My second class yesterday was a bit of a skive cos hardly anyone turned up, so 2 of the boys just taught me how to play chess then absolutely thrashed me at it. Quite embarrassing. Cheesin after class cos I received 3 packages from home, which was exciting. Aman also received a package with DVDs of shows put on by her school. We were both really keen to watch them but couldn't find a DVD player anywhere and it was the end of the day. But then Artina said we could go to her house and use her DVD player but that she wasn't gona be there. We were like- "no way, we can't just go into your house when you're not there" but she said she would prefer someone was there to look after the house cos she was gona be out for night and said we could eat n drink what we wanted. After much deliberation, she gave us the keys, which was soo cool of her. So we escaped to her house to watch tv for the night. The DVD was really impressive. All of the students at Aman's school are deaf yet they managed to put on a variety performance of West Side Story (East Side Story) with singing, dancing, acting, the works. Was pretty good. We nabbed some of the piles of chocolate that were residing in Artina's fridge- yummmmy. We headed back after a while to the school to talk to the kids and see how their studying was getting on (since they study till 10pm). Twas great cos we made it just in time for supper- Milo and crisp things that tasted like Walkers Sensations- mm. Was really in the mood to spend time with the kids last night. Mizah's been unwell with oober painful looking swollen eyes- she's only recently been able to open them properly- some kinda bacterial infection she says. And loads of the other asrama girls have had colds and flu-y symptoms. I chatted to some of them about the up and coming fashion show. The outfits have to be made from recycled material and they still haven't designed or made any accessories yet so I was giving them some ideas. The show is on Thursday so I'm meeting them tonight to make the last pieces. Gona make necklaces from bottle tops and rope, bracelets from plaited strips of plastic, rings from sweetie rappers, earrings from zig zag folded paper, hair bobbles from strips of paper curled with scissors and corsages made from newspaper. All of my fabulous ideas of course. Hopefully I'll be able to watch the show on Thursday morning when it's performed in the hall. Also going to the bible study on Thursday night- it was cancelled last week cos the host came down with the flu. After the students finished studying, I intended on getting an early night but just felt like I wanted to stay up with the kids. So I tried to teach Joyce a duet on the piano but it was just impossible. The piano is completely falling apart- more than half of the keys don't work and the ones that do are out of tune. I couldn't understand why in the evenings I can hear Joyce playing beautiful music from the same piano but it turns out that she only uses 15 keys. It now makes sense why most of the music I hear being played sounds similar cos they are using the same keys over and over. So I decided to take action. I didn't tell the rest of the girls my thoughts but told Joyce that I really wanted to do something about the piano but that I didn't know what I could do. So I called mammy and said I was desperate to get the Asrama a new piano (or one that works). I know there's a piano salon in KK but I don't know how expensive they are. As mum says, I should check out whether or not I can get the current piano fixed or not before I think about getting them a new one. But I've definitely gota do something about it cos the girls are so keen to play and I know for a fact they are amazing on piano- just playing by ear and that's only using 15 keys so I'd give anything to hear what they'd be like with an entire set! Anyway, eventually got to bed with the intention of getting up very early for a run. But of course my alarm decided to play up and I almost slept in for my first lesson let alone managed to get up in time for some exercise. My first class went ok, with the class splitting into groups and acting out the "Huge Bag of Worries" book. Two of the boys- Osmond and I'm not sure of the other guys name were determined to grill me with a million questions and not partake in the drama at all. Although Osmond attended class last week, he seems desperate to attend again. They followed me for about 5 mins after class until I managed to seek refuge in the Female teacher's toilets. Didn't wana be rude and ask why they were following me! I went to the deaf department to put forward some ideas on activities for the deaf camp so that Aman and I can get a formal timetable set up. Aman's come up with some good games and activities so hopefully it's gona be a success. Forgot to mention yesterday that Catherine, the teacher for the deaf, invited us on another camp- leaving this Sunday, to Lankawi Islands, West Malaysia. It sounded amazing. It's being held for the deaf and disabled schools around Malaysia and is concentrating on conservation work and outdoors activities. I said I was desperate to go and Johnston said it was OK as long as we got a letter of "invitation" from the organization running it. Unfortunately, Catherine said that the organization were being really slow in getting things sorted- i.e. the kids flights and insurance, so she is pretty dubious whether or not it will go ahead. It is so last minute and even if it does go ahead, Aman and I are gona have to get our flights independently and receive the letter of invitation in time to show the head mistress before we leave so we're not sure what's gona happen. Aman doesn't think it'll come together in time. We've also been invited to a cultural event in KL in May with the deaf department, so we will def go there if this doesn't go ahead. This afternoon most of the class didn't turn up again so I didn't really wana do a drama since there were only about 8 of them. While we were waiting to see if more of the students would turn up, Lesley (who's one of the quite camp boys in the class) was playing music on his phone and singing along. I couldn't tell if it was his voice or the singer's. Turned out to be his and discovered that he has an unbelievable voice. Was really impressed. I asked them what they would like to do and unanimously they asked to dance. So I got my ipod and taught them a jazz/ modern dance to "Let's get it started" by Black Eyes Peas. They were loving it- obviously never danced like that before. I had to be careful incase some of the moves were a bit too raunchy but I kept it pretty conservative- especially cos the girls were dancing in full length skirts. Although we managed to do some floor work- was so funny watching them try their hardest, yet look so out of place in some of their Muslim uniforms. They were all really good though. Turns out they're all really into dancing so I asked how they would feel about me starting up a dance club and they were pretty enthusiastic, so I'm gona bring it up with Johnston tomorrow. Might turn out I'm not aloud to teach "Western moves" to the students. But I might as well ask. Another thing that happened yesterday was that Johnston met us at the canteen to tell us that we needed a letter of invitation for the deaf camp. As he was speaking to us, I was handing over money to the "dinner ladies" to pay for the spring rolls I was about to have (cos we've always paid for certain things like spring rolls, doughnuts and fruit in the canteen). So he was like- "What are you doing? You don't have to pay". And we said "But every time we ask for these things, they charge us". Then Johnston took a wobbly at the dinner ladies in Malay. Think he said something along the lines of "Why the hell have you been charging them for their food?" Turns out that school pays the canteen for our lunch already so we shouldn't have been paying anything. So glad that's sorted now. Think Johnston's starting to sympathize with us a bit cos our shower's STILL not working. Driving us insane. Especially cos I wana start going for a run every morning and the thought of not having a shower afterwards- yuk. Anyway! Today we managed to book "Turtle Island" for the March holiday although it's pretty darn pricey but it's breeding season and we're hopefully gona get to see the turtles lay their eggs and see some baby turtles being released into the wild- which of course will truly rock! We've gota stay up all night to watch them in the dark- cannot wait! We also looked into this sexy resort that's in KK- the one that some of the ex-asrama students work in. I keep being told by the teachers and some students that it's really good and a perfect place to relax for a weekend. So we're thinking about going there some time when we're free. Rite- off to find some bottle tops for my sexy jewelry I'm gona make tonight!