Time is flying!!

A viewpoint from the mentor!

You have read all about our experiences in the first couple of weeks which have been varied. Then it was down to the teaching and learning.  It is also my job to make sure things are going well. I teach for 3 days, 2 in Katleho and 1 in Villa Maria and then I have time to fulfil my mentor role. During the first week in February I visited all the schools to meet with the Principals, the in-school mentor and the Welsh teacher. On the whole these went very well with a few issues here and there that I am working on. The schools are so welcoming it is a real pleasure to visit them.

We decided to change the date of our workshop for planning St. David’s Day from the Monday to the previous Friday in order to give ourselves more time and to prepare for the party we had planned for all the principals and in-school mentors on the Saturday afternoon. We went big in our ideas for St. David’s Day with a parade and a kind of Eisteddfod. All the schools are going to parade around Upper Moyeni waving Welsh and Lesotho flags. We are then going to perform some items that we will prepare in school for each other. It has been my role to seek permission from the police, speak to the senior education officer, to organise a loud speaker system, create a running order and make sure the schools bring lunch! I will let you know if we pull it off!

We had invited the friends we have made out for a meal but when the boys tried to book it, they weren’t doing food that evening, so we quickly decided to make our own pizzas! With some improvisation we made them and they were pretty good! Somehow this became a later night than planned but luckily we had made the cawl and Welsh cakes ready for the party on Saturday. So a leisurely morning followed by tidying and cleaning etc. This was when we realised the cawl we had made had gone off!! All this whilst making more Welsh cakes. So it was all hands on deck, sending people out to the shops, people chopping and me cooking. It all got done with 20 mins to spare – what a team!!!

The party was superb! And that was not down to our cooking but to the guests themselves. It was quite formal at first with slow conversations as all parties are. I made a welcome speech and thanked them for taking us into their schools and into their hearts. We gave them their cawl and Welsh cakes and then the party really started. They began singing and dancing and it was amazing! I can’t quite imagine my local head teachers doing quite the same. What a wonderful time we had together. A few of the principals decided to give speeches themselves and one of my principals gave me another Basotho name. She called me Makopano which means ‘unity’. She said I am the ‘mother of unity’ because I have brought everyone together and united us forever. We will be forever joined and have become family. That was a beautiful experience for me.

The next week continued as normal until I had a phone call from a member of the LWL committee saying she was going to come and visit all the schools next week. I had already planned for this to be formal observation week. I also had a phonics workshop to present. A busy week again but it all got done because we had an invitation to spend the weekend at a house by the side of a dam in South Africa by our new found friends. We weren’t going to miss this! And a good job everyone had this to look forward to as they did all their planning and preparation in order to have a relaxing weekend. And what a weekend! I got to drive a speed boat, go paddle boarding, went flying off a banana boat numerous times, swim, sunbathe, read, eat, play games, dance and relax. A superb ending to another two weeks here in Lesotho.

Formal observation week this week so I’ll let the others share their experiences with you. I am currently writing reports, preparing more workshops, organising meetings and working towards St. David’s Day so I’d better get on with it!!

Kathryn

Ellie Masters

Another packed couple of weeks here in Lesotho!

Our social life is getting more and more full, and we’re definitely enjoying our weekends.

Had our first experience of Basotho Church, was very interesting, the singing was amazing, so much of it, and they had this cracking drum thing that was very impressive. We didn’t exactly understand a whole lot of the service as it was all in Sesotho, but the congregation appreciated us going, and a few of the teachers go there, so they really appreciated it.

Spent the afternoon at our new friends, the Mitchells place again they’d organised some local horses for us to go out on, was amazing went so high up into the mountains, the views were spectacular and no picture does it justice. These ponies were amazing too, they were just jumping down these boulders, I kept being told to stop riding mine and leave it sort itself out, pretty unnerving stuff!

Ended the day having a lovely Braai (BBQ) and a dip in the pool.

Another few weeks in school, and I can safely say I’m learning a lot. The class sizes I’m finally getting used to, and having to make a lot of use of the Basotho teachers, the children just don’t understand our accent, so even though the teachers say the same thing it makes a lot more sense coming from them! Been teaching a whole lot of phonics, and bringing in the reading scheme it’s nice to see the children actually using it in their reading. It’s so tough for them having their whole curriculum in English, but it’s their second language, so it’s great being able to give them something to use that makes sense and really does help.

Also taught a P.E lesson, it did seem pretty chaotic, but it was as if the children had never seen balls before, they were so excited it was unbelievable, and all they want to do is carry the stuff for you.

Having some new footballs in a lesson was actually like Christmas!

Been doing some craft things with the grade ones, using food colouring as paint, they absolutely love it, they’ve never had the opportunity to be kids and make a mess!

Still spending time with the boy who has Autism,

Had a pretty interesting weekend as Kath Mentioned, having most the head teachers and the mentors over to our house, who all sang and danced for us, was very surreal, and they absolutely loved the cawl we made, (even if it was minus the meat as we had to chuck the meat version) welsh cakes went down an absolute treat, who’d have thought the first time I made cawl and welsh cakes would have been in Africa!

Spent a few days in Katleho and Villa Maria, we’ve come up with such extravagant ideas for our St. Davids day celebrations Kath didn’t think she’d have time to teach the other schools the things ready for it, so I went in to do some things. Luckily she was there to help with the Villa Maria choir, as it was huge, and very daunting!

The teachers in these schools are so desperate to have a teacher more often so hopefully I’ll be able to do more with them, they’re so keen to learn, and take on anything you ask!

As Kath also mentioned we had observation week, I honestly felt like I was back doing PGCE, luckily it didn’t end up being that bad, and was all fine, the kids behaved really well, and lesson was pretty smooth.

Had great fun on our weekend away with the Mitchells at their house in Zastron, such a beautiful place, and its bonkers that the boarder is so close to us. Had so much fun playing on the dam, driving the boat, on the jet ski, injuring myself falling off the banana boat, eating and relaxing.

This weekend ended up going to a funeral for a young girl from Moyeni Primary school, she had been struck by lightening, apparently its quite common around here, was so sad, but definitely an experience. Many people stood up and talked over the duration of 4 hours (again we didn’t understand) and the schools choir sang.

Got a whole lot coming up in the next week with Sharon coming to visit, and carrying on with our Welsh work in preparation for our eisteddfod and parade for St. Davids day.

Still find myself having a wow moment at least once a day, be it good or bad, this places never ceases to amaze me. 

Ffion Mullane 

So what a couple of weeks! We’ve experienced a church service which was full of singing and dancing – very different to the services at home! We have also been to a braii at the mitchells house and had a swim in their pool , which was lovely – was like being on holiday!

Teaching still going well and the children and teachers are still engaging very well. I’m doing a lot of welsh activities this week in preparation for our St Davids day celebrations on Friday. Were doing a parade around upper Moyeni, then an eisteddfod, where each school will present a couple of items to everyone. If we pull it off it will be brilliant. Will be nice for them to experience a welsh celebration. I will be doing a mixture of art and crafts, welsh lessons, singing and dawnsio gwerin this week, aswell as meeting the choir and doing some dawnsio disgo with grade 4s – hopefully all will be ok on the day!

We have also been trying to make the most of our weekends. Last weekend, we all headed to the dam with the mitchells which was near Zastron. It was so peaceful there and the views were amazing. We had a weekend of eating, talking, sunbathing, swimming, water sports, speedboat and paddling – we were living the dream!

I was being observed on the Monday morning after our weekend and the dam – good motivation to get my work done before our weekend so that I could relax on the weekend. I was the first to be observed and I taught grade 3 phonics. The observation went well, with good and constructive feedback.

Our school had some sad news last week. One of the class 6 students was struck and killed by lightening on her way home from school. We have a few thunderstorms in the evening, even though it is still warm. It is not unusual for someone to be struck by lightening. That day was a very somber one for the school. We went to the funeral this weekend. It was an experience. None of us expected it to last 4 hours!! There were lots of singing and speeches, and the school choir sang a few items. By the end of the service we were all hot, thirsty and hungry.