Education Study Project in the Montenegro Orphanage
The purpose of this page is to provide a journal of the activities of the American volunteer and her Bosnian Partner while at the Orphanage in Montenegro.
Report from the Montenegro Orphanage
Tuesday, May 27, 2003 2:36 PM
From:
Emily & Melisa in Montenegro
Melisa and I just wanted to send a quick note about what we are doing and how things are coming. so far the teaching has been good. it's about as hard as I imagined, but a lot of fun too. so far our day looks like this: kindergarten at 9:00, where today we taught them 'hi' 'bye' and we colored a picture of a bunny and taught them 'eyes' 'ears' and 'nose.' they were so cute! When they were leaving, one boy, Semir, came running back into the room to give us a hug and kiss. Some of them caught on really quickly, which is really impressive for kids at such a young age.
At 11:30 we had 3rd
grade, which was awesome. they were the most
interested and grasped everything, so they may become our core group
(grades 1-3 don't go to school until 1:00). In the afternoon we have two groups
of older kids. They didn't seem as interested, but when they found out
that I was trying to learn their language, they seemed more willing to learn
mine, maybe it's because I'm struggling too, who knows?
The kids are really
great though, very sweet, and very well behaved. This week we plan on
teaching the older kids parts of the body via
"Simon Says" and then teach them
some English through
songs, until the
school year is over. The kids are
pretty busy, so I think most of the English will be helping them
on what they
are learning in school. The good thing though, is that they are now saying
'hi' when I walk by instead of 'dobar dan' which makes me happy.
A lot of the older kids said they would like to learn
English
via games. We plan on playing "Simon
says", charades,
pictionary, etc,
but do you have any ideas of games that work? Believe me, any thoughts are
helpful.
> Hope all is well with you,
10 June 2003
Dear TWI:
Melisa and I
were afraid of what kind of expectations you may have about our progress because
in our first email we were sooo ambitious as to what we could
accomplish. After a couple of days we realized a few things: First, the older
kids don't know English. The
director wants spontaneous interaction so we don't have a classroom or a set
time to work with which is both good in some ways and bad in others.
But, we have
made some progress. Some of the teens have sought us out to practice
English -- lots like to sit with me and talk using Melisa to translate words
only after multiple tries of figuring them out. This way they learn about what
they're interested in and get to hear the language. Every night and afternoon we
hang out with the children and play games or swim, which teaches them English,
but they don't realize that they're learning it. Some children stop us in the
hallway to practice reading, even when they don't need to for school, which is
great.
We realized
that we haven't made vast strides, but we have collected small victories.
While we didn't turn
failing students into "A" students , we have
turned failing students into passing students. We've sparked an interest in most
of the children either in learning English or bits of culture. For example,
we're teaching one group " itsy bitsy spider" and somehow the song
spread throughout the home and every child either hums along, tries to sing or
does the movements.
As for our
younger ones, we're really proud of them, the preschool
especially. 
They're all very sweet and learning quickly. We are both
really excited for you to meet them because you will love them. They are leaning
the words we are teaching and they are picking up other words from conversations
as well. We are mainly teaching them animals and coloring everyday and no
matter where we are, if they see us , we get and enthusiastic, "HI".
Speaking of
which, they really do love us here and we l
ove them. The children
told us we need to stay for a few months, the assistant director does not want
us to leave, and the caretakers are hoping to marry me off and only allow
me to visit the States on holidays. We are the most wanted people here and
something as simple as going to the beach takes 20 minutes because everyone
stops us.
On the surface
it doesn't look like we have done much, but we are really proud of the children
and will miss
them a lot when we leave. Also some children are leaving this week
to see their families , so we are already starting our goodbyes and we are sorry
you will not be able to meet them.
While we are
so excited to see you, it also means that our stay is over, which
makes us so sad. After our first week we were no longer guests, but fixtures
here, which makes it really hard to say goodbye.
Emily and Melisa
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