A mini-holiday

Okkk...so I have 18mins to tell you all about my placement!!

We've been in placement for a month now and things are definitely moving slower than I would like, but TIT! To teach an entire weak of school is a feat in itself because there are always interruptions to the school and our timetables. We have reduced our lessons to 3/day and next week are going to rearrange our timetables so that we are spending less time at the school and have more time to organise other activities. The teaching is interesting, the students LOVE to ask questions, especially the secondary school students and they are surprisingly open about things (although there is lots of laughing) and the questions are my favourite time of the lessons. When we try to leave the classroom they all shout "BADO, BADO!!" meaning "not yet, not yet!" It is so rare for them to be able to ask these questions and get honest and factual answers and not be punished for thinking about things like sex, condoms, HIV/AIDS and relationships that they dont want it to end.

Our Secondary school is quite big and there are about 5 or 6 teachers (one maths teacher for the entire school) but I'm always amazed at how little work they seem to do. We can arrive at school, walk into the classroom at ANYTIME of the day and teach and they wont be having a lesson. It's sad because they all have so much potential but a lack of teachers and the fact that they have to learn all their lessons in English and most of them have only a tiny, very basic understanding of english, means that when it comes to exam time many students are failing and then they are punished for this. We have been told by our headmaster to teach in english but we teach in kiswanglish, mostly swahili though. They aren't going to be examined on our class and I feel like it is more important for them to get the information then to learn it in english!

We have found out that the IRC is non-existent in our village which is annoying and means we will have to try and set one up which will be a big project, but definitely a worthwhile one. I also feel like we will need to re-establish our Community Action Group as they are all extremely busy, most being women running businesses with many children. The women in Tanzania are amazing, they do everything and without complaint!

Other than that, this week Neema has gone to do uni applications and tests so I have been able to go t Iringa on Wednesday and change my flights, look fro camera (lost in the mail!) and see some of the other vols and now i am in Njombe for the weekend hanging out with some of the vols and waiting for Neema to return so we can go back to village. I'm feeling more motivated with our work but am not stressing about time because as long as try our best, we will achieve something. I have had a wonderful response in regards to the female sports field and am looking forward to getting this started as soon as possible.

Sooooooo thats all for now,
ciao lovelies!!

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