interviews, hiring, teaching

In only 5 days of working at St. Andrew’s I’ve experienced so much it is nearly unbelievable. Today, for instance, I interviewed and hired a man who will teach our teen math and science class. Before I went into the interview Dick asked me if I wanted him there, but I felt prepared for it and it went so well! Like I said before, we almost always hire experienced and/or professional refugees as our teachers. They need the jobs, they understand the children, and they care so much about the ministry. I had a list of questions for the prospective teacher and walked him through our policies, procedures and duties. Now he’s on a 3-month probationary period and I will observe and evaluate his performance to determine if he will be permanently hired for the rest of the year.
I also taught a class today! One of our teachers called in sick, and without the great sub system we have in the US, we have to improvise. Henry, my assistant, stepped in before I even arrived at work, and then I let him go and jumped right in! Today the students were studying Parts of Speech—nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. It was such a blast to teach this group of kids. I can’t pronounce more than two of their names (and forget them as soon as they are said because they are so different) but they welcomed me into the class. I found myself improvising well and making the lesson engaging and funny. Maybe teaching is a good idea for my future…
Last week I had the opportunity to sit in on student interviews for the adult program. In the conference room sits Ahmed (the translator) and an interviewer. We bring in prospective students and ask them questions. We ask for identification (a green card is especially helpful) and discover what they want to learn, how much education they have had thus far in life, how they arrived in Egypt (and if they have gone home since arriving) and a bit regarding “when did your troubles begin?” I listened to one applicant after another tell stories about the mistreatment and abuse in Sudan, their current struggles, and their desire to get an education here so they can move on in life.