This morning at Ana Al-Misri we finally had a frank(ish) talk about our role at the organization, disciplinary procedures, etc. There was something of a language barrier, and not even between English and Arabic, but Portuguese (remember that a lot of the staff are Brazilian), which definitely hindered us at some points in the discussion. For example, one girl from our group asked, "I know that we should never find ourselves without a social worker around to sort out any problems, but what if that happens? What should we do?" and her response was, "You will never be left alone with the children." Clearly on some points the discussion wasn't very helpful, but it was good to hear some more about their expectations for us (we're here to provide programming plans, not disciplinary support). More importantly, it was nice to hear them admit that we are their first group in their volunteer program, and thus their guinea pigs in a way. If anything, it makes me feel more confident that not all of the mistakes and mishaps that occur are our fault, but more of a communication problem on both sides. I am also hopeful that this untested volunteer structure will give us some room to shape it for ourselves, and help to make the process of volunteering at Ana Al-Misri smoother and clearer.
After work, I went to get a sandwich, but at a different shop than the usual one I discussed yesterday. (On a side note, I stopped by the usual restaurant after teaching tonight, and the man working there asked both me and my friend if we would be interested in marrying him and moving to America together.... awkward.) I got a different kind of sandwich with both ful AND tamaya called "Sandwich Meshakal," which I think means "problem sandwich." The sandwich itself was delicious and not at all problematic, except for one oddity - I'm almost positive it was wrapped in someone's homework paper. At least, it was a piece of white paper with Arabic typed on it, and there were red marks and words circled on it, so I'm assuming it was at one point someone's homework. How it ended up in a sandwich shop covered in grease though, I couldn't tell you.
In the evening, I had my second true English class, where we taught numbers and telling time. I'm actually very proud of how our lesson plan worked out. We started with numbers, which some needed a bit of review on, then progressed onto telling time from an analog clock. Again I think most people knew this, but they needed practice saying the times out loud. By the end of the class, we had introduced phrases like "half past" and "quarter til" which I don't think anyone knew, so we touched on all skill levels - success! However good that success felt, the best part of the class didn't have anything to do with time or numbers. My teaching partner and I decided that we would try to work in some song lyrics and American slang, following the students' requests for Lil Wayne and Miley Cyrus. We kicked off this tradition by learning the chorus to "Down" by Jay Sean and teaching the slang use of "down" to mean "I agree" (as Jay Sean asks, "Baby, are you down, down, down, etc...?") Not only did the kids catch on to the slang meaning "I am down" and the difference between "lonely" and "only," they even sang along to the chorus when we listened to the music. We didn't get to bring full lyrics sheets to all the students - the copy machine was broken, so they each got a slip of paper with the chorus handwritten - but one particularly precocious student followed along with the whole song (including Lil Wayne's rap) on our one print out. It was truly heartwarming and exciting to see him so eager to learn, and to me, his enthusiasm was the true success of the evening. So my lovely readers, I actually have a request for you tonight: please help me brainstorm other popular songs with some type of tame slang in the chorus that doesn't have any swear words or bad grammar in it. My other idea at this point is "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus, and we can teach the phrase "freak out" (as in "the last time I freaked out"), but after that I'm clueless. Any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated... thanks so much, and have a good night!
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