One week has passed

I have now been more than a week in the school. It feels so amazing to be going to a place where people are so enthusiastic about me being there. The kids are wonderful! I still haven't seen much of Rahat, but taking the bus every morning has been interesting every time. I try to speak with the bus drivers and they are always curious about why a Swedish is going to Rahat every day. It's still a bit difficult to explain.

I'm teaching groups with five children at the time. So far we have been introducing ourselves and I have been trying to explain where I come from and how things are in Sweden. The kids have so many questions and want to know how things are in my life. Both sides are struggling with communication, and even the most simple thing like talking about how many brothers and sisters we have is not easy. I can also see how frustrating it is not to be able to make yourself understood. It's difficult to be personal and that I wont be misunderstood. Probably the kids feel the same way, but they are helping each other to translate from Arabic to English.

Some of the hardest parts have been planning activities. It's not easy to come up with a class when you can't explain the games, meaning of words and not even tell if the kids understand me right. I would say that I didn't really expect it to be that difficult. Also I feel like it can be hard to understand some of the teachers sometimes. Everyone doesn't speak English, even though everyone is trying and really wishes to. I also struggled with expectations from the other teachers and from myself in the beginning of the week. Some of the English teachers are hoping that they will see a big improvement in the English language among the students during my time volunteering. They also hope that I will be a part of teaching the students that still can't read and write so well. That puts some pressure on me, since I'm not here as a teacher, but as a social worker I questioned if I'm really the right person for this project. After speaking with Julia during our weekly supervision she made it clear that I can't be responsible for teaching. She explained that the language is more of a tool to be able to do social work in Rahat and to work with coexistence and exchanging culture. Hearing that was a relief.

This week I also got the chance to meet up with Jamal to talk about my experience so far and to see how the organization is trying to expand. We replied emails and discussed what can be done this semester. I hope to start planning a English corner for adults in Rahat. I told the teachers and everyone is very exited and hoping that this will work out. Hearing this and seeing how some things are already changing to the better is hard to take in. I asked about a library in the beginning of the week, and Ghranema just told me that the library that is now used as a storage will be organized next week. They also ordered a new globe and maps for the school since I asked for it. This is great news! I also got to know that some of the kids in the groups are "trouble makers" and I didn't see this at all. So over all there are things that are hard and that I will have to work on. On the other hand everyone is so positive and grateful and I can see what the organization is accomplishing.

I found a globe in the libarary today. It's all in arabic, but a good way to explain where Sweden and Europe is, why it is colder there and the distance.