Oh wow, three weeks down, I thought I would find 8 weeks in Mombasa very long, but if I was going to be here for my standard 4 weeks, there is absolutely no way I would be ready to leave!!! I feel like I have settled in at school now and life's become quite normal.  I finally know the names of everyone in my class and have a slightly schitzophrenic relationship with them...in the same day I can find myself hollering at them to sit down and be quiet and then later I find myself laughing and joking with them, overall I don't think my yelling has scarred them too deeply...hopefully.  In composition today most of them wrote that they love their teachers as well, so that can't be bad!!

I've been doing a lot of work on my BTEC in Leadership this week and have planned my school trip to the post office for two weeks today- hopefully byt hen they will all have written a coherent letter which will be posted to some children in England! I also lead debrief one evening which was interesting- we have debrief and dinner at 6pm Mon-Thurs for all of the volunteers to share what has happened that day.  I've also been working with some of the others to build up a remedial English programme as many of us are finding students in our classes that are battling with work in all of their subjects due to their lack of basic English language skills. It must be incredibly difficult to study in a second language, especially as many of their parents will be uneducation and possibly unable to read or write even in Kiswahili!

I've also been reflecting a lot on the futures of the children at the school.  All of them come from informal or slum settlements which are unrecognised by the government and thus have no government schools or clinics in their neighboorhoods.  Shauriyako- the informal settlement surrounding Precious is a hive of activity in the daytime, with shops, cafes, and winding alleyways of houses.  The comunity spirit in the area is far superior to that we are accostomed to in the UK, as people spend much of their time on the street, encouraging them to bond with others living around them; the lack of privacy and close quarters obviously encourages this further. However, the main reason for educating the children is to try to get them out of such areas and into safer more permanent environments...this is obviously a major challenge.  Further to this, I have heard that at night the village becomes somewhat dangerous and less of a friendly place to be.  It feels as though we are educating against all odds at times, especially with some students, but when one writes a coherent sentance or grasps a concept it all seems to become a little more worthwhile...anyways these are  my random thoughts regarding the children's circumstances.

Other than this, it has been an enjoyable but incredibly speedy week, off to Gedi to see some ruins tomorrow, hopefully the weather will hold out, as it has been close to unbroken sunshine for several days now!