Slowly, slowly catchy monkey...

With 2 weeks of teaching now under our belts it's with some satisfactory grins that we're able to reflect. The first is due solely to the meal we've just motored through in a lovely Darjeeling restaurant... Delicious! Not a grain of rice or a mushy dhal in sight, instead some serious protein and much needed veg. Our next mission is to find a chocolate brownie...

But of course the real story is the ongoing stream of classroom victories. The children are simply loving our efforts, and this week we've been making skeletons from matchsticks, melting (unintentionally) homemade hot air balloons in the playground, modelling cells from brillo pads and pasta, and making dominoes to test the smaller children's mental arithmetic... The list is endless.

The biggest victory of all has been
the buy-in that we now seem to have from the teachers. Within just 2 weeks the school's attitude has shifted from one of wariness and skepticism to full on support for our ideas, so much so that yesterday we ran our first ever teachers' training session! It couldn't have gone any better. 17 teachers ranging from head to the lady who makes tea and rings the bell were engaged for a full 2 hour session. We covered lesson planning and shared some simple techniques, and when asked if they'd had enough, 17 heads simultaneously shook. So we continued to ply our eager audience with ideas.

The response this morning was equally
pleasing as teachers voluntarily observed our lessons and asked for help. It's a battle we didn't begin to think we could win, and already we have some teachers converted!

It's a long game but progress
Is being made and we can't wait to see what the next few weeks bring!

But for now 2 days' downtime in Darjeeling, and tomorrow we're off to the zoo in search of red pandas and snow leopards!