As I sit in my air-conditioned livingroom with my powerbook warming
my lap, I am reminded of the relentless heat outside. To help cope
with the 107°+ days, I have been using the air conditioning with
increasing regularity. It's already hot now at 8:30 in the morning!
I am told that the heat will continue to be relentless at least for
another month, when the rainy season arrives. The swimming pool has
become my friend, enabling me to cool off. On Saturday, I went
swimming two times!
Anyway, I wanted to let you know about a few things. Recently
I visited a Malian school that our school has sort of "adopted."
Along with some donated school supplies from our middle school
students, I wanted to present the Malian school with some art
supplies that Judy from Sax had so generously donated.
As we entered the school gate, children of many ages swarmed our
buses. Apparently aware that our visit involved new supplies, the
students were quite excited. As we were led to the first room, a
portion of the "mob" followed us.
There were already many Malian students in the classroom lit
only by the window openings. The glass-less window openings were
probably the only source of any cooling as well. Bambara writing
could be found on the chalkboard and papers hanging on the wall. A
new policy in the schools, students were now to start off being
taught in their native language of Bambara. In the later years French
would become the dominant language of instruction. Approximately 55
students were taught in this room.
As the boxes were carefully unpacked, the young students in
the class watched on with eager anticipation. There was a nice
balance of girls and boys, some wearing traditional clothing and
others wearing more western clothing, most likely second-hand. Most
of the students sitting at the old wooden desk tables or leaning into
the room's windows were rather thin and probably malnourished.
After the director of the school thanked us for the
donations, we went to see a few other rooms. Furnished in much the
same way, these rooms held older students. Their class sizes ranged
from 70 to near 90. Imagine teaching 90 kids in one room - especially
in the heat! How lucky our school students have it. Gosh, at AISB
school, the average class size of the 90 student population is about
10 students! To the Malian students, even simple supplies such as
chalk or pencil and paper is precious.
I took a few photos of the students and the Malian school. You can
find them at my zing site. http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293704841
Our school AISB (American International School of Bamako)
just got a website. Currently the site has a few photos of the
school, the students, and a written introduction to the small school.
You can view the site at: http://www.aisbmali.org I hope to get some
more photos of the school/students and of Mali up soon, but it's at
least a start. Teaching overseas definitely is different than at
schools in the US. Our school's small size and large international
population makes it even more unique. Take a look if interested!
