Prospectus
Move to Mozambique
Learning for Life - teacher on sabbatical making a difference in Mozambique
So many of us wish that we could do something exciting with our lives, we often live extreme lives vicariously, through films and books, but one of our teachers has decided to take a very large leap.
Miss Donaldson, a History teacher at the Downs School, is taking a year on sabbatical leave and has chosen a far-flung destination as her focus. Mozambique is a very different place than the UK, and Miss Donaldson confesses to having lived, so far, a culturally sheltered life;
I'd always wanted to travel far away, but in my younger days, skiing in Switzerland was really as far as I’d got. A friend of mine spoke to me about an organisation which sends people overseas, wherever they are needed. I got in touch with them, had a very long chat, and that’s how this all came about. I want to give something back. I have had a great life, and an easy one, and this is an area where I feel I can really be of help. 
Miss Donaldson is in Beira, Mozambique with the Oasis Trust, a Christian charity which devotes itself to assisting third world countries. Miss Donaldson will be shedding light on teaching to the teachers of the schools in the city, training them in a more western style of pedagogy, whilst avoiding the many political pitfalls so common to that country.
Her main challenge before she leaves is to learn to speak one of the official languages of Mozambique – Portuguese. There are many African languages spoken there, but Portuguese is the lingua franca, and, with a little help, Miss Donaldson will be fluent in no time at all.
Miss Donaldson has been sending regular letters to us and below are some extracts and photos from them:
Miss Doaldson with her host family
So as part of my job, and before the schools close for 4 months, due to the elections and apparently the holidays too, it turns out, I have been visiting the schools and the Oasis teachers who go into them teaching the moral education program. My aim is to get a good idea of how the education system works, what resources are available to staff and students ............... Once they do break for the holidays I am going to start running training seminars on lesson planning, resources and sharing good practise and providing support and coaching for each teacher.
I visited a school out in Manga and in a classroom the same size as mine in England (which held 32 students at full capacity) was 83 students. 43 of them were sat at desks, but they were two man desks and 3 students were squeezed onto them, and a couple of the desks only had the seats and no table top. The other 30 or so students were just sat on the floor, and on that day 16 students were away (you can do the maths). This picture was from a different school to the ones I visited (I forgot my camera) but it gives you an idea.
There was no real organisation, they just ambled in and sat and chatted, the lesson involved them being spoken at and the odd question asked of them .............. I want to see these students' lessons ones which they learn from, are interested in and enjoy. .... they deserve it even more because they have gone without it for so long.
