From JTR: Our third morning at the secondary school and our pupils continue to do us and themselves proud. They have run lessons with several years groups, teaching Maths, French and Spanish, among other subjects, and played lots of fun games - Simon says, Zap, What's the time Mr Wolf, anagrams, sudukos and lots more - to some very excited and very enthusiastic little children. Particularly striking to me has been the lovely warmth and friendliness of our pupils and how this has been greeted so warmly in turn by the Sierra Leonean children.
Of the three times I have come on this trip, this group of our pupils has been the most cohesive as a whole team, the most willing to throw themselves into a challenge and, frankly, the most fun to spend time with. Wherever they have gone on this trip, whatever they have been doing, be it teaching or playing music, or singing or dancing, they have spread their life affirming joy and exuberance. As one of them said, 'Go big or go home' and our pupils have gone absolutely huge! We are so proud of all of them. ( Mr Bowen)
After a nice breakfast of our new beloved pineapple and pancakes at the resort, the groups went their separate ways, the musicians piling in to the small bus with no complaining whatsoever to Ballanta, and the J.T.R lot manspreading themselves and having a jam in the big comfy bus.
At Ballanta, we started our day with a warm up led by Alix (trousers intact this time) including splits and hard core stretching! We then all went to our rooms to teach and share our musical wisdom. After an hour of teaching and hearing happy birthday played many times by the violins and sax we took a well deserved break while we fanned each other with our music books.
Meanwhile, the JTR group had fun teaching French - imitating elephants and tigers, as well as English and maths. Chris and Mia tried to control the manic prep 5 classes in a game of splat, while Josh moved from toilet to toilet ;(. After lots of hugs and high fives goodbye, both groups then met for lunch- yet again with some very spicy pies, before we left for the high commissioner's house as we nursed our flaming mouths.
The concert was a success with lots of impromptu jamming out with the Ballenta jazz crew with some amazing solos from Lovelace Love-Harding, the new Assistant principal and trumpeter extraordinaire, Mr Coward and Mr Walton!! To finish off we had a big dance circle with everyone involved (who knew Madame D and Mr Bowen could dance so well!!) Onto the next day!! (Alix, Grace and Connie)
Wells pupils and teachers dancing with the BHC, Ms Lisa Chesney, MBE ( in bright orange dress).
