I could fill a blog with things under this heading! It is one of the fun/exciting/stressful/bizarre parts of living in a third world/first world small town.
This last week we arranged a two-day training for 6 local ladies and one local man. There was an American lady traveling through town who is an expert in helping develop "language helpers" to assist foreigners in learning Arabic.
You wouldn't think it is an overly complex thing to explain to a local how to help you learn their language but the educational system here creates teachers who:
-insult you to motivate you
-compare you to other people to motivate you
-tells you that you've totally forgotten everything you learned
-want you to just repeat lists of things
So when we had the chance to have a real expert train some folks for us we were thrilled! Also, it is a GREAT source of income for local ladies who are stuck at home and cannot work. If these ladies can get some skills they will always have some foreigners who want to study a few hours a week!
It was a win-win all the way around but Elsbeth and I were POOPED from trying to put this together at the last minute......because of course that is how things happen here (=
Another upside to the whole situation was the chance to work with the Women's Center in town! More on that later and their follow-up phone call.......
While I would love to say that I know the people picture below...I can't! The culture here doesn't allow me to take pictures of my friends, but here are some people who look JUST LIKE THEM (= So pretend this is what our training group looked like (=
This last week we arranged a two-day training for 6 local ladies and one local man. There was an American lady traveling through town who is an expert in helping develop "language helpers" to assist foreigners in learning Arabic.
You wouldn't think it is an overly complex thing to explain to a local how to help you learn their language but the educational system here creates teachers who:
-insult you to motivate you
-compare you to other people to motivate you
-tells you that you've totally forgotten everything you learned
-want you to just repeat lists of things
So when we had the chance to have a real expert train some folks for us we were thrilled! Also, it is a GREAT source of income for local ladies who are stuck at home and cannot work. If these ladies can get some skills they will always have some foreigners who want to study a few hours a week!
It was a win-win all the way around but Elsbeth and I were POOPED from trying to put this together at the last minute......because of course that is how things happen here (=
Another upside to the whole situation was the chance to work with the Women's Center in town! More on that later and their follow-up phone call.......
While I would love to say that I know the people picture below...I can't! The culture here doesn't allow me to take pictures of my friends, but here are some people who look JUST LIKE THEM (= So pretend this is what our training group looked like (=
1 comment:
beautiful people!!! Love that you had this opportunity. Much love!
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