My volunteer colleagues from El Obeid, Tim and Christine, have
come back to Khartoum to help their state’s debating team in the national championships. I decided to tag along and watch. The debates are funded by Petronas, a major
petrol company in Sudan in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and are
aimed at secondary age children. I
watched several teams compete before we broke for breakfast.
During the break a woman came to introduce herself to
me. She told me her name is Sumayah and
she is a teacher from Atbara in River Nile State, just across the river from Ed
Damer. When I told her that I taught in
Ed Damer, she knew who I was at once. Apparently
the local Ministry of Education department had told her about me but not passed
on contact details. If I had been put in
touch I would have been able to help train the team for the debate. To make up for this, we agreed that I would
come back to the student accommodation and do some last minute coaching.
There are three students, two aged 16 and one aged 14. They have been given three topics to debate
on succeeding days. Their first session
was on Tuesday on the subject of corporal punishment. They did very well indeed. Afterwards many people came to congratulate
them which I hope will give them a confidence boost for Wednesday and
Thursday. If they make the finals, they
will be given more topics.
During the break a woman came to introduce herself to
me. She told me her name is Sumayah and
she is a teacher from Atbara in River Nile State, just across the river from Ed
Damer. When I told her that I taught in
Ed Damer, she knew who I was at once. Apparently
the local Ministry of Education department had told her about me but not passed
on contact details. If I had been put in
touch I would have been able to help train the team for the debate. To make up for this, we agreed that I would
come back to the student accommodation and do some last minute coaching.
Sumayah’s students are from a school in Atbara which has
opportunities for English Conversation as an extra-curricular subject (exactly
what we SVP volunteers are supposed to be promoting). I am very glad to have made contact with her.
Sumayah and I have agreed to stay in contact once we have
returned for the new term. She has also
offered to teach me Arabic. Together with
the new accommodation and having a fellow volunteer, I think the new term will
be very different from my experience of Ed Damer so far. |
| Teenage fashion statement |
I was amused when we went back to the student housing when
the girls immediately changed out of uniform.
They had clearly pulled out all the stops for their trip to the big city
and brought their most fashionable clothes, as imported from Saudi Arabia. When they were told that they had to wear
school uniform for the debates, there was an audible groan from all three of
them! At last I see something in common between
Sudanese and UK teenagers.
Tomorrow is the last session I will be able to attend as I
go back to Ed Damer on Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment