Cô Giáo Amy

Today has been my first effort as a Cô Giáo- teacher- at the Anh Linh free school, which I visited and wrote about last week. I'd been feeling very nervous in the run-up to the two-hour class, worrying about how I would keep the kids entertained and engaged for a long period.

In the midst of the sticky midday heat I cycled from my home in Phu My Hung into the heart of District 7, where the school is located. The drastic change of scenery over such a small distance is quite remarkable. The wide boulevards of affluent Phu My Hung suddenly become narrower roads, bustling and colourful with markets, manufacturing and retail on both sides, looking much more like a typical neighbourhood in Vietnam than from where I had come. Crossing between the two areas I suddenly became an unusual part of the landscape and received a few second-glances.

I arrived at the school early and sat talking to a few of the children, who told me that the headteacher was having a nap until 2pm, when the class started.When she appeared we led the group of twelve up to one of the classrooms and with the help of Thuy, an English teacher who translated for me, I explained to the children that they were going to do some self-portraits with the aid of a small mirror that I placed on each of the tables. We spent about an hour painting. After some hesitation the children engaged themselves in the activity and mostly seemed interested.

One little lad sat looking at his paper until Thuy told me that he didn't know how to draw a face. I asked him to look in the mirror and begin by drawing the shape of his head. When I came back he was very neatly drawing a building. But eventually we got him on track and he produced a painting just as the others did. In fact, a few in the class were very skilful. One girl spent a long time working on a very neat and beautiful self-portrait, continuing long after the others had finished and returning to her work later on to continue painting carefully. Another, a cheeky lad called Bảo who signed his name as King Black Bảo, was also very good, quickly getting down to work and producing a great portrait of himself with his round face, stylish glasses and blue school uniform. I praised him for his work throughout, and when he had just finished, with cocky pride he added two pigtails to his head.

We spent the second hour of the class playing ball games and Duck Duck Goose outside, and Pictionary, Seven up and Chinese Whispers back in the classroom. By four o'clock I was the most exhausted of everyone. I'm glad that I had nothing to worry about- I am pretty sure that all the kids enjoyed themselves and didn't become bored- yet I will have to stay on my toes to think up new things to do every Tuesday and Friday from now on. Another challenge will be remembering all the kids' names, particularly as they are often very difficult for me to pronounce. This will all be very good experience for me. And I now appreciate the hard work that teachers do- after a meagre two hours I felt in need of a tall gin and tonic!