Managed to get access to a computer in the school for the first time in aages, so I thought I'd better take advantage of it and write another postcard. Taught my first proper class this morning. Aman and I taught drama to form 1 for 2 hours. Got another session this afternoon. Their English was quite good but we definitely need to work on their confidence. Last night was quite amusing- firstly we hada huge and I mean huuuuuuuuge grass hopper in our room. Looked like that scary monster thing out of jeepers creepers. I thought if I picked it up it would just hop into my hand or something- I didn't realise it could fly. So when it dive bombed Aman and she screamed so loud the room nearly shook-I got a teeny bit of a fright!! So, after that episode, we were worn out and getting ready for bed- but then at 10pm we were summoned to assembly- yes assembly at 10pm- couldn't believe it! We were half asleep on the stage, then were asked to make another speech- was so random! We just can't get over the lack of sleep these kids have. They get to sleep at about midnight- usually 12.30am and they all get up at 4.30am to iron their clothes, have showers and go for breakfast, then start school at 6.30am. Tis craaazy. They study non stop. There are 2 shifts. So they all start at 6.30am, maybe have an assembly. Then the afternoon shift students study in an open hall all morning. The morning students go straight to class. Then at 11am the afternoon students start classes. Then at 2.50pm the morning students finish classes and start studying in the open hall. Then at 6pm the afternoon students finish school. Then at 7pm - 10pm, all of the students study in the open hall. The first time they get free time is 10pm- craaazyness! They have to work so hard to get into university because they have to pass certain English exams as well as everything else. Aman and I often have in depth talks about the systems here. It's like where we are from, we are born with soo much advantage. We are automatically at the very top of the chain- university is available to all of us. It is not a necessity for us to learn another language to reach higher education and funding for our courses is not impossible to find. Where as here, most people will never reach university due to language barriers, funding and discrimination. I personally never realised how highly respected U.K is throughout the world. Everyone here idolises U.K- everything they do here is done to gain a closer relation to our society. They are constantly trying to catch up with us. It's shocking how the students talk about our society and how they wish they could look like us, have what we have. For instance, in Malaysia, whitening cream is sold (the opposite of fake tan). As Aman was saying to the Asrama girls, they should be proud of where they are from and of their colour. We just find it hard that these kids sleep for 4 hours a night, work solid for the rest of the day, yet few reach higher education because so much emphasis is placed on the English language. They are so intelligent but have to overcome many more obstacles than any of us in U.K. If kids in Scotland worked as hard as these guys, we'd have millions more Oxford Unis needing opened. The kids also have a further disadvantage, as many of the teachers have poor English. So how are the children expected to advance in English if they are constantly being spoken to in Bahasa Malayu? They have science taught in English and take English literature classes and admittedly there are teachers with good English skills but Aman and I are amazed that by 2008 the school is to be run in 100% English. This will be a great advantage for the children but we don't understand how the teachers are going to be able to teach in English when some of them have little knowledge of the language. It's obvious that the children treasure education here. Especially the kids that live in places as rural as small villages in the jungle. Meesa's friend Lennie (she is soo beautiful), treks for 8 hours through jungle, over 2 rivers and through the hills to get to school. The Sabah Government funds her boarding in the Asrama though so she just travels to her village in the holidays. Anway, Aman and I went to a deaf event in the local deaf society venue yesterday. Was cool- was like a celebration for all of the deaf student's birthdays from June- December 2005, as well as celebrating Chinese New Year. All of the children celebrating their birthdays, went on stage and the audience sang Happy Birthday in sign language. Instead of clapping afterwards, the deaf children did what looked like "Jazz Hands". Aman said that that is the sign deaf people make instead of clapping. They then cut their cake. All of the children were given an orange and a small red packet to celebrate Chinese New Year. The host then invited all single and unmarried women onto the stage. Aman and I were obviously like- "nope, we're not single", but they ushered us on stage anyway and we also received an orange and the red envelope, which contained RM2- score! Four of the deaf girls and 3 of the deaf boys from the Asrama then performed a dance. Was cool to watch cos they kept the beat by watching the instructions given from their teacher who sat infront of them. On the way back to the school we crammed into the teeny school bus- was craazy! We had to climb over numerous bodies to get to the teeniest seats I've ever seen, that wobbled precariously behind the driver's seat. Each corner we took was a near death experience. Last night one of the young teacher's that lives with Rakeema came up to our room and asked us to teach her some English. Didn't wana sound rude and tell her we were tired so we ended up teaching until about 1am. Really don't know how they survive on such little sleep here!!