Volunteers 2006

ZAP encourages young people, preferably wih overseas experience, to spend a few months at a time helping to teach English at the Jambiani school. Here is a report by our first volunteers from July/August 2006:

Two young law students, Olivia Boyle and Emily Gerard-Leigh, travelled to Jambiani at their own expense and spent a month at Blue Lagoon. Both had worked in Africa during their Gap year, and had also visited Zanzibar. Their brief was to teach basic English, but more than that we asked them to learn as much as possible about the school curriculum, and to give us valuable feedback on the whole experience of living in the village. This is what they had to say:

Emily:
As Olivia and I set off for Zanzibar, we were a little apprehensive about what the next four weeks would have in store for us. Which age groups we would be teaching and what would be suitable material could not be anticipated as we would be under the direction of Mr Maabad, the Headmaster of Jambiani school (currently 1500 pupils). Since our stay was so short, and as the school has a set curriculum, he had indicated that our lessons would be have to be after school hours, but of the pupil’s standards we knew nothing at all. So we armed ourselves with all sorts of material – from maps and posters to musical and mathematical games. In fact, we quickly realised that our pupils would all be older than anticipated, and any preconceived ideas had to be refined, both in round table ‘conferences’ with Mama Janie on Blue Lagoon terrace and as the lessons developed.

Olivia: The first thing we had to modify and refine was our wardrobe! Though plain and reasonably modest by UK standards, our casual tops and skirts ‘bombed’ with Mr Maabad who had the strictest ideas of suitable gear; I was obliged to resort to a voluminous polo shirt and trousers, and Emily borrowed a plain no-nonsense top from Janie; this was our ‘uniform’ for work from that time on. Future ZAP volunteers, take note! 

We spent some time at the ‘skuli’ talking to some of the permanent staff, and getting our heads round the system. (see Appendix I). Lessons are only taught in English from the age of 12. Within our limited time frame, it seemed best to concentrate on the older pupils from Form III. We rapidly realised that the girls in this group were inhibited by the presence of boys in the same room, so with reluctant pragmatism, we split up the sexes – Emily with the girls, and I with the boys.

Emily: It was incredible how much better the girls responded after this split, and I found it very rewarding to see them working enthusiastically and with much greater confidence. Since I was to spend a lot of time helping Janie with a mountain of ‘admin’, principally setting up the new ZAP Library and Internet Cafe, I stuck to one class, but Olivia took on a third – a very eclectic group indeed!

Olivia: This was a mixed group of villagers (2 women, 4 men and one boy who had dropped out of school) who approached us soon after we arrived to ask if they could attend our classes. They had had little formal schooling, but now realised the importance of learning and speaking English both for the tourist trade, but also for interaction with the wider world. I had one remarkable student in this group, Juma, the mountain bike champion of Zanzibar, who had been offered sponsorship to open a bike shop in Stone Town – conditional upon his learning English!

Meanwhile, my Form III group consisted of some of the brightest and most ambitious mid-secondary schoolboys in Jambiani, all highly motivated and determined – amongst them boys who dreamed of becoming a doctor and a journalist – as well as a teacher, and the Chief’s son, hoping for a career in the army. Their main reason for coming to my classes was to practice conversation with a native English speaker; though their grounding in the intricacies of English grammar was considerably superior to mine, their conversational ability was surprisingly limited.

Although these two groups were distinctly different, an unremitting enthusiasm was common to both, and I was grateful for the balance they created. With the mixed class, my approach was largely practical, inspired partly by the initial frustration of time-keeping. English time, as opposed to Zanzibar time, was a foreign concept to them, as – most surprisingly – was an ability to frame answers to simple questions, their invariable response being an enthusiastic ‘yes’ to everything. So I spent four lessons teaching them how to tell the time and arrange meetings, particularly useful for Fadhil and Hassan, whose restaurant is patronised by tourists.

Emily:
We all struggled with the question of time, and Kendra, our co-ordinator in Stone Town, has undertaken to supply ZAP Library with a Teaching Clock – it will come in very useful in future! Needless to say, there were many failures as well as successes in the lessons which I devised. The girls, too, responded much better to practical sessions which gave the opportunity for creative thought (for example, role play centred around a visit to the shops). Less popular was the teaching of grammar – they found descriptive English a challenge too far.

I was struck by the girls’ immense enthusiasm for wanting to improve their education in all spheres, particularly in improving their English conversation. They were amazingly aware of how important this would be when seeking jobs beyond their domestic duties, which are crushingly endless in a Jambiani home. Despite an already extensive ‘after school’ curriculum, they always found time to squeeze in one more lesson at the end of a tiring day sustained on a remarkably small amount of food and drink. I so admired their thirst for knowledge, which was a great source of encouragement to me. It was such a joy to teach children so willing to learn and who appeared to greatly appreciate the time and trouble we took with them.

Olivia: I found that useful teaching tools were photographs of English scenes to which my pupils could relate, with a simple commentary beneath. Norfolk fishing boats were compared to their dhows, and whilst they were initially impressed with a picture of Emily’s smart green car, no-one was too jealous when they discovered it didn’t have air-conditioning! With the Form III boys, I concentrated on pronunciation as well as trying to make the learning experience a little less intense than their school lessons. Frank Sinatra (though not unanimously approved as a singer) came into his own as another learning tool; I used the song ‘My Way’ to introduce the concept of rhyming and I think it worked well. We spent another afternoon debating the relative virtues of wealth and happiness and single as opposed to married life; also, which was ultimately better – life in Jambiani or life in the West. Whilst happiness and Jambiani were the clear winners, it was far more debatable as to whether the ‘respectability’ of marriage or the ‘opportunities’ of a single life came out on top.

Emily: Though we had come to teach, we ended up by learning so much from the Jambiani people. The girls in my class were not only desperately poor, but they were also burdened by the enormous amount of physical drudgery which is expected of the womenfolk of the village. Yet they were neat and clean, polite and cheerful – you never seem to see miserable, discontented faces. When the tide is out in the lagoon, women of all ages, dressed in rainbow-coloured cloth from head to foot, bend over double to tend and harvest the seaweed before hefting great heavy bundles onto their heads and trudging in through the muddy rock pools. Each huge sack represents 3 months of hard work, and sells for just 5p. Then they go home to cook and clean and to hope that no storm will prevent their men from bringing in the fish which is not only a luxury food, but also the means of most families’ living.

After school and on Sundays the beach is alive with the children, laughing and shouting and playing; simple playground games you find all over the world. Yet only the groups of children under 7 or 8 years old are mixed, as girls are expected to take life seriously after this age. The children come to our gate and walk along the sea wall overlooking the garden – ‘Jambo! Jambo! Penny school?’ We resist the latter request, but it is hard not to greet them, however exhausted we are, trying to relax under the shade of our garden canopy. Their friendliness, and the simple kindness and enormous welcome we received from all the many, many Jambiani people we met during our stay was a real tonic after the stresses of modern life in the west.

Pat, Janie and Andrew had stressed to us before we left that ZAP stands for a partnership with the village; for a relationship built upon mutual respect, and an acknowledgement of the resources which are intrinsic in Jambiani life. In the school, in the clinic and elsewhere we found enormous warmth and friendliness; bicycling through the village, greeting and being greeted in turn – stopping to talk, or to listen – visiting people’s houses, smallholdings, nursery schools and football pitches – it was quite an experience, and one I shall never forget.

Olivia: Having been back in England now for some weeks, there are some special memories of each of my classes which still buzz around in my head; Rajab, the schoolboy in my mixed class, who returned to school full time, brimming with confidence that he could learn English: the budding journalist, Nemshi’s eyes lighting up at the prospect of owning his own diary to write in daily: Juma, Hassan and Fadhil sending me up in class by playing a recording they had made of my lessons; and Basira, the wife of Mr Pandu, quietly practising reading the commentaries under the photographs I had done for her.
Probably the most difficult part of leaving Jambiani was not knowing what would happen to the groups we taught. Of course we wanted nothing in return, but we were showered with gifts – usually delicious fruit – during our time there, and we were even taken on an excursion by one of the pupils; all this made us feel guilty for going away again. But Kendra has promised to continue with the mixed adult group whenever she visits from Stone Town, and the Form III pupils will benefit from the consignment of books expected soon in the ZAP Library. We have suggested that ZAP might look into providing ‘talking books’ and a tape player in the Library as well because we feel sure that there are many students who would happily come in their spare time to listen to them.

Ultimately, ZAP is hoping to place volunteer teachers in Jambiani for longer periods – at least 4 months – so that there is continuity of teaching and a greater number of people, mainly school students, can benefit from having a native English speaker seconded to the school. Emily and I look forward very much to being involved in finding suitable recruits, and can recommend the experience whole-heartedly!