There have been quite a few torrential downpours this week. They don’t last long and the sun soon comes out again, but things do get rather damp. Tuk tuks in particular are not very waterproof – they roll plastic or fabric covers down the sides if it starts to rain, a bit like putting a cover over a buggy – but it doesn’t keep a monsoon out, and the seats are always damp. So after you’ve been sitting down for a couple of minutes you start to feel decidedly moist, and even though you’re warm and moist, which has got to be better than cold and moist, it’s not particularly pleasant and is an unwelcome reminder of what may well be in store in years to come.
At school some children don’t come in when it’s raining hard, while others don’t seem to mind the rain at all.
Some go for conventional methods of staying dry
While others are a little more creative.
When the rain starts coming into the classroom, we simply move the desks out of the way and carry on.
The children wade through the water to get into the classroom, and the teacher puts a cloth on the floor for them to dry their feet on before they sit down.
This water was well over ankle deep, but they just ploughed through it.
Ironically, we’re doing the topic of seas, rivers and lakes at the moment in the Incredible English textbook, so they have a lot of water-based vocabulary to draw on.
We had a typing lesson in the computer room on marine life, and everybody typed away about dolphins jumping and playing in the water. All except one boy, and his dolphins were having much more fun.
At break time they dash out to buy snacks from a stall outside the gate. One popular option looks like cellophane with red grains sprinkled on it.
But nobody seems able to explain exactly what it is; I only know that it’s not sweet, and is possibly made from rice.
The children in the reception class are given a snack at break, and watermelon is a popular option.
The boys love playing football at break – their hero is Ronaldo, pronounced in such a strange way that I didn’t know who they were talking about until they wrote it down.
Even the less sporty boys get in on the act by making their own table football sets.
You press the piece of paper down so that it unfolds and moves the ball … ingenious.
The American students left, and we had a class photo
Luckily this was the morning class and not the afternoon class, or there would have been a photo of a riot.
As an example of what I mean:
here is the morning class happily enjoying their week’s library lesson
and here is the afternoon class, the same day.
As usual, it had descended into a free-for-all, with half of them brawling and the other half cheering them on.
But they did work sensibly and make some lovely paper lanterns on Thursday
and I was hopeful that we might have turned the corner – but we were back to unarmed combat again on Friday, so I think that Thursday was just an aberration.
On Friday the monthy rice delivery came. The school provides rice for families who can’t afford to buy enough to eat, and there are several in my class whose parents are on the rice list. The school also provides bicycles for children who live too far away to walk – but not for those in the younger classes, who have to hitch a ride with their older siblings.
There are about ten parents who come to pick up their children after school. All the rest, no matter how small they are, make their own way home.