English Class

Four afternoons a week (Monday – Thursday) we have an English class for the hospital staff. We start at 3:30 and go till 4:45 or 5:00. Charles, who is pictured somewhere in the depths of this blog with Dr. Mano, is the main teacher. Tom, Lauren and I have been taking turns going, so none of us go every day, but it’s always good for at least one of us to be there to help with pronunciation and conversation practice. If I’m not helping with the whiteboard, I usually sit among the students and listen, repeating stuff for them, helping them practice, or offering suggestions to Charles. Sometimes he needs a little help. It’s fun to do this because I get to practice Lingala sometimes too, and often my friend Elena will come to class and sit with me.

When I'm feeling well, and have the time to go, I really enjoy English class because it’s great to get to spend time with a large portion of the staff all at one time – and we laugh a lot. You wouldn't believe the funny things people say and the way they say them! I’m actually learning to understand French better this way because Charles teaches partly in French, and uses it to explain grammar concepts. It would be extremely useful to know French AND Lingala, but right now I can only understand a little French and speak a little Lingala. I’m working on it. Joyce might arrange French classes later on in the summer, which would be helpful.

Anyway, when we first started the English class it helped me learn the names of all the staff and sort everybody out, because before that I’d see them one or two at a time and couldn’t remember all the names. Now I know almost everyone (except those who were on vacation this past month) and it’s nice to be able to greet them all by name when I see them around the hospital. They also know me now, so I usually don’t walk 25m without hearing, “Kate!” coming from somewhere. It’s often one of the staff, but sometimes it’s a patient at the hospital who’s been there for a while.

Since I've gotten to know so many of the staff, I feel more comfortable just jumping in to help out with something, even if I can't understand that well. Occasionally we have funny Lingala/English conversations in the Bloc of Maternite. Just the other day I was helping Rufin with wound care/dressing changes. We were talking about my shopping trip earlier that day, and they asked what I'd gotten. He and Celeste laughed so hard when I told them I'd bought the local equivalent of moonshine in the market along with my vegetables. Oh the joys of language learning! I'm not the only one who says funny things though. Sometimes the students say things like, "Tom is a pen," or "Good afternoon!" enthusiastically at 7:00 a.m.