Schools out

It's good to be busy. And i am, which is fine by me. Here is what i've been doing at school and an account of all the other activities i'm involved in through the week.

Mondays to fridays i spend in the secondary school at Buitingi from 8.30am till 2.30pm. However school sometimes starts a little late as it is always a bit chaotic transporting 150 kids in three small mini-buses. The most kids i've counted in one bus has been 39 plus the driver and me. Dangerous doesn't even begin to describe it.

I'm with the class 5's who are a proper cheeky wee bunch, but who are absolutely lovely. It's quite an experience teaching cause the stuff i'm teaching i have to teach myself first!! When we do maths in the morning, my word, lets just say that my long division is a little rusty. I genuinely thought i would never see a bloody fraction again too but i was sadly mistaken.

Then Paul makes me do the corrections with them on the board!!So i really have to make sure i've done them right. This is where my trusty calculator on my old nokia 3310 comes in handy. I'm happy to report that my answers are always right too, i'm sorry for boasting here but maths was never my strong suit, so forgive me.

However the kids, unlike me, are quite good at maths after a bit of practice. They just need to work on their times tables. I taught them the hand counting trick for the 9 times table which they absolutely loved. I'm sure they thought it was a kind of magic.

Then they have an hour break where rice or bread is invariably on the menu. Paul always gives me such a big portion which makes me feel guilty. I give it away to the kids when his back is turned and i have a banana or two.

After their food and they've finished their manic dashes round the playground (or building site/mudpile, whichever you prefer) they come in do english and geography. It's quite heartening to know that these kids are being taught the dangers of de-forestation and how best to look after the environment. I hope the message sinks in.

My afternoon is spent marking dog-eared books with wee kids looking over my shoulder to see how many ticks they've received. The bigger and grander the ticks the better. They love their books to come back looking like a Jackson Pollock painting.

On wednesday afternoons the whole secondary school goes into their art, drama and music groups. I'm going to be helping Steven teach the music class and i'm going to have the kids perform a show at the end of term party in March. This should be cool but unfortunately there is no intruments...this is where the improvisation comes in. I've made shakers out of old bottles filled with rice and beers bottles filled with different amounts of liquid (not beer) shall do as a xylophone, add a few buckets as makeshift drums and my guitar as accompliment and we've got a band. It should be wicked.

Also on friday afternoons i've aggreed with Paul that i can teach them for an hour on a subject of my choice. I think i'll start by teaching them about Scotland, then maybe a bit more basic geography so they know where Scotland actually is. Also i'll teach them about the planets and the solar system and cool stuff like that. And maybe dare i say it....evolution.

So thats my week in a nutshell. Plus all the school on wheels and the remedial reading programme. It's a pretty packed schedule.

I'm off to watch the Cameroon v Tunisia match now. If you can get it you should be watching the African cup of nations, it's amazing, sooo many goals.