A Big Meeting

A new classroom in Ilkiloret has all kinds of implications. One of them is that we can use this time as a jumping off point to go in a new direction. Now that the district literacy officer is involved and we have access to more materials, it was time to get more learner input. What do you want to learn, when do you want to learn it, what are your concerns or suggestions about how we should proceed?

After being told many times that there would be many people in attendance, exactly 10 showed up. They however were very helpful. Only a few of them can read and write in Kimasai. The district literacy officer gave us some literacy books in Kimasai. And the learners wanted to use them. So we will use the lessons from those books to also teach Kiswahili and English. It will be a lot more work for Janet and I but hopefully hearing the same lessons over and over again will help them retain the vocabulary in the different languages. The meeting was so good in fact that at one point the learners erupted in spontaneous applause.

We also discussed pricing and quality control of the beaded jewelry the women make. Anika will take some to the states with her for the Give Us Wings Silent Auction in April and I will take some with me in May to sell to help support the literacy program.

The women discuss the pricing of jewelery.

I am also trying very hard to learn a little Kimasai. The next day I was leaving class early and said over my shoulder as way of explanation, “Alo Ngong.” Which exactly translated means, “Go Ngong.” So I’m not fluent quite yet, but everybody understood what I meant. Feels good to be able to communicate…even if it is baby talk!