MNIC - Week 3, February 22
Class #1:
This is the smaller class. Today, Hassan didn't even give them directions, so I just figured they were supposed to work on their assignment from an earlier day. Only two girls were actually working on it though. Everyone else was working on English homework. Of the girls that I did help, one of them was really difficult to work with because she didn't even know how to do basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. That makes it hard to teach someone how to add fractions, because that requires addition, multiplication, and division. The other girl I was helping was the same one as last week. She was very nice and seemed to understand, for the most part, what she was doing. I had an interesting conversation with her this week. Some of the other girls were talking and laughing and both of us just smiled. She asked me if I knew what they were saying. I said no. She explained that they weren't speaking Somali, but rather Arabic (at least I think that's what she said). She couldn't understand them either. This was really interesting because I realized I wasn't the only one who couldn't always understand what was going on. There were multiple languages being spoken throughout the class period.
Class #2:
Thankfully, class had been split up this week, so only half the group from last week was here this week. This made the class period so much more manageable. When class first started, a young lady that I had never seen before began talking to me. I felt bad because it was really hard to understand her, more so than most people. And on top of that, she talked really quiet and really fast. I did what I could to follow her and when I couldn't understand her after the third time of saying "what?" I just nodded my head and smiled, hoping she hadn't asked a question or said something that required a response. She asked where I was going to school and when I said the U of M, she said I was lucky. I think most people here would LOVE to go to college, but to many of them it probably seems like a far off dream. I think she said she wants to go to college when she graduates next year from high school. I asked her what she wants to study and she said English, writing, art... She seemed to want to do everything. I thinks it's great that she has those goals! I went around the room and helped as many people as I could for the class period. Then, at the end, this same lady asked me to sit down again. She asked if I was single or married. I said single, and that I'm only 18. I asked her if she was married wondering if maybe she was. She said no, and that she was too young (18 as well). But she said something about Somalia. I don't know if she was trying to say it was tradition for them to get married young or what she was saying. But she did add that she might get married next year after she graduates. This was another surprising thing I learned today. Two in one day! That is one of the things I like most about volunteering here. Everyday, I have such a great opportunity to immerse myself in a unique culture and learn from these students.