A second drama session yesterday taken again by Fiona. Amazingly they all turned up except for two girls who weren't actually studying Art! However, some of the boys who came aren't either but it was great that we had 29 students. Although they are Grade 9 students many are older as quite often they miss a year or two if the family can't afford the fees or if they failed to reach the agreed standard in the Grade 8 exam.

For the girls it is quite difficult and they will sit outside of the main gruop when involved in group work so I try and give them suggestions of what to act out when they have to join the group of boys and portray what they see for example in the market. But they are coming out of their shells. Another difficulty is their level of English which is the medium for teaching but Fiona is great and explains thing in Tok Pisin and English.

Whilst this was going on Ken took a group of teachers to the nearby resort [photo of island opposite the resort on Drama photos 1!] to use their internet access to show the teachers what the internet can do. They were amazed at what Google can bring up in seconds! So they had a great time. So you can imagine that included in their School Learning Improvement Plans which they are doing this will figure highly. Unfortunately they only have one quite old PC for the teachers and none for the students.

I asked the boys when they were looking at the slide show who had access and only two had at home. Yet they only live 25 minutes from Madang.

So the future for this group. WELL Fiona is away on her proper job for a week and then when she gets back she will be training her 6 good actors for a very special show case event in Port Moresby and SO the teacher, Margaret and I [!!!!!!] are to take the next two weeks lessons!!!! I have never seen two people take down notes so fast as to what we should be doing! Oh dear! It's going to be fun.