Goodbye, Zenica

Sezam ended Friday and it was very sad. We organized it so we had some time with our classes but also combined the three classes into an Olympics type event for part of the time. Several kids brought us gifts including the traditional flowers given to teachers at the end of school.

We asked the oldest ones to write feedback (in English or Bosnian) and it looks like they had a lot of fun, although several from Deivid and my class complained that we did too much writing.

Here’s a run down of some of the more successful activities that emerged over the course of the four weeks:

Musical chairs was a huge hit, especially with the youngest class, and it really is hilarious to watch. During the Olympics we did musical chairs with all three classes, and I joined in for a few games – it is fun!

The mural on the side of the school was fun to do and turned out beautifully. A lot of credit really goes to Deivid for envisioning the project and making it happen. Our kids also enjoyed doing water colors in class one day.

For the oldest kids, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, a little competition really got their juices flowing. We would ask them to draw and write about a creative subject (their dream vehicle on transportation day, favorite location, etc) and then each would present their work to the class for a score from the teachers. Some of the quieter kids talked quite a bit when we did this, and it gave us the opportunity to correct their work and prompt them to push further with one-on-one instruction while they were drawing and writing. Despite the complaints that we did too much writing, they really seemed to like this activity. And on the second-to-last day, when towards the end of class we had them create an advertising poster for a product of their choice (tennis balls, roller skates, shampoo were among their choices), they complained that we didn’t have time for them to talk about their projects.

We tried a few improv activities with the older two classes. This included asking them to act out animals, modes of transportation or places around town, and more. The oldest class was best at it. When we removed some of the structure and did the “freeze” game (anyone can freeze the scene, tap one of the two actors, and resume with a different scene from the same physical position) only a few participated. They did really enjoy “what are you doing” (in a circle, each person asks the person on their left in turn “what are you doing” and then must pantomime the response”) partly because they could make their classmates do funny things like “I’m smelling my foot.”

When we played jeopardy, pictionary, and other semi-competitive team games, we got a chance to address the issue of being positive towards struggling teammates and towards the other team. I think some of the message got to them, but not completely. We also had to address a little bit of cheating.

The biggest success in terms of activities was also our greatest challenge. The older two classes absolutely loved loved loved the game “Honey I Love You” and we also taught the older class a less-violent version of Mafia. However, they liked both of these games so much that they would ask for the entire class to play them, distracting the class from other activities. The games were a little too popular. It did work well to promise them they could play after they did, say, a writing activity, or if they were good at the end of class. It was really wonderful when one day our middle class, after playing Honey I Love You 5 minutes past the end of class, resumed playing in the schoolyard.

Overall I had a great time with the kids and adults I met in Zenica. I learned so much from everyone and it was an incredible experience.

A few tidbits

I just saw a t-shirt that said ''I'm Muslim, Don't be Afraid.''

People chain smoke here, and when they go to a café they might have 3-4 cigarettes over one little cup of coffee. So I’ve noticed that waiters do more work bringing fresh ashtrays than drinks.

I get a kick out of seeing couples walking around with the man carrying his girlfriend’s purse.

I am constantly amused by the random old American songs that play on the radio or TV.

The calls to prayer near my house have recently been accentuated by the howls of a dog. My host mom jokes that the dog is praying. (Well, she pantomimes.)

Most showers here are a messy combination of a loose showerhead and no shower curtain, so it has been a challenge not to create puddles on the bathroom floor every time I shower.

TV programs show a lot more nudity than in the US, but I was still surprised when a Croatian gossip show aired close-ups from a club of some celebrity’s cocaine-damaged nose. I can’t imagine that being aired on an American gossip show, but then, I’ve never actually watched one.

Lessons

As I write this entry hail is pounding furiously against the windows of my room (and on anyone/thing unlucky enough to be caught outside). I think I now know exactly what it would be like to live inside a rainstick. Every few minutes a bolt of lightning contributes its lagged crash to the cacophony. So much for going to the pool today...

We (the students from Swarthmore and William & Mary) just wrapped up our weekly check-in meeting with Sezam. We use these meetings to talk about what's going well, share any problems we're encountering, and collectively some up with possible solutions. The general consensus was that things are going well and a lot of the kinks from the first two weeks have been smoothed out. As for me, I am happy with how the students and I are getting to know each other better. Andrew and I have a great time talking with the kids both in and outside of school, and we have gotten better at predicting how our three classes will respond to different activities.

The kids are much more likely to try on their own to communicate in English than they were three weeks ago. This may just be because we no longer have translators in the classrooms, but I would like to believe that it is also because they are more confident. Truly, after watching us Americans struggle with Bosnian, they could not fail to feel better about their own proficiency in English. Their new favorite word to tease me with is tvrđava (fortress). Yes, that would be four consonants in a row. And no, not one of them is silent.

The only really serious problem we have run into with the kids is an increase in the amount of teasing going on, especially in our oldest classes. Since the majority, if not all, of this has been across genders rather than within, Andrew and I split up the class (guy group and girl group) at the end of the day on Tuesday to talk about it. After the discussions we asked them to write down their opinions of the class so far, what activities they liked and didn't like, and any suggestions they had. Our students "like when we lern new words", "hate to play football", "love play foodball", "like pizza", "hate when boys teez girls", "want to do more music" and most of all "HATE the game Honey I Love You". So, Andrew and I have started to do more music and activities that involve running around (but aren't football). Since the discussions and subsequent reformatting of our lessons, the classroom atmosphere has gotten a lot better. Musical chairs and a Scavenger Hunt were big hits, and could be used as incentives to complete a less intrinsically fun task (like translating song lyrics). If they knew that a Scavenger Hunt was coming up after a creative writing exercise, they spent less time resisting us and teasing each other.

Last weekend we all traveled to Mostar, a city about 3 1/2 hours south of Zenica. I was blown away by how beautiful it was. Cobblestone streets, white stone buildings and lots of lovely bridges over the Neretva river. And so old! A fortress in the nearby town Počitelj was built in the 1300s. Very very cool.

I wish I had some very very cool pictures to go along with this, but I stupidly did not bring a camera with me. So that's lesson #247 I've learned on this trip: always bring a camera. It's right up there with #6: some bathrooms are BYOTP, and #51: it is physically impossible to go through a full day of teaching without getting a) chalk, b) glue, c) glitter, d) marker, or e) all of the above... all over one's pants. Live and learn, right?

Happy 4th Everyone; I hope your fireworks don't get interrupted by a hailstorm.

Photoblog

Half way there already?!!!

Thurs,June 26, 6pm

Again, I'm writing this at home and I'll post it when I get online tomorrow afternoon.

Teaching is going well, although it can be tiring. Deivid and I have the youngest groups during the 3 sessions, first 5-7 year olds, then about 10, then about 12. Our youngest group can be a little wild, and the oldest boys can also get wild, while the middle group is the easiest in terms of classroom control but in some ways the most challenging for coming up with activities (they are too young for some drama games and writing activities, too old for songs). These are rough ages; in the middle and last classes we've got 3 sisters 10-12 and 11-12. The middle class sisters are shy and less proficient at English while the three in the last class are our best English speakers (and one of them, our biggest show off). Some of the kids are really quite good at English while others struggle, and some are just shy. One of the most valuable things about this program, though, is to overcome shyness and insecurities about their English abilities and give them a fun and encouraging environment to just practice speaking, as opposed to the grammar drills and such that occur during the school year in their English classes.

Deivid and I do a bit of fun review and reinforcement along with the new vocabulary we try to introduce each day. So, for example, today (Thursday) we did jeopardy with the oldest group, going over places around town, modes of transportation, some of the international stuff we've covered on Wednesdays, and some spelling. With the youngest group we showed them some pictures and had them tell us what they were. I'm also quite fond of singing songs with the youngest group, to go along with body parts they know Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and Hokey Pokey, and today we added If You're Happy and You Know It, and for directional words I taught them The Wheels on the Bus.

To encourage the older ones to talk for longer, we have done a few individual competitive games with them as well as some of the group games and competitions. It seems to work really well with the oldest class, particularly the quieter boys, to ask them to draw a picture of something and then have a contest for describing it (who can talk the longest and most properly). We've done this on "transportation" day with their imaginary cars, and on "around the town/places" day with their favorite (real or imagined) location. Competition does seem to get the quiet ones talking a little more, but I worry about the balance between scoring fairly and discouraging the ones who talk more than they usually do but still come out among the last, which is especially noticeable with the overt scoring system of us putting numbers on the board.

Lisa and I teamed up to do Ghana for international day yesterday and finally hit that inevitable moment where something in one language evokes giggles due to its meaning in another language. I covered some facts about Ghana while Lisa, who takes African dance, taught a few lines of a song and a few dance steps. It turned out that the name of the song/dance, "Kaki Lombe," sounded like the bosnian phrase for "shit town," causing especially the 9-13 year old boys to giggle. It took several classes for someone to tell us why they were so amused.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Besides school, it's been quite hot, in the 90s. I've fallen into a routine of waking up around 7:15 to eat oatmeal and prepare a snack (fruit, sandwich of bread and cheese) for school and take on the 20+ minute walk in the growing heat, teach from 8:15 until 1:15, go out for coffee or ice cream and plan the next day, head to the library for internet access and reading material (The Economist! Novels! Things I never had time for at Swat.). I get home around 4pm for the big meal of the day, which is nice to have earlier in the day. After the meal I read, but in this heat I've been dosing off. Many nights we meat for "coffee" (Bosnian terminology, I can't handle it that late in the day but I'm happy to have beer/"pivo" or fresh squeezed lemonade, served unsweetened and with sugar on the side).

As for the food, I've been loving pie ("pita"), especially burek, which is the mince meat pie. Pita is meat, cheese, squash, or another filling inside of narrow tubes of dough rolled into a coil or served in strips. I've also been served fish sticks, brocoli, and fried eggplant with feta, olive oil, and of course bread and salad of tomatoes peppers and cucumbers; some sort of meat, beans, mushrooms dish today with a miniature burek and of course bread and salad; mushroom cream soup or mushrooms with risotto and of course bread and salad.....Last Sunday we went out to Zenica's best Cevapi (chevapi) place. Cevapi are little meat patties served with delicious fresh bread (in a naan-like form) and onion, usually ordered along with salad and drinkable yogurt (which helps with the onion breath). Around 8 or 9pm my host mom has a snack of bread, cheese, and oil, and/or fruit, and/or ice cream, and/or a small amount of leftovers from dinner, and I join her if I'm around or hungry.

Last week we went out to see Turkey-Croatia in the Eurocup quarters. We went to a little microbrewery that served beer with a hoppy flavor, which I really appreciated given that the regional beers are rather poor lagers. The place is apparently quite crowded during the winter, but it's got none of the outdoor seating that is so popular in the summer, so few people were there. Croatia is none too popular in Bosnia, while Turkey is loved (the Turks ruled the Balkans for a long, long time), so the last-minute way in which the game was decided for Turkey caused much horn-honking and some firecracker explosions, similar, actually, to the reaction of my hometown fans in Boston when our teams win big games.

Last night and tonight (Wed and Thurs) are the Eurocup semis so there are big screens set up at cafes/bars to watch the games. Turkey-Germany was last night and I was in a very small minority rooting for Germany. However, apparently due to storms in Austria (hosting the cup), the signal was dropped 3 times. The first time the game remained 1-1. The second time the signal resumed, they were just showing a replay of a Turkey goal, and the cafe went crazy, but I waited for the score to reappear onscreen. Everyone slouched when it turned out to be not 2-1 Turkey but tied at 2; it was quite amusing. Then just after Germany scored in the final minutes to make it 3-2 the signal went out and when it returned the German team was celebrating onscreen. A little anticlimactic but an amusing incident.

Last anecdote - Alma, one of the hosts and a translator for us, commented to me the other day over one of her 3-4 coffee dates that day that us Americans were very cheap. The comment was inspired by several Americans' reluctance to buy coffee (1-1.5 KM) at one of our once or twice daily coffee dates. I thought about this and explained to her that it must be a cultural difference. Americans don't have the same quality of coffee and when we drink it, we either make it at home or go grab a solitary cup en route to somewhere or with our laptops at Starbucks, while Bosnians make several coffee dates with friends throughout the day and night. So it is just a natural part of daily life and budgeting for them, while some Americans coming to Bosnia didn't consider that they would spend $2 a day on the social norm and are reluctant, despite our country's comparative wealth, to adjust their budgets accordingly, especially with our student bank accounts. She agreed with this assessment and added that while she has no bank account and only X KM in her possession, of course she'd buy coffee and so will everyone else in Bosnia; it's a cultural difference both in social custom and attitude towards saving money.

week one

Zdravo! (That's "hello!" for all of you non-Bosnians). Here's a little of what's been going on at my škola so far:

Andrew and I co-teach three classes, each with about a dozen students. Our first class has eight and nine year-olds, the second has ten and eleven year-olds, and the third has twelve and thirteen year-olds. This means that, in general, as the day progresses so do the English language skills of the kids we see. However, individual levels of English vary greatly, even among children of the same age. In each of our classes there are kids who know only a few words and also kids who can hold lengthy conversations.

Our lessons this week followed the theme of "people". This incorporated introductions and basic conversation (Monday), occupations (Tuesday), and emotions/characteristics (Thursday). We also had international day on Wednesday and Holiday Friday. For these days the three classrooms were different countries and holidays, and the students rotated through them. This was great for us teachers because we got to meet all of the kids at the school.

So far I am really impressed with them all. They are (mostly) very enthusiastic and have been encouraging and friendly towards each other. I was most surprised by their knowledge of geography and political history, given the lack of my own at their ages. Name any large country and even the youngest ones can probably tell you its capital.

On the other hand, their cultural knowledge seems to be largely based on what they have seen on TV, especially for the youngest kids. For example, when we asked what they knew about Malaysia, one child said that people live in the rainforest, believe in spirits and ghosts, wear traditional clothes, and eat off of banana leaves. While this is certainly true of some people in Malaysia (mainly, the communities featured by National Geographic), it is not very representative of the country.

As you may have guessed by now, for international day my classroom was Malaysia. After opening with a traditional indigenous dance, Andrew, who is from Malaysia, talked a little about the different ethnicities and religions found there. This provoked a small discussion in some of the oldest classes about the situation in Bosnia. Students said that among young people, everyone is friends with everyone else, regardless of their cultural or religious identity. Some had gone over to their friends' houses for Bajram (Eid, an Islamic holiday) and Christmas. I have heard similar things from other people I have spoken to in Zenica. While I was happy to hear this, it's hard to tell after only one week whether these opinions are held by most people and whether they are reflected in actual friendship groups.

My students haven't been the only ones learning this week. I have also been (trying to) learn a foreign language, along with a different way of life. I love the late lunches (3:00 pm) and ubiquitous coffee shops, but I still can't quite get used to the cars driving on the sidewalks.

The biggest thing I have learned is that teaching involves a lot of improvisation. We go in each day with fairly detailed plans, which we inevitably diverge from once we actually begin. As someone who delights in weekly schedules and color-coded spreadsheets, this has been a bit of a challenge for me. Luckily, Andrew is very good at thinking on his feet. I have also frequently used a list of games and activities I made earlier this summer as a cheatsheet for when our planned activity isn't going over well or doesn't take as long as we expect it to.

Another challenge has been engaging all of the students all of the time. As I mentioned earlier, we have a range of skills in every class. Additionally, as is the case everywhere, there are a few kids in our classes who have difficulty sitting still or focusing on one task for more than a few minutes. Andrew and I have therefore made sure to integrate plenty of games, skits, arts and crafts, and songs into our lessons. We try to break up instruction into small chunks, always using a fun activity or two for the kids to actively use vocabulary before we move on to the next topic or set of vocab. Of course, this has its advantages for us teachers as well!

Looking forward to week dva...

Life in Zenica

Monday, June 16, 5:30pm

I’m writing my first blog entry from my apartment and I’ll post it from an internet café tomorrow or Wednesday, as unlike the other 3 Swatties, my home stay does not have internet at the moment. That’s one of my excuses for posting less frequently and not posting pictures, but I also want to settle in and see things with my eyes before I take out the camera.

Zenica, by the way, is pronounced Zenizza (rhymes with pizza). The c in Serbo-Croat is a “tz” sound.

I visited Bosnia for 3 days during my semester abroad in Vienna in the fall of 2006 and went to Sarajevo and Mostar, so my first impressions here are colored by comparisons of Sarajevo and Mostar in 2006 to Zenica in 2008.

The first big thing I’ve noticed is that prices are up, and Zenica is cheaper than Sarajevo. This is partly because of the weakness of the dollar, but the Bosnian Convertible Mark (KM, pronounced “keim” in conersation) is tied to the Euro at a rate of about .59. Although this has stabilized the mark, it has also created some inflation as the Euro has soared, which does exports little good and raises prices here.

The cost of food is up around the world, of course, but my host mother says food is among the things that have gotten most noticeably more expensive here just in the last two to three years (some Bosnians say as much as 50%). A meal at a restaurant is still cheaper than in the States, but more than when I was here in September 2006. For lunch today I had a small but filling plate of Cevapi for 3 KM, and the very strong but small espressos are 1 KM, as are modest scoops of ice cream. Bureks (a coiled pastry filled with mince meat, potato, or spinach) are 1.30 – 1.50 KM.

And although you might think of Bosnia as impoverished, or poorer than Western Europe and the US, Zenica is home to a variety of stores that would strain my comfortable American budget for shoes, clothing, purses, etc. (Again, it’s more expensive than I remember.) Some stores line the main streets of town center, and the three-month-old shopping mall (“Centar”) is the largest in all of BiH. Unlike stores on the street, stores in the mall are open on Sundays, making it a popular destination for shoppers, window gazers, and coffee drinkers yesterday. (The ratio of coffee shops to stores in the mall is high for the US or Western Europe; about 1 to 3.)

A stroll around the mall yesterday had me raising my eyebrows at prices, and there were plenty of name brand Italian designer products. So much for cheap shopping, thanks dollar! It was fun anyway. I went with Robyn, a William + Mary student, and her host sister, Amina, who is about 10 and speaks great English. Amina was adorable, translating for us in stores (“we are just looking,” “do you have it in brown,” etc.), complaining about how some young Bosnian women wear too much makeup, and telling us how excited she was for Monday and the beginning of Sezam. This will be her third year with Sezam.

And many of the home stays have internet, which is spreading to more and more homes, and costs about 30 KM a month, according to Deivid’s host mother. Most people also have TVs, which get a variety of channels, among them Bosnian, Slovenian, German, and English (CNN International, MTV, National Geographic, Animal Planet, the latter three with Bosnian subtitles). The Eurocup is huge right now, and the NBA finals are broadcast on a local channel live at 3am with Bosnian announcers. (Go Green! Win soon so I can stop waking up in the middle of the night.)

So prices are up and there are plenty of luxury goods familiar to our American eyes, but as with everywhere, there are those who cannot afford them, and those who cannot afford them but indulge anyway. One of the Sezam employees complained that enrollment in the school program is down this summer, partly because, I paraphrase, “some people value buying clothes over an education.” There is also the clash of the young and the old, the older generation preferring to shop at the butcher, the vegetable stand, etc, while a largely younger crowd goes to the newer shopping malls and larger grocery stores. This is a struggle familiar to many other European cities as supermarkets crowd out specialty shops, something that happened in the US much longer ago.

One similarity between Zenica and Sarajevo and Mostar is the geography of the cities. They are set in valleys, so that rising from the center of the cities are gorgeous green hills dotted with rooftops. Deivid’s picture from the other day captures this nicely. Zenica is built on the river Bosna, with most of the city lying to the southwest of the river according to the map I got at the Hotel International. The mall and a nice green park lie to the northeast in one of the hooks of the winding river.

As I mentioned before, coffee shops abound, both in the mall, along the central streets, and pretty much everywhere. Several streets downtown seem to be solely coffee shops with the occasional restaurant, store, or internet café. It’s been cold and rainy, but as the weather gets warmer I expect we’ll see larger crowds at the coffee shops, where there are both normal tables and chairs and comfortable swings to sit in. Coffee is the nexus of social life here, with people meeting in the home and in shops at all hours to have an espresso or Bosnian style coffee.

So that’s a partial picture of day-to-day life in Zenica.