It has now been over a month that I have been visiting my internship site (although right now we just go on Fridays). I spent the first few weeks organizing all of the books Heshima Kenya owns according to their call numbers, labeling the unlabeled books, and placing library cards on the front inside pockets. While it definitely has not been the most thrilling of jobs, I’ve realized how much of help it has been though. Over the last few months, in particular, Heshima had a lot of books donated to them by various organizations. With their limited staff members, they just didn’t have the time or resources to put them together into a coherent library like they would have liked. They are working towards building a greater reading culture with the girls and were having a really hard time doing it without a library. So as mundane as the work as been, I can really see the visible effects already.
But as of last week my supervisor gave me a schedule of really substantial work to do for the rest of the month until I start coming full time. This meant that my agenda for today was to teach a three-hour class on life skills in developing positive sexual behaviors in the morning and then meeting with a group of participants in the afternoon to talk about the role of women in leadership and about having them write pieces about that topic for the upcoming newsletter. Needless to say, I was really excited and nervous at the same time.
I spent four hours yesterday coming up with my lesson plan (and writing it all down by hand since we don’t have a printer). My lesson included nine core life skills that they needed to develop positive behaviors and for each skill I described it, gave examples, and came up with an activity. I studied it for a few more hours to make sure I was prepared for the lesson today. I knew that many of the girls didn’t speak English so my plan was to go through each section and then pause to let the one’s who didn’t understand talk with their neighbors who did. Well, I think I seriously misjudged language skills to say the least. It turned out that practically none of them could understand what I was saying. Luckily one of the teachers was able to come up to the front with me and essentially translate everything I said into Swahili. The system worked pretty well but I really felt the disconnect from the language barrier. It is so much harder to have a discussion when everything that is said has to be translated and elaborated. But the girls seemed to be engaged and they participated in most of my activities. At the break one girl mentioned how much she enjoyed today’s topic and after the class a lot of the students asked if I would be teaching any more of their classes, which I took to be really positive. The whole time I was waiting for some kind of disaster that never happened. Overall, the class went very smoothly and was as good as I possibly could have imagined it!
But as of last week my supervisor gave me a schedule of really substantial work to do for the rest of the month until I start coming full time. This meant that my agenda for today was to teach a three-hour class on life skills in developing positive sexual behaviors in the morning and then meeting with a group of participants in the afternoon to talk about the role of women in leadership and about having them write pieces about that topic for the upcoming newsletter. Needless to say, I was really excited and nervous at the same time.
I spent four hours yesterday coming up with my lesson plan (and writing it all down by hand since we don’t have a printer). My lesson included nine core life skills that they needed to develop positive behaviors and for each skill I described it, gave examples, and came up with an activity. I studied it for a few more hours to make sure I was prepared for the lesson today. I knew that many of the girls didn’t speak English so my plan was to go through each section and then pause to let the one’s who didn’t understand talk with their neighbors who did. Well, I think I seriously misjudged language skills to say the least. It turned out that practically none of them could understand what I was saying. Luckily one of the teachers was able to come up to the front with me and essentially translate everything I said into Swahili. The system worked pretty well but I really felt the disconnect from the language barrier. It is so much harder to have a discussion when everything that is said has to be translated and elaborated. But the girls seemed to be engaged and they participated in most of my activities. At the break one girl mentioned how much she enjoyed today’s topic and after the class a lot of the students asked if I would be teaching any more of their classes, which I took to be really positive. The whole time I was waiting for some kind of disaster that never happened. Overall, the class went very smoothly and was as good as I possibly could have imagined it!
Afterwards, I ate lunch with one of the other teachers in the resource center and chatted with him about his life before gathering up the group for the newsletter. Again, I was faced with the same language barrier, but this time it was harder since I had meant for this small group to be a discussion. I was able to go over the qualities of a good leader and communicate that a leader is not necessarily someone in power, it could be any inspirational women they know, the mama mboga (vegetable lady) down the street, or even themselves. I asked them to pick a topic they’d like to write about and next week we would discuss them and start writing them for the newsletter. This experience in particular was really frustrating because despite going well, I just felt so disconnected and really wished my Swahili were more advanced so I could communicate on my own. It highlights the importance of language in communication and the necessity of learning local languages when you get involved in communities. It makes me more interested in applying for the Boren Fellowship to be able to come back to East Africa and study Swahili for a year to hopefully become conversational if not fluent.
I feel really positive about my internship experience so far and I am really excited to be full time in a few weeks. The girls are all amazing and I cannot wait to get to know them all individually. I am also grateful that my coordinator is helping me to plan projects that are tangible and will leave a lasting impact, no matter how small it may be. She also wants me to gain from the experience and already I have. I have been pushed far outside my comfort zone and so far it has paid off. Everything I’ve done up to now has been getting really positive feedback and I am excited to keep growing and helping the organization. One of the things I am working on while here is writing a grant proposal. I’ve been thinking of ideas for the proposal including money for a mobile structure to serve as a classroom, classroom supplies, transportation subsidies to make sure the girls can get to the program site, and another meal during the day, which is really important for all the breastfeeding mothers. I’m excited that a school project has the potential to make a huge difference in an actual organization that I believe in so much.
I feel really positive about my internship experience so far and I am really excited to be full time in a few weeks. The girls are all amazing and I cannot wait to get to know them all individually. I am also grateful that my coordinator is helping me to plan projects that are tangible and will leave a lasting impact, no matter how small it may be. She also wants me to gain from the experience and already I have. I have been pushed far outside my comfort zone and so far it has paid off. Everything I’ve done up to now has been getting really positive feedback and I am excited to keep growing and helping the organization. One of the things I am working on while here is writing a grant proposal. I’ve been thinking of ideas for the proposal including money for a mobile structure to serve as a classroom, classroom supplies, transportation subsidies to make sure the girls can get to the program site, and another meal during the day, which is really important for all the breastfeeding mothers. I’m excited that a school project has the potential to make a huge difference in an actual organization that I believe in so much.