First Impressions: Teaching at Magereza Prison Nursery School

Since Eliroi Nursery school went on vacation for two weeks for the Easter holidays, I was transferred to teach, for those two weeks, at the Magereza Prison Nursery school. The school is located inside the Magereza Prison, where the families of convicts can live peacefully without the negative stigma in the community. I was very excited to teach here as some of my co-volunteers already taught here for weeks and raved about the kids and their wonderful personalities.

Some of the adorable faces:

              Grace       -   Montoum

              Rose       -    Georgie

    Grace + Kate   -      Angel

Our day starts every morning around 8 with an hour of play time out on the playground. A blessing, after coming from Eliroi where the kids have enough energy to tire you out in minutes. Luckily Magereza has more resources than Eliroi and the children have a swing set and slide and many somewhat inflated soccer balls.

Teacher Mzungu posing on the playground with some help of course!

Left: Daniel (our local volunteer and lifesaver as he is a walking swahili translator) poses with Furgesi under a painfully colorful umbrella one rainy morning.

Right: Teacher Elkie, a volunteer from the Eli Lilian Pharma Company, posing with some of her kiddies. On the first day.

After an hour of messy play on the muddy ground the kids (and I) are called inside for lessons. Shoes are taken off on rainy days and “neatly” placed by the door ;)

A look inside Class A, the highest class, with approximately 25-30 kids. The classrooms are a bit more spacious than Eliroi’s as this is a legitimate school building as opposed to a converted storage shed. The kids are usually taught one lesson a day alternating between english (spelling/alphabet) and Mathematics (counting/addition). Morning lessons are followed by lunch and then by another play time period.

After the Second playtime the supposedly now ‘calm’ kids are called inside once again for some activity. This day I was elected as the entertainment, reading aloud to all three classes piled into one room: the tale of Curious George. Daniel was of course there to help with whatever was lost in translation. . .