A Day in the Life of Ms. Rebecca

For a disclaimer this is what a weekday would look like.

6:30 my alarm goes off and I get up out of bed around 6:45. I then head to the Common Room, where the teachers gather in the morning to eat breakfast. Breakfast is usually bread with something like jam, butter, peanut butter or a hard boiled egg. There is sometimes muffins and then always fruit. I usually bring my fruit to eat at a break.

At about 7:20 I start walking down to the school. To get to school I walk through a garden, down a path, through a campsite, down a steep hill and then through a field of sugar cane. (Okay so this may be a little exaggerated. But it is actually all true.) It takes less than 10 minutes to walk by myself but if I walk with others it is closer to 15 minutes.

Once I am at school I go and unlock the door to the classroom. I do somethings in the class to get it ready for the day.  There is usually some kind of devotion in the mornings before the kids come.  Some mornings at 8:00 there is an assembly but only on Tuesdays and Fridays. At 8:00 school starts and the kids come in. In the mornings I will ask them questions in English about their day.  Then we usually sing some songs, a few in English and a few in Zulu. Then we go sit at the table. There we work on things together.  Right now we have been working on simple math problems in addition and subtraction. They are doing great!

At 10:00 is first break. This is when the kids usually eat lunch, not sure why its this early but it works for them.  During the breaks me and the two other volunteers from Germany (Jonas and Alex) supervise to make sure the kids stay out of trouble.  After break the 3 of us get our own break, we usually all sit on our ‘volunteer bench’ as they guys call it and chat. At 11:00 we go back to our classes.

During the time I am on break the kids do a Zulu lesson with Ms. Gabela, the other teacher in my class. When I get back we work on the ACE booklet we are to work through with the kids. It is the curriculum that the school runs with. It is a American based system, so I often have to change the way I we work through the book because of level of English and the cultural differences. But it all works out. We then do either some kind of craft or colouring until our next break at 12:30.

1:30 I come back to class after my break and the kids are done their second part of their Zulu lessons of the day.  From there I will often try to get the kids to teach me some Zulu and then I teach them the same words in English.  This way we are both learning. This happens for about 15 minutes and then the grade one class comes and joins us for a movie. So far they have watched Toy Story and Cars.  They love it. 2:30 is usually out door time where the kids can then run around and learn motor skills. But right now the high school is doing exams so everyone is done at 2:30.

Alex, Jonas and I are also on supervision with the kids that wait for the buses to come a get them. We wait until the two buses come and get them, sometimes it takes 30 minutes some times an hour. Once the kids all leave we head to the Common Room for lunch. After lunch everyone goes their own ways.

Supper is usually around 6:00 but most people come later. After supper we will sometimes play a game or watch a movie together. But often we all go back to our rooms. And then bed time is often around 8:30 or 9:00. Or thats what seems to happen anyway.

Until next time…keep reading! I promise they will start to get shorter! Or at least I will try! It is just so hard to keep them shorter when I want to share everything with you!