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Hello everyone :)
Time is going scarily fast. I've now been away from home for 3 weeks; only 5 left in this place, which doesn't feel like enough at all. It's quite surreal thinking I'm fully acclimatized to such a developing country, and I'm becoming more African everyday. Possibly born on the wrong continent?
Our first full week on the programme. Thus far I've done around 4 hours of English-teaching, being completely in charge of a class of 15 pupils ranging from 6-13 years old (P2 class - obviously some of the elder children who enter the school uneducated have to be in the younger years). Their level of Engish is extremely basic, grammar is seriously lacking and there is no structure; classes only have one textbook each so the teachers mostly follow that, but P2 doesn't seem to even have that, and the teacher can barely speak English and will prompty rely on me to teach better than she can. Attempting to teach them the concept of "capital letters and full stops" took a good hour and a half today, and it's difficult to tell if any of them understand at all. Their English exercise books lack coherence and structure - I've already written half a dozen lesson plans to attempt to improve this. First lesson was so ridiculously frustrating due to the total lack of resources; the kids use tiny pencil stumps which have to be sharpened every 30 seconds and a few have to share. It therefore takes so long for anything to get done, especially as some of the kids are a lot slower than others, plus I am embarrassingly s*** at writing on a blackboard with chalk. Apart from these minor difficulties, teaching a class who were so happy to learn was brilliant, and I can't really imagine myself doing anything else with my life. Cool.
Josh and I also started our renovation work. We spent a morning in Kazangati (the town next to the school) bartaring in 3 different DIY shops to buy paint (everything is automatically increased to "mzungu price" you see). After a boda-boda ride to school with a s***load of paint (I am getting a bit addicted to these boda-bodas/insecure motorbikes, soon I might try and do it like the local ladies, pearched on the side), we painted half of one of the classrooms blue which we'll be finishing as soon as Kazangati stocks more sky blue; which will probably take months judging by African time.
We went on outreach on Friday. I've tried to go through it in my head, in an attempt to analyse and describe what I saw, but I don't think any Westerner could do it justice. We saw a few families who live in the rural community around the school. Realistically, these families were self-sufficient enough to provide enough for themselves to just get by, but the state of their homes still haunted me. It was the grim darkness and total squalor of their living conditions which I found impossible to accept. No warmth or security, or anything. The bedrooms were so stark and inescapably dirty. I can't articulate it adequately, so I will stop trying. It's terrifying, yet equally fascinating to see such people living so happily with nothing; witnessing humans as humns.
I am currently totally overwhelmed by the ongoing support we've received from our Toilet Campaign - we're on 980 pounds at the moment, so close to 1000. Unreal. I honestly wasn't expecting to achieve our original target of 200, so this is just ridiculous and everyone at home is amazing. We're going to the site tomorrow where we'll be starting the construction of our first toilet (when I say toilet I mean the term very loosely, it's more like a hole in the ground/latrine, but a million times better than the current situation of the family). Unfortunately the cost has amounted to 315 rather than 200, but with our huge amount it doesn't make too much difference; we can now be certain we're leaving a good quality toilet. We'll be overseeing the whole project from start to finish, and helping with the construction wherever we can. The extra money we've raised means we'll not only be providing this family with a toilet but matresses and blankets and anything else they need. We can completely transform their lives, and I'm sure the lives of others too, who we will be identifying within the next couple of weeks.
We're doing as much as we physically can here. A combination of fundraising, teaching, outreach and renovation. I can feel happily certain that my time here will leave a lasting impact; with this I feel more fulfilled than I ever have. I'm so sure I was meant to come here and do this, so much so I've definitely already considered not going to university to stay here. Have never had such a deep attachment to a country.
Time for beans and rice. And a pepsi, obvs (I'm not totally African, yet).
Big love
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