Health, Hygiene, and Hysteria

Health and Hygiene was the topic of this week’s “Friday English Lessons”. In preparation for the lesson, we purchased about thirty toothbrushes, toothpaste packages, and mini soap bars.  Caio drew a Leonardo di Vinci Vitruvius man -inspired human body with different body parts labeled in English. It turned out to look more like a cartoon version of the Vitruvius man, but it worked. I took my try at drawing and labeling a face, but it turned out a bit creepy. I had the demonstrations all planned. With the gifts and teaching aids in hand, I thought we were fully prepared for the lesson.

Katrina and Caio teach the children names of parts of the body in English.

At a half hour prior to the lesson, we already had close to fifteen kids lingering around the pavilion in anticipation. When we started, the class was double the size of last week. By the end of two hours, we had close to sixty kids. So many new kids! Wow, that’s what I call word-of-mouth marketing at work. I was both elated and overwhelmed with the attendance. Outside, next to the newly built tool shed (good job engineers), we began with a review of last week’s session: the alphabet, numbers, and greetings. The kids had retained the content well, and the new group picked up quickly. Just as we were wrapping up the review, a dark grey cloud loomed right above us releasing little drops of rain, warning us of its plans for a torrential down pour. We all scurried into the pavilion, leaving a heap of tiny flip flops outside.

Trang, Shupria, Caio, and Katrina teach the children about germs.

In order to learn about germs and hygiene, we thought it’d be best to learn some vocabulary about the human body. I enlisted Caio and Trang as the models of the lesson; they held up Caio’s masterpiece poster, and modeled various body parts such as the elbow, stomach, or foot. We went through each body part by reciting the English pronunciation and pointing out the part on our own bodies. I then tested them by pointing out Caio’s head or knee and having the kids shout out the English word. They were so enthusiastic! When we started to mix up the words, they’d jump in anticipation. The words “shoulder” and “stomach” were the most confusing at first. I’d point to Caio’s stomach and we’d hear a slur of sounds including “shoumach” or “stoooooulder” or just hissing.  Also, the word “thigh”, was difficult for them to pronounce. “Thigh” had turned into “tie”. So, we broke the word into two-“the” and “hi”.

With all their energy and excitement, and a hiatus from the rain, I figured it was time for a physical activity to reinforce the lesson. A fun game called “Caio says,” a variation of “Simon says”. For anyone who doesn’t know this classic elementary school game, here’s a brief description of our simplified version: Simon (Caio) stands facing the participants. He says a command to touch a part of your body, while acting out the command himself. The participants will follow the command by touching that part of their body.

Since Caio has established such popularity with the kids, I figured he’d be the best Simon. I was right. The boys were especially energetic. It took a bit more encouragement and smiling to get the girls to actively participate. The kids were laughing and stretching in every direction to keep up with Caio’s fast pace. I then asked Caio to stop doing the movements and just continue with the commands. I was really impressed with how well the kids retained the information. They were able to play the game even without mirroring Caio.

Caio teaches the village children the parts of the body in English while playing "Simon Says".

After the game, we came back to the pavillion to go over the human face. The worksheet we provided for the kids only had a place for the body to be labeled. So, we asked everyone to draw a picture of a face. Some of them drew a picture of me. We studied the words hair, eye, nose, ear, mouth, and teeth. They labeled their picture as we went along.

The next part of the lesson, going over hygiene, was a bit more difficult. We began by talking about germs. After a brief and animated explanation in English about how some germs are bad and can cause us to be sick, I had our English-speaking Bangladeshi friend, Shupria, explain in Bengali. We talked about where bad germs can come from and how to prevent them. We had a little experiment to explain how germs transfer. We had three cardboard boxes, each depicting various ways we get germs: petting animals, playing with other kids, touching garbage, etc. Each box contained bright yellow lentil seeds that acted as germs in our experiment. When I stuck my hand in the animal box and came out covered in yellow “germs”, the kids winced their faces. I then shook hands with Trang to show how easy germs can be transferred. Finally, I demonstrated that the only way to get rid of the germs was to wash my hands with soap for the duration of the alphabet song. The kids then all sang the ABCs while pretending to wash their hands.

Next, Caio demonstrated how to properly brush their teeth. I could tell by the giggling that they were very entertained by the foam coming out his mouth and his gurgling. We also talked about the importance of using tissues or handkerchiefs when sneezing or coughing.

We had almost double the number of children at the second class as we had at the first class!

The hysteria came at the end of class. Remember how we bought the thirty toothbrushes? At the market we should’ve known better than to think we’d only get the same attendance as the last session. We decided to line the kids up at the steps and give each something different as they left- one would receive a bar of soap, the other a pack of toothpaste, and the other a toothbrush. As you’d suspect, when the toothbrushes came out, the kids went wild! Hysteria broke out. We had kids rushing towards the bag of goodies and clamoring at me and Caio for toothbrushes. We tried our best to manage the situation, but in the end we, the teachers, learned a big lesson. The next time we have gifts, we have to have not only extra, but also an organized distribution system.

From the weather to not having enough gifts, we faced a few challenges this time. Despite the challenges, not only did the kids learn some new essential information, but I too learned some important lessons. We hope that some of the lessons we talked about in the Health and Hygiene will resonate not just to the kids but also throughout their families and the community.

The children were very enthusiastic to learn!

Until next class…