Advertisement
Published: March 15th 2011
Edit Blog Post
A lovely welcome
The children at Shallom performed a beautiful, traditional welcome dance for us. It was really amazing. Hello everyone. Well first of all, thank you very much for all your lovely messages they made me and Miss Nice smile. We are having a lovely time still and have a lot more to report on what we have been up to. A big apology for the lack of an update yesterday, it was a very busy day and we didn’t have the internet in the hotel still we will try and make up for it now.
Well I will tell you…
On Monday morning at 8:00am we got picked up by our driver for the week, Fredrick. He is a very nice man and was very keen to tell us about the sights and sounds on our way, he pointed out the army barracks and we drove through these on a shortcut today. Fredrick is a very brave driver. The roads here, as well as being bumpy are incredibly busy and noisy you really have to drive quickly into spaces and there is a lot of hooting going on with the people letting each other know that they are coming.
When we arrived at the school the children performed a beautiful dance for us to welcome us to their
games and fun
Mr Dean lost at table tenning, Twice to some teachers and once to a pupil. school, we could tell the children were very proud of Shalom. We then met with the head teacher Mistress Emilia, who is a very friendly lady and made us feel very welcome. We were also introduced to lots of other teachers including Miss Charlotte and the new Junior High Head, John who we have noticed always has a very big smile on his face even when children aren’t doing what they should be.
After meeting all the friendly teachers Miss Emilia took us into her office and made us a cup of coffee and offered us some biscuits which was very kind of her. After that she told us what we would be doing and then showed us to the Year Three class we would be spending the morning in. The teacher was teaching reading and he made it very exciting. The teaching is different here the children all had a copy of a book and read the page together then they read it again and again and several more times and then they answered some questions in their books. Whilst this was happening the children were keen to ask us questions about the UK.
We were asked about snow,
happy smiles
the children were very freindly and enjoyed playing boom, heads shoulders knees and toes and even learning ROcking RObin. the children have never seen snow and they were amazed to here that schools had to be closed because of it. They were also fascinated to know about how often we change our mobile phones in this country the idea of sending a working phone back or turning it off and getting a new phone was simply unbelievable to them. The children asked us lots of other questions including questions about pets. We met Miss Charlotte’s son who was a lovely boy, we did some work with him and his friends.
After our time in the class it was time for break, Mr Dean was immediately challenged to several games of table tennis, which despite trying very hard he lost badly at. After break we went back to a class room for a while and then had lunch with Miss Emilia. It was very kind of Miss Emilia to share the school food with us and the lunch was very nice. On Monday we had chicken, rice, beans and sauce and today we had the same but with a dried fish which we have seen for sale on the markets. The food was different to back in the UK but
quite popular
Both Mr Dean and Miss Nice were wanted for playing at playtime. very tasty.
After Lunch the deputy took us on a walk to the local market, we saw goats and chickens for sale and lots of other things. We didn’t take any pictures this time as we wasn’t sure of the traders would mind but it was amazing and we will try to take some later in the week.
After this we came back to the hotel and had our dinner. We were very tired and needed an early night so we would be ready for the next day.
The next morning Fredrick picked us up again for another exciting journey, today we had our coffe and then went of the separate classes. We brought a football with us today which the children loved. There playground is quite small really and there were lots of children wanting to play so we played catch to stop little children getting kicked accidently, The game was brilliant and before long lots of teachers were joining in. Before to much longer the heat became a little to much and we had to sit down and have a drink of water.
This afternoon Miss Emilia took us to a craft village where they make Kenti
Meeting the teachers.
Mr Dean and Miss Nice met lots of teachers, all of whom were very friendly. This Teacher was Mr Dickson. He was one of the teachers who beat Mr Dean at table tennis. materials. It is incredible to see the people working so hard and so quickly on the cloth which they then sell at the side of the road. They then took us to see the carved wood stalls. Mr Dean bought a long stick with a hand on the end and Miss Nice bought a plaque and neckless. The Head Teacher haggled with thew tradesmen to get us the best price. It should be pointed out that Mr Dean isn’t very good at haggling over proce so it was lucky that Madam Emilia was their to help.
After school Madam Emila took us to her house for a drink and a chat. It was very kind of her to do this and it made us feel very special. Madam Emilia shares the house with her two daughters and her three grandsons all of whom we were very lucky to meet. Madam Emila has a Plantain farm in here garden which is like a very big banana. We have had this fruit fried like potatoes and and deep fried so it’s like crisps. Its very nice indeed.
So that’s it for now we will try and give you another update tomorrow if
Class room
Class rooms here are very different but the children are still leanring about important reading, writing, maths and science. the internet is working. This is a beautiful country full to the brim with hardworking, busy and sometimes terribly poor but beautiful people. It is a special place and we are lucky to have our wonderful partnership with Shalom.
In answer to you questions:
We haven’t tried grasscutter yet but still really want to.
The school has about 300 pupils but it is much smaller than cann hall.
It is incredibly hot here (so lucky Mr Dean remembered his great hat) We are using lots of sun cream.
Although it is hot we are very tired so sleep is not a problem, air-conditioning in the hotel helps too.
We will try to find out more about when Shalom was built for you, we know it is a private school which is very different here. Miss Emilia, who I Kow you have met is very proud of the school.
All the best to all of you, we are looking forward to seeing you all a week from today.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0324s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Class 5R
non-member comment
Snails
Dear Mr Dean and Miss Nice, Class 5R have a few questions you might be able to help with. Have you tried snails yet? We can't wait to find our what they're like. Perhaps you have tried grasscutter instead, what was that like? Could you let us know what the temperature is? Are there any shops like we have in Clacton? What has been your favourite food so far? What are the favourite games of the children at Shalom? Hope you can help us We are missing you Class 5R