Well, another week here in Buswelu/Mwanza. And its been very wet. Has rained at least once every day, sometimes very heavy, making the roads muddy and Hisani waterlogged. An indoor classroom is being built, but for now we are having to teach in what is basically a building site - dirt, dust, rubble, nails sticking out of walls. Ofsted would never let this happen! I have been teaching standard two this week. The most fun we had was playing Snakes And Ladders, for ...

Saturday 11 Nov.Its been another interesting week. But it has been a difficult one, too, because Jenny fell ill on Monday evening and has subsequently flown home. She caught a minor strain of malaria, which she believes she picked up in Dar, where she was bitten to pieces and found she had out-of-date Malarone tablets. She also picked up a stomach upset. Not wanting to go on an IV drip in an African hospital, and with family concerned for her well-being, she made...

Hi. It's Tuesday now, i think! Thanks again for the messages, keep them coming, they make a difference.Firstly, hope you managed to get the extra photos. Why don't you store it as a favourite if you haven't already done so. Will update some more when i can. It takes a long time to upload, however. Saturdays are better when i haven't got to rush back for a class.http://www.flickr.com/photos/phil_longwell/(There should be an underscore between phil ...

It's Saturday and I have completed my first week at Hisani. I finished off with a test for standard 5 and 'colouring in' exercises for standard zero. All were rewarded with stickers and afterwards we made paper aeroplanes. Jenny, a qualified pilot, is having a load of Fed-Ex style model planes shipped over for the kids to play with (hmmm, get them exposed to advertising while they are still young, eh?) If anyone can post me a book on origami (paper fo...

It's Tuesday.  Wow. There are so many highs and lows.  Last night I was depressed, although it had actually been quite a good day.  I took my first class jointly (with fellow volunteer Georgina from Mexico).  Standard 5 - Maths lesson. We calculated areas.  In the afternoon i took my first solo class - a group of standard zeros (the youngest ones - 4 or 5 years old!)  3 of them live at the orphanage, while 2 of them came from the...