Well, I've survived my first 2 days teaching. This whole experience is like being dropped onto a strange planet and getting used to the aliens!

I start work at 0830 every day (yeuch) and there are 2 one hour lessons in the morning and then a 2 hour break and 2 more lessons in the afternoon with me heading home at around 1530. I haven't braved cycling into the school yet but may be adventurous tomorrow, depending on how tired I am and how hot it is. I assist in the first lesson of the day and take the second with the younger kids in the upstairs classroom and this is repeated in the afternoon with a new bunch of kids.

The children are all from poor local villages and have never been to school before this place opened. They are very keen if somewhat rowdy. The age range in my group is from 6 to about 13, but it honestly very hard to tell as they are all so tiny.

My first lesson consisted on a worksheet about the lifecycle of a butterfly followed by a pop up book of The Hungry Caterpillar which seems to be a favourite the world over. By the end of the story they were all out of their chairs crowding round trying to touch the book.

The older kids had maths this afternoon and were doing multiplication and division of fractions......I'll soon have them playing Scrabble and doing Sudoku.

I'm still not sure about this whole trip and swing between thinking it's great and wishing I'd just gone travelling. It's all a bit overwhelming and you wonder if it's all a bit futile in the grand scheme of things.

On one of the other projects run from here a little boy died last week. His family were so hungry that he went out and caught some frogs to eat. The mum cooked them but they were actually poisonous frogs and the youngest one died.

Enough doom and gloom. Lots of different nationalities and ages here and I'll let you know more as I get to know them. About 10 of us meet downstairs every night and go to dinner, which is great as we're all working at different places. Tomorrow night is quiz night.

Lots more to write but it's late so I'll save it til next time.
S xx