A foreign visitor

A few weeks ago our International English class was honored to have Molihehi Sekes from Africa to visit us. Molihehi is a teacher in Lesotho, a little country in the south of Africa. She told us about how it was being a teacher in Lesotho, and about the opportunities and conditions of the school and her students. The presentation she gave and the interview we were privileged to have afterwards opened our eyes to the third world and we realized how lucky we are to live in a good country. Roshanak, June and I were excited about the interview that I have posted here for you to read.

How did you become a teacher? 

I got interested in becoming a teacher when i was in college. I had the opportunity to help children who were from Pakistan and wanted to learn English. Like I said, the schools in Lesotho teach in English, so their parents wanted them first to know English so that they can be enrolled in schools in Lesotho. After seeing myself being able to help those children, I developed more love to teach. Of course in Lesotho, before you become a teacher you have to go to school. Like in any other countries you go to school, you go to college and then you can go to the schools and teach. You have to get a diploma or degree before you can be a teacher.

Did you choose to work in primary school? 

Yes, I choose to be in primary school. And a little earlier you asked me how I feel about the way that I am teaching, and I think that in the situation that I am in, it becomes a little more difficult compared to it just being a profession. Especially at the beginning when you are trying to make the students understand and learn new things. But at the same time it is one of the professions where in the end when you see the results, you get happy. We have people who lost love and other important things in their life, so even in the circumstances where we do not have many resources, we do not have additional mentors. We teach in an environment that is not good, where the classrooms are not good enough for the children. But at the end we get good results which makes us happy, and that is when we forget about our crises..We completely forget about the situation that we are in. That is why we do not always take the situation as an excuse to not teach and learn.

Have you had any students who have been affected by HIV/AIDS? 

Yes, I have students who are affected by HIV and AIDS, and some of them are even infected. So we have those who are infected themselves and those who have parents who are infected.

How is it for you as their teacher to have students who are affected by such a disease, and how do you handle that? 

When you are a teacher in my country you often have to act like a parent, rather than just being a teacher. It is important to show them love, recognize them and show them that they are not abandoned, even though their parents are either sick or dead. We have to show to the children whos parents are sick, that we are there form them.  We go an extra mile compared to what a normal teacher would do. We have to show them that they are good enough and to make sure that school is a place where they can go when they have problems. Naturally, we are trying even though it is not easy. There are many students in one class, and when you sometimes discover a problem, it is a little too late. Sometimes it is hard to be supportive to every single student, because it is so many of them in one class. Often you discover a little late that some children are orphans, and since they are so many it is hard to comfort them the way we would do if they were not so many in one class.

How long is your school day? 

We start at quarter to eight and end at half past two. Every day except Friday. Friday we end at one o’clock.

So you have school every day? 

We have school every day from Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday we are at home.

What has been most rewarding for you as a teacher?  

To see, making difference in the lives of the children, that is really rewarding to me. Being able to see that through this task that I am making, I am making a difference in the lives of these children, which  is really rewarding. Like now; we have two computers and we have electricity in my school, those are the things we never thought that we would d have. They are there and we are using them to the benefit of the children. It is really rewarding to see a modern school because we want to be like that school. And it is through our hard work as teachers that we work to make our school a better school – a school where every student can feel free and have a good time when they are learning.

Shirin