T15 - A Day in School!

30/09/2009 by paul.

Last night I set my alarm clock for 5.30am, and to my suprise I actually responded to the buzzing in my room and got myself up and dressed for morning prayers at 6. Despite the early start, this time of prayer was amazing. Each day the teachers, pastors and volunteers gather together to sing three hymns (I don’t think I’ve played the piano before 7am, ever!), read two Psalms, and then pray through various verses of those Psalms. After about half an hour of each person praying aloud (at the sametime as everyone else - amazing!) People stay in quiet in the church for around half an hour doing daily readings and devotionals and praying more. I escape to come speak to Jo before breakfast (just about midnight in the UK). At breakfast I meet with the pastor and we pray some more about the days work and ministry. The students arrive at the school at about 8.30 to clean and brush up the leaves, then at 9am school starts with daily devotions from one of the Psalms (a different one to earlier), some explanation, the singing of a song, and prayer. Lesson begin at 9.45, at which point I escape back to my room. I am going to be joining the classes in the afternoon. Today I spent this morning preparing for a music/English class. Some of the students had been to see The Phantom of the Opera - I think the movie rather than to a theatre, and wanted to learn more about the story and the songs. Despite a wrench in my whole body I started typing Andrew Lloyd Weber into Google….

Lunch is at 12 and then there is a break till around one. My ‘class’ started at 2.30 and it went really well. The students speak very good English (well they should since they start learning English one year after learning Taiwanese and Chinese). The fourteen year olds have been learning English for 9 years! The biggest thing that they like to practice is pronunciation and listening to an English voice. I think is likely to mean that their will be a group of Taiwanese people in the future who speak with a nice Yorkshire accent, oh well!

After classes its time for tea, except because the staff wanted to welcome me we went out to a restaurant - an all you can eat Taiwanese/American steak house. I know there are many people worried about my constant mention of food on here, but this really was exceptional - there were at least 20 varieties of steak to choose from, I plumped for a 10oz T-Bone, which came in it at a mean 290NT (about £5.00)!!!

My bed beckoned sooner than normal due to the early rise and the prospect of another 5.30 start in the morning, and an afternoon class all about England!

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