RUFUS' JOURNAL

So, it's the end of my third week and things are going really well.

I'm now teaching 5 hours a day, 3 with the kids at EK and 2 with the staff (cleaners, cooks and rickshaw pullers). The kids seem to enjoy my teaching; Standard IV are learning the rooms of a house and the 'where' question, Standard V are enjoying describing and comparing lions, giraffes and turtles with their teacher (apparently I'm not too tall or dangerous!), and Standard VI have just been introduced to the internet and Youtube. You may think this last lesson's not too important but the kids are really motivated to access the internet and (surprise, surprise) they've got to do that in English (and navigate Windows, which isn't that easy!)

The staff are going great and had their first oral test on Thursday. I may have been a little biased seeing as they're my students, but all passed with a couple of A's thrown in for good measure - they're dying for the results which they'll get on Saturday. If you're keeping score - we've covered days of the week, telling the time, the 'where' and 'what' questions and now we're making good progress with verbs. If you put that all together you've got a great base. They'll be in our office in no time...

The EK school teachers had a training day today run by Elizabeth from BRAC University - it was extremely good! I am looking forward to helping them implement the creative and very effective teaching methods they were taught - it's an opportunity for everyone to progress and push themselves. I also got plenty of ideas for my own classes.

Last weekend I helped network the computer room, getting 7 instead of just one computer online - we are still trying to find a cheap method of getting EK online. The Dhaka Project's library is finally open as well! We've got a lot of books and hopefully the kids will start sitting down in there to have a little read.

Again, the weather is rather interesting here - amazing electrical storms and the occasional flash flood! I feel rather sorry for the kids when their mud cricket pitch becomes a pond for the ducks!