{"id":734,"date":"2022-10-06T14:15:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T14:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/?p=734"},"modified":"2022-10-25T21:37:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T21:37:13","slug":"05-the-routinized-chaos-of-union-academique-de-kitindi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/?p=734","title":{"rendered":"05. The Routinized Chaos of Union Acad\u00e9mique de Kitindi"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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05. The Routinized Chaos of Union Acad\u00e9mique de Kitindi<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Last Friday, I finished my fourth week of teaching at Union Academique de Kitindi. It\u2019s been an interesting time to say the least. Like many things in Congo, our local school is full of contradictions. It has set structures, rules, and procedures, but these are constantly met by breaches, compromise, and, sometimes, counterproductive enforcement. In the end, you learn to expect the unexpected every day, which sounds a bit contradictory but describes the experience quite well. Below I share a description of our typical school day. Ultimately, despite its rules and procedures, messiness is immediately introduced when these are put into practice, and the result is not quite anarchy but a structure that I\u2019ve found daily permits a lot of chaos.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Every morning at Union Academique de Kitindi starts about the same. Our school consists of several single-story buildings surrounding a central yard, altogether measuring about an acre. The first class period begins at 7:30, but students are expected to arrive in advance for assembly in the yard. They all line up according to grade, and, except for Friday, all of them wear the school uniform: a white collared shirt and either navy blue pants or a navy blue skirt. Around 7:20, a single student breaks rank and leads the group in singing some basic Christian song\u2014very frequently it is this pretty catchy and very repetitive song linked here<\/a><\/span>, which talks about the Word of God never passing away and can literally repeat forever (the video is 17 minutes long but you get the idea after about 30 seconds). After the song, the leader calls for all the students to drop their backpacks, stand to attention, and sing <\/span>l\u2019hymne nationale<\/span>, which they do a capella while facing the flagpole that may or may not bear a flag on a given morning. Next, the students are addressed by their collective names, <\/span>primaire d\u2019Union Acad\u00e9mique<\/span> for primary school or <\/span>secondaire d\u2019Union Academique<\/span>, for secondary school. The response is the mass of students chanting their school motto which translates to \u201cOwnership, Punctuality, Politeness, Consistency, and Collaboration.\u201d Finally, they must greet the principal, who may deliver a brief morning message and then dismiss them to their respective classrooms.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The whistle blows at 7:30 for the first period, students head to their classes, and then begins the chaos. They leave the assembly area walking orderly\u2014marching even\u2014but within several paces of the classroom door, some grades break into a mad dash. I teach the ninth graders three days a week, and there are hardly ever enough desks in the classroom for everybody. So the students race, scramble, and push to get the first seats, while the others are sent off to find desks elsewhere and carry them across school grounds to our classroom. This week, I noticed that the school has hired some carpenters to build new desks, but up until now, this has been a a daily phenomenon\u2014for the first five minutes of class, I\u2019d have to break up disputes and direct groups of two to four students as they carried several three-person desks into the classroom just so everyone could have a seat. After this daily routine, I start teaching. Or at least I try to.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The English program at this school has suffered a lot. They have never had a native English speaker, and they have rarely had someone with a college education, not to mention English proficiency (remember, for most people here, English is their third or fourth language). Last year, the teacher left mid-year, and the school couldn\u2019t find a replacement. For all these reasons, they are glad to have Henri and me, but it\u2019s made our job difficult. In theory, the students should be at different levels, but there are still many basic things the kids don\u2019t know, including the seniors who have to take the National Exam at the end of the year. So Henri and I have had to be creative. We didn\u2019t feel we could effectively follow the textbooks we were given that correspond with each grade, so we\u2019re using the books and other resources to create our own curricula, trying to meet the students where they are and push them as best as we can. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The daily chaos of teaching here doesn\u2019t make things easy though. Most students arrive and line up on time at assembly, but it\u2019s usually only 65 to 75% of them. The rest show up throughout the day. Whenever a student enters my classroom late, they routinely stop in the doorway, gently clapping or tapping their bag twice to announce their arrival. This formality is cool to see, but usually I’m too frustrated that my lesson has been interrupted to appreciate it. I impatiently gesture for them to enter the room and continue teaching. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve taught a day here where a student or several didn\u2019t show up late\u2014once I taught for two periods straight and a student arrived in the last ten minutes of the second period! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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I\u2019ve also come to expect daily interruptions in accordance with school or national policies. Once, some men working for the government came and counted all the boys and girls I had in the classroom. Every other day, I get a visit from the director of discipline. He is very amicable with me, but the kids fear him. He patrols around the school, visiting classrooms to perform routine checks and to ensure rules are followed. One time, he came in and confiscated two pieces of jewelry (it violates the dress code). A different day, he came in to find students who had been absent a previous day. He called them out of the room to do manual labor on the school grounds, something that is required of each student for one hour a week but is also sometimes used as a punishment. Another time, he came in and asked where the students\u2019 tools were. It was their day for mandatory manual labor, but most of them hadn\u2019t brought their machetes or shovels from home. He insisted that those lacking tools go home to get them. As they left, leaving me with just 20% of a classroom, I called out to them that they should come back to class when they return, because we had two periods together that day. They ended up coming back about thirty minutes later with twenty minutes still remaining to learn. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Other difficulties: many students don\u2019t pay on time, many students won\u2019t do their homework, and some students don\u2019t understand French so well (it\u2019s a language used primarily in administrative settings, including school, but is easily avoided at home or among friends in favor of a local language). All of these contribute to the messiness of teaching in a place like this, where certain structures like payment plans, attendance, and rules of conduct are provided for but face mixed adherence and effectiveness. They also make it difficult to assess and educate students. Nonetheless, we persist. And I can happily report that despite the difficulties, it\u2019s clear most students are making progress, and I\u2019m excited to see how much they grow by June!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Me and most of my 12th graders<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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I will be an unpaid volunteer teacher at Union Academique de Kitindi for the 2022-23 academic year. Please consider giving as you are able by clicking the button below or adressing a check to International Berean Ministries and including my name on the memo line. Donations cover room, board, and travel expenses.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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International Berean Ministries<\/span><\/p>

PO Box 88311<\/span><\/p>

Kentwood, MI 49518-0311<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Last Friday, I finished my fourth week of teaching at Union Academique de Kitindi. It\u2019s been an interesting time to say the least. Like many things in Congo, our local school is full of contradictions. It has set structures, rules, and procedures, but these are constantly met by breaches, compromise, and, sometimes, counterproductive enforcement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[22,23,29,21],"class_list":["post-734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-congo","tag-drc","tag-english","tag-kitindi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=734"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":780,"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions\/780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kwabene.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}