LaSERIO Mongolia: Basically, it's just a lot of meat

Wednesday 31 July - Thursday 1 August

We started the day off with a nutritious and delicious breakfast of bacon, egg omelette and toast complete with blueberry jam.

We left our guesthouse full up and ready for a busy day. At The Child Smile Foundation we split off into our groups to be with the 2-5 year olds and 6-13 year olds. With the younger group we did a lot of colouring and dipped their hands in paint to make some bunting out of handprints.

They loved 'Ring a Ring o' Roses', especially the “we all fall down” part and they also loved ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’. With the older group we taught them body parts and clothes which they picked up quickly and enthusiastically. We then had another exciting meal - this time Korean where we sampled lots of dishes - some very spicy!

Feeling more full than ever before we set out to do the afternoon teaching. We all noticed a difference in their English already! In one group they learnt how to tell the time and played ‘What’s the Time, Mr Wolf?’. In the other group they learnt connectives and conjunctions which helped their fluency with speaking.

Back at the guesthouse, we had a fun but challenging quiz on Mongolia. The questions gradually became harder! This included questions about Mongolia’s geography, political system, and even how to spell Lkhamaa’s name.

Hungry again, we departed to a nearby restaurant. Some of us tried the spectacular ‘Mongolia Platter’ which included dumplings, Khuushuur (a native Mongolian pastry) and lots more meat! It’s fair to say our meals are very meat-based.

Back at home, we planned our lessons for the next day over some refreshing ice-cream.

Thursday 1 August

We began day six with a traditional Mongolian breakfast. Surprisingly it didn’t come with any meat, but consisted of sticky rice with raisins - mixed reactions all round!

Soon it was time to head out to The Child Smile Foundation, everyone having become much more confident with the age groups they are working with. The group with 2-5 year olds coloured paper chains of people but had a challenging session dealing with lots of crying - including our leader Gemma, to see if it would make them stop!

After lunch we were back at school and enjoyed teaching more English on a range of topics. One group taught ‘Here Comes the Sun’ which was very popular, whilst the other class have really enjoyed one-on-one conversation to improve their English!