English week and Music day at CEDEM

Two of the worlds international languages are food, and music.

From the 17th to the 22nd of june we have the biggest event at school going. Forget the Olympics or the football, we had English week and Music day. The children were encouraged to speak English for the whole week, that lasted about ten minutes. Thursday was the national music day with concerts around the island to celebrate the vibrant music scene we have here in Mauritius. Each day at school we had a different theme of music/culture. Monday was “European”, Tuesday “Typique Seggae”, Wednesday “Indian” and Thursday “Chinese” then on Friday the big concert .I feel lucky that coming away from home to experience another culture I didn’t just get one culture to experience but ultimately three, Indian, Chinese and African/creole.

On Monday I was wearing a typical English dress, a silk creamy dress you would of worn to a wedding three sizes too big . . . and we waltzed to Adele and did karaoke to Michael Jackson. We had old classic games such as musical chairs and ‘danse sur la journal’ where the couples had to dance on a piece of paper which kept being folded and getting smaller. All the kids dressed up in dresses and suits and looked very daper to say the least J

On Tuesday I was kitted out in a full sega outfit, a full length billowing skirt patterned with yellow and blue flowers and a shirt with extra yellow ruffles. We dqanced to the' Maravanne' rattle and ‘Ravanne’ drum and unluckily one of the kids got my horrific dancing recorded on camera . . .  I’ve resigned myself to the fact that us foreigners can’t swing our hips like the creole girls from here, it just isn’t in our genes. but i gave it a shot an dhad a lot of fun! We had groups of sega singers and some of the kids did solos. Here is a taster of some of the sega songs that are popular right now . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jO7XzPKLDk

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tik+tike&oq=tik+tike&gs_l=youtube-reduced.3..0l4.65158.66342.0.66483.8.7.0.0.0.0.265.265.2-1.1.0...0.0.91BV_wtv540

 I have absoloutly no idea who is number One in the Uk charts right now but I can sing you every word to the sega hits over here!

Wednesday brought Indian culture. I was dressed in one of the teachers saris which I still don’t know how they wrapped around me! As pretty as It was I won’t be swapping to full time saris anytime soon – I don’t know how the women move around to cook and clean and going to the toilet is a nightmare!! We danced Bhojpuri which is a type of Indian exclusive to Mauritius that was created here. I just followed the other teachers and threw in a typical pat the dog while screwing the light bulb move and ripped off some moves I’d seen in bend it like beckham. . . after the demsonstration we had a little disco where I ended up hitching up my sai doing the highland fling for the kids to copy!

On Thursday I was dressed up in some funky Chinese cut off trousers and a red silk waistcoat. We did thai chee with the kids ( I had to change out of my trousers as I was in danger of ripping them!) and we practiced for the big concert the next day!

Unfortunately the big sega artist who had been booked to play on Friday cancelled at the last minute but we had another acoustic band come in to save the day “One destiny”. The day was set up kind of like a stars in disguise with different acts from the kids. Kids did hits from Bollywood films, some hip hop with awesome break dancing and lots of girls doing sega dance routines. It still surprises me how here it is one of the only places where the kids of the country actually like listening to the traditional music of their country and not just bland dance songs from america.  Us teachers did a number – a Scottish dance which I choreographed and we practice in one day!! I mixed in highland dancing with ceilidh dancing and pretty much everything in between. Most of the teachers were tired out from all the jumping about but they all enjoyed doing it – it was nice to be in a kilt dancing aogn to some bagpipes! We had a school disco after. As much as I would of loved to gone on the dance floor and messed about with the kids I kept having to remind myself I was a teacher and was supervising cleaning up and getting food and drink for the visitors! All the kids dressed up again had a really good time though and it was a great day to top off a fantastic week J

From UHS to CEDEM

REASONS WHY MY MAURITIAN SCHOOL IS A FAR CRY FROM SCOTTISH ONES -

Having been here for eight months I'm completely in a routine and my jobs and day to day tasks are second nature, but heres what I'm giggling at that couldn't be more different from my school days:

1.       Here, if you’re off school for sunburn, you would be met with a sympathetic nod and understanding.  At home you’d get “waaa you total spoon!”

2.       For lunch you’d get Macaroni cheese with a bit of salt to liven it up.  Here, “what did you bring in for your lunch today Ahmed? A chili sandwich, hmmm? Just green chilis in some bread?” Now that’s what I call a packed lunch - hats off to these kids.

3.       Language slip ups are so much funnier; to the question “how are you?” a student wrote “I am tinky, thank you”.  I don’t even know what she was trying to say . . .

4.       When there is sun in the playground the kids dive for the shade while I’m starfished on the grass, soaking up the Vitamin D

5.       Surely I wasn’t this cheeky in school: there was a boy sleeping on his arms in class so I gently woke him up and handed him a book.  He looked at me in surprise, then gratefully said “Merci Miss Rachelle” and used it as a pillow!

6.       At home it’s not like you’re playing Russian roulette every time you go in the toilet: “will there be tissue, will there not?”

7.       Sometimes it will just start with someone tapping on a desk or a chair but then, before you know it, the girls are singing traditional Sega while swinging their hips around and dancing. Never seen someone just whip out a set of bagpipes in the classroom and others burst into the Highland fling!

What else is making me laugh at school:

A new rather amusing nickname the kids made up for me, “Blanche Neige” A.K.A “Snow White”, and I thought I was tanning!

Here none of the kids in my school have heard of the Second World War. So when the teacher was explaining there was a bad man called Hitler who wanted the whole world to look a certain way. “White Skin, Blue Eyes, oh wait, pretty much exactly how Rachelle looks . . .” cue lots of kids turning in their seats to look at me like I was responsible for the first world war . . .

I can’t believe I have only five weeks left at work :( It has been the toughest most challenging test I’ve been put to, and by far the hardest job I've ever had but maybe that’s not saying much as I’ve on had summer jobs in shops . . . but I feel like I’ve really thrown myself into it. At times it was been tough dealing with the tantrums of the girls in shelter or the fights breaking out between children with behavior problems, but I couldn’t be more sad to leave them! Having to deal with teenagers with difficult backgrounds who are in that moody stage of they're life makes you have to act a lot older than you are, when you're not even sure you're past that moody teenager stage in your life! they are like my younger sisters, its hard not to become fiercely protective of them! on top of that caring for the children with dissabilities who are the same age as you if not older, it truly puts your life in perspective. how much you can achieve, how you owe it to yourself to push yourself. but also how rewarding it can feel to help others!

Next week we have English Week and also Music week. Cue lots of excitement and dressing up in silly costumes. Each day we are having a different theme, English, Indian, Chinese and traditional Creole. I’m planning on throwing some ceilidh dancing in there for fun, kilts at the ready! J We also have a Creole singer coming as a surprise for the kids on the Friday, but I won’t say anymore as its top secret . . . even I’m excited!!

Only forty more days till my flight . . . hmmm my visa is valid to September however, how tempting . . .

Love

Rachel

Pils caravan

In my last blog I mentioned a motor caravan which runs at night, offering information and HIV tests for sex workers and drug takers in the main districts of Mauritius.  This is run by the charity Prévention Information Lutte contre le Sida (PILS) and two weeks ago I got the opportunity to go out with the caravan for the first time.  I found the experience really interesting;  we travelled from Quatre Borne to Rosehill (both commercial towns on the west side of the island, not somewhere which tourist usually visit) stopping at various hot spots.  The drivers of the van obviously knew and were friends with most of the prostitutes and part of their job is to stop and chat to as many as they can while handing out condoms etc.   At our first stop one of the older prostitutes agreed to take an HIV test which thankfully came back negative;  I found it incredible that it took simply ten minutes to complete the test – a quick pin-prick to the finger, a short wait and that’s it.  It almost felt too brief for something potentially that deadly!

The driver of the caravan bluntly told me that some of the women that we met that night would also die that night - just the harsh reality of their circumstances L.  I met prostitutes of all different ages and genders.  Some were a lot older than I expected and some were sadly quite young, in some cases younger than me.  I have to admit that I really enjoyed talking to the transvestites – they were such fun, calling me “sugar” in broken English and telling me funny stories in creole about being picked up by men who thought they were girls and the resulting surprise when all was revealed! We had one incident of a man coming up to ask for a clean needle but the caravan wasn’t at liberty to hand out those sorts of things, I found it quite disarming how openly they  were about what they do. It was a subject that hit close to home as many of the girls placed in the shelter at CEDEM have had parents who were drug abusers or prostitutes, and I can appreciate how hard it must be to have to do that work to scrape by with children at home.

It was a really interesting night;  I learned a lot about a subject that I had not really dealt with before and I can see how much great work PILS does.  Through the rapport they have built up with the sex workers, I can see they really care and it’s good that they offer unconditional, non-judgemental friendship to people whose circumstances and lifestyle is pretty bleak.  If you would like to know more about the charity, here is a link to their website, http://www.pils.mu/ - it is in French though.  I hope to go out with the caravan again shortly.