Last week, while sitting in Cheke Chea, I caught the word 'exam' out of the flurry of Kiswahili flowing from the lead teachers' mouths that afternoon. The word immediately drew an eye roll form me. I know I've been with them for awhile now and have taught them enough to warrant some sort of recall-test, but an exam for kindergartners still just seems so silly to me. Teacher Elizabeth turned it around to the kids this time. "What do you think will be on your English exam?" she asked. To my surprise, several hands shot up into the air.
She called on one of the kids, who said with a smile, and the familiar hand motion that I had introduced, "brush your teeth, brush your teeth!" Then another shouted out "flowa" (that's 6-year old Swahili for flower), and two more, "dirt" and "water," which of course is pronounced "wahtah." (You may remember my plant project several weeks ago.) Several more hands went up: "shoulders!" head, knees, toes!" "shirt!" "skirt!" then "twiga, twiga," which is how we began the brush-your-teeth and tie-your-shoes concepts. I was stunned to hear all that these kids were spitting out. And it wasn't the same three kids giving all of the vocab. So many of them remembered so much. Moments like those make all of this really worth it.
Later in class I heard Teacher Elizabeth ask the class in Swahili what they'd do when their teacher left. At first I wasn't sure who she was talking about. Then the kids all buried their heads in their hands and pretended to cry. After a few seconds, they all turned around to me and giggled. "Mimi pia" I said, and I buried my own face in my hands and pretended to cry. Everyone laughed. "Napenda mwalimu?" she asked. Do you love your teacher? "Ndiyo, ndiyo!" they said, shaking their heads yes, and my heart felt full.
She called on one of the kids, who said with a smile, and the familiar hand motion that I had introduced, "brush your teeth, brush your teeth!" Then another shouted out "flowa" (that's 6-year old Swahili for flower), and two more, "dirt" and "water," which of course is pronounced "wahtah." (You may remember my plant project several weeks ago.) Several more hands went up: "shoulders!" head, knees, toes!" "shirt!" "skirt!" then "twiga, twiga," which is how we began the brush-your-teeth and tie-your-shoes concepts. I was stunned to hear all that these kids were spitting out. And it wasn't the same three kids giving all of the vocab. So many of them remembered so much. Moments like those make all of this really worth it.
Later in class I heard Teacher Elizabeth ask the class in Swahili what they'd do when their teacher left. At first I wasn't sure who she was talking about. Then the kids all buried their heads in their hands and pretended to cry. After a few seconds, they all turned around to me and giggled. "Mimi pia" I said, and I buried my own face in my hands and pretended to cry. Everyone laughed. "Napenda mwalimu?" she asked. Do you love your teacher? "Ndiyo, ndiyo!" they said, shaking their heads yes, and my heart felt full.
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