Visit to Saint Demina Church and Community Center

So Hiba and I just returned from visiting two English classes at the St. Demina Church and Community Center in Giza. Overall, the experience was positive -- the teacher from St. Barbara who invited us (Sadeq) met us at the Giza metro station, from which we caught a minibus for about a 10 minute ride down Al-Ahram street to where the chruch is located, close to the 'Cairo Mall' (which has a McDonald's, movie theatre, etc.). The students we met in the classes were very welcoming, and ranged in age from about 18 years old to a few in their mid-30s.

The center is very similar to LAMB in that they offer inexpensive English classes to Coptic community members, and even teach the same curriculum that LAMB uses. However, instead of covering 4 units in 6 weeks (with 2 hours of class per week) as LAMB does, the St. Demina center covers 8 units in 8 weeks, with 3 hours of class per week (broken into two, 1.5 hour classes per week). Hence, although we visited a level 2 and a level 4 class, they were actually more like level 4 and level 8 within LAMB's system, so the students in the second class actually spoke pretty good English. Hiba and I led a 45-minute discussion at the start of each class, in which we introduced ourselves, asked the students several questions, and then allowed them to ask questions of us, etc. We then observed Sadeq teach the class for the remainder of each period, and, overall, the style of instruction is pretty much identical to LAMB (i.e. following the book to a T rather having spontaneous discussions and alternative exercises, etc.).

Overall, I think the center could be a good potential partnership for a futue LE program. The students all seemed very eager to learn from native English speakers, and the center has only been established for a year, so they are definitely looking for new teachers to come in and run classes (and might have a particular demand for instructors who can teach the higher levels come next summer). I think it is a plus, as well, that the center is in Giza (a poorer suburb of Cairo), so it would give volunteers some exposure to a different side of life in the city (i.e. there were definitely no tourists walking around the area where the church was located). The drawbacks, of course, are that the center is really not that different from LAMB (in that it is centered around a church and provides instruction to members of the Coptic Christian community), and also that it is not terribly accessible -- although taking the metro to Giza station is definitely no problem, navigating from the metro station to where the church is located via minibus or taxi is definitely more challenging then simply walking from Mar Girgis to the LAMB center...although this extra bit of commuting shouldn't be seen as insurmountable.

Due to time constraints, Hiba and I had to leave without getting a chance to meet the director of the English language program at St. Demina, but Sadeq (who we see weekly at LAMB) said he would be able to introduce us to the director at a different time to talk about a potential partnership with LE and what the center would be able to provide, etc. I plan to follow up with him on Tuesday, when him and I both teach at the center.

Rachel