SIERRA LEONE | Saturday, 21 May 2011 | Views [512]
Today was the big day! It started off with Haja being an absolute cow to Sue, yelling at her and not wanting to give her a ride to the registry office, never mind that Sue has a broken ankle and it's the most important day of her life. Haja's reason ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Saturday, 21 May 2011 | Views [982]
The day passed relatively uneventfully. Ide's goat was a tremendous success - the only unfortunate aspect being that to get it to his school he had to walk it past my school, and as news of a white man leading a goat travels fast, now everyone at my ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Friday, 20 May 2011 | Views [488] | Comments [2]
Nothing could top yesterday for drama, but as usual things are never boring in Sierra Leone. Now that the cat's out of the bag anyway, at school I tell Mr Le Ferve that Sue and Mr Babia are going to be married. Mr Booma walks up and joins the conversation, ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Thursday, 19 May 2011 | Views [1303] | Comments [1]
Despite Mr Le Ferve's tempting invitation to attend church in a sweltering hot tin oven, we set off merrily to Number Two beach early Sunday morning. Haja drove while Christina and I sat in the single front seat; and Ide, Steve, Jackie, and Sue sat ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Wednesday, 18 May 2011 | Views [569]
Today the gods took favor on us and we had an hour of electricity - the first in 10 days. You can always tell when the power comes on because there is a collective cheer around the neighborhood and the sound of frantic scurrying as people dive desperately ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Tuesday, 17 May 2011 | Views [1439]
Aunty Sue announced today (Friday) that she is marrying Mr Babia on Wednesday!!! She was as giddy as a school girl when she told us! She is 61, white, and from Britain, and he is 38 and originally from Nigeria. She is keeping it a secret from Haja ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Monday, 16 May 2011 | Views [640] | Comments [2]
Still trying to teach how to tell time - but it is a completely incomprehensible concept to many. Now I understand why everyone is always late. Here are some standard answers.
Write the following digital times in words
Q:... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Sunday, 15 May 2011 | Views [438] | Comments [1]
Thank God Miss Jones is back in the classroom. She is awesome. She made everyone is the class write apology notes to me (in lieu of flogging). I don't think they knew what they were apologizing for though, as they all said "sorry for being rude"... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Saturday, 14 May 2011 | Views [591] | Comments [1]
Today SUCKED. Firstly, there are now two teachers in the same class - Miss Jones and Mr Koroma - which is just stupid. Miss Jones slept the whole time and left midday to attend a funeral. We had to stop for 20 minutes because the rain was so torrential ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Friday, 13 May 2011 | Views [252]
Massive storm last night. Thunder and lightening and all. I'd consider it a hurricane, but apparently they happen daily during the rainy season. I believe the monthly rainfall in Sierra Leone is about 10x that of San Francisco and 7x that of New Zealand ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Thursday, 12 May 2011 | Views [286]
You are probably sick of my ranting about the school system so I'll lay off (although I did buy tons of supplies for the class today). Also bought some cake (for myself) called 'Kill the Driver', apparently named because a truck driver was eating it ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Wednesday, 11 May 2011 | Views [454]
Doctor Seuss was a big hit in the morning. We are talking, 'Mouse, house. Mouse on house.' - nothing as sophisticated as Green Eggs and Ham, Sam I am. No teachers fell asleep today, although one little boy did. Miss Jones asked me to give her my ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Tuesday, 10 May 2011 | Views [306]
School today (Thursday), more Roman Numerals though it pains me. Made it to (but didn't complete) Quiz 4 out of 9 (which numeral is bigger - IV or VI?). The curriculum says they need to know numbers 1 through 500, but this seems insurmountable with ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Monday, 9 May 2011 | Views [462] | Comments [1]
It's hard to describe how chaotic, disorganized, nutty, frenetic, and illogical things are here; and how poor the level of learning is. I'm teaching 9-13 year olds and some students are still doing single digit arithmetic on their fingers - and only ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Sunday, 8 May 2011 | Views [339] | Comments [1]
(Ide's classroom Fawe (Far-way) School above)
Official school timetable (very impressive) 8:30 - 8:45 Assembly 8:45 - 9:45 Science 9:45 - 10:15 Language Arts 10:15 - 10:25 Break 10:25 - 10:55 Social Studies ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Saturday, 7 May 2011 | Views [404]
My first solo lesson! A bit of a challenge because I can't think of any reason why kids need to know about Roman Numerals. I prepare nine quizzes in order of easy to hard thinking 'How can I fill an entire hour with this?' Ice-breaker Me: Does anyone ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Friday, 6 May 2011 | Views [458] | Comments [1]
Finally my first day in a classroom! According to what we had been told, our role is purely to assist the teachers and help the children in classroom activities. Under no circumstances should we be in the room teaching by ourselves as we are not qualified ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Thursday, 5 May 2011 | Views [325]
Monday was a special day, because instead of a holiday Honored Guests (alumni) had come from the UK to give presents to the children. We were scheduled to start at 10am , so anxious to be punctual I turned up at 9.50. I think this was a bit of a shock, ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Wednesday, 4 May 2011 | Views [517]
On Sunday we were invited to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving (still haven't figured out what we're giving thanks for) is a little unfair. The children have to pay to have special outfits made for that one day, and never use them again - so the kids whose ... Read more >
SIERRA LEONE | Tuesday, 3 May 2011 | Views [320]
Another football game. Arsenal vs. Man. U. Most people are Man. U.
fans here although Ishmael supports Arsenal and we bought him a team shirt today. Same bar, tattered flags
and advertisements for Star beer ("Share the brighter life") ... Read more >
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