Unfortunately I didn't get to use my lovely map of Africa on Thursday because the children only had 1 & 1/2hrs of lessons before stopping to clean in preperation for the party. I did however get to teach them English for that hour & a half which went well, and I get the weekend off of lesson planning because I am now ahead of myself. I am also now doing practical arts, which seems to be a mix of everything, but art! I however am going to do actual art wit...

On Monday I started helping out out the local school. The school is very basic. The class sizes range from about 40-60, and the class rooms are just big rooms filled with broken desks and a chalk board. They have no electricity. The first day I didn't really do much, just observed. I quickly learnt that the style of teaching is very different. The children are still beaten. Half of a class another volunteer was in got beaten for failing their maths test. The chi...

I have just got back from an AMAZING safari!! We spent 5 days in the Kruger National Park and were incredibly lucky. We saw all of the big 5 (buffalo, lion, leopard, elephant and rhino) on the first day. We also had many very up close encounters! Within 5 minutes of entering the park, an elephant threatened to charge us. In the back we were oblivious and wanting it to get closer, until a ranger car came out of nowhere, chasing the elephant off. We later learnt f...

Yesterday was our orientation day. I met everybody, and they seem like a good group. We also learnt a lot about Swaziland. 70% of its population live below the poverty line, and this is due to an AIDS/HIV epidemic. As this mostly affects 20-40 year olds, 49% of the population are under 15 years old! Thus there are many children looking after other children, or their grandparents. There are an estimated 200,000 orphans in Swaziland, and their population is only 1 ...

I have made it to Swaziland, after a very long and stressful journey (see previous Koh Phagnan post!), but I am sure it will be worth it. The place I am staying is really lovely, in the middle of nowhere so very beautiful, and a great atmosphere, everybody has been very kind to me so far! They have a system where the kitchen is filled with food which we help ourselves to for breakfast and lunch, then there is a rota for cooking and washing up duties for dinner, s...