Visit of the Seinäjoki teachers

This weekend some visitors from Finland came. It was five teachers from Seinäjoki Upper Secondary Highschool(by the way that is the school Satu went to): Jana, Katja, Tarja, Tuula and Laura. They are part of Kompi project, which deals with global education and is financed by the Finish Ministry of Education. As Dzivara Sekwa High Two is their partner school and three of the teachers are sponsoring Dzikwa children, we were lucky enough to have them here.

Here they visited DZH2, held a five day long workshop on "Dreams and the Future" for our Upper Secondary and Tertiary Students as well as the Form 5&6 students of DZH2. Plus they also gave a speech for Zimbabwean teachers on a survey done with Zimbabwean and Finnish students (Zimbabweans are far more likely to look at the future as "inspirational" and not as "stressing", whereas we Europeans are extremely frightened of the future and usually are not sure about our future plans). Another topic was the Finnish school system and how it soon will be mostly digitalized!

Bridget and her Treasure Map

Then the workshop for the students began with a game, where everybody was supposed to choose a photograph and afterward explain in a small group, why he or she picked that photo. There were fascinating answers, such as a maize corn that represented the family tradition of farming or a picture of three women from different continents, which someone linked to her enjoying to "associate" with other people including some from different cultures. Hereafter the students had to create a Treasure Map Of Dreams, where they were supposed to put down, what makes them happy (e.g. music or friends ) and their hopes and dreams for the future in a picture form.

This was followed by a chart displaying the strengths and weaknesses as well as the attributes their Ideal Me

would have. I took the liberty to read some of them and they were sometimes amusing and sometimes touching. For instance, a girl described her being quiet as a weakness and I had to remind her that it could also become a strength, if she uses it to her advantage. A funny one was the ideal me to be short-tempered and competitive =D            



                                                      Katja explains the strength and weakness chart

On the third day the students were then invited to first write a Curriculum Vitae and then have a short video clip of 30 seconds to introduce themselves and practice for an interview. Apparently the CVs have seriously improved after the help of the teachers and the videos became very professional very quickly. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Tarja helping with a CV  

After this workshop apparently everybody knew themselves well enough to present themselves quickly and so that they were content after only one try. Actually one girl was so bold that she just decided to present one of her own poems! I believe everybody was really thankful for the help of the Seinäjoki teachers.

On Sunday, a swimming lesson had been planned, but the weather was surprisingly bad and rainy, so as the Germans say "the outing fell into the water". Instead the Culture Club performed for the teachers and to be honest the performance was even better than at the St. John Ambulance. In the end, all the teachers were invited to dance with their sponsor kids or the other children and that was probably one of the most fun experiences in my life, even though I am such a bad dancer.