Week 3: this week we have held meetings with local maths and English teachers from 1^st and 2^nd cycle primary schools (up to the equivalent of about Year 9 at home) to find out what their training needs. I really enjoyed the maths one – I did a visualisation as a started and they found it really difficult as it was so different from anything they had done. I think they found it hard to identify their needs as well – they have had no experience of in-service training and don’t really know where to start. Anyway, I have some ideas from them and I will try and go and observe some lessons next week to get a clearer picture. When I asked about challenges obviously class size was a big problem (some have classes of 80+) and a few said they didn’t have enough chairs for all the students. They don’t have books (student texts or reference books for teachers) and very few teaching aids.

The photo is our garden!! I spent most of last Saturday digging and picking out stones and I have planted a few things in one corner. The "soil" needs a lot more preparation - it is really a builders yard! We managed to get hold of lots of seeds left over from a previous volunteer - hopefully something will grow!