Girls, Can You Lead the World? Yes We Can!

My last horrah this year was volunteering at Camp GLOW, organized by Peace Corps volunteers. The 5 day camp was well organized and I can say for sure that the 32 girls involved will never forget their experiences there. It was held at the Bonga Teachers' Training College in the Kafa region of Ethiopia. There were workshops and activities in English and Amharic about issues such as HIV?AIDS, Body Mapping (the girls identify how they feel when different parts of their bodies are touched), composting, Word Power (choose one word that illustrates power to you), nature walk to the Natural Bridge, Fourth of July party with fireworks, and a talent show.

I Don't Want to Say Goodbye

Tonight was the final ELIC (English Language Improvement Center) program for the year. We had a coffee ceremony, special bread, and popcorn. We played Charades, Hangman, and had a Karaoke contest. The hot pepper and injera eating competition was hysterical and the Red Card punishments brought us to tears. One "disturber" had to propose marriage, one had to kiss someone in the room, and one had to sing a song. The final activities were sing-a-long and hugging program. A night to remember. Didn't get home until midnight.

Who Rules the World? GIRLS!

Student leaders from the ELIC were invited to Blue House, which is a compound which holds 36 girls who are being sponsored by Help a Life Foundation based in the U.S. We played English games like Red Light, Problem Solving, and charades. The girls in the home are all orphans from the countryside and are being sponsored from grade 9-university. This was the last experience sharing program of the year in Debre MArkos, but a few of my students will be volunteer tutors at the Blue House next year.

Bahir Dar or Bust

My counterpart and I in the English Language Improvement Center (ELIC) took the winners of the Debre Markos University Idol Talent Show to Bahir Dar for experience sharing. The trip, sponsored by the American Embassy and funds from the U.S. State Department, was meant as a reward for those students who took on leadership responsibilities in the ELIC and demonstrated their skill in English in the talent show. Everyone stayed at one of the local hotels for three nights, which was a treat for the students who were used to sleeping in crowded dorms. The experience sharing program was with the same private Catholic school that we went to after the last talent show. Singing, dancing, boasting, debate, literary arts, and drama were presented by the university students while the high schoolers hosted a spelling bee and some English songs. The following day, the entire group boarded a bus to the Nile Falls and spent the day together at the falls and taking pictures. Money was given to each student for meals and entertainment and we enjoyed Bahir Dar in small groups.

Quanqua Police Punish Students Who Speak Amharic!

Although the first two hours were chaotic, the rest of the day went like a dream. Te English Language Improvement Center hosted an English Day at the preparatory school. We invited two local high schools (grade 9-10) and the preparatory school to send 15 students each. The planning committee was made up of 7 universty students and 6 high schoolers. The participants were divided into three groups and roated into varius activities, all done in English. The Quanqua (language) Police were around to issue Red Cards and Yellow Cards to any student who was disturbing the class or speaking Amharic. The punishment consisted of things such as: "While blindfolded, touch a person in the class who is calling your name" or "sing and dance at the same time".  Two legged races, egg carrying competition (put spoon in your teeth and carry and egg without dropping it), and kickball were some of the outdoor activities. Indoors, students played "Honey Do you Love Me?", Red Light, Quarreling, Spelling Bee, Hot pepper eating contest, and dance competition.

Information Gap

We tried something new for Flim Night tonight. We divided the participants up into 3 groups of four. They decided on their team name and then half of them watched the first half of a Mind Your Language film while the others played English games in another room. Group "B" then watched the second half of the episode. Groups "A" and "B" then met together and had to write a summary of the entire episode. The winning group, the Lions, each received a pen as their reward for writing the best summary. A Red Card was issued by Adugna to all "class disturbers" and they were "punished" by dancing! While the accused were being "punished", about 25 students heard the music and came to join us in dancing. Sorry that they didn't get to enjoy the Film Night program, but at least we enjoyed dancing together to Chris Brown, P-Square, and Beyonce.

 Dancing as punishment for receiving a Red Card.

 Red Card!!!

Racing to find a seat in Red Light.

Ethiopia's Got Talent!

After a torrential downpour and no hall to hold the talent show in, we finally got the party started (1 1/2 hours late) at 4:30 p.m. The DMU Idol English Language Talent Show rolled on for the next 3 hours without a glitch, thanks to the active student leaders and loyal judges. We noticed that the candidates were much better the second time around, learning from the first DMU Idol held last November. After the trials, held a few days before the event, the ones who made the cut went on to the compete in DMU Idol. There were winners in four categories" drama, music, debate, and literary arts, and prize money was given to the top three in each category. We invited the local high schools, who made up a good part of the audience. At 8:00 p.m., just as the last performer finished, the lights went out and we all scrambled for our mobile phones to give enough light to announce the winners and gather our equipment together. The winners of the DMU Idol as well as a few student leaders, will go on an experience sharing trip to Bahir Dar. We will share our talents at two high schools..one in Bahir Dar and one in Bure, a small town about two hours drive from Debre Markos. We all give thanks to the American government for providing the funds and moral support for all this to happen!

I'm Sorry, That Answer is Incorrect

Idiom Jeopardy was the activity for Coffee Talk last night. One of my brilliant students designed a Jeopardy game on the computer. We divided the idioms into 8 categories such as Love, Health, and Disagreement. Each team had one minute to come up with the answer to their chosen question. The questions increased in difficulty as the points rose. For example, for 100 points, the team only had to decide if the meaning of an idiom was true or false. But for 500 points, only the meaning was given and the team had to try to guess the idiom and then put it into a sentence. The winning team members received ballpoint pens as their prize. After the game, we punished all class disturbers who had gotten a Red Card during Fun With Idioms and they had to dance in front of the group. After that, we had a sing-a-long to some English songs.

 

 

Payback Time

The new English Club at Debre Markos High School invited the Debre Markos University students and the Preparatory students to share an English program with them.  The 9th and 10th graders spent hours creating activities to present to us, not wanting to repeat the programs we taught them last month. They came up with jokes, amazing facts, word games, tongue twisters, English songs, and quarreling. Unfortunately, the electricty went out after about 30 minutes and the rest of the program had to be done without the speakers or LCD projector. It was disappointing, but they were prepared with Plan B.

 

 

 

 

 

Elf Love

I just got back from 5 days in Dakar, Senegal, where I attended a conference for the English Language Fellows (ELFs) from subsaharan Africa. It was an unforgetable week as we shared our stories from our respective countries. From $30 hamburgers in Angola to teaching at the last Afrikaner University in South Africa, I learned to appreciate some of the things I have in Ethiopia. We cried, laughed, danced, ate, and sang together and parted as friends. During our Success Stories, I shared two of the activities we did in Coffee Talk and also taught to the local high school kids. The teachers fully participated in Quarrelling and Without Saying Yes or No.

 

 On the boat to Goree Island.

Debate Night: Abortion

Wow! We had the best debate night tonight. It was our first one. What made it so engaging was the way we orgnized it. Students chose which side they were on: for or against abortion. Then one person from each team sat in chairs facing each other. As they debated, anyone on their side could tap the debater on the shoulder and take his/her place. It was fast moving and done in a spirit of fun even though abortion is a sensitive issue.

 

Inspiring A New English Club

Students from Debre Markos High School  were so inspired by our talent show and the Preparatory School exhibition, they decided to start their own English Club..after 7 years of not having one! The ten university students included 5 females, which was quite an accomplishment on our part. They taught the younger students about boasting, quarrelling, without saying “yes” or “no”, spelling bee, and  sing-a-long. Students who were “disturbing” the class were given Red Card and had to dance as punishment. We agreed to meet again so the high school students could show us how they were using the activities we taught them.
 

 

Teaching Secretaries

Zelalem and I rewrote the English for Secretaries using  more student-centered speaking actviities and began the 5 week course. Most of the secretaries have limited English skills, but have to deal with teachers from India, Britian, and the U.S.  We cover subjects such as greeting, Western naming systems, titles, nationality, numbers, and taking messages. We tried to stick with reality and what the secretaries would be expected to do in the Ethiopian context. We designed a lot of speaking practice since our goal is to develop speaking skills. The only problem is that the teachers we gave the lesson plans to, rushed through it ( 3 or 4 days of lessons in 2 days) and I am sure there was very little speaking being done in class. We even went to the first couple of classes to model, but tradition took over once we left for Hawassa for the ELIC conference! We'll finish writing the lesson plans for the curriculum and send them out to all ELIC's. 

Coffee Talk: Solution Night

Coffee Talk tonight was called Solution Night, hosted by star students Mindesnot and Adunya.  All students were asked to write down their problems on paper and drop them in the Problem Box. The MC (Mintesnot) chose a volunteer to pick a problem from the box and read it. The attendees offered solutions to the problems. Not surprisingly, almost all the questions had to do with love, which reminded me of the joys of being 20 years old. One problem was from a male student who said he was in love with one of the women who came to Coffee Talk, but he didn’t know what to do about it. Mindesnot urged him to come forward to express his unrequited love. Esubalo came to the front of the room and described his secret love, who happened to be sitting in the front row. Everyone clapped and shouted as she was urged to come to the front of the room and hug her secret admirer. Adunya issued a“red card” to anyone who was talking when another student was expressing their opinion by holding up a pink piece of paper as in a soccer game. All the “offenders” had to dance in front of everyone at the end of the program as punishment.
 

 Red Card for class disturbers. They had to dance as punishment.