"Miss Sara..."

Today I had my first full day of work at the school! As far as I can tell now, I will be doing a lot of different things throughout each day, depending on where and when teachers needs some help. Today started with a tour of the school.
The school was founded in 1965 and is part of the Lutheran Church. It sounds as though there are about 450 students at the school. Four percent of the students are Lutheran and about 70% are Muslim. All grades except for the kindergarten are together in a three-story building right next to the Lutheran Church in town. School is from 8am until 2:20pm with extra-curricular activities, such as music and sports, right after school. One things that is strange for me is that there isn't really a designated lunch time like I would expect in the US. Students have 8 class periods throughout the day with a 30 minute break at 10am and a 15 minute break at noon.

Today I helped the kindergarteners learn to write the letter A in English. I very, very quickly learned that I need to learn Arabic. As soon as possible. Actually I need to learn it sooner than possible, but that's... not possible... The kindergartens simultaneously found me hilarious and rather confusing. I tried to help them but the only Arabic I know that is useful for this particular situation is "here" ("hon"), large ("kbir"), dot ("nota"), "let's go" ("yallah"), yes ("na'am"), no ("la'") and "small" (zgreer). So I would just talk at them in English with much pointing, gesticulating and "hon"-ing... in return they would talk at me in Arabic with confused faces or giggles. They would call out, "Miss Sara, Miss Sara" across the classroom so I'd come over and then they'd talk at me in Arabic. At which point I would smile, nod, point at their paper and say "yallah". Needless to say, the kids were very confused about this strange adult who speaks gibberish (aka English) fluently but doesn't understand Arabic. At one point a little girl came up to me with an upset look on her face, pointed at her half-finished paper and said a bunch of Arabic. I saw that she had done a good job on her letters so I said "montez" (excellent). She looked at me like I was crazy. Turns out she was telling me she was tired and didn't want to finish the exercise. Whoops. On the plus side, the kids are stinking adorable. At first they were really shy about me. The teacher had them say, "Meye naayme isss ______" (aka my name is_____). They were really excited when I understood what they said.

I also got to help with the Christian religion class for 1st grade and 8th grade. Everyone takes a religion class each year based on their own religion. There aren't very many Christians at the school so these were small classes, 5 first graders and 7 eighth graders. The Christian religion teacher is awesome! She makes the classes really fun with songs, stories and a relaxed feeling to the class. That being said, it is a very serious class. The students must memorize long passages from the Bible, learn biblical history and understand age-appropriate aspects of Christian theology. The teacher was very surprised when I told her that it is forbidden to teach religion in most schools back home. She said it is sad that this must be the reason that Americans aren't very religious. I didn't really know how to explain to her about the separation of church and state or the idea that freedom of religion within a pluralist system means that one is free to chose to abstain from religion altogether. I don't know if these ideas would make sense to her or just seem ridiculous. I suppose here students have freedom to learn about their chosen religion in school and in the US students have the freedom to not choose any religion at all. I won't pretend to have any idea which system is better.

Kids are kids everywhere! Three quarters of the first graders I met were missing their front two teeth, just as they should be. The 8th graders I met loved to crack jokes but were a little shy about singing in front the new teacher (that would be me) in class. One of the kindergartens was something of a terror, teasing the other kids, stealing their pencils and generally making teaching letters very difficult. I can't say as I really blame him; learning to write the letter A isn't nearly as exciting as making the kid next to you mad or writing on the chalkboard.

I am extremely grateful for the hospitality I received on my first day at the school. I was offered countless cups of tea, cookies, biscuits, dates and other fruits. One very kind teacher said I looked hungry and handed me her apple. I tried to say, "no, no I'm okay" but she positively insisted I eat it. After I finished the apple she left the room and came back with an entire boxed lunch from a meeting the principal had, handing it to me with a, "eat this! It's delicious!". I was overwhelmed and honored by her graciousness and it was absolutely delicious!

Teachers and students alike were happy to meet me and told me they hoped I would like their school. Many teachers remembered previous YAGM fondly, saying they were high-achieving, helpful and quick to learn Arabic. I certainly hope that I will be likewise!

All in all, my first full day was a bit overwhelming, but full of kindness and generosity! I'm very thankful for such a strong start!