Becoming "Madam" at Mwasama

 "Madam, we need you to teach this class from now on. The previous teacher isn't coming back." These were the first words I heard this morning as I arrived to the second day of my volunteer placement at Mwasama Primary School.
To backtrack to my first day of placement, yesterday on Tuesday, I observed how the school works and spent time in the kindergarten, first, second, and third grade classrooms. There are just four teachers who work at the school, one teaching each grade. The classrooms are basic with open doors, no lights besides what comes in from the open windows, and only one chalkboard per room. The bathroom is a row of buckets in stone walls. In addition to the four classroom buildings there are two buildings of bunk beds for the parentless children(street children or orphans whose parents died of HIV/AIDS) who attend the school. The school is designed to help the children learn English so they are not suppose to speak in their native language while in school. Their textbooks(only the teacher actually has one) are written in English and they try very hard to use that English the best they can.
As  I entered the gates yesterday to the school after signing in with the security guard I was immediately bombarded with hugs! Every child grabbed my hand and started singing a greeting song to me which starts with, "Welcome Madam" It was so precious to see how excited they were for my arrival. For the first two hours I helped the third grade teacher teach a math lesson on length and width. I then visited the Kindergarten classroom where I had all fourteen students hanging on me at once. At 10AM a bell rang for snack and all four rooms of kids emptied out with kids carrying their cups to get porridge. A student brought me chi to have with the Tanzanian version of doughnuts. I'm usually not a tea fan but I quickly found out I love Tanzanian tea! It is very sweet. I was surprised to learn that it is the norm for the teachers to sit and have their tea while the students play during this time. After half an hour of playtime the students go back into their classrooms as the teachers continue their tea in quiet. I told the other teachers how this would not be permitted in America as we are always supervising our students. The teachers at this school do not have a planning period though so I suppose it is the only small amount of time they have sans students. Following the tea break, I went to teach second grade for the rest of the morning. I helped with the English lesson teaching opposites. The teacher then asked me to step outside the room with her. She explained how difficult the day is for her since the school is shorthanded and asked me to teach a game so I taught the class Simon Says, which the students loved. At noon it was time for me to go back to the Cross Cultural Solutions home base for lunch and my own Swahili classes followed by other activities planned. The goal of Cross Cultural Solutions is cultural exchange so half my day is spent volunteering and the rest of it being immersed in the culture in other ways, such as visiting historic sites and participating in traditional dances.
Last night after the cross culture activities, I planned a matching game on opposites to use with the second grade class and devised a schedule of how I would spend my morning so I could work with all grades since the second grade teacher wanted me to teach English and it is at a different time each day. As a teacher, I've learned to overplan and then go with the flow. That was exactly what I had to do this morning when I was was ready to show the teachers my schedule and instead informed the third grade teacher I spent two hours with yesterday quit and would not be returning. There is a major shortage of teachers here in Bagamoyo so if I didn't happen to be there to help the teachers for my volunteer placement than the classes would have to be rearranged in some way. The third grade class of thirty students were happy to see me and immediately stood up to greet me by singing the "Welcome Madam" song as I entered. I grabbed a piece of chalk and began teaching for that's what I'm here to do. I must admit that piece of chalk quickly became four pieces as I discovered I am not used to writing in chalk. So while it took a few pieces of chalk I made it through day two and am excited for the rest of my days as Madam!