Teaching and other bits and bobs...

So Church on Sunday was new...like I said in my last entry, I had seen the children praying in the evenings, but this was something quite different. We took the children to the Baptist Church down the road and the service lasted about 2 and a half hours (is that normal?!) but they kept us entertained, and there was lots of loud singing, clapping and dancing…the children all looked so cute dressed in their best clothes! Myself and Emma are now in charge of taking the kids to and from Church every Sunday – the rest of the day is spent lesson planning!!!

First full week of teaching is now over…wow, just wow! It’s now Friday and I have no idea how I feel about it all...

The week started off pretty poorly with several of the older children having fights during the lessons. The arguments being in Xhosa meant I had no idea what was being said or what the problem was, so I couldn’t do much to help, and by the time I had turned from the blackboard (yes the days of interactive whiteboards have now passed for me, and have yet to arrive for the children of Thembelihle) the two girls had already stood up and were kicking, slapping, biting each other etc. What I have found particularly tough this week is when the children refuse to make eye contact with you or join in with the lessons. Zero hands being put in the air at the simplest questions, as if they don’t want to be there! Really heart breaking when I know they can do it, and they just won’t try, and it’s upsetting when I have put so much hard work into planning the lessons so that they are interesting and fun. It’s hard not to get angry with some of the children sometimes, but I have to keep remembering that the tantrums they thrown when they are not chosen to write something on the board, and then fights and arguments with each other are all down to traumatic events that I have never, and will probably never experience or understand. As a past volunteer told me before I came…’the children are little angels with troubled hearts of gold…’ – so true, and that’s what it is that is keeping me going!

As the week went on, however, and after a gathering with all the children and the director of the home to discuss their behaviour, the lessons went a lot better (although we did have had a couple of minor incidents)!

Preschool can now identify all the colours and various shapes in English and can count up to twenty!!! Their handwriting is getting better by the day and they have started simple addition sums…shame about the wet trouser incident…they’re still too young to hold to go to the toilet!

Group1 can now tell the difference between odd and even numbers, and are able to draw tally charts that don’t involve 30-odd tally’s bunched together with one massive long line cutting through them - success! :D

Group2 are still struggling with their verbs, adjectives, nouns etc, but they understand the relationship between animals and plants when it comes to the transfer of oxygen and carbon dioxide! They can also explain how rain and clouds are formed, along with the connection between wind formation and the rise of hot air. They loved the Art & Culture lesson I planned for them today on China…shame I didn’t have any photos or music to share with them from the SWCHS trip in 2007 – would have been very useful! I wish I had a photo of their faces when I showed them some Chinese symbols…they didn’t believe me when I told them that that was what their writing looked like! And, it was quite tricky explaining to them, that ‘No, Chinese people definitely DO NOT get eaten by dragons…they’re not actually real, they’re just featured in art work and on buildings etc!’ … they all looked rather disappointed by this, haha! They learnt how to use ‘chopsticks’ (which were actually pencils, but it did the trick) – a really successful session…none of them had known anything about China 2 hours earlier and they were all talking about it afterwards! I will get a photo of the lovely posters they made with everything they had learnt during the lesson uploaded soon…such an amazing feeling J What really shocked/upset me was that they had never heard of the Olympics before…they’re 17years old…I think I have my next lesson planned!

Spending 2 hours every afternoon with the children outside of the classroom organising sporting activities and fun and games has been really good and has given me the opportunity to see a different side of them. They’re all such amazing children, but just change as soon as they step into the classroom – quite sad really L

We’ve been playing Rounders in the field across the road for the past couple of days in the 32degree heat, which they have enjoyed a lot (I’m not gonna lie…I’m loving it too)! We all come in dusty and my feet have seen better days - maybe I should keep my flipflops on next time?…naaahh! Although, I have managed to cut my foot on a bit of jagged metal fence across the road, so if any of my St. John maties are reading this, do you fancy sending me one of those Tetanus advice cards that we seem to have unsuccessfully manage to get rid of at ANY of the shifts, hahahahahaaaa! Mum, if you’re reading this, could you send some sort of foot stuff in the post, please!??!?! Chaaaars… :D

Today we were joined in the field by the local Mthatha chavs, whose street dancing even puts Diversity to shame. It’s amazing to watch - I’ll try and get some photos or a video up if it works! They come from the school down the road and invited me to play football with them (or ‘soccer’ as they call it here) and they actually seemed impressed by my football skills – no idea why! But I saw one of them in town later on and he invited me to join their team…should be fun and it’s good to make new friends my age, outside of Thembelihle and have something to do in my (very limited) free time!

So…my Friday evening has been spent out in the classroom marking the children’s books…I love my red pen and stickers – makes me feel more of a teacher!!! It’s obvious who has worked hard and who hasn’t, and it has given me something to work on for next week – I’m actually looking forward to it, even with the highs and lows of the past 5 days of lessons.

I’m hoping to be able to spend some of this weekend setting up/mending the stack of ancient computers gathering dust in the corner of the classroom, as it would be great for the children to have some ICT skills up their sleeves - we shall see. I doubt that with my shoddy computer skills I will be able to do anything, but it’s worth a go, eh?! Hopefully I will be able to design some sort of fun image to paint on one of the blank sides of the classroom and on a wall along the edge of the driveway. It is in desperate need of some touching up, and some of the walls are completely bare…

Better be off to have a shower now – still covered in chalk from the blackboard, snot from preschool, and various colours of felt-tipped pen….I hope some people are finding this blog vaguely interesting…if not, let me know. Thanks to those who have written comments – a real boost of confidence, and it’s good to hear from you. Sorry I haven’t got round to replying yet, but will do soon. I like to babble a lot, so tell me if it’s too much. If there is anything you want to hear about in particular, let me know, yaaa?

Hope everything is ok back home or wherever you are right now. Can someone please tell me what is happening in the world at the moment as I haven’t seen any news, and come to think of it, haven’t actually seen a single newspaper being sold or read in Mthatha…will have to have a look around for one tomorrow on my day off.

Loadsa love

xxx