Photos of Men at Work

I haven't said much about the work that I've been doing over here yet. I'm going to keep it brief, as it's a bit of a muddled situation to describe, and I'll have new and more exciting news to share tomorrow.

I spent the majority of my first week here working for an organization called the APS - the Association of Private Schools, which was formed to advocate on behalf of the private schools in the region and assist them with the resources that they are lacking. The work was mostly administrative, as the organization has been sitting stagnant for years and really didn't have much of a structure or plan to work from. I think it's enough to say that we've made some progress, but that I felt my impact was too indirect and that I can be of greater assistance with some other projects.


















This week I've been teaching at the school that belongs to our host family. The routine is basically that I show up in the morning, the administrator calls me to one of about 5 different classrooms, and then walks out. Sometimes he hands me a textbook, and at first I used to ask him how far along the students were and what should be the topic of the lesson. I've since learned to thank him for the textbook, put it down on a desk as he walks out, and just get started.

Over the last five days I've taught a little bit of everything. I've really enjoyed getting to know the kids. They're quite curious, and of course some are very intelligent, but they work with next to nothing. Several kids in each class will have no paper or writing utensils. My last class this afternoon was a creative art class, so I brought in some crayons and paper and did some drawing with five little boys. Afterwords, we photographed their masterpieces.

















I'm going to call it a day and crawl under my mosquito net. I'll post again tomorrow!

- Davis