ESL Class and Tea Time

ESL Class & Tea time

I have enjoyed teaching an ESL class for the last 4 months. The ladies were delightful and we had such a fun time together. I usually taught the first 30-45 minutes and then one of two ladies (Jami or Helen) would then read a Bible story in Wolof. The ladies heard a total of 24 stories in the class. The class actually began in October by two young girls here on a short-term assignment. I began teaching at the end of December.

I mostly taught a lot of vocabulary - names of food, clothing, numbers, shapes, colors, emotions, household items, etc. I tried to find things that would be helpful for them as they work for English speaking missionaries. The ladies enjoyed learning about different holidays/celebrations. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's Day are pretty much the same. But weddings, the birth of a baby, and the 4th of July are very different. Here the men pay for the entire wedding and a week after a baby is born, the baby's head is shaved and the name of the child is decided and announced. We also had fun acting out "going to the grocery store" with Alexis' play food and charades as they learned different verbs. On our last night of class I made apple crisp and brought ice cream to share. It was a fun way to end our time together.

There are also some good pictures of Ibrahima teaching Dan how to make tea. We even had to go buy the teapot and glasses but we are so glad to have learned how to do this great tradition. Men make and share tea as a sign of friendship. It typically takes over an hour to complete the whole process usually including 3 pots of green tea. And yes, the amount of sugar is amazing! We tried to explain the process with each picture so hopefully you can follow along easily.