Madam Joanne

We've now completed our first week at our volunteer placements. I've been working at the Modern Star School as a teacher. My day begins with a 30 minute cycle UPHILL to work. As my bike has no gears and I am pretty terrible at riding I genrally arrive red and 'glowing' with children running up to me pointing and saying 'Good morning Madam' or from the younger children i might get 'hello silly minger!!'

The children cary my things to my classroom, clean the room, dust my chair and await for me to begin. Each day I have to teach
Maths
English
Science
Creative Arts
IT (there are no computers!!!)
Library (There are no books!!!)
Dagbanli (the local language of which I know 3 words!!).
It's very challenging and there are barely any resources. To add to this my class has children who are 7-14 and their abilities vary greatly.

I've realised how incredible this school is though and how much help it needs. Although it is a private school and some of the kids pay to go,: many of the children are orphans. One child in my class had to have his leg amputated after a snake bite and is being fostered in the community. Others are much older than the other kids as they never went to school but are now being sponsered to attend Morning Star. Often the children cannot afford lunch and after writing diaries with them in class I have seen a little bit into the problems in their lives. The school itself is also very poor. The building does not belong to the school, someone has just donated it to them. It has no floor, windows, a leaking roof, no toilets or water.

Despite all this these children are so happy!!! During the lessons that are impossible for me to teach we play games and sing songs. Also this school gets fantastic results due to its small class sizes which is what drwas fee paying students. The director of the school has bought some land for a new school to be built with decent facilities. She brought me and Sasha to see the site and its neighbouring villiage today. Seeing the villiage was very emotional. Families of 20 were living in tiny huts. The villiage had no running water except a small river and everyone there was illiterate, no one had been to school. If the new school is built, all the children from the villiage will be able to attend and a bording house will be constructed for all the orphans to live in. They just need help with the funding behind the project.

Really loving it here and so far its been a great experience.