The Joy of Teaching at Community

At the beginning of my six week adventure with GVI in Mombasa, I went along to adult community classes at the church in Bombolulu, where volunteers assist with English, Maths and Computer classes twice a week. Just like teaching the children, this was a completely new experience for me and my first class certainly proved a challenge as I was teaching IT to four men who knew very little English, had never used a computer before and were scared of what would happen if they touched a key! It was however a thoroughly rewarding experience; seeing such small changes happen within one lesson, like how they grew more confident in using the keyboard to type simple sentences, was really satisfying.

Volunteer Chris with Community Class members

I have since been teaching the English classes, and have seen really significant changes in just a few weeks. The group have grown more confident in speaking and reading out loud in class and their written and verbal English has come on leaps and bounds. The ‘classroom’ has been transformed to one with a few benches and one blackboard, to one with a table and three blackboards which means we can now split the class and work with advanced and beginners groups which makes a huge difference. The walls of the church are now adorned with colourful posters of key words and pictures

Overall, it’s been great to meet such a wide range of people from the villages, and see new people turning up each week as the word has got around. It’s an absolute joy working with a group of adults who are so eager to listen and learn and give you their undivided attention (often a refreshing change from teaching a class of children!) Madam Grace and GVI have done a great job in creating the opportunities for the local adults to improve their skills and I wish all the students the very best for the future!

Jen, July 2011

The Joy of Teaching at Community