I have taught thousands of students from all over the world, and to be honest, even after two years, each day brings something new. You would think I would have seen it all when I spent a year as “Carole Teacher” in S. Korea teaching English. But then I came to America and had to dig up half of my teaching materials and half of my students during my first lesson as a Coastal Educator on Oak Island. Next thing I know I am acting as translator during our time in Peru whilst teaching body parts bingo alongside my team.
But alas, here in Lusaka, Zambia it is very reminiscent of S. Korea. I have my very own classroom of 3rd graders who greet me each morning by standing and calling in unison, “Good Morning Madam!” I respond, “Good Morning Students. How are you?” “We are very well and how are you?” “I am well, thank you, you may be seated.” “THANK YOU MADAM!”
I am not used to Madam. I was Carole Teacher, Miss Caroline, and Maestra Carolina….but Madam seems a little old to me. It is because by my age and as a teacher, I am expected to be married by now surely.
As I teach Science, PE, Safety/Health, Social Studies, and English I find myself falling back into the swing of it. I have these very odd lesson books to teach out of and though it still drains me (as an introvert), I am almost enjoying it again. I am learning more about the energy of 3rd graders, which is much higher than my old high-school class.
Today, I had to move a student after he repeatedly provoked the girls behind him instead of writing his lines about the safety implications of boiling drinking water. But it occurred to me that little boys who pick on little girls just like them, right? And after PE the kids ran into the classroom wildly screaming while disturbing every other class in the building. And all I could do was try to yell over them to calm them…didn’t really help with the noise level. Also, if you write a star with a colored pen in one kid’s exercise book, you better expect the other 20 kids to want one despite the smile faces and “good jobs” written in theirs. On Monday I think everyone will get a star…forget creative differences.
My co-teacher returned during lunch with a cucumber, which is perhaps the one veggie that I don’t enjoy (well…two if you count Brussel Sprouts which are so gross that I don’t even consider them a vegetable). And she asked me to cut them. But not before asking that I wash my hands. I didn’t quite know where she expected me to do that since the bathroom is a waterless shack behind the main building. So I pulled out my Hand-Sanitizer. “What is this?” She asked. “It is like soap but you don’t need water.” I say as I place some on her hand. She stares at it for a while, shakes it around like a jellyfish blob, shows it to another teacher…laughs and says something in a language that I don’t know, and finally rubs it in. Something inside me says that she doubts my jellyfish blob can clean hands better than soap-less water.
After cutting the cucumber I ate a good half of it to be polite…and I didn’t die so….there’s that! And to be honest, the cucumber was a lot more doable than the Dduk Cakes left on my desk by parents in Korea. (I liked those fried with hot sauce and noodles…but overall not the best by themselves.)
I truly digress. I suppose I just find my positon these days a bit humorous. I never thought I would teach, not in Korea, not in America, not in Peru, and especially not in Zambia. Who looking forward would ever see that coming? I suppose I am just blown away at the idea that I am always in a new place, and that new place is never one that I could have imagined or chosen for myself.
This leaves me in a position of gratefulness and wonder for the future. These days I am learning to release that to God with faith that He will bring me right where he wants me.
