School at Namumu

Towards the back end of the Namumu lot sits the orphanage's school, where approximately 280 students come for classes five days a week. The school holds classes for grades 1 through 8. The majority of the 80 children living in Namumu's dormitories attend school here (a few are old enough to walk to the school in town, a 20 minute trip). The other 200 or so students that attend the school live in the surrounding villages with their families.

There are a handful of dedicated teachers that teach in the four Namumu classrooms. I had the opportunity to meet with the teachers a number of times last summer. They are all well-educated and bright. 

There are many students to a room and things are a bit tight, but nobody seems to mind. They are well-behaved and attentive. Except for, that is, when white guys with cameras walk around taking pictures. Then they get distracted. Other than that they're little angels.

Group work.

Upon visiting the school one day I was handed the chalk and given an opportunity to teach in a 3rd grade class. As a former high school physics teacher I decided to center my lesson around some of my favorite topics: the mathematics of Einstein's theory of general relativity, super-string theory and quantum mechanics. Based on the children's responses I decided to switch it up and go with basic addition and subtraction instead.