Adventure 2012: Singing in the rain

PT.

Hot and raining again. No surprises there mate. Today was day 3 at ABC's & Rice. We're getting into the swing of things now and getting to know the teachers. Some of them are starting to make requests for us to teach certain things in their classes - it makes it a lot easier, not having to improvise all the time.

The routine was fairly similar today - reading to the classes and doing some general vocabulary exercises. We're getting more inventive and the variety seems to keep them interested. There are 6 classes, and two different groups of kids - so technically 12 groups in total. So, you can get away with teaching some of the same stuff more than once, but with another group. Maybe I'm the last teacher in the world to figure that one out...

Linley did some singing with one of the classes, trying to introduce a bit of kiwiana on the sly, plus doing a few numbers they are more familiar with. Most of the songs they know are 80's pop - a reflection on the volunteers that have been here in the past I guess. They are very vocal and none of them shy - must be a cultural thing.

Most of the afternoon was taken up making lizards and crocodiles from beads. The kids really got into it, most of them working through their recess, and many staying late after class to finish. We need to make up (or find) a pattern for angry birds made from beads. Yes, angry birds has even made it here, and they are mad on it. The kids draw pictures of them, and a few have angry birds t-shirts. Monica (long-term volunteer) recently asked them if they liked the game. "There's a game?!" they gasped. Now, she is mobbed every lunchtime as they clamber over her to play for a couple of minutes on her phone.

Our kids are starting to mix with the school children. Katriel did not take long to warm up - now it is hard to keep her quiet while we teach. When she is not telling the teacher (Me or Linley) how to do our job, she is sitting amongst the kids whispering, giggling and generally stirring up trouble. Caelan and Alyssa played tag and football a little today. I think the last couple of days will be good for them as they get more comfortable. The two big kids are great teachers, they get involved in reading to the class (so does Katriel), and they are happy to help the kids with their work.

Everyone we have encountered works incredibly hard. The other guy in the room with me now is the night security guard - he is not really a guard, just a local guy that keeps an eye on the place at night. By day, he is a tuk-tuk driver. At night, he studies to be an English teacher until he falls asleep in a hammock outside. I'm not sure when he sees his pregnant wife. It begs the question how she even got in that state! Every now and then he breaks into conversation and asks me questions about the subtleties of English grammar. Not sure I'm the best person to ask, but I try.

The guy who normally transports us picked us up at 7:30 today, and ferried us back and forth, into town and out for dinner ($1 Japanese tapas night at local restaurant). When we got back here at 7:30, I asked him if he was going home. He said he would probably try and find a couple more customers first. He charges me $10 a day to take us wherever we want to go. He is one of the lucky ones, from what I gather, most of the drivers get very little business. There are so many of them competing for the few tourists. You see a lot of them snoozing in their tuk-tuk, waiting for some business to come along.

A few pics of our day