This week I have been back at school. I don't have much exciting to report. At the begining of the week they were just doing tests so all I did was mark. My sticker system isnt working perfectly because they have been peeling the stickers off from other children's names and putting them by their own! They are also getting a bit cheekier as the novelty of me has worn off, so I have found them quite hard work when I am left alone with them as I was for most of the ...

I had a great time last weekend ziplining. We left on the Saturday and stayed the night in a lodge up in the mountains of Swaziland. On the way we stopped at the 2nd largest rock in the world (after Ayres rock), and a very big, and pretty Dam. The accomadation was lovely, we were in little thatched huts, with duvets, and hot water bottles, which was convenient, as when we arrived we had a pretty impressive thunder storm. Luckily that passed in time for our BBQ in...

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...

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 ...