02/12/05 - Not the most eventful of weeks, spending a lot of time round Victoria's house and not making better use of my time... I enjoyed the Musical Night on Saturday, and was quite impressed with my camera zoom. The stage was 50m away yet I still got some decent photos... The singing classes are going OK at the moment. I'm still practicing over and over the same couple of songs, but they only need to sing one so there's little I need to do...

Feeling a little mixed up over whether I should go to do Teaching in Borneo or not. There's a very strong bond between me and the students and it's going to be difficult to leave, but I don't know if I'll want to leave them for a few months over January to March/April. I may be doing some classes with the students on English, but the new term doesn't start till January, and it wouldn't seem right to start for a week or two, then leave them for two/three months. I'm enthused to experience a more rural lifestyle, but I'm not sure how happy I'd be with it...

09/12/05 - So... I've now had my placement terminated by World Challenge... three strikes and I'm out (or just independent for the moment)... so I'm now in the same category as those who have possibly assaulted their way off their Gap Challenge or got involved in some illegal activities... so what's must my story be to be as so bad as others?:

Strike 1: Having intolerance for some aspects of another Gap Challenger's character and writing my opinions on a public blog.
Strike 2: Further controversy over my blog, with certain wording that could possibly provoke some very difficult issues.
Strike 3: Not writing up formal lesson plans for my Taman Wahyu classes.

So, Strike One... I was a little insensitive writing about what I thought of someone to the world, but then Jonny wrote on his blog about how 'evil' Trevor was and wrote something insensitive about Charlotte. Maybe I picked the wrong character to 'mess' with, but I was told I was making her miserable. Though image can be a sensitive thing to some people, I removed whatever was not wanted, yet this still wasn't good enough. I did have a non-speaking phase with Sam (like Jonny and Trevor did), but the point was that it's better to say nothing then to offend someone... but this apparently wasn't good enough...

Strike Two was over some sensitive content, which could cause trouble for certain people. I locked my blog, as asked, but there seems to be a huge issue as to where I can now no longer write about Community Of Praise, though where the controversy lies and can be tackled by just deleting a few sentences and would solve all the problems... so again, did as I was told, but the issue was blown out of proportion...

Strike Three was over not planning for my lessons for Taman Wahyu. So how do you prepare a class where you don't know how many kids you'll have, and which kids of which abilities they'll have. I haven't even signed a contract to work at Taman Wahyu, or even had a tedious Ofsted inspection, so it's all pretty informal anyway. Yet I have to plan for what I'm going to teach (though Sunday School doesn't have much curricular teaching) children with an ability range of 4/5 year olds who can't speak English, to 9/10 year olds who are semi-fluent in English.

I've done a lot of good work for Taman Wahyu. Firstly I managed to get the kids to actually come to class. Dharsini used to be reluctant to go to Sunday School before I came, then last Sunday morning she was tugging on me the start the lesson. And Shamini's confidence has built up a lot. In her first class with me she was terrified and had to be comforted by her siblings throughout, now she's just a little hesitant at the start (after being thrown in the class by her mother), but after a quick cuddle she's fine...

Though the lesson planning was for me to start private classes, I wasn't sure which kids I would be teaching. All the Taman Wahyu kids are so different and I could probably work out the best method for each child, but having extremely little teaching experience (becoming a teacher in the UK is heavily tedious, and the kids are seriously ill-disciplined anyway...), I don't know how to formally write up a lesson plan...

So what's in store now? Apparently I'm barred from anything I've done with this Gap Year. I had a call from Anne this morning saying I shouldn't be staying round Sanju's flat as I'm no longer a Gap Challenger like the others (though Sanju isn't either)... They're all fine for me to stay in the flat; it's ridiculous and expensive for a company that's disowned me to create no-go areas for me. But then being on the same level as someone who's committed an assault, maybe I'm a possible danger to the other Gap Challengers...

16/12/05 - Here I am, another week, trying to sort my life out... I guess it was nice to get a weekend off Taman Wahyu as that's likely to be my only one, and the weekend is also the only decent time to go to Port Dickson. It's so nice how you can easily make friends in Asia, and meeting that family on the beach was nice. I've made a promise to re-visit them some time, and I'm sure I'll fulfil it...

But it was nice to go back to my class today, and Rachel was pleased to see me back. I don't think I'll be leaving Taman Wahyu for a while, no matter what any disowned companies tell me to do. I've become such a part of the community there that it'd be ridiculous for me to leave over some stupid issue with a company not all the other Gap Challengers are happy with. And I'm going to the Water Park with them tomorrow under the classification of being one of the Adult Carers (even though some of the 'children' are older than me), so I think TW want me more than WCE... and I've also got a 'hit' placed on Rose for hurting Rachel earlier, though I'm sure I'll be throwing all the kids in the water tomorrow anyway...

23/12/05 - Two days till Christmas! I've certainly had an eventful pre-Christmas build up, going ice-skating (for the first ever time) in a hot equatorial country, then going to the Water Park on Saturday was great fun, and has certainly brought me much closer to the kids, mainly the twins, Nora and Norsha... So I seriously don't think I'll be leaving Taman Wahyu now, considering I have a 'contract' with Ratha on doing classes with some of the kids...

Nick is now gone... Mike is gone for a few months... Sam is gone for a few weeks... Nick really became quite a member of CPKL and the Hospital he worked at, and seems to have something that makes him able to be friends with everyone. We seemed to both have a good interest in Wrestling and Neighbours, and seemed to know which conversations we wanted and didn't want to talk about. He will be missed...

Today was a lot of fun, and it was so nice to see all of the students who have come and gone through my class. I've had 57 students pass through my class so far, and there must have been at least another 20/30 kids attending today's service. Good thing I didn't have Sunday School class, the 28 (new record) on Sunday was enough, I don't think there'd be a good share of space with a hundred children in one classroom...

30/12/05 - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for tomorrow night to you all! I got my first bout of homesickness on Christmas Day, mainly due to it feeling more like December 25th then it being how I traditionally spend the day. And knowing that there's a new PC and a bigger room for me to come home to makes a nicely awaited return, but reading through the International Express cures the homesickness. So I can either return to my comforts at home, or I can have the wonderful social time I get from my friends and students at Taman Wahyu. I'd best make the most of these remaining months...

I've finally begun to notice over the past months is the difference between the male and female students. Yes, it's obvious the girls are easier than boys to handle (except for Dharsini I, and Eswaren is my only good boy), but I do wonder what goes through some of their minds. I've noticed a lot of boys seem to have certain bad habits with slapping walls and the floor with their hands, sometimes just doing it without thinking. I'm not sure what role-models they have in Asia, though I've noticed a lot of bad things from the West (Rap music and the Crazy Frog) have made it big over here. Have I been placed here to be a more positive role model to these boys? I'll have to see what kind of outcomes I can make from them over my time here...