Teaching English at the Indonesian School

I was invited by some girls in our Bible Study group to go to Indonesia to teach English to the children in a Baptist school.  Excitedly, I accepted the task and anticipated learning how to teach English to school children.  I was assured I had all the skills needed - knowing English was the only prerequisite.  I certainly know how to do that  :-)

When we first arrived at the school, the (high school) children outside on break: 

This is what the school looks like:

It is a very nice, modest school with three classrooms.  Upon closer examination, I see that the school needs work:

The church has been working with the school to give them better conditions to learn in, and though this looks bad, the school is actually quite nice considering the surrounding neighborhood:

This 'addition' is probably the bathroom/laundry room and possibly a kitchen of a home:

Quite sobering isn't it?

We were divided up to go into the classrooms.  Not knowing what to expect, I figured I would hang back and pay attention.  I am best taking it all in, then next time I am ready to do the task at hand.  This was a time for watching the action and helping where I could.

The children excitedly stood back waiting for us:

As you can see there is no air conditioning in the classrooms.  Most of the island does not have air cons - heck, they are struggling to survive.  Air cons are a luxury for the wealthy.  As a matter of fact, even refrigerators for most may be a treat.

Finally, we were ready to go in the classrooms.  We were teaching them simple things like body parts and item names.  Here is a sample of the lessons we used:

One of the games we played was for CB (one of the workers) to say a simple word (like watch, backpack, ink pen) and the children must race up and give the item to the worker.  They are divided into teams, instructed they may not speak Bahasa (the Indonesian language) at all during the game and we start to play.  The children think very hard to try to figure out what we are asking for. 

If they cannot figure it out, she gave them hints.  Most of the time one child may know, but they are hesitant to act upon the request. With encouragement, they bring the item to the teacher, then the class is asked to repeat the item name several times.

In one class, one of the girls was very smart.  She told everyone to remove their items from their school bags and they laid them all out on her desk.  She was ready to run:

The children show a great interest in learning:

CB taught them body parts like "head":

And items like "watch":

I was very surprised to see the children's penmanship:

Yes, I took that picture upside down and I thought I would leave it that way for interest  ;-)

There were two students the touched my heart; the girl on the left and the young man in the back under the calendar:

The young girl on the left was very apprehensive because she seems to be quite limited in her English skills.  She was trying very hard - but while the school master (?) was in the room by her desk - she actually seemed quite frustrated and was obviously worried he was standing near her and she didn't know the answers.  Once I figured that out, I conveniently stood between her and him and reassured her with eye contact and a gentle voice and helped her do the entire page.  She gained confidence as I did so, learned a few letters and when I would say "e" she would search the page, point to "e" and then smile from ear to ear when she was correct.

The young man was sooo interested in learning.  He was sitting off by himself, but when I scoped him out and went to him he shied away, indicating he could not learn - like he was very behind and self conscious of it.  Once I convinced him that I really did want to help, he lit up, sat up straight and paid very close attention.  He knew most of his letters, but was not sure of the English names for the pictures.  He would see the picture nose, point at his nose and then say something in Bahasa, I would repeat in Bahasa and in turn I would say it in English.  He grinned from ear to ear, then he would sound it out and write it down with few mistakes.  

He was so encouraged that someone took time for him.  It seemed to me both of these children were behind their peers and very self conscious of it.  They would be the ones I would work regularly with if I was going there again.  They needed a bit more help, but seemed not worthy of it until I encouraged them.  They grinned from ear to ear when I took that time with them.  Yes, they were my kids  ;-)

After class, we went to eat lunch in a separate room in the school, all of us sitting on the floor and chatting.  Some of the teachers shared lunches with the little ones that were always playing near us:

I am not sure who the little children belonged to - if it was children of the village or teacher's children, but they stuck around us from the time we came until we drove off.  It was sweet to teach high school children and see young tikes peeking in the doors.

This little guy did not like his picture taken, can you tell?

Most of the little ones did not care for having their picture taken.  I don't think they are accustomed to having anything electrical or electronic near them. 

There was one little girl that was not so shy though:

She has the most beautiful smile.  Most of the time I could glance around and she was there beaming:

The little ones were quiet and most were very serious:

And this little guy was still determined not to look at me  ;-)

Not even coaxing him with looking at the picture worked.  In fact, when I tried to show him the camera he ran far away from me  :-(

Soon it was time to leave.  Our little friend was not happy - the only time during our trip that she did not smile:

These children stole my heart - I am sure I left it back there at the school with the kids.  What an experience.  The children think we taught them - but what really happened was I learned more in a day from them than they would learn in a year of me teaching them.

School was out, we were finished and it was time for us to leave:

With a wave of a hand, a smile on their faces and a warmth in our hearts, we left them behind to go home:

My life has been enriched beyond imagination.