It's Wednesday afternoon and I'm supervising the end of a R.E. exam for Chris who has gone to Mbour to take the juniors for swimming lessons.
I've spent the best part of the morning preparing the chapel for Centre Stage tonight. I was planning to do a post-concert blog but I now find myself at a loose end so I've decided to make it a before and after.
I've been looking forward to tonight for some time. Largely because afterwards I'll be able to cut my nails again on my right hand. I've been trying to revive some of my old A-level guitar pieces and I'm feeling fairly pleased with them despite some hiccups in my practice half an hour ago.
It's been tough practicing them. The nice guitar I was playing on returned to its owner a couple of weeks ago and since then I've been playing on one the worst specimens I've ever seen which I was given by Lesley when she threw it out. When I've been in the dorm I sometimes play on a poor 3/4 size instrument there.
Dirk-Jan suggested that I may find myself with a few classical guitar students next term and raised the idea of buying a couple of instruments for the school whilst back in the UK.
Tonight also is the premiere of the short film we made in film club last half term. It's been a nightmare trying to edit it but it's finally finished. It's a really girly story, reflecting the members of the club. Set in times of castles etc; a queen has a baby but fears the baby may be under threat from 'The Phantom' whose hand in marriage she rejected some time ago. The Phantom promised revenge and so the Queen sends her newborn daughter with a sled driver to be raised in the forest. The Phantom hears of the child and searches for her, finally finding her 15 years later. He overhears her talking to a bird about her terrible plight and feels guilt and other such emotions. His heart changed by what he has heard, he reveals himself to the Princess and asks for her hand in marriage. She accepts, they marry and we all live happily ever after... nearly as bad as some of the films I've seen here this year.
Well it's now the day after the concert. Quite a relief really.
It was a cool atmosphere. We had quite a large audience for an optional activity including some parents of daily and weekly boarders.
The concert started with some recorded pieces from year 7 music class. For the last few weeks they've been collecting sounds from around the school site and U.Chris put them together into some sort of musical arrangement, kind of in the style of 'musique concrete'. The first piece, 'People', was a bit rough around the edges and too long but the second, 'Places' was far more interesting and was received fairly well considering its limited appeal. More class work was then followed by individuals and small groups on recorder, voice and piano. I was the final act of the first half however before me was a mystery guest. He was a guest of the Jins and was just here for that evening but had asked if he might perform. I was a little nervous as he too was a classical guitarist. He played two pieces very well and although they were maybe not quite of the same difficulty as mine he played them much better than I did. Yet another lesson learnt in pride perhaps.
Upon talking to this guy afterwards it turns out he's studying music in an American university and will be performing the Bach Lute Suite (of which I played a piece) in his junior recital.
My nails are now all short again which makes typing this much easier! It's still a bit of a novelty having short nails again. I intend to make the most of my enjoyment of it by playing the bass sometime today; it's no fun playing bass with long nails, it sounds and feels bad.
This weekend is the special weekend away for the kids. I've just remembered I have to make a packing list and a swimming pool rota today. It will be the final weekend for Florence and for the Kray family. Florence is already feeling a little sad and has spent much more time with me than normal the last few days. She's one of the children I'm closest to and I will miss her. She is moving to France with her family (French mother, Brasilian father) and will be starting at a French/English bilingual school. She had almost no English when she started here back in September. The Krays have been here a long time; Terissa is the oldest student in the school, Megan was one of the kids baptised last week and Sarah has been one of my Eagle dorm girls this year. They are returning to Australia where the girls have had a hard time previously during furloughs. Please pray for them all and the friends they leave behind.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
A Week of Many Birthdays
There have been a couple of things this week which I would have liked to have devoted an entire entry to however, as usual, life here has been to busy to allow it.
As you may know, this weekend was my 24th birthday, an occasion worthy of comment of course, but also earlier in the week I made my second visit to the British ambassador's residence for another birthday.
On Thursday I was accompanied by Ruth, Tracey, Lesley, Dee and Sue in a 'sept place' taxi into Dakar. We had been invited by the new ambassador to join the annual celebration of the Queen's birthday. It was a rather larger affair than the Christmas do. All the other ambassadors had been invited and we were rubbing noses with UN officials and such. The ambassador made a short address in English and French (his French is not great, he was quite obviously reciting a memorised speech which didn't sound very natural). There was also a short speech from a Senegalese government official whose English was much better than our guy's French, the highlights being "we've been working hardly..." and his finishing words, "God save the Queen, God save Abdoulaye Wade" to the literal sense of which I gave a hearty 'Amen' (Wade is the recently re-elected Senegalese president).
The main highlight of the evening, besides the company in which I went, had to be the food. It was a buffet, the first table you saw containing seven varieties of English cheese! Tintern with chives, Stilton, Stilton with apricot, Wensleydale with cranberries, Keen's farm unpasturised Cheddar, Pilgrim's Choice mature Cheddar, and some other blue whose name tag had blown away in the evening sea breeze. Also on that table was smoked salmon, cold sliced steak and little folded ham crepes and olives on cocktail sticks. This was my favourite table. All the cheese we usually get is Edam and we rarely get to eat it on its own. Also throughout the evening there were waiters serving assorted finger food of varied origin and barbecues serving meat kebabs of different sorts. I spent most of my time talking to the others from the mission community but towards the end of the evening I got into a conversation (or rather was spectator to a conversation) with a very excitable Senegalese man from the UN drugs and crime department who wanted to tell us all about his very intersting work and the terrible socioeconomic state of Guinea Bissau. Luckily Nathan, who I was standing with at the time, has a little more knowledge of the situation than me and was able to sustain the conversation.
The taxi ride home was long but more pleasant than the journey there as I was no longer paranoid about sweating through my best shirt however my waistcoat is now distinctly crumpled having been sat on for an hour and a half.
I look forward to my next opportunity to dress up for 'Centre Stage', the school's annual concert on Wednesday night.
So, onto the second birthday.
On Friday night I'd been up very late preparing the exam papers and mark schemes for this week's annual senior exams. Consequentially I actually forgot that it was my birthday the next day and didn't realise until shortly after entering the shower the next morning. BCS birthdays start with candles at breakfast and someone praying for you before the dininghall is filled with the tuneful (or not so in this case) sounds of 'Happy birthday to you'. I enjoyed the morning despite working. I went with a group of kids down to Kiniabour for 'Saturday jobs' where we helped put in some drainage for the new kindergarten which the school raised money for last year. In the afternoon I was unfortunately quite tired after my late night on Friday and felt that I wasn't able to enjoy my party as much as I should have. I had a joint party with Chris who is exactly a year older than me (and is already married with two children!). After our party we had a meeting about next weekend which will be the junior weekend away. The evening late-night activity was an outdoor game involving running and water which I sat out of, joining the old people on the sidelines talking about various issues of going home and coming back and buying guitars for the school.
It's lunch time now so I shall have to leave it there. I'll try and write about centre stage before the end of the school week.
As you may know, this weekend was my 24th birthday, an occasion worthy of comment of course, but also earlier in the week I made my second visit to the British ambassador's residence for another birthday.
On Thursday I was accompanied by Ruth, Tracey, Lesley, Dee and Sue in a 'sept place' taxi into Dakar. We had been invited by the new ambassador to join the annual celebration of the Queen's birthday. It was a rather larger affair than the Christmas do. All the other ambassadors had been invited and we were rubbing noses with UN officials and such. The ambassador made a short address in English and French (his French is not great, he was quite obviously reciting a memorised speech which didn't sound very natural). There was also a short speech from a Senegalese government official whose English was much better than our guy's French, the highlights being "we've been working hardly..." and his finishing words, "God save the Queen, God save Abdoulaye Wade" to the literal sense of which I gave a hearty 'Amen' (Wade is the recently re-elected Senegalese president).
The main highlight of the evening, besides the company in which I went, had to be the food. It was a buffet, the first table you saw containing seven varieties of English cheese! Tintern with chives, Stilton, Stilton with apricot, Wensleydale with cranberries, Keen's farm unpasturised Cheddar, Pilgrim's Choice mature Cheddar, and some other blue whose name tag had blown away in the evening sea breeze. Also on that table was smoked salmon, cold sliced steak and little folded ham crepes and olives on cocktail sticks. This was my favourite table. All the cheese we usually get is Edam and we rarely get to eat it on its own. Also throughout the evening there were waiters serving assorted finger food of varied origin and barbecues serving meat kebabs of different sorts. I spent most of my time talking to the others from the mission community but towards the end of the evening I got into a conversation (or rather was spectator to a conversation) with a very excitable Senegalese man from the UN drugs and crime department who wanted to tell us all about his very intersting work and the terrible socioeconomic state of Guinea Bissau. Luckily Nathan, who I was standing with at the time, has a little more knowledge of the situation than me and was able to sustain the conversation.
The taxi ride home was long but more pleasant than the journey there as I was no longer paranoid about sweating through my best shirt however my waistcoat is now distinctly crumpled having been sat on for an hour and a half.
I look forward to my next opportunity to dress up for 'Centre Stage', the school's annual concert on Wednesday night.
So, onto the second birthday.
On Friday night I'd been up very late preparing the exam papers and mark schemes for this week's annual senior exams. Consequentially I actually forgot that it was my birthday the next day and didn't realise until shortly after entering the shower the next morning. BCS birthdays start with candles at breakfast and someone praying for you before the dininghall is filled with the tuneful (or not so in this case) sounds of 'Happy birthday to you'. I enjoyed the morning despite working. I went with a group of kids down to Kiniabour for 'Saturday jobs' where we helped put in some drainage for the new kindergarten which the school raised money for last year. In the afternoon I was unfortunately quite tired after my late night on Friday and felt that I wasn't able to enjoy my party as much as I should have. I had a joint party with Chris who is exactly a year older than me (and is already married with two children!). After our party we had a meeting about next weekend which will be the junior weekend away. The evening late-night activity was an outdoor game involving running and water which I sat out of, joining the old people on the sidelines talking about various issues of going home and coming back and buying guitars for the school.
It's lunch time now so I shall have to leave it there. I'll try and write about centre stage before the end of the school week.
Monday, June 11, 2007
D-day plus one
Mid-term break is nearly over. In fact it's already finished for most, I'm just lucky to have my day off on a Monday.
I've had a really relaxing weekend.
I went away with seven other Trekkers and we spent the weekend in nearby Saly. I didn't do much, but that was the whole idea.
One of the best parts was being with friends. I was reminded of Luke's description of the early church in Acts 2:44 "all who believed were together and had all things in common". There was definitely an atmosphere of community and sharing. People were very generous particularly in respect to food and money and no-one expected anything in return. A glimpse of Christian community at its best. The love of Christ in the lives of others can be more refreshing than weeks spent by the swimming pool.
I cooked bolognese for us all on the first night which I enjoyed very much (despite forgetting to buy garlic) and we had a lovely evening dining al fresco and enjoying conversation and card games.
The whole weekend was in some part (for me at least) dominated by thoughts of my impending deadline. Sunday night was the date I had set by which I must have made a decision about whether to stay on at BCS for a secind year.
It's been a difficult desicion in some way but easy in others.
Those who know me well will be well familiar with my indecisiveness. This was part of the reason for setting a deadline. For some time I have felt that I would like to stay but I wanted to be sure that this was God's best for me and to take time to examine the motives behind my feelings.
Having now done these things I am pleased to announce that I will be returning here in August for the next school year.
It is still not certain what my role will be so please pray for the school leadership team that they would be given wisdom as to how to best use me. There are also many practical details which will need to be addressed in the coming months.
This morning we had a special baptism service at Popenguine beach and five BCS students were baptised. We did it at the end of mid-term break so that the parents could come more easily. It was a great service, great to hear the testimony of these five young people and to see them responding in obedience to God's call.
We just had lunch and Bob asked me to announce my decision to the rest of the school so now everyone knows, that'll save any confusion or rumour I hope (although it seems that WEC Trek UK already thought I was staying, not the first time I've heard that sort of rumour getting around HQ mistakenly).
Must go and send all the e-mails I've written now and try and get some siesta.
I've had a really relaxing weekend.
I went away with seven other Trekkers and we spent the weekend in nearby Saly. I didn't do much, but that was the whole idea.
One of the best parts was being with friends. I was reminded of Luke's description of the early church in Acts 2:44 "all who believed were together and had all things in common". There was definitely an atmosphere of community and sharing. People were very generous particularly in respect to food and money and no-one expected anything in return. A glimpse of Christian community at its best. The love of Christ in the lives of others can be more refreshing than weeks spent by the swimming pool.
I cooked bolognese for us all on the first night which I enjoyed very much (despite forgetting to buy garlic) and we had a lovely evening dining al fresco and enjoying conversation and card games.
The whole weekend was in some part (for me at least) dominated by thoughts of my impending deadline. Sunday night was the date I had set by which I must have made a decision about whether to stay on at BCS for a secind year.
It's been a difficult desicion in some way but easy in others.
Those who know me well will be well familiar with my indecisiveness. This was part of the reason for setting a deadline. For some time I have felt that I would like to stay but I wanted to be sure that this was God's best for me and to take time to examine the motives behind my feelings.
Having now done these things I am pleased to announce that I will be returning here in August for the next school year.
It is still not certain what my role will be so please pray for the school leadership team that they would be given wisdom as to how to best use me. There are also many practical details which will need to be addressed in the coming months.
This morning we had a special baptism service at Popenguine beach and five BCS students were baptised. We did it at the end of mid-term break so that the parents could come more easily. It was a great service, great to hear the testimony of these five young people and to see them responding in obedience to God's call.
We just had lunch and Bob asked me to announce my decision to the rest of the school so now everyone knows, that'll save any confusion or rumour I hope (although it seems that WEC Trek UK already thought I was staying, not the first time I've heard that sort of rumour getting around HQ mistakenly).
Must go and send all the e-mails I've written now and try and get some siesta.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mid-Term Break, Here We Come!
It's Tuesday and, as usual this term, I'm in the dorm after school. It's very quiet on Tuesday afternoons; Chris & Brianna have their day off and Jacqui and most of the kids are at various after school clubs.
The kids get to choose two different clubs for the term, one for each half. This week is the start of the second half.
All of the clubs meet on Tuesdays except for mine which will meet tomorrow and so the only people not at clubs today are me and those in my club. That means Tristan, Sung-Hwi and I. Sung-Hwi is in Egret, the Korean dorm, and Tristan lives with his parents, the school coordinators, but he's here in Eagle playing playstation right now.
With just the two of us here it gives me a chance to get some bits and pieces done when I would normally be unable to do anything productive.
My club will be making electronic music. I planned out a rough schedule for the weeks on Sunday and I'm quite looking forward to it.
I found some great free software which I plan to use. It's an audio/midi sequencer/recording package called Reaper and so far I've been very impressed with it.
I've been pretty tired today. I made the classic mistake of pressing 'off' instead of 'snooze' on my alarm this morning and was ten minutes late in waking up the Eagle boys having got up in quite a rush.
One of the school computers went down yesterday. I found out when a student tried to use it in one of my classes this morning. I then spent the next hour or so trying to resurrect it but to no avail so siesta was spent reinstalling the entire operating system and standard set of classroom software. It's now up and running again but it was previously used to connect the whole classroom to the internet which will take a bit more work to sort out.
I'm very much looking forward to mid-term-break this weekend. Just two more days of school left now. I hope I can rest well. I'm sharing a house with 8 others for the weekend which could mean difficulty finding peace and quiet in the house but there should be plenty of space elsewhere to relax and get some time out. I'm going to the same place I went to for the first mid-term-break, hopefully I'll avoid sunburn this time.
Mid-term-break also means decision time about whether or not I come back here in August. You can expect a post on Monday with the news.
The kids get to choose two different clubs for the term, one for each half. This week is the start of the second half.
All of the clubs meet on Tuesdays except for mine which will meet tomorrow and so the only people not at clubs today are me and those in my club. That means Tristan, Sung-Hwi and I. Sung-Hwi is in Egret, the Korean dorm, and Tristan lives with his parents, the school coordinators, but he's here in Eagle playing playstation right now.
With just the two of us here it gives me a chance to get some bits and pieces done when I would normally be unable to do anything productive.
My club will be making electronic music. I planned out a rough schedule for the weeks on Sunday and I'm quite looking forward to it.
I found some great free software which I plan to use. It's an audio/midi sequencer/recording package called Reaper and so far I've been very impressed with it.
I've been pretty tired today. I made the classic mistake of pressing 'off' instead of 'snooze' on my alarm this morning and was ten minutes late in waking up the Eagle boys having got up in quite a rush.
One of the school computers went down yesterday. I found out when a student tried to use it in one of my classes this morning. I then spent the next hour or so trying to resurrect it but to no avail so siesta was spent reinstalling the entire operating system and standard set of classroom software. It's now up and running again but it was previously used to connect the whole classroom to the internet which will take a bit more work to sort out.
I'm very much looking forward to mid-term-break this weekend. Just two more days of school left now. I hope I can rest well. I'm sharing a house with 8 others for the weekend which could mean difficulty finding peace and quiet in the house but there should be plenty of space elsewhere to relax and get some time out. I'm going to the same place I went to for the first mid-term-break, hopefully I'll avoid sunburn this time.
Mid-term-break also means decision time about whether or not I come back here in August. You can expect a post on Monday with the news.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Computer Shopping
Today is one of those rare occasions when I get to spent some time on a decemt internet connection and so I'm actually writing this online.
I'm in Dakar today, having come in to buy a new computer for the school computer classroom.
Jonno, the headteacher, has been saying to me for a while that there was enough money in the ICT budget to buy another one and that we should consider it. Now that it's getting towards the end of the year and we're thinking about the next, in particular with knowledge of expected class sizes, we've decided to go ahead and buy one.
I came in with Jens and Heiko who have gone on into town to do more school shopping while I'm here at the guesthouse.
The computer shop is just round the corner and so at 10 o'clock, after some internet surfing, I meandered round to the shop to see what I could find.
I was a little nervous as I hadn't had a French conversation in a while and didn't know how to ask for half the stuff I needed. Upon announcing my purpose of buying a computer I was shown two grubby looking relics on the counter, not what I'd expected. After clarifying that I'd like a new machine I was ushered over to a pretty looking out-of-the-box Compaq machine which I knew was out of our league. At this point I worried a little, not really understanding the sales assistant who was nevertheless very good to me.
He seemed to be saying that I could specify a custom machine which they would then build, or at least that's what I assumed he was saying, the obvious thing for him to say at that point. I was relieved that there was a third option but simultaneously worried as we'd intended to take something home today. I tried to explain to the man that if I could buy the parts then I could build it myself later, getting stuck on the verb for building, if only I'd chosen assemble, the translation is much more obvious.
The stock was rather limited, one case choice, one processor (twice as fast as I needed), pretty much everything was better than I needed which worried me about the eventual total bill.
The sales assisitant had a little English and we enjoyed the farcical pointing and describing trying to establish which components we were talking about. I learnt some new vocabulary and so did he.
When we'd finally got together all the items on my never ending shopping list he said he had to go somewhere to get the hard disk and would be back in ten minutes. While I paid at the kiosk he donned his moped helmet and dissappeared ou the door. I sat by the counter listening to bizarre and apparently humourous Senegalese radio and watching customers come and go.
When he came back about twenty minutes later we took the pile of stuff outside and he hailed a taxi. Upon realising I had no change I asked one of the guys in the shop to change my 10,000 cfa note, he shortly came back saying that they couldn't change it and so the first sales assistant and I persauded the second that where I was staying was close enough to walk. As I picked up some bits I watched in not total surprise as the first guy got the moped and tried to get himself and a 17" CRT monitor on it. I was a little wary but Africans behave like this all the time so I decided to trust him. As we set off walking the monitor fell off the moped to the floor producing shouts from the neighbouring shop owner which I didn't understand. Seemingly unperturbed the guy got back on the bike with the box and started off again, this time with more caution.
In a minutes time we were back at the guesthouse, the men surprised that it actually was as close as I had said (things like time and distance are often exaggerated in Senegal). The moped riding sales assistant was anxious to check that the screen was in tact and so we brought it inside and plugged it in. It was fine much to all of our relief I'm sure.
I'm now waiting for Jens and Heiko to return so we can go home. I've since taken advantage of the small supermarket and the ice-cream parlour round the corner but I'm now getting rather peckish not having had any lunch.
I'm in Dakar today, having come in to buy a new computer for the school computer classroom.
Jonno, the headteacher, has been saying to me for a while that there was enough money in the ICT budget to buy another one and that we should consider it. Now that it's getting towards the end of the year and we're thinking about the next, in particular with knowledge of expected class sizes, we've decided to go ahead and buy one.
I came in with Jens and Heiko who have gone on into town to do more school shopping while I'm here at the guesthouse.
The computer shop is just round the corner and so at 10 o'clock, after some internet surfing, I meandered round to the shop to see what I could find.
I was a little nervous as I hadn't had a French conversation in a while and didn't know how to ask for half the stuff I needed. Upon announcing my purpose of buying a computer I was shown two grubby looking relics on the counter, not what I'd expected. After clarifying that I'd like a new machine I was ushered over to a pretty looking out-of-the-box Compaq machine which I knew was out of our league. At this point I worried a little, not really understanding the sales assistant who was nevertheless very good to me.
He seemed to be saying that I could specify a custom machine which they would then build, or at least that's what I assumed he was saying, the obvious thing for him to say at that point. I was relieved that there was a third option but simultaneously worried as we'd intended to take something home today. I tried to explain to the man that if I could buy the parts then I could build it myself later, getting stuck on the verb for building, if only I'd chosen assemble, the translation is much more obvious.
The stock was rather limited, one case choice, one processor (twice as fast as I needed), pretty much everything was better than I needed which worried me about the eventual total bill.
The sales assisitant had a little English and we enjoyed the farcical pointing and describing trying to establish which components we were talking about. I learnt some new vocabulary and so did he.
When we'd finally got together all the items on my never ending shopping list he said he had to go somewhere to get the hard disk and would be back in ten minutes. While I paid at the kiosk he donned his moped helmet and dissappeared ou the door. I sat by the counter listening to bizarre and apparently humourous Senegalese radio and watching customers come and go.
When he came back about twenty minutes later we took the pile of stuff outside and he hailed a taxi. Upon realising I had no change I asked one of the guys in the shop to change my 10,000 cfa note, he shortly came back saying that they couldn't change it and so the first sales assistant and I persauded the second that where I was staying was close enough to walk. As I picked up some bits I watched in not total surprise as the first guy got the moped and tried to get himself and a 17" CRT monitor on it. I was a little wary but Africans behave like this all the time so I decided to trust him. As we set off walking the monitor fell off the moped to the floor producing shouts from the neighbouring shop owner which I didn't understand. Seemingly unperturbed the guy got back on the bike with the box and started off again, this time with more caution.
In a minutes time we were back at the guesthouse, the men surprised that it actually was as close as I had said (things like time and distance are often exaggerated in Senegal). The moped riding sales assistant was anxious to check that the screen was in tact and so we brought it inside and plugged it in. It was fine much to all of our relief I'm sure.
I'm now waiting for Jens and Heiko to return so we can go home. I've since taken advantage of the small supermarket and the ice-cream parlour round the corner but I'm now getting rather peckish not having had any lunch.
Friday, May 18, 2007
A Week of 3 Themes
I don't think I've been on-line since Monday las week, that feels like a long time. Rather silly really considering I sent an urgent e-mail regarding return flights on that occasion.
It's been a long week.
On Monday afternoon I went to the beach in Saly with Fran & Jacqui. It was great to get away from the school for a while and the sea was lovely where we went; very calm and almost warm but still refreshing. Having missed tea in the dining room I cooked for myself when I got back which I enjoyed very much having not done it for while now.
There have been several ongoing themes this week. First there's Neil Young. Chris got 'Heart of Gold' the DVD from Amazon last week and I borrowed it on Monday. I watched the main disc that day and the special features disc today and have had the songs in my head a lot throughout the week (he's in my headphones right now). It's made me miss my guitar a lot.
I have a mental list of things to bring with me should I return next year, the first three are my acoustic guitar, my bass guitar and my 2.1 speaker system. Clothes are a luxury I can do without if need be.
The second theme has been DIRT. DIRT stands for Dance International Revival Troop, it's a fictional group formed by myself and other staff members for 'skit night' later in the term. We'll be performing an internationally flavoured medley of dances including morris dancing, line dancing, ballet, riverdance and of course YMCA and 'Superman' by Black Lace.
Reherasals are going well but we've a lot to do in a short time.
Thirdly, I've been teaching myself braille. Tomorrow night's weekend activity is called 'You Guess!', it's a kind of version of the TV gameshow 'You Bet' which is apparently very big in Germany (Betten Das). I entered a bet that I could teach myself braille and correctly read a collection of six letter words chosen by the organisers. It all started one evening when myself and two others were bored and had a braille labelled pill box to hand and decided to try and learn the letters on it. I was able to do it much more easily than the others so I thought I'd try the whole alphabet. I spent all siesta today thumbing flashcards I'd made and I now know the whole alphabet by heart. I just need something in braille to read now.
It's Friday today and it's nice to have a free evening at the end of the teaching week although I would have liked to have been out tonight as a group have gone to a restaurant in Thies to celebrate Lesley's birthday but I had to work in the dorm. That's just a fact of life here. That kind of socialising is difficult between dorm staff and teaching staff as dorm staff are working during all the teachers' time off.
I made four swords today after school. David and Chan-Hwi asked me to help them make some and tomorrow I'll make shields. I'm a little worried that someone'll get hurt by my craftsmanship though (if you can call it that). One's already broken...
It's been a long week.
On Monday afternoon I went to the beach in Saly with Fran & Jacqui. It was great to get away from the school for a while and the sea was lovely where we went; very calm and almost warm but still refreshing. Having missed tea in the dining room I cooked for myself when I got back which I enjoyed very much having not done it for while now.
There have been several ongoing themes this week. First there's Neil Young. Chris got 'Heart of Gold' the DVD from Amazon last week and I borrowed it on Monday. I watched the main disc that day and the special features disc today and have had the songs in my head a lot throughout the week (he's in my headphones right now). It's made me miss my guitar a lot.
I have a mental list of things to bring with me should I return next year, the first three are my acoustic guitar, my bass guitar and my 2.1 speaker system. Clothes are a luxury I can do without if need be.
The second theme has been DIRT. DIRT stands for Dance International Revival Troop, it's a fictional group formed by myself and other staff members for 'skit night' later in the term. We'll be performing an internationally flavoured medley of dances including morris dancing, line dancing, ballet, riverdance and of course YMCA and 'Superman' by Black Lace.
Reherasals are going well but we've a lot to do in a short time.
Thirdly, I've been teaching myself braille. Tomorrow night's weekend activity is called 'You Guess!', it's a kind of version of the TV gameshow 'You Bet' which is apparently very big in Germany (Betten Das). I entered a bet that I could teach myself braille and correctly read a collection of six letter words chosen by the organisers. It all started one evening when myself and two others were bored and had a braille labelled pill box to hand and decided to try and learn the letters on it. I was able to do it much more easily than the others so I thought I'd try the whole alphabet. I spent all siesta today thumbing flashcards I'd made and I now know the whole alphabet by heart. I just need something in braille to read now.
It's Friday today and it's nice to have a free evening at the end of the teaching week although I would have liked to have been out tonight as a group have gone to a restaurant in Thies to celebrate Lesley's birthday but I had to work in the dorm. That's just a fact of life here. That kind of socialising is difficult between dorm staff and teaching staff as dorm staff are working during all the teachers' time off.
I made four swords today after school. David and Chan-Hwi asked me to help them make some and tomorrow I'll make shields. I'm a little worried that someone'll get hurt by my craftsmanship though (if you can call it that). One's already broken...
Monday, May 7, 2007
Guitar Repairs
I'm just about to go online so I thought I might as well write something first to update my blog whilst I'm there.
It's my day off and I've just spent an hour in the workshop making a new bridge for my acoustic guitar. I'm amazed at how well it's turned out; due in no part to any skill of mine but solely to God's grace and the wisdom of others. It should look really nice when I finish (although the rest of the guitar will still look ugly), it's made from red-wood, not the giant american trees but a reddish brown very dense wood common in these parts.
I need to go online to get some tips about placement (what I've made is actually the saddle, I think, into which the bridge will be seated and the exact position of the bridge is very important for tuning).
The weekend was a good one. On Saturday morning I was able to use the time when the kids do chores to get a few jobs done myself. Usually I supervise one of the kids teams working outdoors but this weekend I didn't have to so I used the time to finish off some telephone system maintenance and fix one of the night-guards' rechargable torches.
After lunch I had a long but very strange siesta. I was in a dream which I couldn't wake up from. My mind was quite awake but I couldn't open my eyes or move my body, when I tried to open them I would see my room but it wasn't actually my room, it was a dream room. It was actually quite scary and I hope it's a one-off.
In the afternoon I played football for a while in the sports hall and got very sweaty, so much so that I was very glad to be ambushed by a group of water fighters on the way back to my house.
The evening activity was a 'choice movie', where kids can choose from three movies shown in different dorms simultaneously. I watched 'Facing The Giants', a quite unique film made by a church in America. It's about a high-school football team (of the odd shaped ball variety) and their coach who, in the midst of multiple personal crises, turns to God for help. In many ways the plot is quite incredible but, with the theme of the film being 'nothing is impossible for God' it's allowed to be to some extent. I enjoyed it far more than I expected although that may be partly due to a misconception that it was based on a true story which greatly affeted my attitudes to the parts others found a little hard to swallow.
On Sunday it was my turn to make the evening meal which made my afternoon very busy. I made bread rolls which, combined with a malfunctioning mixing machine and a mistake on my part, meant that I was slaving away for three hours on what was in fact a relatively simple meal. The rolls were really tasty though and I had a lot of very happy eaters at the end of the night.Again God was very gracious to me dispite my follhardiness and independence.
I should go get online now before I run out of time as lunch is fast approaching.
It's my day off and I've just spent an hour in the workshop making a new bridge for my acoustic guitar. I'm amazed at how well it's turned out; due in no part to any skill of mine but solely to God's grace and the wisdom of others. It should look really nice when I finish (although the rest of the guitar will still look ugly), it's made from red-wood, not the giant american trees but a reddish brown very dense wood common in these parts.
I need to go online to get some tips about placement (what I've made is actually the saddle, I think, into which the bridge will be seated and the exact position of the bridge is very important for tuning).
The weekend was a good one. On Saturday morning I was able to use the time when the kids do chores to get a few jobs done myself. Usually I supervise one of the kids teams working outdoors but this weekend I didn't have to so I used the time to finish off some telephone system maintenance and fix one of the night-guards' rechargable torches.
After lunch I had a long but very strange siesta. I was in a dream which I couldn't wake up from. My mind was quite awake but I couldn't open my eyes or move my body, when I tried to open them I would see my room but it wasn't actually my room, it was a dream room. It was actually quite scary and I hope it's a one-off.
In the afternoon I played football for a while in the sports hall and got very sweaty, so much so that I was very glad to be ambushed by a group of water fighters on the way back to my house.
The evening activity was a 'choice movie', where kids can choose from three movies shown in different dorms simultaneously. I watched 'Facing The Giants', a quite unique film made by a church in America. It's about a high-school football team (of the odd shaped ball variety) and their coach who, in the midst of multiple personal crises, turns to God for help. In many ways the plot is quite incredible but, with the theme of the film being 'nothing is impossible for God' it's allowed to be to some extent. I enjoyed it far more than I expected although that may be partly due to a misconception that it was based on a true story which greatly affeted my attitudes to the parts others found a little hard to swallow.
On Sunday it was my turn to make the evening meal which made my afternoon very busy. I made bread rolls which, combined with a malfunctioning mixing machine and a mistake on my part, meant that I was slaving away for three hours on what was in fact a relatively simple meal. The rolls were really tasty though and I had a lot of very happy eaters at the end of the night.Again God was very gracious to me dispite my follhardiness and independence.
I should go get online now before I run out of time as lunch is fast approaching.
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