Ghana and school stuff

Kk, I have been very bad about updating this site. I do apologise...but there are costs involved.
Where do I start first? Well, the school is still delightful. We had this Monday off, as did a large part of Ghana, due to it being a Muslim holiday? Quite how that equates to a Roman Catholic school getting a day off, I'm not sure, but anyway, everyone headed for Labadi beach to improve their tans. Golly it was packed.
I am so glad that I have got the placement at the school. I have since learnt that Mrs Ezan the head, is the founder of it, and everything she does, she does for the benefit of the kids. I recently marked an essay (which Mrs E. explained that came from a choice of 4 set by the Ghanian Government on last yrs exam paper...or summit like that). The question was write a letter of complaint to the PTA, about the three bad things that teachers in your school do...a rather sneaky way of finding out what her teachers were up to.
I had my concerns - teachers tho I had never seen them use them, always had canes to hand - I wondered what would be the outcome should a child name a teacher in person.
However Mrs E. explained that she was pleased by the outcome of these essays, as children tell the truth. She has since confiscated all canes from the teachers, as the overwhelming bad thing done by teachers, involved the unneccessary caning (which is banned anyway).
I'm glad I get marking to do as well. The older kids are very creative - a story I was marking the other day was entitled "I woke up and realised it was all a dream"...creations involved ending up in forests, renditions of Jack and the Beanstalk, children even wanting to end up in the White House meeting George Bush (surely that was a nightmare???!)...but some were very touching, where children described their birthdays, having a cake, and food to share with all their friends and family, and music. Something we take for granted.

It's interesting how I pull them up on their grammar; my own has improved in doing this. Sometimes I have to think about one or two words they use. One word caused a certain amound of amusement, as a child had written about behaviour, and "comporting" themselves. I pondered over this, and not recognising the word "comport" thought about a suitable replacement, thus concluding "conduct" to be the better word. I have since learnt comport IS word, but English being English has several synonyms, many which we don't necessarily use daily. I also have a few chuckles over the old-fashioned phrases that get thrown in. I got "fit as a fiddle" the other day, amongst others. I can't mark them as wrong, only highlight them with an exclamation mark!!!