Every Wednesday, I go to the Women's Center. This is a place where women who are lonely housewives or widows or former prostitutes or tired mothers come to get a way to earn money for themselves. The women meet Tuesday-Thursday mornings at the UCBC Language Institute - a house that is owned by the school downtown. Some women attend classes and some just come for the fellowship. They all come together and make craft projects which we transport to the US to sell to help build them their own place and to give them a little money of their own. The women make cloth bracelets, pot holders, and paper bead necklaces to name a few. They sing as they work and it usually brings tears to my eyes.
I come on Wednesday mornings to give them a devotional and teach them some English. I teach them in Swahili and it has been great practice for me to become conversational quickly. I prepare my lessons on Tuesday and my Swahili teacher looks over it to make sure that I am grammatically correct. Then, on Wednesday I teach the ladies the lesson and then usually a song in English. I use a lot of little kid songs, because it is easier for me to explain to them in Swahili what the words mean. This last week, I taught them the chicken dance and they were laughing uncontrollably. I tried to explain that we do this dance at weddings or parties and they thought it was hilarious!
I've uploaded a video of the women at the center that my friend Angie made when she was here working with the women: http://www.flickr.com/photos/belgiumpostmods
I come on Wednesday mornings to give them a devotional and teach them some English. I teach them in Swahili and it has been great practice for me to become conversational quickly. I prepare my lessons on Tuesday and my Swahili teacher looks over it to make sure that I am grammatically correct. Then, on Wednesday I teach the ladies the lesson and then usually a song in English. I use a lot of little kid songs, because it is easier for me to explain to them in Swahili what the words mean. This last week, I taught them the chicken dance and they were laughing uncontrollably. I tried to explain that we do this dance at weddings or parties and they thought it was hilarious!
I've uploaded a video of the women at the center that my friend Angie made when she was here working with the women: http://www.flickr.com/photos/belgiumpostmods
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