27 January. SWISS Visitors to SEGA.

We all travelled to SEGA on the school bus to the delight of both students and our visitors! Arriving at school our girls greeted us with their welcome song....immediately their warmth and spontaneous acceptance of all visitors was evident and continued throughout the day. First up, I had planned that my Form 1 English class would take a Nature Walk along the track. Its purpose was threefold

1. To explore the current topic of Study = Animals: naming/Grouping/describing. We planned to find and picture as many as possible.  
2. To photograph SEGA girls at the SEGA School sign donated by USAID
3. To share and show our environment to our visitors and hav an opportunity to get to know them as we walked.

All 3 goals were achieved beyond my expectation and above all, we got some good exercise and had lots of fun and laughter....All essential ingredients for good learning: Fran style!!

As the Non Formals are new to the school and their vocabulary is limited, we did an exploratory tour around the school. They had to locate as many things as possible and write both the Kiswahili and English words for it. We did lot of writing English in the red dirt to ensure correct spelling. All of us learned many new words!

Explorative learning!

 Non Formals gathered around the new school bell.

The sun was hot so we moved to the shade of the new canteen to continue our vocabulary lesson which ended in several rounds of the acting/song...”We put our right hand in, right hand out....” Of course the final verse was rort with laughter as we put our ‘whole selves in , then out....shaking all about’!!!Africans are so good at that!!

We felt that we had earned our Chai break and Mama Cook’s freshly made mandazis. YUM!

My form 2 English class were the 3^rd class to be introduced to, and shown where, Switzerland is on the globe of the world. Florien and Alexandra shared this knowledge. We also shared greetings in: English, Kiswahili, French, German, Dutch, and or course Aussie.

 I love having International visitors as it is a chance to bring our girls a little closer to understanding other cultures and creates a link for greater learning when the visitors leave.

The form 2’s had been working on writing their own School song so we decided to share some of their culture through song and dance. Self directed the girls shared their National Song and SEGA School song. They are not shy at all when it comes to song and dance so Alex and Florien were passionately entertained with many of the girls’ favourite songs. I have found that they are always impressive and today’s performance was just so.... right through until they performed their final farewell song. I was so proud of them!

Camilla and Elena took Alex and Florien into town for a look around and lunch at Ricky’s cafe (real expresso!) whilst I kept teaching. Thursdays are busy for me!

Friday was farewell to our Swiss visitors who said that their few days felt like a few weeks as their experiences had been many and divers! It was fun having you stay and getting to know you. You were very easy visitors to have....no complaints when the electricity went out, the fridge was empty or the water jug was dry! Pole sana but asante for sharing our lives!

 Florien, Alexandra, Me, Elena, Camilla.