Hi!

I have probably told you that I am going to Africa this summer to teach in Soweto (a township in Johannesburg) for 6 weeks. 

I am therefore raising money for Warwick in Africa, the charity with which I am going. Warwick in Africa sends students and teachers from the UK who have had the privelige of a good education to deprived areas of Africa to teach. Almost all teaching in the places where Warwick in Africa works is via chalk and talk (copying notes into a book). Teachers are very poorly trained and laxly monitored meaning standards are generally very low. According to the group who went to the school I went to last year a third of the classes don't have a teacher at any one time.

By sending selected students (like me) and qualified teachers to these schools Warwick in Africa is successfully changing this situation in the schools in which it works. The average test score increase of chrildren who have been involved in the programme is around 40%. Furthermore the impact is designed to  long term rather than just temporary as not only will I be giving lessons but also working with local teachers to encourage them to adopt more exciting lessons plans and to invest in their pupils. The vision is that chrildren in these schools will recieve a better education and therefore have a better start in life.

While the named charity is University of Warwick all the money raised on this page goes to Warwick in Africa. The University covers all the administration costs meaning all the money will be spent directly on improving the schools in Africa.

If you want to take a look this is Warwick in Africa's website:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/giving/priority/responsibility/wina/

In order to raise money for this cause I have been inspired by the Brownlee's to do the Yorkshire triathalon. This involves swimming 1.5km, biking 40km and running 10km. Considering that my Mum is convinced I'm going to drown I should probably just be aiming to finish. However being a little bit competitive I want to push myself and am aiming for a time of under 3 hours. I have been training for the last 10 weeks. Most of this has consisted of trying to learn how to do front crawl. From nearly drowning after one or two strokes I can now at least put a few lengths together.  I am also yet to swim in a lake which, rumour has it, is a totally different kettle of fish (pun intended). A final issue is that my Mum also doubts my capability to take off a wet wetsuit.

In terms of the other two parts of a triathalon I have joined the gym to do biking and am cycling 30 miles every few days. I am more confident in this section of the event but am less so about the transition to the run as my bum is so sore from the saddle of the bike my attempts to run home from the gym end up as more of a waddle. Despite these challenges I am enjoying my training and looking forward to race day. 

Thanks so much to anyone who donates! I will let you know how the triathalon and my experience of teaching in Africa goes.