Trips for all!

I am sorry for not having posted a blog on this site for some time. I have set up an email link with my previous school in Lincolnshire (which is proving very successful!) It is certainly very valuable for the two schools to be in contact....as we discover many similarities between the two schools!! In fact, the children were exchanging views about the shared reading scheme that we both operate!

We are currently on half term break (like you all back in UK). Before the holidays we arranged field trips for all the children. First Beaver and Bunny classes went to the local zoo, which was great fun for the children, and many of the two-year-olds returned being able to add many animal names to their vocabulary! Then Pony class (3-4year olds) were invited to visit the Magistrates’ Court. One of the children’s mums is a senior magistrate and as the class had been looking at different jobs, she invited them to the court. They had fun trying on her wig and gown, and sitting on her golden chair! They were also allowed to sit in on a court session!! Ice creams afterwards were also very welcome!!

Then it was the turn of Dinosaur class who visited the Art and Craft village. This was very interesting for them, and we were allowed to try out making necklaces out of tiny beads called sand beads. The children also really enjoying sketching some of the beautiful paintings done by some of the resident artists.

Finally Koala and panda classes also visited the zoo. These are the youngest children aged from 1-2 years. They were really good, and all insisted on walking around the zoo, refusing offers of a carry!! They particularly liked the giraffe and the zebras, and some were allowed a quick ride on one of the friendly donkeys there!

This week I have joined my husband and travelled to the north of Nigeria. He had work commitments in Kaduna and Kano, so I decided to join him so that I could get more experiences of the whole country. We travelled up to Kaduna by car on Monday. The countryside was very dry and relatively flat. We passed several small settlements of mud huts with straw roofs, and many large herds of African cattle and goats. We spent one night in Kaduna, and then moved onto Kano (another 3 hour drive) Again we passed through similar countryside right up to the outskirts of Kano...where there were some crops and vegetables planted along riverbeds.

We have spent two nights in Kano. Yesterday I had a driver and guide who took me to some of the attractions of Kano. His name was Ado, and he was a very jolly man, who was born in Kano, and therefore knew a lot about the city. We firstly climbed Dala Hill, which is a rocky outcrop in the middle of the old city. From there we had good views over some of Kano ( although the views were obscured due to the Harmattan).We then drove to kurmi market, which is a huge market in the old part of the city. I insisted that Ado went with me as it was amaze of tiny streets lined with stalls and huts and very easy to get lost! I bought a few items for our house in Abuja. Some decorated calabashes, 2 shell necklaces, some woven mats and a beautiful traditional Fulani hat (the Fulani are a group of people that wander around with their herds of cattle making camps as they travel). I also bought 3 interesting bronzes. Of course, each purchase was accompanied with a whole lot of haggling (this was when we had to agree a price for the goods....quite tiring, but also quite enjoyable and good-humoured!

After the market we then drove to the famous dye pits. This is where the dark blue coloured cloth is produced. Kano is very famous for this, and the process has been the same for over 500 years! There are very deep pits filled with a mixture of indigo, potassium and ash. The material is then tied into different patterns. It is then dipped by hand into the mixture, this takes as long as 6 hours continuous dipping. Then the material is rinsed, beaten by hand with huge wooden mallets to make the material shine. I bought two pieces of tie and dye cloth, which I intend to make into a tablecloth and a bedcover.






So I am very pleased to have seen a little more of Nigeria. I hope that you enjoy the photos of our trips. I also hope that those of you who were on holiday have had a good break.

I promise to keep in touch, and also hope that some of you manage to post a reply back to me!

Take care,
Love Mrs Sanchez

Moving again and a walk in the moonlight!

Hello once again! Well I’ve got quite a lot of news for you this time….we have finally moved into a lovely bungalow which is surrounded by a beautiful garden. I am really happy to be here. It is wonderful to be able to sit outside so much and I love watching the birds, butterflies and lizards that frequent the garden. There are several pairs of sunbirds (which are very brightly coloured and are similar to hummingbirds) that feed on the nectar from the flowers in the garden. There is one tree in particular with small green fruits and large yellow bell-like flowers that they love. This grows just across from our patio, so it is wonderful to sit and watch these tiny birds with sparkling feathers as they dart from flower to flower.



We are gradually getting sorted in our house, we went out yesterday to buy a lot of plates, glasses and cutlery, and have to buy a lot more furniture as this is a much bigger place than our last one. We have made it quite homely already (we only moved two weeks ago) and have some pictures up on the walls, and have curtains up in the bedrooms. It takes much longer to get some things here. For example, it’s not just a case of going into a furniture shop and buying things. Very often you have to get people round to your house and explain what you want and they go away and make it. We actually had a very good Nigerian artist at the house this morning. We wanted her to paint 3 pictures for us, so we explained what we wanted and showed her what size they should be, and she is going away to paint them. They will be ready in two weeks…which isn’t bad really!


We went on a long walk on Friday evening. It was called the Full Moon Hash which involved a big group of people following paper trails that had been set earlier in the day. Some people followed the runners trail, and some the walkers. Guess which one I followed??! It was a beautiful full moon, and we found that we hardly needed torches to light our way. The walk went all over a wild part of Abuja that was not built up, so it was quite exciting! At the end was a huge barbecue with plastic tables and chairs to sit on, overlooking the lights of the city…it was very beautiful! I did feel very tired on Saturday, however, and treated myself to a wonderful pedicure (a foot massage) at one of the local hotels. It had been a long and dusty walk, and I felt that I had earned that treat!

Speaking of dust, the Harmattan (the wind that brings dust down from the Sahara desert…do you remember?) is starting, and some days it hides the sun. It is not too bad at the moment, but I am not looking forward to when it covers everything in red dust! The good thing is that it helps to keep the temperature down (which is about 30degrees C at the moment)

At school, I hope to get our emails through to you next week. Mrs Cox and Mrs Jones will be writing with you, and I will get our two oldest classes to write to you. I hope that this will be successful, as it would be lovely to be able to write from one school to another, and exchange our news.

That’s about all for now; I hope that you like the photos of our new house. Next time I will include some of the birds and also some of my school.
Lots of love to you all,
Mrs Sanchez xxxx

Inspectors, packing and more packing!!

Hello all again! Hope you all had a good break! I haven’t had half term really. We had two days holiday earlier for Eid al Fitr which celebrates the end of Ramadan (a Muslim festival). We are also having a day off next Friday (Halloween!!)

Last Monday we had a visit from 6 lady inspectors. They arrived at about 8am and stayed with us for the morning. They were all dressed in traditional African attire, complete with headdresses. They wanted to have a good look at all the paperwork that we had in place, and also had a quick visit of the classrooms. They asked me a variety of questions, and then recommended that we bought a stack of their books for recording things that happen in school. They stayed for snacks and then took their lunch away in take out boxes! It was rather a strange morning, and I felt very uneasy…not knowing what to expect! Some of the ladies were very jolly, and they reported back to say that the teaching was good, and the school was very colourful and well-organised. They are due to send their written report after about 3 weeks. Yet another new Nigerian experience for me!!

I am writing this surrounded yet again with packing boxes!! We are moving to a bungalow later this week. We hope that we will start the move on Thursday, and complete it on Friday. There is still quite a lot of work to be completed on the bungalow, and we are hoping that the main things will be done before moving day!

Our new bungalow is on a large compound, and is surrounded by garden. The best thing about it is that it is so quiet! Our apartment where we are at the moment is on a very busy road, which is noisy 24 hours a day, which sometimes gives us disturbed nights…so we are really looking forward to some peace and quiet. There are also lots of mature bushes and trees in the garden which attract all kinds of birds and butterflies. I will take a lot of photos so that I can include these on my next blog!!

We have a new IT teacher at our school, who is busily working on a way to get us able to email you in Holton le Clay. I hope that we can set this up for after our Halloween break. It will be great fun to be able to write to you directly, and for you to do the same.

That’s about all for now, as I still have a lot more boxes to pack (I really don’t know where all these things have come from!!) Hope you have a Happy Halloween, and I look forward to hearing from you really soon!

Lots of love, Mrs. Sanchez xxxx

Welcome back!

Well here I am again after a very long break! I was actually away from Nigeria for 10 weeks! I had a very fun holiday on a narrow boat with my two daughters for a week and then had two weeks in Greece. This was all very pleasant.

I was ready to come back to Abuja on 22nd August, to train the staff and then re-open the school on the 2nd September. Unfortunately, my visa (which is a piece of paper saying that you have permission to go into a country) had not come through. I was not able to return with my husband and was actually delayed until 11th September!!

I was really sad not to be at school for the re-opening after the summer break. The school has really grown now, and we have over 80 children there now! We now have 6 classes…Koala class, panda, beaver, bunny, pony and dinosaur. It is getting to be a very big school, and we only have room for about another 10 pupils…..then we are full!

I had lots of new faces to recognise and lots of new names to learn! Everyone was very pleased to see me when I finally arrived, and I felt like the queen walking in to a royal party!! I now have lots of catching up to do!!



I have just had my birthday, which was on 19th September. All the teachers gave me a huge card that they had all signed, and I bought a big cake to share with them all after school had finished. I got lots of nice greetings, cards and presents from individual members of staff…and had a lovely day. Even my secretary bought me another cake for me to take home and share with my husband and Lydia and Grace! I have included photos of the two cakes (the bright yellow one was from my secretary)


I imagine that you are all well settled into school. I hope that you had a great summer holiday. I hear that Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Cooper have swapped classes, and that there are two reception classes now! In our school our oldest children are in the reception class. Our youngest pupil is Chike and he is 8 months old!! I will include some photos of the children in my next blog.

That’s about all for now. I hope that we can set up an email link between our two schools, so that you can communicate with each other. That should be great fun!!

Take care
Lots of love from Mrs. Sanchez xxx

Only one more week to go!

I am so sorry not to have written for so long! The excuse is that I have not been well at all. Unfortunately, I seem to have had a very severe form of food poisoning which has taken 3 weeks to right itself, and has left me feeling very weak!

However, I am now well on the mend, and actually managed a long walk in the bush yesterday, with a lot of other people. It was really quite pleasant, and not too hot! We all met up afterwards a t an outside restaurant where we had a great buffet and drinks. (Hopefully, I will not contract another bout of what I had earlier!)

I only have one more week to go before my school closes for the summer. I thought I would bring you up to date with some of the things that have been happening there since I last wrote to you. We have had three more birthdays, two children were 4 years old, and the other little girl was 1. We had parties for them all in the school hall, with cake and candles and party bags! What fun!



On May 27th it was Children’s Day. Some of the schools in Nigeria close for the day, but we decided to stay open, and have our own celebrations together. We invited parents into school, where the children showed them what they had done in school ( A bit like your family assemblies) The children were all invited to wear traditional dress and they looked really cute as you can see from some of the photos! Unfortunately, all of the children were rather dumb-struck, which meant that the teachers and I did most of the work! We started with our school song (which I have written) and then went on to a demo of our Action Kids warm up ( very like Activate) that we all do together each morning. I spoke a little about the Children’s Day Flag and then each class took a turn at showing the parents what they had done in the term. We then ended with inviting all the parents to join in the circle to sing and do the actions to the school song. The parents really loved it, and it didn’t seem to matter to them that the children had been rather quiet!!


We are very excited at school, as we have nearly 70 children enrolled for September! We have had to make another class for the 18 month – 2 year olds. We still have some spaces at the top end of the school, but are delighted that the school is such a success!


I will be teaching the oldest class (Dinosaur) in September. These children will be the same age as your reception class.

I hope that you like the photos of some of our pupils!

I will be coming in to see you all as soon as I return. So, until then, take care, have fun and be good!

Lots of love , Mrs. Sanchez xxx

Questions, questions, and a new chief!

Thank you so much, class 2, for all your questions! I am very sorry to have taken so long to reply, but I really have been very busy, and not just with school!!

Last weekend, we went to a ceremony where a friend of ours was made a chief! She had been working in a different part of Nigeria, helping with the health system there. She was retiring, and to say thank you for all the hard work she had done, she was to be granted the title of Chief of Udi Kingdom. We were guests of honour at the celebrations, which lasted for about six hours!! It was the first time that the title had been granted to a woman, so it was a great honour for her.




Next weekend, we have been invited to another typical African ceremony….a naming ceremony, which is like a Christening, but is the traditional African part. We have to wear traditional African clothing, so we have had to be measured for some special clothes that are being made up. My husband and I are both going in costumes made out of the same cloth…so we’ll take some photos to show you!


Now to answer your questions!!
Sophie, there are going to be about 60 children in our school. At the moment we have about 30, but a lot more have registered to start in September.

Megan, we have got a staff room. It’s quite small and has two tables in and a computer. The teachers only have 20 minutes break through the day, so no-one sits down for long! Our staff meetings are held in my office (which is bigger than the one in your school)

Lauren, we have 4 classrooms in the main building, and a crèche for the babies in a separate building. We also have a computer room, a library, a playroom, a hall, a kitchen and a parents waiting room.

Libby, there are 17 girls so far in our school!

The children eat hot cooked meals at lunchtime. We have our own cook, who cooks lovely things like pasta and pizza and sausages and fish. The children enjoy the meals a lot!! They also have afternoon snacks because some stay until 5.30pm

Joel, we only have 1 headteacher…that’s me!

Megan and Lauren,we do have a sort of playtime after lunch at about 12.30, when most of the older children go outside (some of the younger ones have a sleep then!) The children do play outside as much as possible. We even have swimming and paddling sessions on a Friday, when all the children go out and have a splash around! The children are very lucky and have a lot of toys to play with.

Daisy, I’m glad that you enjoyed the country dancing! Did you go to the church to see the flowers?

Olivia, our shared area is set up as a playroom that all the classes share (except for the babies)

Ebony and Megan, your mystery box sounds wonderful! We have a dinosaur and a pony to take home and write their diaries (a bit like Baby Bear.) We also have mystery bags that we put things in and have to feel and describe.

Ethan, yes, we have lots of balls of different sizes. Some of the little ones are proving to be excellent footballers. Our youngest star is Amjad who is just two, and can kick a ball further than I can!!

Hello Tom, are you still there? Did you come for work experience??

Mrs. Peart, I’m glad that you had a great time in the Dominican Republic. Can’t wait to see the photos!!

It was lovely to see you all at Easter. I am coming back at the end of June, so I’ll come in to see you all then.

Lots of love,
Mrs. Sanchez xxxx

Happy Easter and New Beginnings

Well here I am again, back in Nigeria! It was lovely to see you all just before Easter and I hope that you are enjoying your Easter break.

Wasn’t the snow amazing on Easter Day? My two daughters were staying with us and we all rushed out to build a snow family in the field next to our holiday cottage! I’ve put my favourite photo of my daughters in the blog. The one closest to the camera is Rachel and the other one is Becky. It just shows that you are never too old to play in the snow!


We had two weeks in England and then travelled back here as I had to continue to help set up my new school. We are now all ready to start….well, apart from the fact that we have no children yet! We open our doors tomorrow, and we have had a lot of mums and dads looking round and taking school brochures and admission forms away with them…we are just hoping that there will be lots starting!


One of the little boys due to start on Monday is called Zack, and it is a really special day for him, because it is his third birthday on our opening day! We’ve made him a birthday crown and are planning to get some balloons and sing Happy Birthday to him!

Today is really hot…over 40 degrees C!! We really need the rains to start as the temperature is climbing so high! The heat brings out the flame trees, and the photo is of a beautiful one in the gardens of our apartment. They are really wonderful, but sadly the flowers don’t last too long. Can you see the huge seed pods hanging down?


I hope that you all enjoy this next term…with exciting things like the Flower festival and sports day to look forward to. Are any of your classes going on any trips?

Do remember to write to me on the blog…don’t leave it all for Mrs. Peart and Mrs.Cox to do!!

Have fun, be good and learn lots!!

Love from Mrs.Sanchez xxxx

Looking forward to Easter!

Hello all once again!

This is going to be my last blog until we return again after Easter. We are flying back next Saturday for two weeks, and we can’t wait! I am planning to come in to see you all, hopefully before the Easter weekend and would love to hear about what fun you’ve had since Christmas. Mrs Ellerby told me that you have just had a Book Week, where you were all dressed up as animals! I imagine you enjoyed it almost as much as Mrs. Cox!


I’ve been very bust here, training my new staff for nearly two weeks! I’m including a photo of the teaching staff for you to see. The front row are the four teachers and the others are mainly teaching assistants and nannies (we are taking babies from 6 months old) The secretary is on the far left at the back and the director is at the far right. They are a really nice lot and we’ve had some fun over the past two weeks! I’ve taught them lots of our songs and rhymes (like speckled frogs, wheels on the bus and Marching through the jungle) and they’ve taught me some Nigerian versions of other songs!


The weather here is really hotting up! It is just about the end of the Harmattan, and the temperature is now rising to 40degrees through the day, only dropping to about 28 degrees at night…so we are very glad of the air-conditioning!

I would still love to hear from any of you through the blog. I’m sure any of the teachers will remind you how to do this, but anyway, I shall see you all very soon! Grace sends her love to you all, she has got a three week break from school but tends to prefer term time as she gets to see more of her friends then!

Looking forward to seeing you soon
Lots of love,
Mrs Sanchez xxx

More African Music

Hello all of you! I hope that you enjoyed your holidays, and are now on the count-down to Easter!
I want to tell you a little bit about a wonderful concert that I went to last Friday. It was held in the Hilton hotel and was by a singer from Ivory Coast, another West African country. She sang really powerfully and also danced and also played instruments!! She was truly talented and I was spell-bound by her! I bought her CD and want to leave a copy of it in school, as it reminded me a lot of our African fortnight last year!


I am really busy preparing for the opening of my new school. Tomorrow I start to train the staff in the new curriculum, and we have two weeks of sorting out and discussions to have. We also start enrolling next week, so hopefully we will have lots of pupils to open with after Easter. All the teachers are Nigerian, except for one who is Indian. We have 9 staff who are teachers (we still need three more to look after the babies in the crèche) as well as a cook, cleaners, secretary, guards and gardeners. I am very excited, but also a little nervous, as I am really in charge now!! The school building is now being painted, and hopefully the furniture and equipment will start arriving next week, so that we can make it look more like a school for those parents wanting to look around it! I will include some photos of the staff and school next time, when I have managed to get them all together for a photo-shoot!


The weather is still very dry and dusty. We have had two sunny days over the weekend, but it has been very overcast with dust through the week. The temperature s also climbing, approaching 40 degrees C, so things are starting to get a bit uncomfortable!

Hope you are getting on well at school. I think that your website is wonderful! I have included a flier from my school which has the website on. I hope that we will get some photos of the building and the children onto it very soon.

More news next time. Hope that you find time to reply to my blog this time…I’d love to hear from you!
Take care, lots of love,
Mrs. Sanchez xxx

Money, money, money

Hello all,

I can’t believe we’re into February already! It doesn’t seem a moment since we were eating our Christmas dinner!!
Thank you Class two and Mrs Peart for your comments on the blog.It is so good to get post from Holton le Clay. I think that your web-site is brilliant! My new school has got a website, but we are still adding to it. If you are interested it is www.cradletocrayonschool.com. It sounds as if you are having great fun at school. I remember the 1960’s very well and also the man landing on the moon. It sent shivers down my spine when we saw the pictures on the TV; we just didn’t think that it was possible!! Glad you liked the photo of Mrs Cox and I…we had great fun, and the costumes kept us nice and snug!!

To answer some of your questions about Grace. She goes to school from Monday to Friday, but school starts at 8 o’clock, and finishes at 2pm. She finishes earlier on a Friday. I book some lovely books for Grace…A big collection of Mog stories, a selection of Percy the park keeper books, and a large book about different countries with a blow- up globe.

I thought that I would show you some of the money that we have in Nigeria. The currency is Naira, and there are about 250 Naira to £1. There are mainly notes, in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 1000 (there may be more but these are all I’ve seen) There are also some coins 2naira, 1 naira and 50 kobo (there are 100 kobo to a naira) . The whole money system is very strange, as you cannot change money at the banks, and you are advised not to use your credit cards. So you carry large piles of notes around with you, which is rather unnerving, but there is no other way that you can pay for shopping or meals out. You have to make sure that you take enough money with you, as you cannot simply use your card, like we all do back home!

I thought you might like to see some of the notes. I have managed to find some new notes, as most of the money is very dirty (due to the dust and constant handling) and you always make a point of washing your hands if you’ve had to count out any money!!




The coins are quite pretty, and remind me of the £1 and £2 coin…but bear in mind that they are worth less than one penny! (Actually, you only ever see these in change at shops sometimes).The notes have interesting pictures on one side, and on the other are famous Nigerian people. The streets in Abuja are named after these people. The picture on the 1000naira note is of Zuma Rock, which is the other big rock like Aso rock that I can see from my window. It is on the other side of Abuja. Also there are pictures of the cattle, and people.

I am including some photos of my school. As you can see, it still needs a lot of repairs doing to it, and it needs painting inside and out. Then we need to put all the furniture and equipment into the rooms and make it look welcoming! I am going to teach the 4-5 year olds and I am also the head, so I will be kept very busy. I will start at 7.30am so will have to make sure I get up really early! I’ll let you know more about this as the school grows.


I hope that you all have a lovely half term holiday…the weather certainly looks quite nice for you at the moment! Don’t forget to reply to the blog if you have time…..you can maybe ask your mum or dad if they can help you at home?

Lots of love to you all,
Mrs Sanchez

Trip to Crocodile Town!

I thought that I would tell you all a little about a trip I made last Thursday and Friday. My husband had to go to Kaduna ( a city about 2 hours north of Abuja) for some meetings, and I decided to go with him, as it was a good way of getting to see more of Nigeria. We were driven up by Jude, and it was interesting to see the scenery out of the windows. The land was basically very flat, but with huge rock outcrops to either side of us. We passed Zumo rock, which is even bigger than Aso rock (the one I can see from my apartment ). We also passed many settlements which were built of mud bricks and grass roofs ..yes I have finally seen these traditional African huts!!

We stayed in a hotel overnight, and in the morning, while my husband went to his meetings, I had a tour of the city. It was really interesting, as the man, Tayo, decided to show me the different areas and the different people that make up the city.

We started our tour down by the river, in a small park. He explained that the word Kaduna means crocodiles in the Hausa language! I was rather nervous as I walked on the river bank, until he told me that there were now no more crocodiles in that part of the river as they had been caught and eaten by the local people! I did see three crocodiles in an enclosure within the park, and also some ostriches and giant tortoises.


We then drove around some of the areas leading out of the city, and Tayo explained that the city was divided into a Christian and a Muslim section, with the river being the dividing line. It was fascinating to drive through these communities, and we were always greeted with a smile and a wave.

We then left the made roads and travelled down dust tracks to see some of the more rural villages. Tayo knew a lot about the history of these, and was a fascinating guide. Each village was made up of a number of compounds. These were owned by families…sometimes three or four generations all living together with their goats and hens in a walled compound, containing a variety of huts made from mud bricks. Tayo said that this was a very strong building material. His father still lived in the family hut, which had been built over forty years ago!

The tour ended in the area where all the government employees and military chiefs lived….quite a difference, as these were huge buildings, surrounded with high walls and large steel gates.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get an opportunity to take photos, as I felt that I did not want to intrude on the lives of these people, but I do promise that I will take a photo of a traditional African hut soon!

I am starting my new teaching job tomorrow, and have a whole week of meetings with the school’s owner, and also meet the other staff. I am really looking forward to this, and will let you know more about the school on the next blog.

Take care all of you, don’t forget to keep blogging!

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa visited your house! He certainly had a job to find me….but managed thankfully! It was lovely to see you all at school before the holidays, and I really enjoyed your singing and acting in It’s a Baby! I felt that Christmas had really started for me! I had a great time going with Music Club to Hotel Elizabeth to entertain the ladies there! I thought that you were all very professional and behaved very well!

We spent 3 weeks in the UK, visiting friends and family and also shopping for a lot of things that we can’t get out here! I also filled a suitcase with books, CDs and games for my new school. I found it very hard to choose what to buy, and I could have filled 20 cases, not just one! There are no nice, colourful toys and books for school use out here, and we are getting a lot of things sent both from America and England.

I am very busy at the moment planning for the new school. I will start to train the teachers on 21st January and the school is planning to be open from the 4th February. A lot of things have to be done before then!!

The Harmattan is very thick at the moment (do you remember, that is the dust that blows down from the Sahara Desert?) It means that some days you have to keep the lights on all day, and you don’t see the sun. However, it is still warm..which is very strange!!

Can I say a very big THANK YOU to all the staff who collected money to buy books and craft things for Grace? I spent half of the money on books, art and craft resources, and decided that I would give these to her a few at a time, so as not to overwhelm her. Her face was a picture!! She had tears rolling down her cheeks, and could not believe that they were all for her! I plan to give her an item each week until we return at Easter, when I will spend the other half of the money.

I hope that you are enjoying being back at school after such a long holiday! I thought that you had all worked really hard on the displays. I really liked the textile display in the entrance corridor, and your trees in the main hall. Keep working hard, and don’t forget to reply to my blogs! I’ll try to put more photos on next time, but hope that you like this one of Scooby and Sylvester as they celebrated New Year!


Lots of love to you all,
Mrs. Sanchez

The last post of the year!

I can’t believe that this is my last blog before I see you all in Holton le Clay!! I’m sure that you are all counting the days and are well on in your Advent calendars, and also the preparations at school. Hopefully, I will come to see you perform on Monday and then go with Music Club to Hotel Elizabeth on Tuesday. I can’t wait!!

Just a couple of pieces of news. Firstly, I sang at the Finnish Embassy on Thursday. I had to sing the Nigerian and the Finnish national anthems (the Finnish one was in Finnish!) it was very exciting, and we were only a small choir of 12 people. We had to sing in front of 200 ambassadors, governors and important people, but then we had some nice food and drink which was a very nice way to spend an evening!


My second piece of news is that I have got a new job as the Head of a pre-school that is being set up here in Abuja. I am due to start by training the staff in January when I return, and then the school is due to open in February. This is very exciting for me, and I am looking forward to being in a school once more…you see, I miss you so much!! I am planning to take lots of books and equipment back with me…especially Biff, Chip and Kipper and Jolly phonics!


A picture of a Nigerian market that is hanging in our lounge

Thank you for your questions for Grace. I asked her these, and she was really pleased that children from England were interested in her! She said that her favourite snack that she takes to eat at school is fish roll. This is made by cooking fish, potatoes and onions together and then putting dough around the mixture. This can then be fried or baked in the oven (Lydia makes these for her usually once or twice a week) On other days she takes nuts or bananas or fried yams. There are no cooked meals at her school, and she always has a meal when she gets home at about 2.30.( usually bean stew, or fish or Joliffe rice…which is what you tried when Mrs Taiwo came in African Weeks.) Lydia’s friends do not live nearby. She has got a lot of friends at school, but they live close to her school. Lydia lives a bus journey away, so she doesn’t get to see her friends much out of school time. She has just started her Christmas break, which is for 4 weeks. She is going back to her village with Lydia for a few days to see her father and mother and the rest of her sisters. Grace is going to get some clothes and maybe a pair of shoes at Christmastime, but she will not get any toys or books or games like you lot…and she never has any wrapped presents.

We are going to be singing some Christmas carols at choir on Wednesday, but that is really all the Christmassy things I am doing….until I get back to England…then I will be bowled over by the shopping, and card-writing and food buying….I really can’t wait!

Don’t forget, I still need someone to come up with a good idea for another titile for this blog…either post it to me on the blog or give it to your class teacher, and I will judge it when I come into school.

So, take care, be good and I’ll see you all very soon!
Love from a very excited Mrs Sanchez!

Christmas is coming

I am really missing all the Christmas hustle and bustle here!! You just wouldn’t know we are only 3 weeks away! Apart from a few artificial trees up at the entrance to one supermarket, and a few sad, dusty decorations on the shelves, you really would not know what was coming! Plus the fact that the weather is all wrong! I’ve often thought that it must be strange in countries like Australia to have Christmas in the boiling heat…it just doesn’t seem right!

However, I must tell you a little about the only two Christmas experiences I have had in Nigeria. Firstly, I went to a practice of a choir group that I have just joined (yes, I miss my singing with you all as well!) We sang a lot of Christmas carols at the end of our practice, which was really nice! We were also learning to sing the Finnish national anthem (in Finnish) to sing at the Finnish Embassy next Thursday (which is Finnish National Day). Finnish is very hard, and all the words seem to have a lot of yyy nnn sss and kkk in them! It will all be very interesting, I am sure!

Also, on Saturday, there is a big German Christmas Market held in Abuja. There are quite a lot of German people staying here, who mainly work for a big construction company, and they make a lot of traditional German craft things to sell in aid of charity. There will also be mulled wine, bratwurst (German sausage) and sauerkraut (German cabbage)…ask Mrs Hackney for more details on these! I think that the hot wine will be served in a room that is made very cold to be like a typical German (or British) winter. I shall try to take some photos of this all, and put them in this blog.


…..It is Sunday now, and the Christmas Market was wonderful! It was a little bit like the Lincoln market (has anyone been?) I saw a very jolly Santa there who loved having his photo taken. There were lots of stalls and good things to eat. The mulled wine was served in a refrigerated container, which was decorated with Fir trees and twinkly lights. There were two huge air conditioning units on, so that it was really cold. We stood at tables and drank our hot mulled wine, and listened to the carols. It really felt like Christmas!



I need to say thank you to gardening club, for your message. I am really pleased that you have won some more bushes, and I think that you should plant them near the hawthorn hedge on the edge of the car park. The birds will love this, and it will give more cover for the birds, and hopefully will help to attract blue tits into our nest box again! Emma, I am really glad that you are all trying to be good for Mrs Cox and everyone; there are a lot of you this year, and a lot of work to be done, so keep busy!

Thank you Class 2 for your questions for Grace. I will ask her these next week and will tell you her answers in the next blog. I am still waiting for any ideas for a new name for the blog….I will then replace the “Letters from Nigeria” title…and don’t forget there is a special prize for the winner!

That’s all for now! Next week will be my last blog until I come back in January….so get thinking of that new title and post it on the blog.

Have fun, still missing you loads!
Mrs Sanchez xxx

All creatures great and small!

Welcome, once again! This week has been quite eventful, and I thought I would start by telling you a little about a Christening I went to on Saturday.

It was held at a large Methodist church and was very interesting. The baby was christened Chukwuma Tochukwu Eninnaya Ugochukwu….a very big name for such a small boy! Thankfully his parents called him Chucks!! It was wonderful to be a part of such a happy event. All the ladies wore their Sunday best outfits and looked very colourful in their long, fitted dresses and large headgear. The service itself was very loud, and we all joined in the clapping, dancing, singing and processing around the church! (It reminded me a lot of the African weeks at school!)

Now onto some of the creatures that I see each day. Have I told you about the nests that we have on our balconies? They belong to tiny finches, and there are about 9 or 10 tiny nests squashed into a tall cactus we have growing in a pot at the side of our front balcony. The best time to see the birds is just before dusk, when they all gather on the railing and try to squash into their nests. I think there are about 12 birds that manage to cram into a very small space. Also, there are lots of turtle doves, one of which made a nest and hatched a chick on one of the windowsills!
I also see beautiful white egrets on the school field opposite, sometimes hear and see various brightly coloured parrots that seem to nest in the trees near the river out the back of the apartment. There are also HUGE eagles or birds of prey that circle around, high in the sky. At about 6pm, there are also flocks of very large fruit bats that come over from Aso Rock group in the large tree opposite and then fly over the apartment.



I also see some beautiful and very large butterflies and there are always lots of brightly-coloured dragonflies around the pool. I have seen some very large beetles, like the one in the photo, which is about 10 cms long and the antennae are probably about 20cms!! There are unwelcome creepy crawlies too, like mosquitoes and huge biting red ants that sometimes make their way into the kitchen.



By far the most common creature you see here is the agama lizard.These are of varying sizes, and can grow up to about 50cms long. During the breeding seasons, when the males are trying to attract a mate, they are a vivid blue and red. At the moment they are duller, and are not a threat, as they tend to scuttle off as you approach! We have some geckoes that live in the apartment too. These are funny little lizards that have suckers on their feet. They often live behind pictures or wall hangings and do a good job catching all flying nasties!


Thank you for your comments, especially Class Two who told me all about your Working Together Week. I can’t wait to see all your artwork displayed in the hall!

Thank you Jodie for your questions. There is a village just outside Abuja, which is made of very traditional mud and grass, which I have driven past, but not visited yet. Yes, it is still very hot (very different from what you are having now!) Luckily, we have not had too much dust yet, and some days are beautifully clear and bright. I am not doing very well with the language, as most people here speak English. My house girl, Lydia, speaks Pidgin English when she returns to her village, and I am hoping that she will teach me some words!
Please keep your comments coming…I still have had no ideas for a name for the blogsite. Remember, there is a special African prize for the winner.
Take care all of you! Don’t forget that Grace would also love to hear from you.

See you soon!
Love Mrs Sanchez

Grace's Day

Hello, again. I thought that I would tell you about a day in the life of a typical Nigerian schoolgirl.

Remember in my last letter I told you about Lydia, our house girl who lives with her younger sister, Grace. Well, I thought that I would talk to her and ask her some questions about her school. This is what she said,

‘My day starts before 7 o’clock. I catch the drop taxi at 7 o’clock, and the journey can take up to half an hour. When I arrive at school I go into the classroom to find my friends. Then Aunty will come in and will start lessons. I have to put my hand up to answer questions, and if I don’t know the answer I hope that others do!

We work through the morning, and then we have a break for lunch. I take some money to school to buy a snack. Then we have more lessons, and we finish school at 1.30. On a Friday we finish early at 12 o’clock

We do a lot of different lessons; mathematics, English, social studies, home economics (which is about cleaning and washing, but not cooking), agricultural science (which is about planting crops), elementary science, drawing and painting.

I have a little homework some days. I like school and I have lots of friends there.’

As you can see from the photo, Grace has to wear a uniform. Lydia has to buy this, and other sportswear. Lydia also has to pay for any books that she uses.

A lot of Nigerian children do not go to school because their parents cannot afford the money for the uniform or books. Grace is one of the lucky ones.

She is in Primary Five .Usually when the children reach Primary Six they take an exam to see if they can go on to secondary school.( She calls her teacher Aunty, although she is not really her Aunty!)

Grace does not do any singing or dancing or PE in her school, and there are no computers. They have a party at the end of each year where they have singing and music and dancing.

Grace loves school, and she says she works hard!

Quite a lot of differences to your day at school, don’t you think?

The following are photos of the school opposite us which is very similar to Grace's school.




Please don’t forget to write comments on the blogsite. If you want to ask Grace any questions, then I will get her to reply to you. I think that I have answered most of your questions from the first blog, just Elizabeth and George….I don’t get any newspaper myself. There are a lot of Nigerian papers (which are all in English) like the Daily News and the Daily Trust. They are full of news about different people in Abuja and Nigeria, and have things like full pages saying Happy Birthday to their president and important people! Yes, I am certainly missing you all!!

I still haven’t had any ideas for good titles for the blogsite….so , come on…get thinking!

There is a really good website if you want to know more about Nigerian life.
www.motherlandnigeria.com

Lots of love to you all, good luck with learning all those Christmas songs, and hope that you enjoy your Working Together week…it sounds great fun!

Mrs Sanchez xxxxx

Nigerian people I know

Hello, everyone!

This is to continue from yesterday’s letter. I needed to take some photos, so that I could show you the people that I talk about in this next part.

I will tell you about some of the Nigerian people that I meet each day. Firstly, there is Lydia. She is our house girl. This means that she does the washing, ironing, cleaning and some of the shopping. This sounds very grand, but is the usual thing out here, and it means that Lydia has a place to live (in the staff quarters at the base of the apartment block) and also earns a good wage to support herself and her younger sister, Grace, who lives with her and is 12 years old.



Jude is my husband’s driver. Where he works, there are 3 drivers and they drive the staff around the city, and also collect visitors from the airport. Jude always smiles a lot, but is a very good driver, and he needs to be…the Nigerian drivers are usually very dangerous, and accidents often happen. He lives with his wife and children in a village outside Abuja, as the houses are too expensive in the city.



Then there are the guards. They work 12 hour shifts and change at 6 o’clock in the morning and evening. There is one woman guard, and the rest are young men. They wear uniforms, and their job is to check people in and out of the compound and to switch the generator on when the electricity is off. One of the male guards has a motorbike, of which he is very proud! He also has a laugh that sounds a little like a dog barking, which I think is a good thing if you need to scare people off!!



That really is all for this week! Hope you are thinking of some good things to post to me on the blog and also names for the blogsite.

Love from a still very dusty Mrs Sanchez !

Letter to you all...

Hello, everyone!
Mrs Sanchez is here again with another letter from Nigeria.

Happy Birthday Mrs Peart, Happy Birthday to you…and many more!!

Thank you all so much for your little comments to my first letter. Hopefully, Mrs Peart will be able to find a way to let you add your comments at school, so maybe next time even more of you could reply…..and even come up with some better ideas for the blogsite title.

Just before I get onto telling you about some of the people here, I want to tell you about the weather. Do you remember I told you a little about the Harmattan (the wind from the desert) in my last letter? Well, it really is here!! Yesterday, it was a little misty, so that you couldn’t see the distant hills as usual, and today, it almost seems foggy, with quite a strong breeze blowing. The strange thing is…it’s still really warm. The real down side is that everything is constantly covered in a thick layer of red dust. It gets everywhere! You end up tasting it, and your eyes get very gritty…not very pleasant at all…and it can last through until the end of January!

Now to answer some of your questions. Georgina…I am eating a lot of fresh pineapple and paw paw (which are yummy at this time of year). We can also buy other fruit and vegetables. We buy cheese (which is very expensive) and milk, butter and eggs. We buy fish which comes in fresh on a Thursday (and is also very expensive). Biscuits are very expensive, and are often soft or taste rather funny…so I tend to make biscuits. The Nigerian favourite dish is Goats Head Pepper Soup!! (I haven’t tried this, and don’t want to!)

Sophie, I’m doing lots of reading, writing, cooking and yes Daisy, I’m swimming too. I’m also trying to learn more about the country, as it is all so different here. Megan, thank you for asking if I’m having a lovely time…I can say that I’m having an interesting time (although not all of it is lovely!) Hopefully, after Christmas, I shall do a little bit of teaching, as I miss all of you so much!

Joel, I’m not speaking in an African voice just yet, but I have changed the way in which I say some things. Often, people add an o to the end of words like sorryo and fineo! Also when you say hello to people you are supposed to ask “How was the night?”

Nicole, I think I’ve answered your question about the weather…it’s very strange to have a warm fog that brings dust by the bucketload! Thanks for telling me about the Junior Christmas concert, are you in the choir or have you got some words to say?

That’s about all for now, as I want this to get to you for Mrs Peart’s birthday on Monday. I will send you the next blog with photos of the people tomorrow. Don’t forget to reply to me…and to get thinking about good names for the blogsite!

Lots of love, from a very dusty Mrs Sanchez!

Welcome to Nigeria

Welcome to Nigeria, children!

As I promised before I left, I have set up this blogspot which will be a way to let you all know what is happening here in Abuja, Nigeria.

Abuja is the capital of Nigeria, and is a very new city that is still being built in sections. They decided to set up a new capital in the centre of the country, as the old capital, Lagos, was on the southern coast.

For this letter, I thought I would tell you a little bit about my home. Then, in the next few weeks, I will let you know about the people, wildlife and places I see and the things I do.

My husband and I live in an apartment on the third floor of a block of nine homes (no, not in a mud hut as some of you thought before I left!) The apartment is very big and has four bedrooms, all with bathrooms, a large living/dining room with balconies on either side and a big kitchen. All rooms have air-conditioning and floor fans to cope with the heat (at the moment it is a pleasant 32degrees C), and all the windows have mosquito nets to keep out the nasties! There are no lifts in the block so it can be quite tiring climbing up all those stairs in the heat! The whole complex is surrounded by a high fence and wall which is topped with razor wire. There are security guards at the gate whose job it is to check people coming onto the compound, and also to switch the big generator on if the electricity fails (which it often does, especially in the recent storms) There are small gardens surrounding the apartments, and a swimming pool and tennis court.

The view from the front balcony

The weather here is quite nice at the moment. The rainy season has almost finished, apart from the occasional storm, and there are some quite nice breezes to help to keep the temperature down. You never need a coat or even a cardigan here, as it is always warm, whatever the season. Soon we will have the Harmatan which are winds that bring the dust from the Sahara desert. Sometimes this can be quite bad, and makes everything very hazy, leaving a thick layer of orange dust everywhere.

I hope that you are enjoying your time back at school. I expect that you saw some great fireworks over the weekend. I’m a bit like the cuckoo, and didn’t see any this year. I don’t think anyone here has heard of Guy Fawkes! I imagine that you will soon be learning some songs for your concert performance. I am thinking of you all!!

Please feel free to write any comments as a reply to this letter (I’m sure that Mrs Peart will show you how to) Also, I wondered if any of you could think of a good title for the blog. Let me know any of your ideas, and I will bring a prize for the one I choose back with me when I visit you at Christmas.

Lots of love to you all, work hard and be happy!

Love from Mrs Sanchez