Gong Xi Fat Cai

Happy New year of the Goat to all my Chinese friends and family. As I write I can hear the firecrackers and fireworks going on around me and the celebrations will continue for a month I believe. I know there seems to be some confusion about it being the year of goat or sheep but apparently in Chinese there is only the word - yang meaning a ruminant with horns which could mean either sheep, goat or even antelope. So I hope that has made things clearer! Anyway I'm afraid I haven't done anything very Chinese in Tuaran as I don't know any Chinese and most Chinese families have a very family day at home. There has been lots of gonging and I've seen a lion dance but for the last two days I have been doing a lot of sewing and other things in preparation for the Symposium.  I went to climb up the beautiful pagoda in Tuaran today only to find it closed and so I will have to return again another time.

  The exciting news is that the last proofs of our storybooks have been checked and they go to the printers tomorrow morning. Anna (the mentor responsible) and I are very excited at seeing them nearly ready and of course when we actually see them in print it will be even better. I think they look great and we are hoping to sell lots at the Symposium and the profits will be going to the school and the illustrators. There apparently will be media interest and in particular the stories of the illustrators who have come from the local villages and will be present for the signing of the book. More will be revealed in the coming weeks!

Farewell Dearest Phoebe

Our beautiful, much loved Breton spaniel, Phoebe, passed away on Wednesday much to our great sadness. She was 15 years old and when I said goodbye in January I thought it might be the last time I would see her but I was just hoping that she would make Tanya and Anthony's wedding and that I would be with her at the end. She has been such a part of our family throughout the years and like most dogs she was completely devoted, adoring and forgiving to us all - always forgiving me and loving me again when I returned. If I remember in my first blog entry, I was more worried about leaving Phoebe than I was of my children! For eleven years she was my shadow and wherever Phoebe was, I was close by. She was happiest when everyone was at home and she would constantly badger us all for a cuddle by offering her paw. At any social occasion Phoebe could be guaranteed to be there joining in the party and she was in her element at Lisa and Remi's wedding last July.

The Wedding 2014

 It certainly was a difficult decision about leaving her but the family and I agreed that I couldn't turn down a fantastic job because of an ageing dog. I'm sure many people might have but I chose not to and just trusted that for however long Phoebe was going to live that she would be well cared for at La Ferme des Vallots. Phoebe had already had breast cancer when she was 10 years old  and had had a major operation removing all her mammary glands and the prognosis was unsure.

The day before she died

During my first contract in Borneo, Andrew did a marvellous job of replacing me and when he had to travel for work Phoebe stayed next door with Paul and his dog, Ruby. When I returned at the end of September 2013 I stayed at home for three months - not sure what I was going to do in the future. After I decided to return to Borneo we advertised for a dog-sitter and an American lady called Bell  came for five months. Somehow after the wedding Andrew and then Patrick looked after her and it wasn't until January we realised that we had to look for dog-sitters again.

Phoebe had definitely aged in the last few months when I saw her at Christmas; her back legs were unsteady; she drank water constantly; her cancerous tumour had returned. However, the vet felt that she still was in good form for her age and wasn't in any pain and still had an interest in life and loved her walks. Julie and Paul became her final carers for a month and I am so grateful to them for obviously loving and looking after her so well. When she had a "turn"on Wednesday and couldn't walk and was in pain, they took her to the vet, the vet emailed us recommending she was put down and they stayed with her until the end- passing on my messages of love.

P.S. Dear Julie and Paul, I have never met you but I will always remember your kindness that you showed to Phoebe.

P.P.S. Dear beautiful, crazy Phoebe, thank you for all the love you have given us - we will miss you so much. xxxxxx

Keeping IT Going: Sustaining Professional Growth 2015 Symposium

 What is keeping me going at the moment is the preparation for the Symposium 2015 which will be held on 4-6 th March and the theme is the title above. The keynote speaker, Angi Malderez, will be talking about the "it" as in what is it that keeps you going as a teacher and we have  started an #itis twitter campaign which involves teachers, mentors - in fact everyone involved in our ELTDP. So I now have a twitter account which I'm still not sure what to do with and have two followers but fortunately there are other people who are more into tweeting than me and it seems to be catching on and I have even been photographed and tweeted. I really had to think about what had kept me going in the teaching profession for all of 35 years. I started as a class teacher at the age of 22 and was full of enthusiasm and would spend hours after school, preparing and planning the exciting and wonderful lessons for my class. I had always wanted to be a primary school teacher and there were so many special moments in those first few years as a teacher -  projects; concerts; clubs; pupils starting the reading journey; laughter and fun – that I felt I had the perfect job. It was after a few years when I started my own family and curriculum pressures of conformity started to weigh on me, that my own enthusiasm weakened and I felt that I had had enough.

A class of 3 children at the village school

  Andrew and I decided to give-up our jobs and move to rural France with three young children under 3 and a dog. We were going to start a new life in France; become self-sufficient; spend time with our children and turn our backs on our former careers. However, within a month of my three year old daughter attending “Maternelle” I had somehow been elected as the new English teacher at the local school and the headline in the newspaper read “Anglais pour Cambremer!” which unfortunately for the school the Monsieur school inspector read and demanded to know why he hadn’t been informed! This was the start of my long and not very distinguished career in France teaching English to French primary school children.

Visiting a school this week over a river and into the jungle

  I couldn’t speak French and had no idea how to go about teaching English to children so I did what I could do- which was sing with my guitar, recite nursery rhymes and read my children’s stories to them. If they couldn’t say it then we sang it and I think there is a generation of French children in Normandy who think English is a strange opera-like language! There was no curriculum and no support so I just made it up as I went along. The part-time work became full-time and gradually English over the next fifteen years was made compulsory in all the primary schools and a more structured approach was put in place. My biggest challenge was to enthuse in the children a love of learning a new language, which is a very tall order in a country where English is not spoken. If I could make young children enjoy speaking in another language then the foundation for their future would be laid. I decided that my best tactic for the battle was to make it fun for the children and make my enthusiasm contagious.

The only way to carry your shopping home!

 Of course over the years there might have been days when that enthusiasm has waned slightly but still today when I go into a class I need to have their attention and to see them wanting to learn but most of all enjoying themselves. I was invited by a teacher to read a story to the new Year 1s last week and immediately welcomed the opportunity. There were thirty-five pupils and of course a group of boys who were more interested in what was going on outside the classroom. This was going to need my special story and lots of enthusiasm. By the middle of “I know an old lady” I had most of the pupils on board and by the end I had managed to get all of their attention. I was exhausted! Teaching is exhausting and frustrating at times and we have to think of a million ways of teaching the same things and our creative talents can be stretched to the extreme. However I believe that if you can keep “it” going then it is the most worthwhile and rewarding profession in the world. That is why my #itis  Endless Enthusiasm”.

A water village that I visited this week

The Maliau Basin and the Lost World

Sunrise at Camel Trophy Camp

   Yes I went to the Maliau Basin last weekend and had an adventure! It seems ages since I've had one - (unless breaking my arm could be counted as one) and here I was on my way to the Lost World. It has been on my list of things to do for ages and then suddenly the opportunity came up and I was getting a lift in a 4x4 into the Maliau Basin which is the only way in. The Maliau Basin is a geological catchment area of the Maliau river with steep sides protecting the forest and wildlife within. It was only "discovered" in the 1960s and has been a conservation site since 1981 and hopefully will become a World Heritage site. It is untouched and nearly 600 square km of forest which in itself is a miracle to be chereished.

  It was a 7 hour drive from Tuaran and we arrived at the park headquarters in the dark but managing to see some deer and wild boar on the way. The first night we spent at the hostel and then the next morning at 8 a.m. Suzanne and I got our rucksacks on our back and met our guides and set off from Agathis basecamp. I'm not as fit as I should be and the first 3 km were really hard as it was nearly vertical. We were not only scrambling but climbing up ladders and our guide just kept saying "palan palan" (slowly, slowly) and finally taking it very gently, we were at the top on the ridge and everything seemed easier. After that it was a trek through thick jungle and the huge agathis trees towering above us. The flora and fauna were similar to the Kinabalu area with pitcher plants and moss and lichen and of course many leeches - both tiger and brown! We made our basecamp "Camel Trophy" (strangely sponsored by Camel cigarettes!) at about 2 pm and decided to continue onto the Ki ?? Falls another 3 km but we were  feeling good so off we set again minus our rucksacks. By the time we returned at 5 pm we were tired and had managed to do 14 km in one day without being super fit.

tree bridges

Amazing waterfall and our guide

  The Camel Trophy base camp is a wooden house and we had bunk beds which was a surprise as we were told we would be in hammocks and a generator for some light in the evening. We cooked up some pasta, ate a bar of chocolate and despite it being quite cool and various civets running through our room I slept like a log. It rained heavily through the night but the next morning it had stopped and it was lovely. The next big challenge of the weekend was to climb the ladder up the Agathis tree to admire the canopy. Which I did despite the termites on the rungs and it was well worth the effort for the view.

 After we had come down it was time to hike back which seemed a real shame and I wished we had had another day's hike to Ginseng Falls - but maybe next time. I certainly felt stronger and fitter on the return and would love to do a few day's hike one day. So of course coming down was easier but very slippy and we were back at the HQ by 1.30 pm and ready to start the 7 hour drive back.

Eye ball mushrooms

  I haven't any photos of animals but I did see a gibbon flying by, many hornbills, a flying squirrel, civets, deer and wild boar.

The last bridge to base camp!