Lost and Found

"I've got a smile on my face and i've got 4 walls around me;
got the sun in the sky, all the water surrounds me..."

Praise the Lord the children and their parents all arrived safetly yesterday, despite the pouring rain! Thank you for your prayers. The parents left this morning before after breakfast and the day began.
It was an absolutely beautiful day weather wise. The clouds disappeared just as classes began and the sun was out in full force. My morning was spent introducing my new students to the many rules and boundries and trying to remember names!
My students are all so cute but i struggle with the Zambian names! I have 8 grade one students and 8 grade two students. After lunch today we went down to the pool for free swim time. It was the perfect day to be in the pool.
What i didn't remember was that i had signed myself up for 'river duty' on wednesdays. This means that after swimming the students go to the very large play area by the river to have free play for a few hours.
I also didn't know that I'd be the only one supervising all 60 students! it's quite the job especially when the area is surrounded by the river on 2 sides and the swimming pool on the 3rd. Of course, as it was my first day, i managed to 'lose'
on the they students. what i didn't know was that the little (grade 1) boy decided he was tired and tried to walk back to the school by himself. after awhile he thought he was lost and starting bawling until one of the teachers found and 'rescued'
him. so when we lined up to leave i came up one short in the count. after double checking and then going through the roll call it was discovered that Lushomo was missing. I had no idea what to do! they hadn't given me instructions on what to do if
you lose a child (i don't know if anyone has done it before). Lina had come down to keep me company and so she started looking everywhere he might be hiding etc. in the mean time i knew i had to get the other children safely home. after much panic and prayer
i was told that Lushomo was safely in the dorm and my heart was able to start beating again. aside that scare we had a great time today. i must admit that `m a little too pink as i didn't wear sunscreen, but its not that bad. Tomorrow starts the beginning of the
actual teaching so that should be interesting.

in other news I, the non-dog person, got a dog. well, technically she's still a puppy and she belongs to my housemate Lina but i'm helping to raise and train her for the time i'm here. so... if anyone has any great tips/ideas how to to train a puppy/dog we'd be greatful for you input!
Ceili (pronounced Kay-lee) is a cross between a doberman and a rotweiller so she'll be a rather Large dog when she is fully grown. Lina and i were orinigally considering getting a kitten as we're both cat people but had decided to wait until we were settled in fully etc. however it was generally
decided that it would be best if we got a large dog instead as the only dogs on this side of the station are small weiner dogs who don't make very good guard dogs. Lina and i discussed it and decided this would be ok. Lina likes dogs, and i don't mind puppies so much. So yesterday 2 little puppies
had their first (and most likely last) airplane ride. The Ronalds also got a puppy from the same litter for the other side of the station. She has been very good so far and the only messes we've had to clean up were this morning as she couldn't make it through the night without a 'bathroom break'.
hopefully we won't be having too many more mornings with little 'surprises'.

well that's all for now. i need to be a good teacher and make sure i've got tomorrow's stuff all planned out.