. I read about developmental psychology, but theory is one thing and real life something else. I met with the very nice principal of my local kindergarten and she kindly let me spend two weeks at one of the units.

I admit I was very nervous on my first Monday morning since I wasn't quite sure what is waiting for me and I was not used to such young children. Everyone was in the same playroom before leaving with their teacher for the day. There were less kids because it's summertime and some groups were joined together, because the teachers also went on vacation. I was impressed with the sincere warmth each child was greeted with in the morning by their teacher. It was obvious they really care about the little ones and everyone was relaxed and smiling.

I spent the first week in the 3 to 5 age group with their two teachers. We never had more than 13 children, one day only 8. Just observing them was fascinating and often hilarious, because of the things they would sometimes say. One of the teachers has been doing this job for 38 years and she gave me valuable insight into this great although sometimes difficult job. She explained the reason behind each activity: fine motor skills, body coordination, language, ... One day one of the girls ambushed me because she wanted me to read a book to her. No problem. Soon there were 3 girls sitting beside us and they wanted to read another book and after that they begged me for a third one. My voice was hoarse after that and I could barely get away from more reading to the girls.

We also spent a lot of time on the playground where I got to meet all the other teachers, while the kids were playing in the sandbox. The kids didn't need a lot of time to accept me. One of the little guys, a three year old, cracked me up each time he asked for something. He didn't remember my name, so he called me Auntie (teta), which is what Slovenian kids would call an unkown female. The way he said it was really adorable. One of the more touching moment was one day when I went outside the playroom to fetch something and when I came back one of the girls ran up to me and hugged me, happy to see me come back.

I spent the second week with the oldest group, the 6 year olds, who are going to the 1st Grade of primary school in September. It was interesting to see the difference only one year can make. Some of them could already read and write and they were more wary of strangers, prefering to play among themselves. We had some interesting activities because the theme of the week was puppets and I joined their workshops often. It gave me a lot of ideas for my own workshops which I will try to adapt and implement in the Gambia.

All in all it was a precious eye-opening experience which convinced me to change my career path and hopefully work in the kindergarten in the future after taking some additional classes. I loved the relaxed atmosphere, the creativity and the freedom the curriculum gives you, it's less rigid than later on at school and you are able to give the children more individual attention. I'm glad that I decided to do this because it unexpectedly changed my life.

Where am I going?

1. Where is this?

One of the first questions people ask me when I tell them I'm going to the Gambia is: „Where is this?“ I admit that I had to Google it myself the first time I heard of it while I was still deciding to go, so I decided to write a bit more about the country and what I'll be doing there.

The Gambia is the smallest country in mainland Africa. It is surrounded by Senegal apart from a short strip of Atlantic coastline (less than 50 km) and situated on either side of the Gambia river, which flows through the country's centre and empties into the Atlantic ocean. The area is only 10, 689 square kilometres with a population of 1,882,450, which makes it even smaller than Slovenia. The capital is Banjul, although the largest cities are Serekunda (where I'll be staying) and Brikama. Its climate is tropical with a hot and rainy season from June until November and cooler temperatures and less rain from then until May.

The country has fertile land so their economy is dominated by farming, fishing and tourism.  It's also one of the poorest countries in Africa with a third of population living below the United Nations poverty line of $1,25 a day. The official language is English, although other languages are spoken as well, because of a variety of ethnic groups present: Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, Serer, Krio, ... 90% of people are Sunni Muslims.

2. What will I be doing?

The other question people usually ask is what I will be doing there. As I mentioned in my previous post I'm going as a volunteer with the Slovenian non-profit organization Kids are the World (Za otroke sveta). Their goal is to help underprivileged children with sponsors for their education and basic needs and volunteers at their school. The annual fee is 45 Euros for mandatory uniforms and school books, which is sometimes out of reach for some families.

This summer they decided to organize a free two month summer camp for the children at the Mo-beta Kindergarten and Nursery school. The volunteers managed to raise enough money for the children's lunch (lunch is usually not provided by the school).

It's essential to present learning as fun and something which can also be done through play and creative activities. The children usually learn by repetition without stimulating educational tools and often just repeat the words without actually understanding them.  As a volunteer I'll be present in one of the groups, together with their teacher, where we'll be learning and having creative workshops in accordance with the chosen weekly theme. I've done a lot of preparation at home already, collecting supplies, brainstorming for ideas together with other volunteers and I'm really looking forward to it. 

Turning Over a New Leaf

I always said that I will only write a blog when I feel there is actually something to write about. Well, it seems now is the time. This year has been a year of milestones and challenges. Graduating from University and moving back home have given me the time and incentive to take a better look at myself and figure out what makes me happy and what I would like to change. I've been toying with the idea of international volunteering before, under different circumstances, but it took time to shape entirely and then it hit me one day: I want to go to Africa.

I've heard about different options and decided to to go to the Gambia through a Slovenian non-profit geared towards helping children called Kids Are the World (Za otroke sveta ). Teaching in one capacity or another has always been an important part of my life so the idea of working at a school strongly appealed to me, though I didn't have previous experience with the preschool age group. I applied for their Summer camp project in May and from then on everything moved very quickly. Visa, plane ticket, seminar for volunteers … It seemed more and more real every day. It also came as a complete surprise to my family and friends.

I would lie if a said that making such a decision isn't scary. We're all afraid of the unknown, but I decided to take it as a challenge and see how much I can do to prepare myself before my departure in August. Number one: experience working with this age group, which is about 3 to 7, maybe 8.

Being the child of a teacher has its perks, one of them spending a week with 2^nd Grade children in class at the primary school. It was amusing for me, because most of the teachers have known me since I was a baby and they were surprised to suddenly see me there in the morning going to class. I think I explained it at least 10 times and got a good laugh out of it.

As cliché as it sounds, it was in that classroom that I found myself. I was a bit apprehensive at first not being in contact with children much before. There were so many doubts flowing freely in my mind: will I even like it, are the children going to accept me … The children did away with them quickly. They were curious, accepting, mischievous and hungry for knowledge. I also bonded with their teacher who took me under her wing and became my mentor helping me make my first steps on this unknown territory. I was surprised at the ease with which the little ones accepted me and it was actually rather difficult to leave on my last day. I promised to come back in September and make a presentation about my month in the Gambia.

More about my next steps in this preparation journey in my next blog post.