Well we got an extra day off...yesterday due to Eid (the end of Ramadan). I am quite thankful for this as it was nice to sleep in one more day and get things ready for today. We officially had power from 18:00 on Monday to sometime this morning....I was getting spoiled I think! It was hard to believe it was on for that long at one time. Yesterday afternoon I was feeling a bit drowsy from my allergy medicine (my allergies by the way have been going crazy due to all of the dust!) and tried to resist taking a nap but fell asleep reading anyways....this made sleeping last night quite difficult. I was already nervous, anxious, excited for our first day and add not really tired to that= bad combination! I finally fell asleep around 1 or 1:30 and was up every hour and finally got up at 6....thats an early morning after such a long summer holiday!
We had a bit of craziness when it came to getting to school today. There was a bit of confusion as to who all was getting picked up by the driver so a few wrong turns and one very bad traffic jam we arrive at school with a few minutes to spare before orientation started! It was great to finally meet everyone especially the other grade 1 teacher, our assistants, and the primary school coordinator. Everyone at DIA made me feel very welcome and I know this is going to be a great experience. I did feel a bit bad though because my assistant was prepared to help me put my classroom together today but oops! Most of it was already done. I was not prepared to have extra hands this week helping. I guess it will teach me that I do not always have to have things prepared way in advance :) It did give me some time to get use to the server and look at the curriculum map and such.
The day was also spent filling out lots of paper work. I was so confused and a lot of times had to ask what specifically they were asking for. Then the NSSF (National Social Security Fund) form was in Swahili luckily there were some people to translate and then they found an example in English! All in all it was a very successful day. I will admit though that at the end of the day today I was sitting my classroom and dazed off.....it is hard to believe that I finally have received my degree and have my own classroom and that it is half way around the world from my home! I was a bit overwhelmed with all the information we were provided with today so still taking it all in. I look forward to returning on Monday and meeting my students on Wednesday!
Tonight has been very uneventful. I have relaxed done some reading and looked through one of the teachers manuals to become more familiar with the curriculum. Tomorrow and Sunday I also plan on relaxing and maybe getting out and exploring some more of Dar.
I think that is all for now :)
We had a bit of craziness when it came to getting to school today. There was a bit of confusion as to who all was getting picked up by the driver so a few wrong turns and one very bad traffic jam we arrive at school with a few minutes to spare before orientation started! It was great to finally meet everyone especially the other grade 1 teacher, our assistants, and the primary school coordinator. Everyone at DIA made me feel very welcome and I know this is going to be a great experience. I did feel a bit bad though because my assistant was prepared to help me put my classroom together today but oops! Most of it was already done. I was not prepared to have extra hands this week helping. I guess it will teach me that I do not always have to have things prepared way in advance :) It did give me some time to get use to the server and look at the curriculum map and such.
The day was also spent filling out lots of paper work. I was so confused and a lot of times had to ask what specifically they were asking for. Then the NSSF (National Social Security Fund) form was in Swahili luckily there were some people to translate and then they found an example in English! All in all it was a very successful day. I will admit though that at the end of the day today I was sitting my classroom and dazed off.....it is hard to believe that I finally have received my degree and have my own classroom and that it is half way around the world from my home! I was a bit overwhelmed with all the information we were provided with today so still taking it all in. I look forward to returning on Monday and meeting my students on Wednesday!
Tonight has been very uneventful. I have relaxed done some reading and looked through one of the teachers manuals to become more familiar with the curriculum. Tomorrow and Sunday I also plan on relaxing and maybe getting out and exploring some more of Dar.
I think that is all for now :)
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