"Issy like Sunday Morning"

This week I decided to write something everyday instead of trying to remember everything at the end of the week. It's been a fairly emotional yet uneventful week and I've found things pretty hard but I'm hoping for a better week with lots to look forward to! The title of this post is something our housemate says to me everyday- they pronounce my name like the word 'easy'. Not sure it's a great saying I want to be known by!

Monday 23rd January:
So after a busy weekend in Manguzi, we were pretty tired. We got up at six as we usually get a lift to school with the principle who likes to be early. However, now we are going with Nhlanhla, our house mate so now we can wake up a little bit later because he doesn't leave until about twenty past seven- yay! I didn't have a lesson until last so I slept in the staffroom on the desk in the morning (this is becoming a bad habit) and the grade 9a's were being annoying as usual so I wrote down their names to give to Nhlanhla because they are scared of him. I was not feeling too great when we came home and the heat doesn't help too. However, I cooked dinner for the first time all by myself! It was a bit of a disaster but edible so I guess that's all that matters! I felt quite proud of myself haha. Katie did most of our washing as we couldn't do it over the weekend and it takes a long time where everything has to be hand washed. I was happy to be going to bed!

Tuesday 24th:
Today I felt so so tired and a bit under the weather but as soon as I got to school and did some photocopying and got myself organised for my lessons, I felt a bit better. I had the grade 8's in the morning who were being quite good and then Katie and I went to do our shopping at Spar as we did not have lessons until the end of the day. We discovered the post office which is fairly near to us and also the prison! We wanted to get some postcards but could not see any so came back home to discover later that we have to ask for them at the desk! I thought that was a little bit strange because then how can you take time to choose which ones you want when there's a huge queue of people who want to do their post! We had lunch at home, rested and then walked back to school. I don't mind walking to school because it is all downhill. We met some elderly ladies and one kept talking to me in Zulu and repeating it more clearly so I might understand her! She just laughed at us and on she went! At school I saw a teacher slap a child on the head- we know it happens here but I didn't believe it until I actually saw it. It made me feel angry- what did that small child do so wrong to be hit like that? It probably didn't hurt that much but just seeing it was a bit of a shock! The 9b's were great in the afternoon- they wrote their own play scripts in pairs whilst I marked the grade 8 books. We got a lift home with Mr Boreki who lives in the house next to us and stopped at the shops. I'm not joking- ALL the teachers from the school were at the shops! We kept seeing them and it was quite funny.

Wednesday 25th:
I was feeling a bit better today after a good nights sleep and my 9a's were actually quite good for once! (Probably because they had got told off for being so horrible last lesson!) On Wednesday it is assembly day so we made our way up to the high school where the boys and girls in each grade stand in separate lines. They have to sing and this girl just started singing by herself and they all repeat her. I thought she was so brave for being able to do that. The girls here are very loving towards each other- they have always got their hands round each others waists and are just very touchy feely compared to what we were like at school in England. In lesson 4, I watched the 9b's perform their play scripts they had written yesterday and some were actually very funny and based on true stories. I awarded a first, second and third place to three pairs who I thought were the best so I am giving them sweets as prizes tomorrow. Due to having no more lessons in the afternoon, Katie and I walked home and I finished off the washing and she planned her lessons for the rest of the week- I really need to plan mine too! I am missing my Mum today.

Thursday 26th:
Last night we went to bed at 8.30pm- we were so tired! My grade 9a's had fifteen minutes to finish writing their play scripts from yesterday's lesson and I discovered that some groups had not even started which was so frustrating as I gave them so much time and they wasted it. However, they managed to put some good idea's together and I found myself watching some students who are hilarious actors/actresses. I awarded my first prize to the girls who did a scene on a group of girls who were bad students and frequently got told off by their teacher (hmm) and one good student who was praising God so they made fun of her and told her they were going clubbing. She told them that they were going to get pregnant. The girls walked back through the classroom door and one had put a jumper up her shirt and I laughed so much- more for the serious expression on her face than her unconvincing bump! The class were in hysterics too which was so lovely to hear. One group of boys asked me if they could sing some Zulu in theirs which I said yes to because I thought it was part of the scene...it turns out that just two of the four boys (they are the ones that cause trouble every lesson) got up to the front and danced around a table for a minute singing in Zulu. I was SO not happy. They had had so much time and not even a hint of a script so they are being dealt with by another teacher who they are scared of. It was such an insult to all the other groups who had worked quite hard at the play script. My class of 45 that is the grade 8's learnt about debates today and we wrote down the for and against for “should it be compulsory to wear school uniform” and I split the class into two rows being against the motion and two rows being for it. It took some of them a long time to understand what to do and some of the boys kept getting up and walking round- I sent one of them out to the principals office in the end because I refuse to get angry with them. It made the others think. The best thing about the grade 8's is that they are still willing to do the work for a sticker in their book! Today we asked Bongi, our mentor here, if we could get involved in the lower school if any students needed one to one tutoring and she loved the idea as the classes are often huge so the ones that struggle do not get the attention they need. So hopefully we will being doing that in our frees as it gets quite boring as we are only teaching two lessons a day and it makes us feel even more tired. After school, the principals daughter Lulu came round to us and loved experimenting with all our products on the desk- she had no idea they were anti-mozzy sprays and anti- back gel but she had a great time anyway! I am so pleased it's Friday tomorrow!

Friday 27th:
My bath this morning was so amazing- I really appreciate feeling so clean! The weather was beautiful today- hot and sunny with a nice breeze. The worst thing about Friday's, even though they finish an hour early is that I teach lesson four and five whereas Katie finishes after lesson one. Where I had already planned my lessons I didn't have much to do in the morning so just read my book that my sister got me for Christmas- 'The Red Tent'- I would recommend it to anyone. My 9b's were great as usual and even the grade eights were much better last lesson than last week. We went home and to the post office to get envelopes and I wrote some letters home to my grandparents and a few others. We met Patrick at the shops as he was staying with us this weekend, did some shopping and walked home. He used the public taxi's to get here from Manguzi which was 70 rand (about £7) which we thought was quite good for the distance. We just chatted over dinner and went to bed so early as we were shattered from the week.

Saturday 28th:
Today I woke up feeling sad because I knew my lovely cake shop where I used to work on a Saturday for over three years at home would be having its last day. The weather was beautiful again and we showed Patrick the school and posted our letters home. Showing Patrick around Ingwavuma just made me realise how little there is here to do or even just show. We got invited by some teachers to a football match at another schools sports grounds further up the road and we watched the teachers from all the schools in Ingwavuma play the doctors and then the police. There was also some younger girls playing netball in the courts and they were really good. A stupid drunk man ruined my day though by refusing to let me pass until I had given him a phone number. It was really scary at one point as I thought he was going to get angry. In the afternoon I just broke down because I haven't been feeling very happy here this week and very homesick. I rang my mum in tears but it is so frustrating because it is so expensive so we can't chat for very long before one of our phone's credit runs out. I really miss her, it's so hard not seeing her everyday, especially when nothing seems to be going right. I felt a little better when us three sat up just chatting about our schools and home lives. We are going to bed past eleven pm- the latest since we have been here!

Sunday 29th:
Today I was feeling much the same as yesterday and we walked back down to the shops so Patrick could get his taxi home. I spoke to Rose and Mienky because they could see I was upset and they knew where I was coming from as they have to leave their homes and families in the cities to be here for most of the year where people used to think they were foreign just because they were speaking a different South African language. They agreed that there is nothing to do here but they are taking us to 'Fancy Stitch' after school tomorrow which is a tearooms with an art gallery (this confuses me) just up the road from where we live. There are also volunteers there from other parts of the country so hopefully we will make some more friends. I think a combination of being fed up of being treated like aliens or objects men want to marry and homesickness has just really got to me this week. Mienky brought me round some magazines, then I had a long phone call with a friend in Cape Town which helped so much and then Katie and I started to plan our Easter holidays which is really exciting- only eight weeks to go! They don't have half term here which is annoying. We are going back to Manguzi next weekend (there is no way we can stay here again!) and are going to Tembe Elephant Park which will be amazing! Now for another week at school...hopefully we will helping in the middle school this week too so we wont be so bored! Missing everyone LOADS and even just England itself where everything is familiar. Xxx