Osman is back!
On Monday I was walking up the track from the main road to school when I saw a mum and her son ahead of us. "I know that hat!", I thought... and sure enough it was Osman and his mum! I was so happy to see them that I ran after them like a loon and practically threw my arms round the mum! Osman was looking rather solemn and pretended not to see me; his solemnity then turned to tears when we arrived at school and his mum was leaving, and he sobbed so much it made him cough :-( It took a while but he was eventually calmed down by repeated over-dramatic retellings of 'The Gruffalo' by yours truly, using a big book we have. I did have to continue this for the first lesson of the day as he wasn't budging from the steps outside, and we added a toy fire engine into the mix, but by playtime he'd obviously decided it wasn't going to be too bad and he went into class after that. Each day he seems a little better, although I'm sure the antibiotics have been quite a lot for his little body to take, but he is definitely on the mend. Today Lucy quelled his tears in record time by telling him we were going to give him some socks (he didn't have any) - and he's now the proud owner of a pair of girls' pink and blue spotty ones (I made sure to find him the one pair without flowers on at least!!)
I started a choir!
One of the things that has been commented on in the past is that the children at Mahali often shout rather than singing, which is a shame because individually several of them have lovely voices, yet when in a big group their aim just seems to be to make a loud noise! They need some help in learning to listen to the pitch of notes, and to each other, and to follow a tune more accurately (I guess, not being an expert!) To this end, I decided to start a choir just with the top class to start off with, as there are only about 15 which seemed like a manageable number, and as the oldest they're more likely to have the ability to hold a tune. They're also the ones most likely to understand me talking to them in English! It's been good fun so far, I have very little idea what I'm doing (although I have consulted a lovely music teacher friend and she's given me some tips) but making it up is working well at the moment and today I heard several of them singing 'God loves you' (our song of the week!) as they went back to the playground afterwards. Lots of them say thank you to me each day too :-)
I look like Kate Winslet!
I mean, obviously I don't, but this is the conversation I had with a matatu driver earlier this week:
Driver: Can I ask you a question? Which country do you come from?
Me: Have a guess! Which country do you think?
Driver: I think maybe Britain?
Me: Yes, you're right, I come from England.
Driver: I will tell you why I thought that. I have seen a British film, it's called Titanic, you look like the lady in that film!
Me: Oh wow, thank you!
(I then proceeded to laugh hysterically, so much so that I felt I owed the tout an explanation so turned round and told him what the driver had said- we were the only people on the matatu at this point!)
Just in case you were wondering...
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| (credit for Kate picture: http://starryeyedglamour.blogspot.com) |
Yes, I can see the resemblance. Haaaaahahahaha!!!!!!!
There are lots of other things that I haven't yet written about, such as the excellent visit I had last week (where does the time go??!) to the Montessori nursery, where the headteacher has indeed agreed that our teachers can visit later this term. Hurrah! But for now it is time for bed.
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