Day 8 - Second day of School.

Today was such a better day! First lesson, Hannah taught English to grades 5/6 for a double period which she really enjoyed! It was so good to work with children who actually appreciated school and learning, and who also spoke English. Jonny had our grade 1/2 class, but was doing a test with them so we can understand their prior learning and what we need to re-teach them. After break, we did handwriting practice with them, which Jonny led, which practiced ascenders and descenders. It was difficult at first, because of their lack of English, but we found a way to communicate with them more effectively, and they really enjoyed the lesson. After lunch, Han led a math session on telling the time. Its such a hard concept to teach and for the children to understand, and was made even more difficult in explaining, again because of the language barrier. However, because the time is the same in every country, then began to understand and successfully learnt "quarter -past" the hour. They then had a P.E lesson taught by a specialist, then we played games and activites with them in the afternoon. We definately felt like it was a more successful day at school, and we were all starting to feel more comfortable with eachother. After school, we went to the other side of Bahir Dar with the Kindergarten teacher, Kali, and were invited back to her house to meet her children who are a similar age to us. We chilled at her home for a little while, then we all went to an ice-cream bar. Their house is miles out of town, so we had to walk across lots of volcanic ash grounds and village areas. Because there are no bins in Ethiopia, rubbish is always littered on the street, and today we came across the remains of an animal carcus, which was so so gross and ridden with flies. Jonny got talking to Kali's daughter, Nani, and Hannah was talking to Kali's son, Caleb, and it was so so nice to speak to English speaking people of our age and to just chill after school with them. We are meeting up again next Friday, to go for a walk up the mountain and then to a place called The Palace, which we are looking forward to. We are now in Homland eating dinner, and are just about to plan our lessons for tomorrow. We will add some pictures of the school and children tomorrow! :) xxx