Monday morning again the weeks here are going so fast. Today I was off on a brand new adventure for both myself and the team.
Today was the first day if teaching at the Temple school in Mathara. The day began with a bus journey to Mathara town this was fairly uneventful for a change! The next part of the journey was again another bus ride and a short walk to the school. When we reached the school it was amazing. At the front gates there was a massive statue of a Buda, this was immaculate. The driveway into the school was very long, when walking through the gates it was clear that the school had a very friendly ethos as though they were one big family. We were greeted by Ramzy and the schools head of English; these were two very friendly gentlemen both with afros. Immediately we were led to the chief monk’s house, this monk was a very important monk. The monk was a kind gentleman and was over the moon that we had come to teach at his school. The day began with teaching grade seven English media class.

The classroom was very small but comfortable for the children, they all rose to their feet when I entered the room and welcomed us to their school and classroom. The activity that I had planned involved drama. The children got straight into this activity and where very keen to perform their drama to the rest of the class. The standard of English in this class was of a very high standard, the children a true credit to their English teacher. Once this class had finished we were then taken to the home economic room for snacks. This room was amazing the facilities here were top of the range. This building had been donated to the school by the Sri Lanka German partnership, the facilities included microwaves and a marble top. However, the most beautiful tea set was used to serve us tea, this set was white and gold, you could tell it was hand decorated it was very pretty. After snacks I was off to teach grade three, I was very excited about this.

When I arrived at grade three they all stood up to welcome me and all wished me a long life. The afternoon flew over the children were very responsive and the teachers were very very kind. Again the standard of English at this level was amazing. The activity that I concentrated upon was transport. In the teaching I taught the ‘Travel Song’ the faces of the children showed how much they loved the song a sea of white teeth in front of me from their smiles in their response to the song. The day ended at one o’clock, however, before I left the children bombarded me with questions upon myself. I did not want to leave the grade three this was the best experience that I have had so far and I cannot wait to return tomorrow to teach this grade.

Lunch was served at Jez’s house in Mathara, this was a short walk from the school. When we arrive the food was already for us to eat. The food that was prepared was traditional Muslim food. This was a nice change the food consisted of tomato rice this was delicious, sweetened pineapple, a sweet pickle mix, green beans and a chicken dish. This was all washed down with vanilla ice cream, after this meal I was so full. The day had gone so quickly, it was very enjoyable and I cannot wait to return to the smiling faces of the children tomorrow and teach them more English.