Swapping a south London suburb for a village in Tanzania, Sarah Wright finds that English grammar isn't the only subject she's required to teach

After qualifying as a nursery nurse, I decided I wanted to gain some life experience by taking a gap year before going to university. I signed up with Changing Worlds, a company that sends volunteers to teach in Arusha, Tanzania, and a year and a half later, here I am.

A life less ordinary
Every morning I am woken by the sound of drums and 900 children singing the Tanzanian national anthem outside Shangorao Primary School. I am living with three other volunteers; we have no running water or electricity so we do our best to look presentable - ensuring our shoulders and knees are covered.

Lessons begin at around 8:30am. I am teaching a class of 118 (do not adjust your eyesight!) 11- to 12-year -olds English grammar. With only 40 minutes and five children to a desk, I am faced with an almost unattainable challenge of trying to make both the children and the Tanzanian teacher understand me.

At 10am, I take a tea break in the staff room, where I try to communicate with the teachers and always have my Swahili phrase book in my hand. The female teachers are all very welcoming, more so than the men, so we try to have a conversation and teach each other words and phrases on a regular basis.

All four of the volunteers take a sports lesson in the afternoon - another 40-minute communication battle. The rest of the day is taken up with marking, lesson planning and day-to-day chores, before the sun sets around 7pm and everything is closed and dark.

Reaping rewards
The thing I enjoy the most is interacting with the children and the teachers on a casual basis. Although communication is very hard, it is at precisely these times that we all learn the most.

Some of the rewarding parts of my experience so far are when I am marking books and find at least one child that has understood me; when I hear the teachers or villagers using phrases I have taught them; or when the teacher sits in on my lesson and copies what I am doing.

It is difficult to communicate with the women of Tanzania. Many of the women laugh as we walk through the local market, but we haven't worked out why yet. Others will make the effort to say hello, but look very unsure of us. At the local orphanage, where I help out a few times a week, the women speak next-to-no English but speak to me a lot in Swahili, which I do my best to understand.

Inequality between the sexes
The differences between 20-year-old women from Tanzania and women of the same age from more developed countries are many, but the main one is that women from Tanzania have all been out of education for many years. Most leave at around 14 years old, get married and have children. There are many small shops - called Duka's - and markets selling fruit and vegetables that are run by women in their early 20s. Women in Tanzania are still regarded as a lower class to the men and equal rights are unheard of.

I feel that my work here isn't only helping the children, but also the women of the village by assisting them with their English and social skills. The women are unaware of the concept of equal opportunities and are keen to learn about this and other aspects of Western culture.

The women I work with seem keen to get to know me and learn English from me. The headmistress at Shangorao primary school is constantly asking questions about our home and the things we wear and do. I feel that answering these questions is a start in helping the older women of the village who are already so stuck in their way of life.

Sarah signed up with a company called Changing Worlds who offer many opportunities during a gap year. She successfully completed an interview with the directors and then had a weekend induction where she met the other 19 volunteers who would be working in Arusha at the same time.