My day in school at Gospel High

Thank you everyone for all your emails! So nice to hear from you all so soon.

Anyway, it was a great day at school today.

I started off with an Agriculture class!!! Gulp! This was not right - I have no idea how to teach agriculture! Heh!

So managed to persuade the school principal to let me teach some Arts in the school. Fortunately, her response was really great! The principal & the staff are so enthusiastic to have me teaching drama & art to the students in the school. Yay! Much better suited to me than agriculture!

I also got to teach some deaf students today integrated in a mainstream classroom. They are so smart & sharp! Their interpreters have clearly been great help to them in the classroom. One deaf student said their teacher (my teacher mentor) loves deaf students - I noticed this too. It's just wonderful to see a teacher so enthusiastic about her deaf students in her mainstream classroom. (Sorry no photos of the deaf students yet - will do that soon)

A funny moment for me today was when I was tutoring the deaf students in the classroom on poetry. I told a deaf boy to get up & point the word out for me on the blackboard. He was so hesitant - didnt think he understood me. So I said 'go on - point to the word on the blackboard'. He looked around looking very unsure of himself & checked with his deaf mates to make sure he understood. Indeed he did understand me & finally a several minutes later (after much persuasion) he did it! Hmmm ... its obvious the students are not encouraged to move about in the room & must always sit in their chairs. I was so glad to be to introduce this new experience for him! Smile ...

As for sign language with the deaf students - we did alright. They have some different signs but some are similar to Auslan - Australian Sign Language. We had to do some swapping of signs for common understanding & generally I think they understood me well. I hope! I know how deaf people can fool people & pretend they understand ... Heh!

To finish of the day, I had to walk a leafy pathway to get to my bus-stop. Got on the bus for the first time ever & got lost! I ended up out of the city into the rural village area! Oh dear! Lucky the bus driver chased another bus - tooted his horn several times & overtook this other bus so I could change buses & return back home. Phew! I think all the passengers in the bus thought it was funny. Nevertheless, the bus ride was interesting as I got to see some rural villages which seems quite different to the city of Suva. I must return one day & venture a bit further with someone to see more of the village life.

So its a good start to my week at the school - I am getting rather excited about the 6-weeks ahead of me.

By the way, this evening I joined my hosts (a couple from NZ & America) at the French Cultural Centre for an alfresco (outdoor) French movie - lots of other expatriates, diplomats & prac students like myself went there also. Was so much fun! I always really enjoy my French films.

This Saturday I might be going on a 5-hr hiking trip with members of the hiking club. And the following weekend joining another group for snorkelling at an island on the east coast with members of the hiking club again. Can't wait!!!

And this Friday a dear & special deaf friend will be visiting me for 2-weeks - from London.

Goodnight!