Training and “pass the apple”

    The PC is big on training. We are too, because we need it, the PC does a pretty good job, there are hot showers and meals provided for us at the training center, and we get to catch up with the others in our PCV SZ group, and swap movies and music with them. This was back in May.

   There was a 3-day session on “Grass Root Soccer” which is not at all what it sounds like. It is a series of eleven 1-hour sessions for kids 12 to 20 using activities with a small relationship to soccer as a hook, all to get the kids to act out and confront some of the tough facts about HIV transmission. The thought is that acting out the right decision, and visualizing the consequences of bad decisions, help make it more likely the right decision will be made.

    One exercise is to dribble a soccer ball around some obstacles symbolizing HIV infection. It's easy to avoid infection with 1 partner (1 ball). Doing it with 2 balls/partners is hard/impossible.

   Outside, Katherine and the Swazi teacher she'd invited to attend the training with her presented “hide the ball”, in which a line of students (here PCVs and their Swazi counterparts from their sites) passed a ball behind their backs and others facing the line tried to guess who had it. Moral – you can't tell by looking who has the ball, or the virus.

    2 of our volunteers are at schools for the deaf and have learned sign language, as well as siSwati. Here one PCV, the blond with her back to us, is signing for a deaf teacher at the school, the tall man in the white shirt on the right, conveying his instructions, with help on the signing from 2 other teachers from the school who had hearing.

I've never seen such a bundle of enthusiasm, determination and charm as among these hearing instructors and their deaf colleague.

   The week ended with 2 days on classroom management and positive discipline. We need help with classroom management at one primary school. This helped. I hope. The other part of the message was to try to persuade the Swazis not to beat the students. That is their key to the quiet classrooms I so envy; our students figured out quickly that we won't beat them. The point of the lessons was to develop ways to reward good behavior, not spend time punishing bad behavior. We'll see.

   Back at site we swung by the High School. Some of our favorites jumped up from where they were sitting and skipped over to us to give Katherine a hug. They love her. It's a little like having an indeterminate number of daughters, and some sons, here.

   We've now tried one of the Grass Root Soccer activities at one of our schools. These 6th graders are doing the “pass the ball” (in our case, an apple – the winner can keep it!) activity.