Workshops

looking good!

After spending a week or so hairing round on the motorbike getting stuck in the sand, weaving in and out of undergrowth, dodging oxen carts, sheep, goats, being trip wired by runaway donkeys and stopped in my tracks by kamikaze chickens. I had finally completed my baseline assessments of the schools in cluster 4 and Seedy and I realised there was some work to be done with the phonics. So we arranged a Saturday workshop for 45 ECD, grade 1, 2 and 3 teachers in the cluster. We provided breakfast and lunch and everyone dutifully turned up – eventually!
Kate and I had planned it and she came to Kwinella on the back of my bike as hers is tempermental to say the least! It’s about an hours journey on terrible roads. It didn’t start well when I had to pull over having been stung on the thigh by some waspy thing.
However despite this everything went smoothly enough at the workshop. We got the teachers working in small groups to plan and teach their lessons on letter sounds and then spent some time making letter sound flashcards out of rice bags.
It was on the way bag that things got interesting when my motorbike suddenly spluttered to a halt 10 minutes out of Kwinella and we were stranded on the side of the road, no where near shade in the hot sun with empty water bottles. Not a good predicament to be in. Luckily we had just enough phone credit so we called the mechanic who wasn’t that keen on coming all that way on a Saturday. He suggested we clean the spark plug, which we did, but no joy. We were a little bit parched so I walked to the nearest school, Nema, where I found the head teacher, reading a Dickens classic under the mango tree. I asked politely if I could get some water from the local pump, braved the load of wasps around the pump and eventually filled the bottles and was on my way again. I then called upon my super dependable cluster monitor, Seedy, to come and rescue us which of course he did despite being on his way to Tendaba. He cleaned the spark plug again, properly! The motorbike spluttered into action but then died again 100 yards up the road. Again we phoned the mechanic and thankfully he came to rescue us. Seedy had in the meantime discovered that there was a lot of water in my petrol tank and so when the mechanic came he had to empty the fuel tank, drain off all the water and then refill the tank. Alls well that ends well. I have to say the 7o dalasi gin made another appearance that night!

regular at roadside

New boy in Soma

We have an addition to our little Soma clan in the form of Ashley who decided in his wisdom to come out and spend a month of his gap year sampling the delights that Soma has to offer. As we speak he is diligently working on his artistic masterpiece, a rather large map of region 4 which he is painting on the office wall. I have to say it looks quite good so far although I'm not sure how long it is going to take him as he has a teeny paintbrush to fill in all the green for the land as some helpful soul walked off with our big paintbrush. Anyway I will provide photographic evidence of the quality of the work on completion.

Aswell as his artistic services he is offering his maths expertise at the local high school Packalinding, helping out with the grade 9 maths classes. I think he has found this an experience. His key behaviour management strategy when they are not paying attention is to say "Look at me I'm beautiful" He is certainly now the most famous of our group. We can't go anyway in Soma without the cry from some adoring student "Mr Ashley!" or being followed by gaggles of giggling girls. I think he is enjoying this notoriety, practising for his future career as film star!

I think two things have really struck him about living here, the heat and the boredom. He did get a bit of teasing by us for bringing out a flannel shirt and actually wearing it. He soon saw the error of his ways on the short walk to the bituk, when he turned a rather nice shade of scarlet. He dutifully took his place on the cooking rota under the instruction of Kate who has taught him how to make butternut squash risotto, lentil chilli etc and sweet and sour. So he's now all set for uni and planning to impress the ladies with his culinary skill. He soon got into the julbrews! Out of necessity rather than enjoyment I think, as did we all. Luckily he hasn't succumbed to the sachets of fake gin. That's strictly for us 10 monthers. He's read 3 books, won lots of games of scrabble - Cheeky young whippersnapper, thought he was very clever with his 50 bonus points for using all his tiles in one go with "tonsils". He was pushing it though trying to get away with dampenize - I ask you? He's made friends with the local kiddies by feeding them biscuits.

He has become a regular at the local video club to watch the footy, along with Marcus. He joins enthusiastically in our regular conversation "What we will eat when we get home" So all in all he has adapted rather well to life in Soma. It's just a shame he is leaving soon!