Paul and Eli Blog in Moz

Yesterday i taught my first lesson! It was only a 20 minutes lesson in order to prepare us for the next three weeks, when we'll be teaching 45 minute lessons (the normal time for a class Mozambique). Originally, i was gonna teach numbers 0-20, and play a bingo game or something, but I observed another teacher teach on Thursday, and saw that the students had never had English, so I cut it to 0-10. It's interesting, because I remember when i was learning German in highschool, i learned 0-100, and a grammar structure in one class, but it's very different here. First of all, they don't have textbooks, so anything that we teach they have to write it down in their notebooks (and it takes them a long time to write stuff, because they're really careful about not making any mistakes because their notebooks are their text books, and they want it to be really clear and without mistakes). Also, Peace Corps encourages the English teachers to speak only in English, so it can take a while to explain stuff (even a game like bingo). And finally, there are 40 students (at least) per class, so it's very hard to do group activities and such. But, overrall, i think my lesson went well, and i'm excited for next week (i'll teach three days). Alright, i think i'm done with the blog for today. Paul is on his way to Maputo now (he went to play basketball this morning), so he can write about his site visit and teaching.
I hope all is well,
Eli