Week 5 teaching english... and time for a break

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The last week has again disappeared very quickly. Mostly filled with more english and computer lessons. But not as many computer lessons as we had planned though (just another example of things being more difficult than they have to be... too ridiculous to explain!).

The games room has continued to be transformed and we have had a good number of girls in there most nights - playing table tennis, carrom, chess, connect 4, guess who?, suduko, drawing... etc. I also put up a lot of photos I've taken in there so they can see pictures of people having fun! My shy little friend that I mentioned last week has continued to come every day and she is on good form!

I've also had a little bit of progress with another girl who is sometimes difficult in class, I pulled her out of class to talk to her and she burst into tears and told me how worried she is about what she will do when her course finishes in June. She has come from a children's home, so she has nowhere and no one to go back to. It must be hard for a lot of the girls in similar situations. I don't know what practical advice to give, but at least I can listen as she says she can't talk to any of the other staff about it.

The staff member who is our project contact also came back after a couple of weeks on holiday. She arranged for the housekeeping staff to find us some curtains and cushions for the games room. She just made some odd comments about money being no object to them, so therefore we should be going out and buying things and then asking them to reimburse us ( - instead of saying anything about what a great job we had done turning the games room into an living, active space where people are enjoying themselves). Odd. It's plainly not true that money is no object, but there is a real cultural thing about saving face and having the position of power, so a compliment is out of the question! It has taken some getting used to!

Also the in-country co-ordinators obviously mentioned to her that I thought it was odd they hadn't read my CV, and that when I offered they didn't want my help with the girls on the Computer, Secretarial & Accounting course (given that my skills might be most useful there). This has turned into an instruction that now I should teach basic accounting skills to the girls on the Culinary & Baking course and on the Sewing & Tailoring course - INSTEAD of our english lessons (with the unbelievable words "no more english lessons, they have done enough english now!".....). So I will try to incorporate some basic numbers and maybe even how to calculate the cost and a selling price for a cake/skirt etc. But mostly I will keep going with the english!

Jacqui left on Friday, so we went out for lunch and dinner on Thursday. Other than that we were both very tired this week and didn't always go out for our normal walk during the day and the evening. Generally I have stayed well whatever I eat, but we both had a bad night of sickness and diarrhoea during the week - not the result of trying some exotic local food from a basic hawker stall, but the result of an apple pie/a banana pie that we ate from the local McDonalds!

I am now having a week's break from the project in KL. It turned out to be too much hard work to go to the East coast (resticted by bus and ferry times I would only have 4 nights, and I couldn't get a place to stay easily). So I took a bus down to Singapore yesterday, as I really wanted to come here before I go home. It was just under 6 hours, including all the immigration formalities. I am already finding this city an easy joy to navigate, and sampled my first couple of shopping centres yesterday before finding my hotel and crashing into a comfy bed by 6pm! It will be nice to relax and have an easy week here going round the tourist sites and all the shops!

Bye for now... Jennifer x

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