Chris Gozzard is a 29 year old science teacher from Maelor Secondary School in Penley near Wrexham. In January along with five other teachers from Wales, Chris flew out to Lesotho in Southern Africa to take part in a challenging six month teaching programme organised by the Welsh charity Dolen Cymru. The group will teach in local schools located in the north of the small mountainous African country. Wales and Lesotho have now been twinned for twenty-five years and building partnerships between schools in the two countries is an important part of the work. Chris arrived in Leribe at middle of January this year and has been placed in St Saviours Secondary School. This is Chris' diary.

"I'm finding working there really rewarding - the pupils are just wonderful - very bright and intelligent. They have a different system to us in the UK; here if you don't pass the final exam at the end of the year you can't progress to the next class. Sometimes pupils miss a few years of education because they have to work for their family, This means that classes in high schools have a real mix of students of all ages but with roughly the same ability. In some ways I really wish we could adopt this system in the UK, so many pupils get left behind and if they only had a year or two extra to go at their own pace, it could really benefit them.

In the science department there is a grave need of chemicals for experiments. Remembering my science lessons about electrolysis, I found some carbon rods and batteries in a dusty store cupboard and thought I'd give making my own chemicals a go. Lots of pupils and teachers have been asking me what I have been making in the prep area - basically out of a large water bottle cut in two, two electrodes stuck in underneath - blue tac stopping it from dripping - a chemical maker!! I have been down to the local shop and bought a bag of salt or NaCl - to all you chemists out there, using this set up and a battery I have been able to make chlorine gas, hydrogen gas and the by-product is Sodium Hydroxide, a strong alkali which the pupils can use in acid/alkali experiments. If I can get the hydrogen and chlorine to react, I can also make hydrochloric acid! Next week I will be showing the chemistry teacher how to make red cabbage acid/alkali indicator

Today was my first real taste of Basotho food, papa and moroho. Papa is just ground maze that has the consistency of mash potatoes but really has no taste. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty hard to get down but when you have the staff room looking at you for your approval it is very difficult to refuse. Moroho is Sesotho for vegetables, but was just incredibly salty cabbage. All the teachers were laughing at me! I don't think I have ever tasted anything SO salty in my life and the teachers were telling me that some pupils would even ask for more salt. Hmmm...

After lunch, Victoria Kente, the head of science and myself went through the laptop and I showed Victoria all the great science software on there. I'm aiming to show all the teachers how they can use the laptop in their lessons. Really feel motivated and positive at the moment. So much to do - now off to cook Bolognese and pasta, and even sit down to a bit of Gavin a Stacy (series 2 now)

28/1/10 Results Day
In the morning I ventured into the staffroom as I usually do, expecting to be greeted in Sesotho, and questioned on which Sesotho words I had learnt but today all was different. In the corner of the room was what can only be described as a scrum of teachers, huddled around a local newspaper. It was the day when all the examination results of all the schools in Lesotho are published. Everyone seemed really happy, I heard comments like "Better than last year" and "this puts St Saviours on the map!". School assembly was even more eventful than usual. The pupils where singing and dancing. They'd have raised the roof, if there was a roof! The principal Ntate Rampai congratulated all the students. Teachers got up to say how well they had all done, even a pupil got up on stage "VIVA ST STAVIOURS!!" he shouted. The pupils went crazy - for a moment it reminded me of a gig where the artist whips the crowd into a frenzy.

Later, night finished with an awesome thunderstorm in the distance, an amazing light displace, each strike lighting up the clouds. Welcome to Africa!

29-1-10
Today Ma Tshabalala, a chemistry teacher at St Saviours, was teaching about acids and alkalis. I had asked her to bring in some red cabbage, which she did. Red cabbage is a great natural indicator. All you need to do is mash it up in a pestle and mortar with some hot water, drain off the purple dye and that's it! Put it in a test tube with either acid or an alkali and it will change colour, deep red for acid and emerald green form an alkali. You can't work out the pH value of the acid or alkali but it's a great way of getting the pupils making something, and it works like a charm every time!

As always school finished early on a Friday but I was told to stay around for a surprise - The staff threw a party for my arrival. Brilliant! A few bottles of Muluti beer later I was dancing with everyone in the staffroom. Just a wonderful way to be welcomed!

30-1-10
I am visiting the local hospital, not that I am feeling ill! They have a open access wireless network and free range chickens to boot. The hospital is the world's most bizarre internet café, just sitting here in the X-ray department with chickens running around my feet, surfing the web!"