School Starts

On February 3rd we went back to school to start the New Years term. Before Christmas Georgia and I were mainly based in middle class nursery where we worked with teacher Miriam, we had done the odd primary class but didn't have them permanently. So this term we dived straight into the deep end and left nursery moving up to the primary classes. We now teach English to P4, 5 and 6 and then basic maths to P4. Because our school has the right amount of teachers we are unable to teach the full classes of 40-60 pupils. Therefore we came up with an arrangement with the teachers that we would take out the slow learners into our own classroom which is the library but it has several desks and a big chalkboard. Our classes consist of 10-13 students which is ideal for us because we have been able to concentrate on them individually. So far we're two weeks in and I'm really enjoying it, we have set up a reward system of charts for each class and when a pupil does good work, reads aloud or works hard we give them a point then at the end of term we're going to give the top three students different prizes. We've already found that this helps push them all because they're very competitive and it encourages hard work.
The other day we were teaching P4 English and I was getting the class to read the word "book" from the board and one of the students Brethein repeated the word in such a British accent it was hilarious, trying to copy the way I had said it.

We now live with a woman called Charlotte from London and last Sunday we were making our own version of a roast which we have every Sunday here. It consists of mash potatoes, vegetables, cauliflower in a white sauce, bisto gravy and stuffing which is our own concoction of mashed chickpeas with garlic, ginger, onion, carrots and herbs. And honestly it's just like a vegetarian roast in England, anyway we were cooking it on our two gas rings and it's such a long procedure - realistically it would be so much easier to cook with four rings. I started washing up and said to the girls "imagine cooking this on the charcoal stove, that would be hard", literally two minutes later the gas turned off and the canister had ran out. Perfect. Luckily we had some charcoal so I started to light the stove whilst the girls went into the village to buy a big sack of charcoal so it would last. I was having trouble lighting the stove when our friend Martin came by to say hello so he used his African skills and lit it for me, we were just sat outside chatting when he said that he would top up the fire with coal. He went to pick up the stove and as he did the bottom fell off and smashed whilst he kept held of the top. It was not a good day. In the end he fixed it back together and we managed to finish cooking our roast a whole two hours later.
The following Thursday our water tank ran out so we are now waterless. This means no water to bathe, wash clothes or wash dishes which is such a pain. Until it rains we have to go down to the well and collect jerry cans full of water which is a hard job, I don't know how the locals do it. But I guess we are in rural Africa so we're embracing the experience whilst we can, to lighten our mood that night our friend Martin came round in the evening and bought myself and Georgia 2 pet rabbits! Mine's a little whiter bunny with big black eyes and black spoldges on its head and ears whilst Georgia's is massive and white with evil red eyes. I'm yet to think of a name but Georgia has called her croissant because it's the food she misses the most. And in aid of Valentine's day today we're spending the night with chips and cabbage sat on our patio with the charcoal stove having a nice end to an unlucky week.