Aung Myae Oo (Sagaing, Myanmar) – part 3 (English exam)

One of Markus’ initiatives while here was to upgrade the volunteer room we were sleeping in (much to our delight).

After two days trying to teach the English class alone, the teacher came back on Monday, as we were beginning the cleaning of the volunteer room. I was glad to see her, but soon realised she doesn’t speak much more English than her students. After an arduous conversation, I managed to communicate that I wanted a few minutes to chat with her at the end of the day to find out how I could support her. I then went back to help Markus and the others. Tidying the room, we realised just what a hovel we were sleeping in. One third of the room was filled with random junk, including asbestos wall panels, which we carried downstairs to discard. We swept about four times, mopped, dusted, washed, … and by about noon, the worst of the cleaning was done. As we were too many for the rest of the tasks, we went back to the clinic for the afternoon.

In the evening, we were happy to find Markus had laid large plastic sheets (designed to resemble floorboards) over the whole floor, installed a couple of low tables and chairs, a small table with a kettle and five new mosquito nets, with clean mattresses and pillows.

The next day, as agreed, I went into the class room for the first English class. The teacher had explained that they were preparing for exams, so I intended to just go in and watch the class. Her baby girl was sitting in the front row, with the students. She gave them some instructions then, after a few minutes, told me her daughter needed the toilet and she would be right back. I looked around the class, to see how they were doing. One girl called me over and asked me to help her read the text she was revising out loud. After her, another asked the same, then a third, … I realised the teacher had been gone at least ten or fifteen minutes. As I reached the front of the class, I saw a paper had been pulled out of the class register book – the handwritten exam for the following week, which the kids had been reading while I wasn’t looking.

When the teacher came back, she asked me to draw some pictures (a waterfall, seashells, …), to be labelled by the kids as part of the exam. Despite thinking there were better ways to use my time, I started drawing and she left the room again.

As I was drawing, I felt a child coming to get water from the jug beside the desk, then another, … after a while I realised they had looked over my shoulder and all the children knew the full contents of the exam.

I stepped out of the classroom and found the teacher sitting with other teachers pulling apart notebooks to make smaller blocks for the children… I tried to explain to her that the children had seen the contents of the exam and received the classic “yes, yes,…” answer. Finally, I asked another teacher to please explain what I was saying. The English teacher was not particularly concerned but, with enough insistence, suggested I draw new pictures. I told her I would remake the full exam and went off to work on the texts. Marc suggested I take photocopies off the images in the text book, instead of drawing the pictures again – a suggestion I was very happy to follow later in the day.

The following day was spent in the clinic, as the exam session had started.