saturday english classes are supposed to be especially fun. my goal is to get the students out of the classroom and into various settings to practice different kinds of vocabulary. i plan to take them to the market one day, to the beach, to my house (once i have one) etc. this past saturday in cotonou, i had a small group, only 8 students. so i "splurged" and took them to the ice cream shop around the corner.
we looked at the menu and discussed different items in english. we went to the ice cream counter to say all the different flavors in english. we discussed how we don't "put" water in a glass, but "pour" it. i told the students they could each order one scoop of ice cream (800 cfa, or about $1.75 a pop), my treat. half the kids wanted to be like me, and ordered the exact same thing.
for the last 30 minutes of class i asked the "kids" to take 3 minutes to reflect on how God had blessed them in the past week, something they could share (in english) with the rest of the group. one student said, "God has blessed me this week with the opportunity to go where i have never gone and to eat what i have never eaten." he had never had ice cream. wow.
3 comments:
Lau,
Hope that feels good. You introduced at least one person the to beauty of ice cream. I wonder if those plastic balls that you throw and make homemade ice cream would work for you there...I think all you need is cream, sugar, flacoring and rock salt. Can you get rock salt?
Do they have similar flavors there? What were some unususal ones?
I hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving. I remember my first thanksgiving in Africa it was a little challenging explaining the first thanksgiving and the meal with the Indians and then how we treated them later...good luck with that one!
haven't seen any rock salt here...
ice cream is easy to come by, it's just not cheap. the flavors seem to have more of a fruit emphasis than a chocolate one... i still go for the chocolate ones, though :)
just wanted you to know that i'm currently living vicariously through you!!!
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