Things were complicated by the fact that on our second day back to classes, Monday, October 5th, I began working with the STAR program. STAR is a program that teaches English to refugees (and anyone else wanting to learn English) living in Cairo. STAR has several locations throughout the city, and it relies on students and other volunteers to teach its varying levels of English. Teachers are in pairs. I am working with my roommate, Jacque. I really owe her a lot of credit for getting me involved with STAR. I had originally missed the deadline to become involved with the program, but as luck would have it, Jacque's teaching partner realized at the last minute that she had a conflict on Monday nights from 6PM to 9PM when the classes she was supposed to be teaching were held. Jacque asked me if I'd be interested in filling in for her, and I said I definitely was. I had missed the orientation, but Jacque had extra materials and she filled me in on the other important details. She said the most interesting thing discussed this year at the orientation was STAR's effort this year to become a legitimate Egyptian NGO. Jacque and I agreed that it was nice to see something in Egypt being taken so seriously and we felt lucky to be a part of it.
Although it is refreshing that STAR seems to be a well-run program, by its nature, it is obviously not without its problems. Most of the classes are rarely full because it is difficult for the students to come all the time and on time. It is also difficult to transport us from AUC to Ain Shams, our teaching location. Both times we have taught so far, we have been almost a half hour late because our bus ride has taken close to an hour and a half in Cairo's rush hour traffic.
Jacque and I are teaching level 4B, which is one of the higher levels. This has its benefits and its downfalls. As far as benefits are concerned, all of our students are at a basic level in English conversation, so Jacque and I need to speak very little, if any at all, Arabic to them. However, the material we need to cover is somewhat more complicated and drier than the material some of our friends are teaching. The first day we started out with review which consisted of functions of the noun, parts of speech, and sentences. I will admit that I only knew most of the things I was teaching (such as what an appositive is: it's a renaming of the subject in a sentence; for example: My father, Gene... in case anyone was particularly interested) because I read their description along with the students. Some grammar concepts are incredibly difficult to convey, especially to students with minimal command of the language. Explaining direct objects involved a lot of gesturing and action on my part!
On the first day of class (we will have 10 classes total between now and early December), four students attended our class, even though there were sixteen listed on our class roster. One was an Egyptian woman in her forties who was there simply because she loved English and wanted to learn the language. There was another younger Egyptian man and two Nigerian men in the class also. In the other levels scheduled at out location during out time slot, some of the students were Sudanese from Darfur. This was the first time for all of us that a human context was given to that conflict, and it was definitely daunting and humbling. Darfur and the refugee situation it has been creating over the years was for the first time for all of us actually REAL. Because of the background of the students, we had been instructed to proceed with caution in what we spoke about. For example, a 'tell us your name, where you're from, and about your family' type introduction was out of the question as such questions have the potential to produce painful answers from refugees from Sudan and Iraq.
Our students were quiet when class first began, but as we did more activities and drills, they opened up considerably. The last conversation we had actually had nothing to do with what we were studying, but about how to appropriately tell time in English (there was confusion about 'quarter after and quarter until.' When Jacque and I explained it and it was not clear, we told them these expressions were not necessary to know, as 15 and 45 were perfectly fine to say. They told us enthusiastically that this was what was important for them to know because they wanted to be able to communicate in and understand common English dialogue, so we spent some time drawing a clock on the board. It was interesting that the most important thing to them was something I don't think we'll ever find in the manuel.
It was great to see the drive these students had to learn English and it was definitely rewarding to see how thankful they were for our help. Many of them, our students and students of other classes, thanked us and shook our hands. The woman in our class asked Jacque and me if there was anything we wanted when she was leaving. These people have such difficult backgrounds, but they are so willing to learn and so thankful for anyone that will teach them. It's definitely a much different part of Egyptian society than the one we see when we are in Zamalek on at AUC, and it is an important one for us to be exposed to. I think teaching English in Egypt is the most worthwhile thing I have done while in Egypt and also the most worthwhile thing I have done in my life. It is an experience I feel truly blessed to have.
But speaking of experiencing different parts of Egyptian society, Ain Shams is definitely not Zamalek or AUC. Jacque and I agreed it was the first time we felt objectified as women. We weren't scared and we didn't feel as if we were in danger, but for the first time we were understanding the harassment we had been warned about before we arrived here. We also experienced another interesting part of Egyptian society when we took the Metro (Egyptian public subway) from the Ain Shams station to the Sadat Station, from where we can take a quick cab ride to the dorms. (Unfortunately, this was not my first experience with Egyptian public transportation, as I have been lucky enough to take an hour long public mini-bus ride. It's a long story which involves a package, customs fees, Ramadan hours, tears, and possibly the nicest man I have ever met in my life and, in my opinion, a prime candidate for FedEx employee of the year, but it is a long and horrific story that I to this day have not re-told in full detail except for once in a long message to my sister immediately after I survived the ordeal). Anyway, there are four of us who will be taking the Metro every Monday, and hopefully we'll get better at it with practice. Our slip-ups included taking the Metro for several stops in the wrong direction and then being confused about which trains ran in what directions and on what tracks. We now have all that sorted out.
Taking the Metro may have been one of the funnier experiences I have had in Cairo as well. The four of us (three girls and a boy) were literally the main attraction on the train. We were THE only Americans and we were considered in the mixed gender car with the highest degree of scrutiny and amusement. Several Egyptians both on the train and in the stations spoke to us in Arabic, and we think they wanted us to speak to their children who were learning English at school. It was interesting that most people that spoke with us (most only spoke about us, laughing with each other), spoke with Logan, the boy we were with. Even the man at Sadat Station who wanted the three girls to speak with his daughter approached and spoke with Logan. That was a interesting picture of social norms in Islamic society, and after the harassment we had experienced in Ain Shams, it was comforting and welcome.
After getting off the train, we needed to take a cab back to the dorms and we did this without any problems (unless you count traffic). Teaching had been exhausting, and I think it will be every week, but it will be an amazing experience and well worth every minute of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment