We’ve just started Week 6 here at ISD (International School Dhaka) and we’re looking forward to the first break of the year at the end of Week 7. Yep, a nice easy way to begin the year, but it’s also in preparation for the 13 Week marathon that’s coming up later in the year.
It has been quite an amazing few weeks with all the usual fun and games that come with starting a new school year. Andrew’s class began as a whopping great 17 students and expanded rapidly to a monumental 19 students within a couple of weeks (the new families obviously recognised a quality classroom when they saw one….:). The biggest challenge we both faced/are still facing is getting our heads and tongues around all the Bangladeshi names. Our useless attempts at rolling ‘Rs’ only slightly dampened our distinct Aussie twang and left most of the kids giggling at the way we speak. Andrew was pumped to have one of his students come to him recently and ask rather hesitantly, “Mr Wishart, what does ‘fair dinkum’ mean?”
Needless to say, a brief lesson on Aussie vernacular was necessary and those kids were then introduced to words and meanings like ‘Dead Horse’, ‘Sanger’, ‘Bag o’ fruit’ and how to perfectly use the word ‘mate’ with correct intonation and emphasis. (Can’t wait for our shipment to come in – there’s a thumping big Aussie flag ready to be proudly hung in the classroom…)
As you can see from the photos, the school grounds are pretty spectacular. More will come, but we are rapt with the resources that are available. Consumables, books and any orders we make are another matter – estimated times of shipping arrival are loose to say the least. The best policy here is to order and hope. When things come in its tops, but we only work with what’s here (which is still pretty damn good in the scheme of things).
The staff here is awesome too. The mixture of people from all over the world adds a fantastic dynamic and depth of experience, and brings about some pretty great stories once we get a couple of lagers under our belt out of hours. The new head of PE that Lorinda is working with is American, and does sarcasm better than any Aussie, Andrew is still rapt to be teaching with Mark, as previously mentioned in another story, and we’re just about to start playing a slow-pitch softball league with staff from ISD as well as some other folk from around the city.
While Lorinda was crook with Dengue over the last couple of weeks, the number of people asking about her, sending reading material home to her (trashy and otherwise) and making check-up calls was unbelievable. We figure that seeing we’re all over here in a setting very different to where we’ve come from and most don’t have their families, people just band together and know how to look after each other. Starting to feel a little like home, I’m thinking…
Needless to say, anyone that knows Lorinda, knows how much she bounces back after being knocked down, and she’s back at work this week after only one week off. Thankfully she eased herself into the swing of things by grabbing a nanna-nap after her first lesson, and seems to be shaping up OK.
Seeya soon
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