Stoyles blog

Here we are back in chilly damp England!! Thanks for all your love and support while we were away. We have a new land line telephone number---024 76 265831 Once we get a bit more settled I hope we will get to see people for social interaction!!! Love Jane and Geoff ... read more

Final Blog from Pakistan! Monday evening here and Geoff and I are feeling very tired having completed the 5 day training programme for the teachers! Tired but good as we were really pleased with the response and how it all went! It means that we are leaving on a high so if nothing else the teachers of Syedanwala will remember Mr Sock and how to make a flower using a compass! The weather was terrible, well people here thought it was great, as there was heavy rain! This meant that the tracks turned into mud and everyone was at least an hour late in arriving. Some then complained when we were an hour later finishing at the end of the day!! Other days have been so hot and humid that Geoff has come back to our ... read more

Dont know why all the text didnt get published! Better luck this time! Due to power cuts and slow internett this had been a whole Sundays work!!!!!!!!!! Final Fling Blog 5th July 2009 3 weeks and we will be back in England—it seems so close yet so far away! We are busy in these last weeks writing the modules for the teacher training that will take place in the last week we are here-I am getting quite quick on the key board The lap top is one of the most useful items that we brought with us -infact we should have brought 2. Much of the training is based on making the lessons in the official Punjab texts books more interesting and inter-active but I am also working on sessions about reading/book corners and making books, ... read more

Final Fling Blog 5th JFinal Fling Blog 5th July 2009 3 weeks and we will be back in England—it seems so close yet so far away! We are busy in these last weeks writing the modules for the teacher training that will take place in the last week we are here-I am getting quite quick on the key board The lap top is one of the most useful items that we brought with us -infact we should have brought 2. Much of the training is based on making the lessons in the official Punjab texts books more interesting and inter-active but I am also working on sessions about reading/book corners and making books, bullying and Early Childhood Education! It is going to be an intensive week! We have had cupboards made—not quite as we designed but ... read more

seem to have got a bit of a muddle with blog!! So you will have to look at pictures on one and read the text on the other one! Must be the heat!!! ... read more

A Typical Day Not really, so let’s make one up from lots of other days with all the best Alarm goes off at 5.45 giving me a bit of snoozing time while the temperature is still pleasant. Getting Geoff out of bed is just as hard here as at home!!! Luckily we have a good bathroom with a shower and a western toilet. Plus geckoes and fireflies and cockroaches!! But we think that problem may be solved for abit due to nasty chemical spray, try not to stand on crunchy nearly dead bodies when visiting the bathroom at night in a power cut! Early morning is a good time to do the washing again due to cooler temperatures. I have a big plastic bowl and we put the clothes in water overnight -the soak and hope ... read more

A Typical Day Not really, so let’s make one up from lots of other days with all the best Alarm goes off at 5.45 giving me a bit of snoozing time while the temperature is still pleasant. Getting Geoff out of bed is just as hard here as at home!!! Luckily we have a good bathroom with a shower and a western toilet. Plus geckoes and fireflies and cockroaches!! But we think that problem may be solved for abit due to nasty chemical spray, try not to stand on crunchy nearly dead bodies when visiting the bathroom at night in a power cut! Early morning is a good time to do the washing again due to cooler temperatures. I have a big plastic bowl and we put the clothes in water overnight -the soak and hope ... read more

Dear All Just a quick blog to pass the news on that V.S.O. have descided to stop international volunteering in Pakistan until the political situation becomes more settled so we will be coming back a couple of months earleir than intended. We now plan to leave at the end of July ready to go back to work in Coventry in September. All volunteers are to leave by September. This is sad news for many reasons--we have never felt in danger in the area where we are placed and we our having some good success in our work which will now have to be curtailed. However it will be lovely to see everyone again and bore you all with even more photos and stories of 'When we were in Pakistan..........' Good news--we are getting some monies from ... read more

Bits and bobs blog! Lots of stuff happening here in hot and getting hotter Sydenwalla! Geoff and I had another visit to India! This time we walked!! Not all the way--- we are close to the Wagga border crossing. {Yes, the one where the trainee police academy was attacked!} so we took a taxi to the Pakistani side {there was little evidence of the previous trouble and I had made lots of phone call and enquires to make sure things were OK now!} and we walked across to India! The Pakistani side was very modern and posh but lacked electricity and the India side was rather run down but did have power! Our names are now written in many huge ledgers as they still want physical proof as well as the computer records! We then took ... read more