Reading, Listening and Writting (sic)

I've completed a whole week of teaching and am now filled with remorse for the way in which I treated some of my teachers - it aint easy. But it has been fun. The children are great; incredibly demanding, still curious about this strange white girl, keen to learn and bouncing with energy. The class sizes are around 50 and the level of education within each class is extreme - some children are astute, accomplished and hungry for more knowledge to keep them satisfied. Others however are battling with even the most basic of skills and while they can copy from a blackboard (which often doesn't display the best English - see title) there is no understanding of what they are writing and therefore it's almost impossible for them to keep up with the others. Which is where I come in - I'm going to take the weakest out of each class and try and go back to basics with them so that they can catch up with their classmates. After one particularly frustrating session I have little faith that I'm going to be able to do this. The language is a barrier of course so trying to explain the most basic of things is a huge challenge. Again, any suggestions for how to overcome these hurdles and teach would be most appreciated. Thrilled to recieve your song suggestions, thank you, I can't wait to get into the classroom to try them out.
School starts at 8am so I leave my house & walk for about 15 minutes along an incredibly dusty road. I've never known such dust - there's some building work going on nearby so trucks thunder past and the air turns into a dust cloud that clogs my eyes, nose and mouth. Not having a decent shower at home is my biggest hangup - I need a power shower to get rid of the dust but instead there's 2 dribbles of either freezing or scalding water - neither of which is bareable.
The school day finishes at 4.10pm. Lunch break is an hour and a half during which the children dish out the food which is brought to each classroom in a vat. Lunch doesn't really vary - it's plain rice 'served' with with gloopy beans. Once they've eaten their food at their desks they then have to clean the room, sweep the floors and wash them down. They do all this without any complaint. Imagine us having to clean our own classrooms every day!?
The classrooms are all made from corrugated iron. They only have one or two small windows which means that if it's not sunny the light is very poor. However if it is sunny they get stiflingly hot. I seem to be the only one affected by this heat at the moment so hopefully I'll get used to it but it's only going to get hotter here, it's currently a comfortable 23 / 26 degrees.
It is very strange being a teacher - I still feel like a naughty school girl when I go into the staffroom (a corrugated iron construction) but the teachers are being pretty friendly although they have no idea why someone from the BBC (those 3 letters have HUGE kudos here) would leave it to come to their dusty school. I had a tricky time yesterday when one of the teachers was encouraging me to beat the children. I told her that I think I could manage without it but she was quite insistent that it was impossible to teach children without beating them or pinching them - it was the only way to control them. The other teachers seemed to agree with her and I was even given a lesson in how to beat them and where best to hit them (behind the knee if you're interested). The teachers laughed when I said that I wouldn't beat them and thought that love and attention was probably just as useful a 'weapon'. I had to really bite my tongue as it was not my place to critisise them but I felt very angry. I haven't seen any children being beaten as I'm pretty sure the teachers won't do it infront of me although I have seen them walking around with a cane or a branch. I've seen them pinch the children which I hate but I don't know how I'd handle seeing one of them being beater - just the idea of it makes me feel sick to my stomach.
We have a break between classes at 11 when all the staff drink chai - basically boiled milk, a couple of kilos of sugar with a tea bag quickly dipped in and out. It's pretty sickly but the sugar is a wonderful boost. I thought I might lose weight out here but with the amount of sugar and carbs I'm consuming my waistbands are feeling the strain. I love buying my food from the kiosks now - all the produce is so fresh and so cheap & I've been making friends with the vendors. A couple of days ago I brought 8 tomatoes, a couple of green peppers, onions, garlic, fresh chillies and tomato paste for 80 shillings. Approximately 60p.
Naturally I have my highs and lows here, as we all do, but I think they're probably a little more extreme than usual. The highs are glorious and exhillerating, the lows achey and exhausting. I've really been battling with tiredness and keep praying for more energy to enable me to throw myself into things with passion and enthusiasm. I'm sure that once I'm into a bit more of a routine I'll feel better. Until then I'll just keeping singing, dancing and teaching; it could be a whole lot worse.