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| My classroom. |
I love the reaction that people give me when they find out that I
teach in Tanzania. People visualise me in a cramped classroom, perhaps in a
desolate landscape, teaching a class of 50 or more African children to read and
write with only a blackboard. Let’s just say that I am no more saintly than any
other teacher, and this is not the case!
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| A government school that I visited. |
I teach the equivalent to grade 1 and 2 in one of the
International Schools in Arusha. My students in this year’s class come from 16
different countries. Many students are from Tanzania or are half Tanzanian,
many come from other parts of Africa, and many are from Europe, England and
America. Sadly no New Zealanders in my class yet. Expat families are here
working in tourism, for NGOs, as lawyers … The reasons for being here are as
diverse as the nationalities represented.
It is a privilege to work with children from all around the world.
Every day, in every lesson, the kids bring so much from their own backgrounds
to create a beautiful learning environment where our differences and
similarities are valued and celebrated. These children are living proof that
intolerance and fear of difference is learned behaviour. Anyone can make simple
statements about “we all bleed red,” “we are the same on the inside,” etc etc,
and one might know about a culture’s food and fashion, but it is another level
to strive to understand and truly appreciate diversity. I love learning how to
do this with and from my students every day.
I love how they barely blink an eye when I test my blood sugar.
They have some initial curiosity but it is just a part of me that they accept.
They ask me afterwards if my sugar is okay. If it’s too low they tell me, “you
have a sweet and a sit-down, we’ve got this!” I love that my diabetes teaches
them to empathise, not to pity. It is a model of strength, not weakness.
Some days it all feels too much. The world is a scary place when
you can’t do something as simple as eat without intensive medical intervention.
Work is hard. Teaching is hard. But every day, no matter how difficult it was to get
up that morning, having 24 little faces rushing into our class, so excited to
see me, makes it so worthwhile.
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