Page 3 - Book VII Unit 4

Reading and Thinking

Help the needy

1 A young Australian, Jo, worked for
two years as a volunteer teacher in Adjust reading speed
Papua New Guinea. What challenges When reading a passage, adjust your speed to
do you think she might have faced? get the most out of it. If the material is easy or
familiar, you can read through it quickly. If it is
2 Read the blog entries by Jo. As you difficult or contains useful details, read it a bit
read, underline the parts of the text slower and try to understand more.
you read slowly. Then compare your
reading pace with a partner.

VOLUNTEERING IN THE BUSH

8 March

I just got a parcel from home! It took about two weeks to arrive, and it was a bit damaged, but it was so
nice to get some sweets and jam from home; I’ve been dying to have some of my favourite sweets, and it’s
always nice to get mail!

So I’ve been here in the jungle for about a month now. My secondary
school is a bush school. The classrooms are made of bamboo, with
clay floors and roofs of grass. It takes me only a few minutes to walk
to school down a dusty track covered in weeds. When I reach the
school grounds, I’m greeted by a chorus of “good morning” from the
boys. Unlike students in our country, these boys do not wear cotton
uniforms, and many of them also have to walk a long way, sometimes
for up to two hours, just to get to school.

There’s no electricity, running water or even textbooks, not to mention
laptops, tablets, or other modern devices! All the students have are pencils, rubbers, and paper. I’m still
trying to adapt to these conditions. I’ve had to become much more imaginative in my teaching. Science is
my most challenging subject as my students have no concept of doing experiments. There is no equipment,
and since there isn’t even a washroom, if I need water I have to carry it from my house in a basin! It’s
important not to be too rigid about rules here, too. The other day I was showing the boys a chemistry
experiment when, before I knew it, the mixture was bubbling out of the test tube spilling everywhere! The
class became a circus as the boys, who had never come across anything like this before, started jumping
out of the windows. Sometimes I wonder how relevant chemistry is to these students—few will ever become
chemists—and most will be going back to their villages after Year 8 anyway. To be honest, I doubt whether I’m
making any difference to these boys’ lives at all.

17 April

Last weekend I made my first visit to a remote village, home to one of our students, Tombe. Another teacher
and I walked for two and a half hours to get there—first, up a mountain from where we had fantastic views,
and then down a shaded path to the valley below. When we arrived at the village, Tombe’s mother, Kiak,
saw us coming and started crying “ieee ieee”. We shook hands with all the villagers. Everyone seemed to be
related to Tombe.

Tombe’s father, Mukap, a man with a strong jaw and a wrinkled forehead, led us to his house, a low, round

38 UNIT 4 SHARING