Hey everybody! Sorry this post took longer than normal but
the internet is very patchy at our Guesthouse so sometimes I have a connection
and then suddenly it’s gone. No problems mon!
Breakfast was more on the traditional side this morning
which was nice considering my stomach did not settle well with last night’s
dinner. Not that any of the food has been bad but I think large amounts of new
spices are bound to bug someone sooner or later. Nothing French toast and
plantains could not fix!
We took off for Mountainside which has been the main school
we have been focusing on this week. The main focus today was level six children
and introducing them to the drumming and vocal selections we have been using
with all the other levels. The main goal is that by Friday we want to have an
assembly of the entire school to perform all the selections we have been
working on together. That’s four hundred kids!
I taught three sessions, one vocal
and two drumming. The vocal stuff is always easy but drumming can be tough.
What is even funnier is that the girls can out drum the boys – not that this is
intended to be a sexist battle or competition – but there is a higher level of
focus with the girls. I believe that part of that reason is that women are
still relatively new to the idea of schooling down here and really take
education as part of a privilege. All the kids are very obedient. Corporal
punishment is still used seldom here as a means of, well, attitude adjustment. We do not use this system because it has been
outlawed, plus none of us would even consider to as American-trained educators
but sometimes they still use it here… scary to witness.
Anyways, what I was saying is that
it was funny that the boys would not focus until I made competition between
them a means of learning. With a class of twenty-two, twelve year old boys who
all had drums in front of them I had to do something so they would actually
learn.
No rain today, not till later at
night. Rain never lasts more than an hour around here. It mostly comes around
to cool the area down and it leaves.
Dinner was good tonight. The
entire team went down to a hut called Strikey’s, and when I say hut, I mean a
bamboo walled – straw roofed... Well… hut. Delicious food though! In a choice
of shrimp, T-bone steak or lobster… I got the steak… you know it!
Tomorrow we return to Mountainside
one last time for a recorder lesson…. Probably should pack the Tylenol…
Until next time!!
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