Still trying to teach how to tell time - but it is a completely incomprehensible concept to many. Now I understand why everyone is always late. Here are some standard answers.
Write the following digital times in words
Q: 7:40
A: Seven to eight
Q: 8:50
A: Eighteen minutes to nine
Q: 3:56
A: Three minutes to ten
Q: 7:15
A: Quarter to eight
and then one poor kid...
Q: 7:15
A: arnesinecinel
Q: 2:30
A: firtonorintpar
I mean, WTF??? Where does this even come from?
Obviously, like classrooms the world over, some of the kids have learning disorders - but there is nothing even close (like at least fifteen years away - if ever) to a system set up to help them. Also, none of the kids wear glasses, and from personal experience I know how incapacitating that can be. I have tried to give handouts rather than write on the board (also because I am useless at it and have given myself blisters from squeezing the chalk so hard) but because they've never learned to read well it makes little difference. A lot of the teachers (all five of them) said they were jealous of Miss Jones because she had me in her class, but I think it's more a result of the extra resources and comic relief I am providing, rather than any actual effectiveness. They've also said several times that I should return to Sierra Leone by myself to sample some of the fine African men they have here.
Mr Koroma led Religious Studies today (as if the lecture on soil wasn't religious enough). Nine, ten, eleven, count 'em twelve CLAP FOR JESUS's! It took me a while to figure out that "God created herb and ass" actually meant "God created Heaven and Earth". Full on Adam and Eve and snakes and apples type stuff. He's a freak. Every time he finishes saying CLAP FOR JESUS he follows it with a maniacal heh-heh-ha-ha-haaa type laugh. He told the kids that in addition to Michael Jackson dying a sinner, so did Bob Marley (guess he wasn't going down to the beach yesterday). He then proceeded to list all the different words for marijuana including ganga, jamba, colto, cuchi, and sansinella. I was wondering where this was going until he told us that he used to be a smoker until "JESUS TOLD ME TO STOP!!! Heh-heh-hah-hah-haaa." I felt somewhat comforted as I stifled the yawns to see that Miss Jones had fallen asleep again. She had a good excuse, as she had been out until 2am and only came into class today because I was here.
Mr Koroma is either trying to save my soul or sabotage me - because during the lunchtime that I usually set up to read the kids stories he began playing his wind-up radio really loudly. "God, God, God is good".
And as if to drive the point home, as I type this some nutter is walking about with a huge megaphone yelling about Jesus, God and deliverance.
