I have talked about how bad the roads have gotten here, but i didn't even know the extent of it until Mr. Fisher from the farm invited us to come and look at the "sakeji canyon". so after church yesterday we took a detour to check out the Sakeji Road. this is the worst the road has ever been. we are essentially being cut off by land from the main cities. this will be a problem when the parents try to come up at the end of the term. most of them drive small cars and won't even make it up as far as the "canyon" as there are several extremely muddy spots on the way where even the tractors are getting stuck. this is also a problem as we were expecting to get our Canadian container shipment this week and at present there is no way for the "lorrie" (transport truck) to get around the canyon or through the mud on the other road. the Lord knows our needs and so we're bringing them to Him as He has a plan which we don't yet know about. Your prayers would also be appreciated for this. On our way back from our little field trip to the canyon we drove through the farm, which is also a game park. we don't usually see the animals that close to the road, but we were able to spot a few zebra, sable and another deer that i have forgotten the name of. i will post a few pictures with this blog of the road to see more pictures of the road and the animals you'll have to check out my facebook album.
this weekend was a great relaxing weekend over all b/c our second 1/2 term happened to fall on the friday/saturday and it was my weekend off! so i took the seniors tubing again on friday; this time we had gorgeous sunny weather and a stronger current (more water) so it was a lot more enjoyable! i lost one of my flip flops at the beginning but a few of the boys were able to "rescue" it when we got to the dam. after our thrilling ride down the river we went swimming for awhile and i got a nice sunburn (which is now turning into a lovely tan! :) ). i thought i would try the "flying fox", a cable that runs from the top of the ant hill to the far end of the pool. it has a handle bar that you hold on to as you zip down and which you must let go of to drop into the pool before you reach the end. i climbed to the top of the anthill, grabbed onto the handle bars looked down at the pool.... and chickened out. :S it was a combo of the height as well as being afraid of letting go too soon and landing on the cement and not in the water that did me in. maybe next term i'll have more courage to do it... we'll see. after swimming we enjoyed hamburgers and salads down by the river for lunch, washing our dishes in the river afterwards. after this i went back to the house to do a bit of baking and have a nap. I had been invited to the village for supper with a friend of the family (the same one who is trying hard to teach me Lunda). I borrowed a bike from the school, not really sure what i was getting myself into or where i was going. it was pretty easy to find his house, i only had to ask directions once. the biggest problem that i has was the bike. i should have taken it out for a test run first! the brakes were starting to go and the seat was designed for a child sized bottom, not at all comfortable! most of the ride was pretty easy as it was mostly downhill, it got a little scary going down the largest hill as i wasn't sure if the brakes were going to hold out. i was sort of dreading the supper as i'm not at all a fan of nshima, the local staple food. steward knew this however and let his wife know. so they made me a special supper with no nshima involved! :) i'm so spoiled! i forgot that they would be preparing a whole me just for me, she cooked a whole chicken, a bowl full of cooked cabbage and tomatoes, a huge bowl full of fried potatoes, and for dessert a whole pinapple cut up with guava. i told them there was no way that i could eat it all myself and that they had to help me. even with 3 of them "helping" me eat it, there was still some left over and i left very stuffed! that was when i realized that i now had to bike back... uphill!! needless to say i was quite tired and somewhat sore by the time i got back and i slept very well that night! thankfully i was able to sleep in on saturday! :) Lina and i spent the majority of time on saturday cutting out the chitanges we had bought and sewing them into skirts. we were quite impressed with outselves and the results. Jill Avery (the dorm mom) also had the weekend off so we sewed in her living room on my mom's old sewing machine. Jill is also the art teacher and was working on various crafts while Lina and i worked on our skirts. it was nice to have some "adult" time with no children calling our names or demanding our attention. as they spent hte whole day down at the river it was quite peaceful really!
now half term and the weekend are both over and we are back to the regular school days. the children had yesterday to recover from their "half term break" so they are surprisingly well behaved today. And as i was able to relax and refill on my patience stores, the day and week are off to a good start! :)
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