What a boring title to this Blog. However, these last 2 weeks since the New Year have been anything but boring. In fact, I’m ran off my feet.
First off, my new bike has been performing awesome and has been essential for getting around between organisations, my classes, travelling into Gleno and visiting places. It goes on-road, off-road and deals with it all. I’m super happy I made the effort to find it in Dili before being placed in Fatuquero. Below is the road up to one of my organisations. Thankfully this is one of the worst.
English Teaching
For someone who is pretty poor at English, and who has forgotten most of the rules of English, I’m pretty happy with how things have gone these last 3 weeks. It has been tough. I’ve had to do a mammoth amount of preparation for the classes, partly because I have never taught English before and partly because I am trying to make the classes interesting and fun with lots of activities (atividade barak). Also, creating activities from scratch in a “Timor Context” is tough and requires time (e.g. creating and laminating flash cards requires me to make them on the computer, ride to Gleno with a USB drive, hope the electricity is “on” so I can print the flash cards, then ride back home and laminate the flash cards with sellotape). Also none of my students have computers and many do not even internet access of their phones (BTW, cellular internet IS the only internet here), so I need to take this into account when teaching. Its combines to make everything more difficult. The vast majority of people here don’t have the option to use apps like “Dualingo” for example.
My weekly English class schedule is as follows:
Monday – 9am My English class -2hrs Teaching at disability advocacy group FJDE. 5pm Maun Mario’s English class at EAMO – 2hrs supporting Maun Mario’s class for Timores wanting to work in Australia.
Tuesday – 5pm –My English class – 2hrs Teaching English to staff at EAMO.
Friday – 9am My English class -2hrs Teaching at disability advocacy group FJDE. 5pm Maun Mario’s English Class at EAMO – 2hrs supporting Maun Mario’s class for Timores wanting to work in Australia.
Saturday – 2pm My English class – 2hrs teaching local children at Mana Adreanas home. 5pm Maun Mario’s English Class at EAMO – 2hrs supporting Maun Mario’s class for Timores wanting to work in Australia.
Sunday – 2pm My English class – 2hrs teaching local children at Mana Tinas home. 5pm My English class – 2hrs teaching local children at My home.
My classes have their up’s and downs. Some activities go really well and some concepts are easy for learners to grasp. Other activities fall flat on their face 😪 and the effort put in by me to prepare seems a waste of time. But I’m learning.
Below I show some photographs from the classes. First the adults classes at FJDE and EAMO.
And next some photos from two of my kids classes. I really enjoy teaching the kids. We start off with an ice breaker (normally involves me making a fool of myself) and we finish with a colouring activity. I normally bring some sweets and biscuits for bribery 😁.
Random Photos 😀
I’ve had a couple of meetings with the local Xefi Suku leader here (Mana Leoncia) for the area of Fatuquero. She and the Suku main building are based in a smaller village about 30 mins (uphill) cycle ride from Fatuquero. I was able to get her an upgraded printer installed and discuss some plans she has for activities this year. When I arrived at the Suku building there were a bunch of kids playing outside. It was a bit overwhelming as they all wanted to say hello 😁. I also met a local guy who had created a “Fatin Turizmu” (a place for people to visit and sit/relax) which has seats made from old tyres (roda). Pretty cool and unique.
I’ve been spending a lot of time last week at one of my organisations EAMO. They grow Oyster Mushrooms. It’s a small business and I hope I can help them grow and expand their production, especially with opportunities opening up for export once Timor-Leste joins ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) trade pact, planned for sometime this year. Below is a photo of Maun Jacob, Maun Aju and I after we had packed a batch of mushrooms soon to be delivered to a Dili supermarket on a motorbike 😀. The mushrooms taste great and are full of nutrition! But, sadly, they are not a popular food in Timor culture. We need to try and change that!
I leave you with a few shots from my home here. One in front of our family kiosk, another on the porch (I let the kids run wild with the chalks as we did a little English lesson) and the evening sky next to the local river.
Stay safe out there!! Cheers! James.
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