Teaching in Olives.

So the gist of it is, I'm volunteering with a charity called GVI who run long term projects in 2 schools, Olives Rehabilitation Centre and Precious Vision School. I'm in a house with 15 other volunteers from around the globe, we're currently representing Australia, America, Germany, Egypt, Norway, Kenya,England, Scotland-and myself as the sole representative of the Emerald Isle. Everyone is bitterly disappointed by my failure to exhibit any signs of latent alcoholism, but my ability to burn to a crisp within 5 minutes of direct sun exposure seems to reassure them of my right to claim Irish blood. I was very kindly presented with a potato on St Patrick's Day by an English volunteer seeking to make restitution for the famine. I accepted graciously on Ireland's behalf.

It's interesting living with such a big group of people, especially since it changes all the time. I'm here for 8 months and there are a few other long termers here, but we get new people every 2 weeks. It can suck when the nice ones go home (you know who you are! ) but because it's such a high turnover and we've such a wide age range, theres always cool newbies to drag out dancing or play Articulate with.

The teaching itself is brilliant, challenging but so rewarding. I'm teaching Standard 5 and Standard 1 in Olives with my teaching partner Ceri. Standard 5 are 11-16 years old, really bright and interesting. It can be hard to keep a straight face, they ask awkward questions on purpose to see how I'll react. "Do bees have vaginas?" was a particularly interesting one. Standard 1 is challenging in a totally different way: the kids are 6 and 7 and theres 39 of them in a tiny room, when they get overexcited it's impossible to calm them down. And they do get overexcited: they cheer when Ceri and I enter the room and applaud everything I write on the board with great enthusiasm. Apart from a tendency to eat pencils and deny their whereabouts, they're quite adoreable.

Standard 1 kids

Apart from the obvious challenges of teaching children who don't understand English in an overcrowded room with hardly any resources, theres also the added joy of blistering sunshine, oven-hot air, hoards of big, buzzing flies and dry red dust which settles in your lungs and coats your skin. There's always the rainy season to look forward to though-when the dust turns to mud and cakes on your legs and the flies are replaced by malarial mosquitoes. At least it gets cooler. :)

I've been here 3 months now and I still get moments where I stop and think " Woah, I'm in Africa." The children randomly bursting into song and drumming a beat on the desks that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, the random camels wandering the beach, the sudden fury of midnight thunderstorms-just when I think I've become blase about it, something will happen to remind me that I'm far from my comfort zone and I love it. Every day here is different, every day is challenging, sometimes frustrating, sometimes exhilerating. I'm where I want to be, doing what I want to do. Life is good. :)

PE with St 5