Blackhall :: Friends blog

Two weeks ago I went to visit some local schools. I was very excited to meet the teachers and the pupils.

The children in the photo below are lining up for their class. They have a school uniform to wear but with different colours to the uniform at Blackhall.

The younger children don't have to wear a school uniform. Here is the kindergarten class. They were playing a game outside as it was their breaktime.

I brought my Teddy in to meet the younger pupils. They really loved him and some of the boys and girls got a chance to give him a cuddle.

Here is a photo of another school. All the tables and chairs were pushed to the back of the classroom – can you think of a reason why? The little girl who is walking at the front of the photo was going up to the board to read the alphabet to the class.

I met some lovely teachers and pupils on my school visits. You can see that the classrooms are not as well furnished as your classrooms and that they don't have so many things to help them with their learning. But the pupils still like to go to school and the teachers really want to help them learn and I think that is the most important thing.

Saturday in Abi Adi is market day.

The local farmers walk from 10 kilometres away, bringing their produce to sell. Sometimes it's fruit and vegetables and sometimes it's animals. A few local people also sell goods for the home – such as plates, buckets and clothes.

Some of the things sold are quite big. These camels were used to carry large sheets of metal for their owners.

Here is the place that you can buy fruits and vegetables. The people put their produce on the ground and will weigh out a quarter, a half or one kilo of whatever you want on their scales. This week we bought tomatoes, onions, potatoes, a cabbage and limes.

There are lots of people who sell outside as well. Here I am ready for more shopping!

My husband and I are still quite unique to the local children who follow us everywhere!

We have more information and photos on our other blog..please look at:

http://ethiopianadventures.wordpress.com

Hello everyone, today is our second last day at Lagganlia and we're really enjoying ourselves and we are all extremely sad that we're going to be going soon.

Today we had a really good day, some groups today went gorge walking but there was a lot of rainfall so the gorge was very exciting!! A group went snowboarding this morning and they all got into it, Mrs Cameron turned out to be a real natural on the slopes! Some groups went to try their hand at archery while some were lucky enough to build a camp fire and toast marshmallows!

Tonight's dinner was macoroni cheese, baked potatoes and ice cream for afters. Very yummy!

 We then had a fantastic evening activity of night orienteering while we were told we were all very good at.  We then settled down to watch a dvd before heading to bed.  We are all very tired after our busy day adventuring.

 Can't wait for tomorrow!!

Today we had our first full day at Lagganlia.  Lots and lots of fun was had!! We started the day with a hearty breakfast (some of us had bacon rolls! They were yummy!) we then met our instructors for our activity briefing.

Some groups went canoeing on Loch Insh while others went skiing. Three groups have had lots of fun getting wet up the gorge today too.  Other groups did archery and some conquored fears by climbing the tree.

Today was the first day we packed our packed lunch, it was really nice! We then met again with our group leaders to be debriefed on our afternoon activities. We all really enjoyed our day. Dinner today was corn on the cob for starters, then we had pasta or curry. Tonights activities was a night line and a scavenger hunt, because of this we were split into two teams and we did one of them and swapped onto the other one. A night line is basically where everyone is blindfolded and have to follow a rope round, under and over obstacles to get to a point. This was an activity to work on our teamwork. Right now we're settling down to watch the rest of our dvd before bed.

Looking forward to tomorrow, talk to you then.

Hello everyone, as you know we have arrived at Lagganlia. When we first got off the bus everyone was really excited and we all wanted to know who we were sharing dorms with so we ate lunch and had a little chat with each other. So when the instructors came in came in they told us to go off to our dorms and come back to find our activity groups. The activity leaders gave us all a little chat about safety and then we went off and started our activity, some groups climbed trees, another two groups went on a small tour around the site and the woods etc.

At dinner there was an amazing steak pie with green beans with dessert of sticky toffee pudding, it was all wonderful. We then had an amazing afrian drummer person who showed us all different rhythms using percussion and different kinds of African drums, i'm sure everyone enjoyed this and we were all really keen to do tommorow activities. We are now settling down to watch "cloudy with a chance of meatballs" and then we're heading off to bed. Talk to you tommorow, keep following our blog!

Hello everyone!

 We have arrived at Lagganlia safe and sound!  The magic newspapers were a success.  The children have settled into their dorms (around 50% of beds have been made...) and are off on their first activity.  Some groups are out for a walk to see the beautiful surroundings, one group is orienteering (hopefully back in time for tea!) and the final group are out for a bike ride.

 We have 61 happy and excited children, ready for a challange, and 6 happy and excited adults, ready for their dinner to be cooked for them!  Most excited of all is Mrs Morris who has just heard it's sticky toffee pudding tonight!

 Hope Mums and Dads are enjoying the peace and tranquility...

 Miss Lytollis.

I am now in Abi Adi!

Last week I flew from Addis Ababa to Mekele, which is a big town in the north of the country. It was bit like flying from London to Edinburgh. At Mekele, we got into a jeep and drove for three hours across the mountains to our new home in the town of Abi Adi.

We saw many interesting animals on the way. For example - camels, donkeys and cows with really big horns. People were using them to transport their goods because they do not have cars.

Now we are settling in to our new home. Abi Adi is a small town with just a few shops. On Saturday there is a market and this week we bought tomatoes, onions, garlic, potatoes and beetroot. The sellers come from the nearby villages and have to walk about 10 km to reach the marketplace. Here they are, walking into Abi Adi.

Last night was a special festival called Meskel. The children were running around the streets with large bundles of twigs, which were on fire. They go around from shop to shop singing 'Ho ya!' and asking for money. Later there is a big bonfire. They children give their money as a donation to the church. It felt a bit like Halloween and Bonfire night rolled together! It was a lot of fun to watch the children!

I've been in the capital city now for 5 days.

The new volunteers are still all together. We have been learning Amharic ( the local language), getting information about our new homes and learning about how to keep ourselves safe and healthy during our time here.

On Tuesday night we visited the British Ambassador. He lives in Ethiopia and helps to build friendly relationships between the two countries – Ethiopia and the UK. We had a welcome party at his house!

Addis Ababa is a really interesting city. Look at this photo of a typical street. Does it surprise you?

Yesterday, we had a scavenger hunt. The volunteers were in teams of three and we had to race around the city and find things. For example, my group had to buy some bananas from the market – so we had to speak in Amharic! And we had to stop at a shoe shiner who works on the street and get our shoes polished!

We had to jump in and out of line taxies to get to places during the hunt. These are not like normal taxies! It's like a minibus and as it's driving past the driver shouts out the destination. Then you scramble on with about 15 other people and off you go! It was great fun! My team came third!

I thought you might like to see a photo of a really interesting bird -it's beautiful isn't it?

I've arrived in Ethiopia!

Our plane landed at 2am so we very sleepily left the plane, got our passports checked and were taken by minibus to a training centre. 

Volunteers have come from all over the world - UK, Canada, Australia, the Phillipines...there's about 35 of us! We played 'find someone who' to get to know each other!

The weather is warm but not too hot and we had a lovely lunch today with some local food!

Addis Ababa has a high altitude and I can feel that the air is thinner and so I'm relaxing and getting used to the new atmosphere!

The pupils will be please to know I met my first insect - just a little beetle in the cupboard!

Mrs Morris has told me that you got your Green Flag! Congratulations to you all and I'm especially pleased with how impressive the global work was! Well done to everyone - it's a team effort and I hope there'll be a celebration to follow!

It was a very sad day today for me to wave off my lovely P2 class. I will miss you all so much and only wish I could take you in my suitcase with me! But I got some marshmallows for my trip and a set of fans to keep me cool in the warm weather in Ethiopia, not to mention the beautiful hand drawn book and various other presents!

Keep reading the blog! You can't leave comments on this one but if you want to contact me, you can leave a comment on my other blog:

http://www.ethiopianadventures.wordpress.com

I'll be happy to answer your questions! Or ask your teachers - they have my email address so can send your question to me!

To all the pupils - work hard, look after each other and have a successful and happy year!

Thanks to all the pupils for such good questions and advice at assembly about my new life in Ethiopia! I think I may have puzzled the teachers with my explanation about the time difference so when I get that straight in my head I will put it on the blog and hopefully it will be clearer!

Lots of you have found Ethiopia in your atlases and I've now got a display on the Global Board for you all to look at! You can see what my college, home and town will look like!

Thanks also for the tips on holding the scorpions! I'm not sure I want to pick one up at all but at least now I know the best way if I really have to!

My suitcase is now open on my living room floor and I'm starting to pack! I'll need lots of cotton clothes (to wear in layers) and plenty of medicine to soothe the insect bites, tummy upsets, headaches and who knows what else!

I must also take malaria tablets everyday to protect against getting malaria, one of the most dangerous diseases in Africa.

There will not be a pharmacy just around the corner so I want to be well prepared if I get poorly.

In just three weeks time I am heading to Ethiopia!

I am going to be living in a town called Abi Adi, in the north of the country.

I am going to be volunteering as a Teacher Trainer in Abi Adi College fo Teacher Education. So instead of helping a school, like I did in Malawi, I'll be sharing my skills with teachers from the area so that they can go into their schools and make their lessons fun, interesting and useful for their pupils.

I've never worked in a College before and I know I'm going to miss being in the classroom! But I hope that by helping the teachers I can give them something they can use for the rest of their teaching days.

I have been selected to be a volunteer with the international development charity, VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas). I leave in a few weeks time to spend a year sharing my skills with other teaching professionals.

Blackhall's Global Journey is about to experience a new country - Ethiopia!

More details to follow!

My headteacher took the photos below and sent a letter telling me about the school.

You may remember that in 2008, the school had 400 children on the roll, with only two teachers. Well now there are four teachers - a newly qualified teacher and a volunteer teacher, funded through the community. Here is a photo of one of the new members of staff.

The classrooms are very similar...

but now there is a whole new block..so four classrooms! These were being built when I was there (seen on the right of the photo below).

There are also more latrines...seem here as row towards the left of the photo. These are really important, as lack of latrines can be one of the main factors that put girls off going to school altogether.

The head teacher said in his letter that the parachute was really popular and is encouraging the young learners to come to school!

It's great to see the school coming on so well! Especially now that with the extra teachers, they are able to cater for another age group - standard five. More children coming to school and staying on for longer!

Here is the update from my village in Malawi. All these photos were taken in January 2010, when a member of staff from Link Community Development visited my village and gave some disposable cameras to my host family and school.

So my lovely host family...

Here is Alefa with Enock outside a house. He's now 2 years old. Zakaria is not around as he has gone to South Africa to work. I can't imagine how hard it must be for Alefa to manage without him - looking after the farm, Enock, relatives etc. The second picture shows Enock with his cousin.

Life in the village goes on as usual, with the preparation of maize and village gatherings! I love the picture here at the end with all the children...

The whole village looks very green and lush...this is the rainy season, compared with my time in Malawi during the dry season of July.

It's so nice to see the photos. I don't know everyone's names but the faces look familiar. Can't quite believe it's been two years since I was there!

I have recently received a letter and photos from the school I worked at in Malawi!

I'm looking forward to sharing them with the pupils at assembly soon!

blackhalls sky is blue

there is no toxic goo.

the grass is green

and nobody is being mean.

the birds are singing

the school bell is ringing

we use the recyling  bin

so are bins are not filled to the brim

if there is polluition

we have a soluition

do a liter pick with your hat and stick

most of us walk to school

so we dont use much car fule

we turn of the light

when it is bright

we go out doors

to do are wildlife chores

if you are an eco school

then you are a cool school

blackhall is a eco school

so we are a cool school. 

projecter

lights

radiators

smart board

computers

speakers

head phones

hoovers

secruity cameres

cd player

security lights

switches

cooker

remotes

printer

phones

coffee machine

chargers

libary computer

tv in drama room

p1 tv

How can we find out if we have managed to save energy?

Energy meter - how much energy used in a week? Find out and see if we can make it less.

Look at energy bill - see if it is less.

Measure how much one appliance uses in a hour?

Plan an assembly

Make posters

Plan challenges to do at home.

Energy monitors

Think of a goal - how much energy can we save? 

We are thinking about our new Eco Schools Area - Energy

Here are our first ideas about saving energy:

Turn off projectors

Turn off class lights when at gym or drama

Think about energy at home

Turn off power when not needed

Turn off toilet lights when no one is in

Renewable sources of energy - Use solar panels, wind power

Think about sources of lights

Only use lights when needed - open the blinds to let light in

 Turn off the red power switch off (in extension) when not in use.

Turn off hot taps

Fit shelves above radiators

Think about energy at home.

Don't put things on standby - turn them off.

Turn heating off when you don't need it. Keep doors and windows closed to keep the heat in.

Close blinds and curtains at night to keep the heat in.

Shut down computers when you are finished with them. Turn off at the wall at end of the day.

Gym hall lights turned off