Sweating one out in an internet cafe and only have 11 mins left...

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Ok, so i'm alive! Only just. When we got picked up from the airport and the bloke said the roads may be a bit bumpy as there are roadworks, what he actually meant was that the roads hadn't been built yet, and the 4 hour journey would be horrific, especially in the middle of the night. Hey ho, I am here now and loving it.

People here are amazing. They shout 'obruni' which means white person, as they never see them. Don't think this would fly the other way round in Brixton, but when the kids do it you kind of laugh. I went for a run the other morning and they followed me all the way, they are just so happy.

The school I am teaching in is not as good. Its a desperately poor area where the kids aged 10-12 can barely add up single numbers. It makes it as hard as it is frustrating. It seems that whatever we do as volunteers is not enough. It has to be changed in pre school not the ages they are now. What makes it sadder is that the kids are so happy. They always smile so that you smile despite being upset about what you see. Its been a massive culture shock this,. There is no curriculum. The teachers don't plan. Even the first two days we were there we took the lesson as the teacher was off sick. Its the way it is. No support staff; if there's no teacher there is no lesson. Next week we plan to build some new tables as 10 to a bench makes it impossible for them to learn well. Despite all the bad things about it, you cant help but look forward to seeing them every day. It amazes me they remember my name and the same handshake each time! I feel we have a long way to go to improve things but that's what we are here for so I'm looking forward to it.

We get the weekends off here so this weekend we went to Kokrobite which meant another ridiculous journey along unbuilt roads. But it was so worth it! The place we stayed was called Big Milly's Backyard, and if you've ever seen the Scooby Doo film, where they go to that island, its EXACTLY like that. We had food other than pasta and rice (first time in a week) which was amazing in the restaurant overlooking the sea. After chilling on the beach all day we drank with some rasta's in the evening, which was an experience I won't forget. Despite hitting on every girl in our group they were pretty cool and absolutely rinsed me and Max at football on the beach in the evening. What was even better was going back to an air conditioned room, sleeping on a mattress and having a running warm shower NOT buckets of cold. Amazing weekend and I cant wait to go back there.

The internet cafe and cash machine are a 40 minute taxi ride from where we live so it might be a weekly thing, now. Thanks for reading!
Matt x

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