Cock-a-doodle-dont

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The daily routine should be wake at 7, have breakfast at 8, teach from 8.30-12, lunch, then more teaching from 1-2.30. But due to the cockerels, goats, cats, dogs and sheep that are everywhere and don't shut the fuck up, I usually wake up around 4.30am.

Schools really good, and the kids are pretty funny. There's 5 different classes, with kids aged from 3-15. None of them speak great English, but most have enough to get by, except for the really young ones. Obviously they asked me to teach the really young ones for the first few days. All the textbooks were in Twi! Twi isn't one of my language skillz! So I just doodle on the board for 3 hours, and get them to repeat some basic words back to me. But no one stays in the class, all the kids just wander around from room to room, then some just walk home half way through the class! I spoke to the other teachers and they said "yes, sometimes the children get tired and go home". Fair enough.

I brought my camera in one day to take a few pictures. One of the kids got chalk dust from the board duster on his face, so I took a pic of him. When the other kids saw him getting attention for this, they all did the same. I had 10 kids whiting up for me. Shit! The headmaster walked by and just said "Very good, funny face. Good work Sir Ian" and started laughing.

After the first few days I got moved to P3, which is 9-10 year old's. When I say 9-10 year old's, I literally mean that. There are 2 kids, one is 9, and one is 10. You'd think 2 kids would be pretty easy to handle, but again they just piss about all the time! On Thursday there was a snake in the class. The kids started shouting and screaming and legged it out. Then all the other kids from the other classes came in with rocks and started chucking them at the snake. I tried to get them to calm down and stop, but then the other teachers came in with rocks too! After demolishing the classroom for 5 minutes the snake was dead. THE SNAKE IS DEAD! By Friday I had my 2 kids staying in class until break time, and now they both have pens, instead of sharing one. Things are looking up.

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Photos

School
The school I teach in

Kids
My first class, plus some other kids who had wandered in.

Chalk
One kid putting chalk on his face...

Chalk 2
...more kids putting chalk on their faces.

Isaac
One of the 2 kids from new class

Goats
Fucking goats.

Road to school
Main road in the village

Kids
I gave out a toy to the kids in my class and about 10 others came in for one too.

Emmanuella
The other kid in my class.

P3
My new class, Isaac and Emmanuella