ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL) CLASSES

Salt Investment currently employs about 114 people at Lac Assal. But, there are an additional 150-200 contract employees living here during the workweek working for various companies doing construction on the project.

On October 5, I started teaching English As a Second Language (ESL) to the employees of Salt Investment at Lac Assal, Djibouti. I currently have about 35 students, with a waiting list. The classes are strictly voluntary and must be scheduled during their off time from work So, finding time in the day for the classes is most difficult. The work schedule here is usually 7am-12noon and then from 3pm-6pm (Sat-Thurs noon). Usually during the afternoon break period, people nap. However, my eager students come to ESL classes and also come in for the extra individual help they need.

The top picture is of my early evening class. Notice that this class has only one woman. I am the only professional woman working for Salt Investment at Lac Assal. All of the other women are maids, kitchen help or maid supervisors. The second picture is of Mouna, one of the women in my mid-afternoon class. I took mugshots of the students in order to help me memorize their names.

To meet their special work schedule, I have also added an extra class at 9am in the morning to accomodate the four kitchen staff who serve the meals at our expat compound. There are two women in this class. I am also looking to start some special classes for the security people - who have a very strange schedule. I am also taking special English lessons to the employees who work at our offices in Djibouti City. Some of the office staff are advanced English students and the security staff there are beginners. I am fortunate in that I have only one student who cannot write. She will need a lot of time and patience. Luckily she is part of the close-knit four person kitchen staff who have promised to help each other. Most of my other students have at least a 4th grade education. Some have graduated from high school.

My biggest challenge is to keep up with the lesson plans of all of the classes and special people. Since I only brought one master of all of the teaching materials, I must copy everything - texts, workbooks,flashcards, etc. I spend hours at our ancient copy machine that doesn't make double sided copies and doesn't collate. I did splurge however, and bought a paper cutter. The purchasing supervisor insisted that the company buy me a beautiful large double-sided whiteboard. I now have a newfound appreciation for the planning time and organizational ability needed by teachers.

I try to keep the classes relevant and fun. The Djiboutians like to laugh and they tell me that they love their classes. Oh, no, my husband, John, the COO of Salt Investment, just brought me a list of 8 names - people from the small Djiboutian village across from our compound - who want to learn English. Luckily, he told them that I was too busy now. But, maybe, in the future, we could set up some classes for them.