they will marriage

Spoken English class began this week to mixed results. At first, teaching the hostel boys in the morning was disastrous. There was about 40 of them, and they all live together in the hostel so I think their testosterone is above average. Whatever it was, I could not calm down the classroom, ended up punishing several and sending one kid out of the classroom.

Teaching the girls in the afternoon is like night to the boy's day. Initially, my co-teacher Kathryn and I were teaching the whole group together (about 20 girls and 20 boys). Yesterday, however, we seperated the boys and girls and attacked each group seperately. When we instructed the boys to go in a different room, a bunch of girls started cheering. I completely sympathized. The girls in spoken English are mostly girls from 9b, the "smart" girls class. Needless to say they are VERY enthusiastic, standing up and raising their hand for every question and calling out "teacher, teacher." One girl, Mili, who is very bright, tall, and confident, put her head on her desk when I passed her over and called on someone else.

"Teacher I am crying!" she said, and pretended to wipe tears from her eyes. For the rest of the class whenever I called on someone else she would fake blubber and say "Teacher I am crying! I am crying!" I couldn't help but laugh.

In class we gave the students paper and pencils and told them to draw their "favorite things." The boys had a hard time understanding this- many of them drawing the exact same thing (popular items included bicicles, flowers, elephants, and mango trees). On boy, however, drew a picture of a pretty girl. When I walked by to look at his paper, another boy said "it is you!"

The next day we had them introduce themselves and explain their drawing.

When we got to the boy, he said "I draw girl."

Kathryn then prompted him, "And why did you draw a girl?"

He paused and mumbled, "I draw girl. There is boy... They will marriage."

Everyone laughed and the boy looked very embarassed. After class, though, as I was leaving he ran up to me with a bunch of other boys crowded around.

"This is for you!" he said, handing me the picture. "It is you!"