Me and Holly got back from our holiday last Sunday, had such a good time! We spent the last couple of days in Hampi which we both
agreed was the weirdest place we have every been! In a good way though, it was really interesting.
We got a 9 hour overnight sleeper bus there which was awful – each ‘bed’ is
half the size of a normal single bed so was tiiiny and there were bugs crawling
all over the side and across my pillow so I didn’t sleep at all! I wasn’t
feeling great either, and then some Israeli guys decided to light up and start
smoking weed right next to us on an unventilated bus! We arrived around 7 in
the morning, and looking out of the window it looked like a real life Flintstones
scene! The landscape is so weird; there are giant boulders of rock everywhere,
then ancient ruins and temples scattered around in between them. There’s a
massive temple in the center which is really impressive, I’ll try upload a
picture when I put them on the computer. There are loads of hills surrounding
Hampi which are also covered in these massive boulders, and they’re balancing in precarious positions on the top of the hills, then on top of that
you’ll see the ruins of a tiny temple – it’s crazy! I can’t really get across
how odd the place was, I think it’s something you have to see for yourself..!
So we arrived back at school really early on Sunday morning
after another sleeper bus (luckily no
bugs this time!), school was starting the next day.. but there were hardly any
kids in school! They came in trickles throughout the week but still not
everyone is here, so our principal isn’t happy. Its lucky for me and Holly
though because it means our classes have been smaller this week so its been
easier for us to get used to teaching! We started teaching on Tuesday, we’re
teaching LKG which are age 5, class 2 which are around 7 and class 4. Then on
an evening we have to supervise classes 5 and 6 (ages 10-12) when they’re
supposed to be doing their homework. So far teaching has been fine and we’re
both really enjoying it, luckily we’re both teaching LKG together because they don’t
understand any English so you have to direct each one of them individually
which is really hard! This week we’ve been teaching them ‘head, shoulders,
knees and toes’ and realised how difficult it is teaching blind children
as opposed to sighted children. Normally you could just stand at the front, do
the actions and the children will copy you, but we have to go around each one individually
putting their hands on their heads, shoulders, knees and toes! And its not like
they get it after the first time either..! But its fun teaching them and they’re
learning slowly! Class 2 is a lot easier because they understand basic English,
this week I’ve been teaching them time :)
Class 5 and 6 though have been a nightmare! They haven't had any work to do because its only the start of term so they spend the 2 hours in the evening being as loud and disruptive as possible! They're at the age where they can take the mick and find everything funny and are really cheeky so its difficult to control them! The other teachers use a stick to bang on the tables and threaten to hit them if they're being naughty, but we obviously won't do that so the kind think they can do what they like because they know we won't hit them! We've now got a 'bad list' system so if anyone is naughty and is still on the bad list at the end of the lesson they get reported to the head, and so far it seems to work!
We've got a half day tomorrow so in the afternoon me and Holly are going to the bazaar to buy some Indian clothes because we haven't had chance to yet, then hopefully going to see James Bond on Sunday!
