We had a busy morning preparing all the clothes and shoes for the ‘market’ today. This was made up of the dozens of kilos of items that we brought with us in suitcases. At 10am the local people were allowed in and rushed at once to the shoes, which all sold first! Shoes are much sought after, here. Some of the students, who had money, then joined in and got themselves some great deals! Our young people are very good at sales and they have all the jargon, for example, “That looks so good on you”, or “You’ll not get a better price than this!”
While all this was going on, some of the rest of us were down at the school, serving porridge to all age groups. Although the porridge doesn’t look very appetizing, the children are all very grateful for it. There was then a lot of washing up to do again afterwards. A few of us also went into the P4 Maths class and as the teacher was at a meeting, they gave a bit of a numeracy lesson.
In the afternoon, some of us went into town to buy paint and nails from a hardware store (this took much longer than expected!) while the rest of us measured the existing tables, which we hope to copy later on in the week. We then washed down the dining area where the children have their daily porridge. The wooden tables were very sticky and mucky and badly needed the wash. We then did a litter pick-up around the area.
Giles and some of the rest of us created an ‘Alphabet Poster’ for the P.1 class and we had great fun colouring it in. We plan to do a range of posters for the other classrooms, too, before we go.
After tea, most of us went to help the boarders with their homework. This runs from 8-9:30 every evening – even for the little ones.
Claire