Environmental Education - at least that what I think I taught

Teaching at the School
Coumba Diouma, Senegal
June 4-10, 2010

Since I am now officially sick of cracking peanuts and itching to get some “real” work started, I walked over to the school the other day to check it out, talk to the students, and see what the teachers there were like (wishing and praying they were better than the ones I experienced during PST in Sangalkam). I walked into the equivalent of what would be the 2nd grade class (ages range from 7-10 years old) and saw there was no teacher around. I walked in, all the kids standing and shouting in excitement, “Toulaye!!!!”, especially my two new little sisters, Houlaye and Hawa, who are in class together. When I got them to calm back down a little, I asked where the teacher was. They told me she had gone to Velingara for the day which is about 15k away and has electricity, wifi, and cold beer! I asked when she was coming back or if there was a “substitute teacher”, by substitute I mean someone at least watching over the kids while they sit at their desks waiting to learn. They said she’d be back tomorrow, inshallah, and that they were just sitting waiting for school to end because they didn’t know what else to do.

Since the teacher was gone, and I was there, I shrugged my shoulders, rolled up my sleeves, and said, “well, why not”, and began talking. I started off by asking the kids if they knew who I was, what my name is and why I am here (it’s rare for a toubab to live in a Senegalese village so thought I’d make sure they understood). I got a very cute round of snaps and hisses (this is how they raise their hands in school, by snapping, hissing, standing up and even shouting Madam to get the teachers attention, even if they don’t know the answer) called on a kid I knew I hadn’t met yet and got a lovely blank stare from a girl with enchanting dimples. When I called on a few others, the responses were, “you’re here to study Pullar!” or “you’re here to farm!” or “I don’t remember your name. Are you Aminata?” (the volunteer I replaced).

After a few guesses, I did my best in my horrible pullar who I was and what I was doing there. Since most of them didn’t really know what the Peace Corps is, I ended up giving an impromptu lesson on what the Peace Corps does and why I am here to try and help. And since I was there, I figured I’d just jump right into it and tell them about environmental education and ended up doing a short but sweet lesson on what the environment is and why it’s important to take care of it. Since I can’t explain biodiversity or the web of life yet in pullar, I kept it simple: The environment includes all the trees, the grasses, gardens, fields, dirt and land. And if the trees die and go away then when the rains come, the fields and all the crops will go away too and we won’t have anything to eat and then we will get sick and be hungry. And that’s why it’s important to have trees and take care of them and plant new ones. That was the best I could pull of having not prepared anything before hand and not having a dictionary. Bu for the younger kids it was effective and worked. I then had them draw a picture of what they thought the environment was and they drew a bunch of Mango trees, gardens, and cornfields. I had each of them hold their drawing up in front of the class and had everyone look at it and admire the work. At the end of the class, I also gave a recap of what I had said and even gave then a little oral quiz to see if they understood and remembered what we had talked about. They all gave me huge grins and repeated the information. Then quickly ran out of the classroom to go and play.

The next day I decided to follow up at the school and went back in to the 2nd grade class. The teacher, thankfully, had come back from doing whatever it was she was doing in Velingara, and invited me in to the classroom to chat some more with the kids. I asked a few questions about what I had taught the day before and the kids remembered! I also told them that if they wanted to help the environment that I was going to be planting trees in the afternoon and if anyone wanted to help to come. I taught them another little lesson about the environment – this time, the specific importance of trees – and the teacher was great helping me understand what some of the kids were saying helped me out with pullar as well. Later that afternoon, a big group of kids, myself and a few teachers went outside and planted over 200 trees. Most of this was all impromptu and I’m amazed that it worked out as well as it did.

The teacher, her name is Hadi Maaday, and I talked for a long while after school ended and she said that I could come back and talk/teach the kids whatever I wanted. So the next day was hand washing! I explained what bacteria is, why it’s bad, why it makes you sick and how to prevent bacteria from making you sick – WASH YOUR HANDS! I then told them that you have to wash your hands for 30 seconds to make sure all the bad bacteria goes away so I started singing the alphabet song. Only problem is most of the kids can’t get past D. Guess what tomorrow’s lesson is?

Teaching has been great and it seems to come quite naturally, aside from the language difference. I am so happy I stumbled in the other day and I will continue to teach until summer vacation starts. I will be working throughout the summer to get together an environmental education club at the school, probably once a month to start or once every two weeks, depending on how it goes. I also want to start discussing with the teachers the creation of an after school program from kids who are struggling and need extra help. Inshallah, they will like this idea and be onboard and want to take responsibility to coordinate the program. There is a lot of work ahead for me to do, and a lot still seems vague, but I am happy to have discovered at least a bit of direction for my service.