Hello all - more internet problems

Dear All

Thank you so much for all your posts/comments. It made my day today when I came into the internet cafe. I shall try and reply to all of them very soon but as you can see by the title we are still internet-less at Percy Mdala. Things move a little slower here and there is a skill shortage for techy guys to fix things.

Thanks especially to 9D and Mr Scott. As soon as I am online I shall be able to show the students here the questions and we can provide answers to you. I took photos of some of the students that I am working with today and hope to have them either on the blog or on the website very soon. They had a list of questions for you too!

At present I have to use the internet cafe which proves a little expensive so I can't do a long blog today.

Oh! I do have a photo of a Cockroach so will see if I can put this on the blog.

I have to dash as the cafe is closing. Hopefully the school will be online tomorrow................

Have lots to tell you all so need more time!!!!

Its sunny here today (sorry) and warm (sorry again).

Take care all.

Claire

Internet problems

Dear All

First of all apologies for the long delay since my first post from Knysna last week. I have been having problems getting to an internet cafe and when I do all the emails etc that I diligently type then mysteriously disappear into the internet ether never to be seen again. Anyway, here goes again.

I have now had 3 full days at Percy Mdala and weirdly, even though each day has flown by, I feel like I have been there much longer. The first day we (Mel and I) got a great welcome from the Head Teacher and all the other teachers we were introduced to. My assigned teacher has been absolutely great. I have sat in on a couple of her own lessons and she arranged for me to sit in with other classes and teachers.

At the moment I am getting to know year 8. Last week I spent time with year 8B and today I followed year 8C's timetable. I have had to 'take' a few classes so far. For instance last week the Geography teacher was off sick so I took the class. I didn't have any pre-assigned work to give them so I told them a little about where I came from, the BBC website and so on, and then I asked them to give me facts on South Africa. The class were great and the students showed a great understanding of the challenges that South Africa faces in the future.

Today another teacher was not in school so I took her class. This time the class was Xhosa so there was no way I was going to be able to help the students out there! They suggested that we play Hangman in English - so we did and it went well and the students were very well behaved.

In this blog entry I am just concentrating on the school as, let's face it, that is what I am here for, but I hope in future blogs to write a litte more about my fellow travellers, the house, the country and the people I have met so far. Every day seems to bring some little excitement or incident that wouldn't be the norm at home.

I am hoping that the students from St Dominic's school in Belfast will post some questions that I can pose to the students here in Percy Mdala. I am also hoping that Mr Scott, the Citizenship teacher at St Dominic's, will do a guest post or send some comments in, so, the invitation is there folks so I await your input!

Over and out for now. Can't put any pictures up here so it is all text, text, text again.