MONTENEGRO
ORPHANAGE EDUCATION
REPORT
By:
Emily Hill
July
8, 2005
The
small beach community of Bijela is not like anything I have ever seen back home.
It rests on the coast of
When
I worked at the home in 2004 I stayed in my own room, in a separate apartment
from the children. This year, the
caretakers put my Bosnian partner (Maida) and myself in the teenage girls’
family. At first I was apprehensive.
What about my privacy? What
about the bathroom? But after only
two days I realized what an asset it was to live with the girls.
The last time I was at the home, the girls kept to themselves and showed
no interest in working with me. This
time, we really got to know each other. Our
nights were spent watching movies or their favorite Italian soap opera in the
living room, our days were spent on the beach and all of our meals were eaten
together. We were not considered
guests we were simply a part of the family.
Each
morning we awoke around eight o’clock hoping for water.
The first week of June starts water reduction where water is only
available between six and eight in the morning and from four to six-thirty at
night…ideally. Although we tried
to have a set schedule, everyday was different than the day before.
After a quick breakfast, we had formal class.
In Bijela the older children go to school in the morning and the younger
ones have school in the afternoon. Class
usually ran for about a half-hour to forty-five minutes, depending on the
children’s schedule for the day.
Our
goal was to teach simple English. Everyday
words. Grammar and spelling was not
a priority, they would come after vocabulary.
The children enjoyed drawing the most and each day was a different theme.
Sun, sea, and beach was one day, while the next we would sing “The
Itsy-Bitsy Spider” and play Simon Says in order to teach the parts of the
body. I brought two puzzles of the
The
older children did not have formal classes.
Instead, we taught English through conversation.
I would go and sit with a few kids while Maida sat twenty yards away.
We would talk and anytime they didn’t know what I said, they ran to
Maida, asked her the translation and then ran back to me.
This way they learned English by simply repeating phrases to themselves
over and over again.
The
first year I worked at Bijela, I went with the ridiculous idea that the children
would be fluent by the time I left. But
quickly I learned that small steps are the key.
No, the children do not speak fluently, but they are speaking.
D students became C students. Two
years ago, I had one boy, Baki, who failed English in school and had to study
all summer to retake his exam to see if he could move to the next level.
We read the same paragraphs every day, and he had no idea what he read.
When I saw Baki this year, he told me he did indeed pass and is now
speaking wonderful English and is a B student.
At that moment, I realized what a difference our work at the orphanage
does. And while the goal of our trip
was to teach English, the children benefited from us in many other ways.
All
children strive to be “normal.” Being
different sets them aside and turns them into outcasts.
This is the case in Bijela. So
often the children from the home are treated differently simply because they
have no parents. No one goes to
watch them play football, no one observes dance practice, they have no one to
show off for when they are diving. However,
when Maida and I were there, they were normal kids.
We helped build their self-confidence by treating them like everybody
else. By the end of the trip, even
the shyest child felt comfortable being himself.
We were not only their teachers, but mentors as well.
The
English as a Second Language program did not only benefit the children, but the
staff at the home as well. The
caretakers trusted us with the children and felt comfortable leaving them alone
with us, giving the caretakers well-deserved breaks in the day.
The administration showed the most trust in us by taking all of the
caregivers to a two-hour meeting and leaving Maida and myself taking care of the
home. It was an honor and a
privilege to help them and to watch all of the children because it meant that
they trusted us and believed in our work.
After
I left the home, I went with TWI for camp. This
has been my forth year going, and by far the best.
Working at the orphanage transformed me from a helper to a leader.
My positive experience at the home effected every situation I was in.
Working for one month in Montenegro not only effected the lives of the
children there, but children in Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Mostar, Rama, and Trebinje
as well.
The bags were packed, night had fallen, the sea was still. I sat on the beach and looked out into the black water and up at the shining stars. It was over. The month I spent my entire year waiting for had passed. I was leaving. The silence was unsettling. I was used to sitting on the beach with childish screams and giggles as my background music and now it was only the water lapping onto the shore.
When
I arrived at the home for the first time two years earlier, the unknown stood
before me. I knew that doing work
with children required a certain kind of flexibility and I possessed it.
But you can never be prepared for what gets thrown at you.
I spent the month with the children teaching English in a classroom
setting with the younger children and on the beach with the older ones.
I never expected to have a lesson while playing with rocks on the shore.
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Updated: 10/15/2005
