Last weeks of school

We are now in the last two weeks of school here and end of year exams are under wayy so we are helping with some extra tuition but also helping the teachers with their examination questions. It has become apparent that the teachers are very good at asking the children knowledge questions but not so good with composition and application questions so we have been trying to help improve their understanding of what makes a good question and pushes the children to understand a subject properly rather than just recalling an answer. We have mostly been helping with grade 5 and 6 working on their English skills for example my room mate Sarah has been working on their subject and predicate abilities trying to improve their sentence structure, I have been working on their descriptive language. It has been difficult controlling some of the classes as they seem to think coming to the library for their lessons means they are out of school and sometimes they act up. So it has been a steady flow of teaching and preparing for the summer library program which we have some exciting things planned, such as trips out, movie times and craft workshops up in the tree house. I am very much looking forward to the summer program and hope it is enjoyable and successful as we hope.

I have just started work on the nursery, grade 6 and 11 graduation certificates which will be handed out in a ceremony on the last day of schooling. Along with the certificates I have been working on creating some graduation type hats, but only having cardboard and paper to work with it has been a little challenging. The head mistress is going to Lethem on Tuesday to buy some fabric to create outfits and to cover the hats so I will then be roping in teachers and parents to help cover the hats we have two weeks to make just over 22!

Last week Wednesday the Village celebrated St Johns day, the celebrations started in the market square in the evening with a camp fire which later the coals were spread out until they reached the right temperature. Once the coals were glowing away it was time for a prayer followed by people passing over the fire with bare feet, I was told that if you believe you wont be burned then you won't needless to say I was not even tempted to cross over. My room mate told me last year she crossed over and she had blisters on her feet for three weeks after! After the fire walking music began and people danced into the night including me.

It has also been an exciting week in the village as the village has been given solar panels by the government, one for every house hold including our own! So they village is now alight in the evenings and people are enjoying the extra light hours to read or cook. We ourselves have been reaping the benefits of having lights in the house, we have two one in the living room and one in the bathroom so we can now finally see when we brush our teeth or have a shower! It also means we can use our torches and lanterns less which will be a big change as we were using them every night.