South Sudan has opened so many new doors for me. I have been enjoying teaching at Cush Christian School. You pretty much just need to have an 8th grade level education to become a teacher, so that has allowed for some cool opportunities I wouldn’t have in America. I am working in the grade 2 class with students with an average age of about 10ish. I started out simply supervising tests and grading tests. Now, as I am understanding the system better, I am helping students with math, English, and reading. I love helping the kids pronounce and read English words. I find it quite amusing. Their accents are cute 🙂 At first the kids were shy to ask me for help or even to talk to me, but now I have some sweet little friends who come to me often for help. I began to give one kid his spelling test, where I say the word and he writes it. Because of the Dinka teacher’s African accent, the kid had learned the words with slightly incorrect pronunciation. As I began testing him with correct English pronunciation, he got very confused and shy because he didn’t know what I was saying. When the Dinka teacher took over, saying the words as the boy had learned, he did great. I found that very interesting. I think native English speaking teachers are greatly needed.
I love playing football (soccer) with the girls. They typically don’t have many chances to play. Usually it’s just the boys who play. But when they do play, it’s a super fun, competitive, and bloody game! Aubrey and I have also been introducing kids to volleyball. It’s super fun to see these kids just learning and beginning to love volleyball as I did and still am! It’s a totally different world here in South Sudan, including both very difficult and very exciting elements. These are a few of my favorite experiences from the past week.
Taylor
6daysjourney 