Mvumi School Trust

I'm back in my old house and am being reminded of the hide and seek with cockroaches and termites which I had forgotten... would you believe in the fridge AND the freezer? (The seals are long gone). Not that sort of seal.....

The other infuriating reminder is the wind and the dust. Crunchy everything.

There are lots of young professional Westerners in Mvumi for a few months which is fascinating g as they are from all over the world and doing research or medical programmes. All alarmingly bright and – as I say – VERY young. (could it be the reverse?).

My brief is to teach a new/trial intensive English course to Primary School leavers who start Secondary School in January where all lessons will suddenly be in English. So I have got to be ahead of them in Physics, maths, biology, chemistry etc to go through the vocabulary. Now that is really taxing! Yesterday I was in an argument as to whether a mouse was a reptile. Why is a cow a mammal? What is the difference between a toad and a frog. Oh dear. Dictionaries no good as the Swahili is the same!

Two weeks of teaching under the belt and we seem to have got a bit of a rhythm and cohesiveness at last. The first stage has been the struggle to establish the different style of classroom layout and expectations. After the normal fluctuations of numbers (non payment or transfers etc) I've got 80 in one classroom who are between 12 and 16 and I am thrilled so far that they are all pretty settled in.

The day starts before the Muezzin calls at me at 5. 15 because I can only get online when the rest of the internet users are asleep and not often then. So I fumble about in the dark under my net and then try sometimes to get back to sleep but am up and usually still preparing the lessons by 6.

The lessons start at 8 am and we get half an hour chai break around 10.40 then solid lessons till 02.30 pm which is lunch. It is pretty gruelling for all of us. Six hours non stop lessons! Am plundering the nursery songs to break it up usually turning them to chants with finger clicking and clapping ... Getting away with it so far.

The heat is at its height before the rains next month and my bedroom is regularly above 30 even with curtains drawn all day. I found a baby black mamba in my bedroom the night before last. Where there is one - there is a nest - so I am being quite ginger when picking things up.

I have got brilliant helpers from 2 of my old sponsored students (17 yrs old) who are 'O'level leavers waiting for results to see if they can go on to 6th form. Shedrack and Agnes. And two Post Graduate boys from UK John and Chris who are really talented and charming. I could not be luckier.

So, all pretty serious and concentrated and had very little time off because of all the preparation so that I can appear to be in control!

Ned Kemp who is the Bursar and Trust Representative has made it all much easier than it would have been to start from scratch and he is uber efficient and against all odds is running things so well. It is nothing but relief not to have all the admin that I used to have on top of the teaching.

No text books of course, but they fell on the books that I brought with me which were very largely donated by Pelican Post. I am working on a way to rotate them on a library basis as we don't have a class set of any. They literally fight for them.

There is such a nice atmosphere in the classroom (remember 80 of them!) now that we have had the series of po-faced lectures on co-operation and threats of expulsion – Scary Julia Mode.

Highlights have been What's the Time Mr Wolf and blowing bubbles. (improvised wand with a holey leaf).

Sorry to be so dull and work obsessed but that is my OCD.

Ned is going to the reception for Prince Charles at the High Commission in Dar next week. He said it would be possible for me to go too but I don't want to miss any teaching (see OCD above).

The every resourceful Ned has downloaded Downton Abbey so we ration that and play it on a wall covered in nails so various countesses have nose and eyebrow studs.

More when I am in the swing a bit more.