Day Three: First Day Teaching

Today was our first day getting cracked into the teaching. Up at six in the morning! Six in the frickin' morning! Our first school is called St. Peter's and is well off the beaten track. You turn off the road and then endure a drive in a rickety old taxi bus which is like a converted VW van with eleven of us piled in and boucing all over the place. The school is situated in the most amazing place I have ever seen, a load of small stone buildings sitting in the midst of some of the most picturesque mountain views. It's one thing sitting in a classroom in Dublin staring out the window but if you were sitting in a classroom looking out on breathtaking scenery like this then there is not a hope I would do any work. As we got stuck into setting up the classroom and the computers our first pupils arrived in dribs and drabs. Some hung around outside the doors nattering away while the braver ones sauntered in smiling brightly and shaking hands. We had 19 working computers and 26 pupils so we had to use our laptops for a few and after a few blank faces at the beginning (really don't blame them that early in the morning) we got into the swing of things. Myself, the lovely Deirdre and the (apparantly) cuddly Des took the first session with everyone else milling about as classroom assistants. The people are so friendly and happy it really was such a thrill to get in there and really interact and get to know them. We all pretty quickly formed bonds and everyone had a pet student. Joe moved about the ladies before finally settling on Agnes, she had hardly any English and he sat down and led her through the whole day as she looked longingly at him. She even serenaded him with the Lesothan national anthem toward the end of the day. Agnes works for the local chief Anastacia who also was at the class. Her husband is the chief of the region and she is a lovely 61 year old who managed to fly through the day as quick as any of the younger ones. Aisling has managed to lose her voice already but still slogged through whispering in strange men's ears all day. Despite the lack of a voice every now and again I could hear her telling people "we're going to have to put him down now" which I think might have been referring to me. So thoroughly chuffed with our first days work we headed off home for more of Mama's cooking and a few more Maluti beers. In my professional opinion Maluti is much nicer than Castle Lager. So we had some mealie pap (which is like mashed rice, if that makes any sense, and is kind of a staple here) and some pork. Its so simple and so tasty and really hit the spot after a suprisingly tough day teaching. We had been joking abvout the idea of having a fashion show with all our highly fashionable clothes we bought in Peps. So I decided to take things into my own hands and called into the girls room in my shockingly small and very stuffed (it is pretty cold here) briefs, my tshirt, socks and hat which I had bought and shocked Carla and Helen and pleasantly surprised and visibly aroused Deirdre! After that we fell into our routine of having a few drinks, nattering away and pissing ourselves laughing at Dallan's one-liners.Oh and our poxy bags are still missing!!!