not to worry, this will be Much shorter then yesterday. Today Lina and I went to church 1/2 hr late (read the schedule wrong)and went immediatly afterwards to the craft market. we had a great time looking at all the different things, bargaining down the prices (or attempting to) and of course getting fried to a nice lobster red in the hot, hot sun. don't worry mom, we remembered to stop for water breaks so weren't completely dehydrated, just mostly. ;) i am happy to say i now have most of my christmas shopping done and am quite pleased with my purchases.
we returned to the flight house for a little break from the sun, a quick movie and lots of fluids! then got dressed up to go out for a nice supper at Rhapsody's. (0ne of my fav restaurants here). the meal was absolutely perfect and the atmostsphere stunning. a great way to end a fab day! bring on tomorrow!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
on the road again!
Well it's been an... interesting last couple of days. fun, scary, frustrating, tiring are all words i have used at different point of our trip so far...
Thursday morning Lina and i left Sakeji shortly before 7am. i let Lina drive while i woke up, which happened rather quickly as the roads are still rather bumpy! we only had one slightly terrifing moment when we got stuck in the mud in a HUGE puddle. however, my father's past words of wisdom helped us get out of a sticky situation without even getting ourselves muddy! (i wasn't really looking forward to pushing the Patrol!) We arrived in Solwezi and went to the hotel we planned to stay at only to find the were all booked up, as were several other reputable establishments... eventually we found a place with a room that looked decent enough for one night. we had both been looking forward to the AWESOME showers at the Solwezi hotel so were extremely disappointed to find the shower had NO hot water and very little water pressure! In Solwezi we managed to get our Provisional (beginner) liscences which allows us to drive for 3 mths. we'll be trying for our full liscences next thursday. Lina dyed my hair and then we dressed up and went out to a fancy restaurant for supper. Not a complete waste after all... the steak was AWESOME and about 1/2 the price i'd have paid at home!
Friday we left about 7am (this time i was driving) heading for Chingelo School. The drive seemed to take forever this time, not sure why. We made one roadside stop where i purchased a couple chairs for my porch/chota. We stopped in Kitwe to run a few errands, the first was to see if we could take our drivers test there. after giving us the run-around and making us fill out another form, they informed us that we had to finished the test in solwezi because that is where we had started it. sigh... TIA. We had to make a stop to order some baby chicks which will (unfortunately) be making the return trip with us (to later become supper during the term). When we stopped in Shoprite to pick up some lunch a boy told me he would watch the car "real nice" - Zambian "parking security". i didn't want to argue so i said 'fine'. when we came back out we didn't recognize our vehicle b/c a bunch of teens had washed all the mud off! of course they (at least 6 of them) wanted to be paid for this. I told them no b/c i didn't ask them to clean it in the first place (yes, i'm that mean). i did however pay the boy who watched my car a few kwatcha which he found great pleasure in showing to the others. We finally made it to Chingelo at 4pm-ish and enjoyed a nice cup of tea; my first ALL day, which for me was pushing it! Kukena (a Sakeji alumni) took us on a nice walk/tour of the grounds. it was so nice to strech our legs after all that driving!
This morning we slept in... till 8am. after a nice breakfast we set off once again, this time for Lusaka. Lina and I continued working on our 'truckers' tans, switching driving to 'even out' the redness of our arms. We made it into Lusaka after 4 hrs of uneventful driving and were greated by teh sights and sounds of 'big city life'. We're quite proud of ourselves for being able to navigate the city so well and only got turned about once, but quickly figured out where we had gone wrong and found the CMML Flight House rather quickly after that. We've had a rather enjoyable day doing soem light shopping, eating ice cream, discovering and enjoying KFC (yes, it was just as good as Canada!) and ended the day with a Latte from a nice new cafe. Sigh... life is good. :D (for pictures, check out facebook)
Thursday morning Lina and i left Sakeji shortly before 7am. i let Lina drive while i woke up, which happened rather quickly as the roads are still rather bumpy! we only had one slightly terrifing moment when we got stuck in the mud in a HUGE puddle. however, my father's past words of wisdom helped us get out of a sticky situation without even getting ourselves muddy! (i wasn't really looking forward to pushing the Patrol!) We arrived in Solwezi and went to the hotel we planned to stay at only to find the were all booked up, as were several other reputable establishments... eventually we found a place with a room that looked decent enough for one night. we had both been looking forward to the AWESOME showers at the Solwezi hotel so were extremely disappointed to find the shower had NO hot water and very little water pressure! In Solwezi we managed to get our Provisional (beginner) liscences which allows us to drive for 3 mths. we'll be trying for our full liscences next thursday. Lina dyed my hair and then we dressed up and went out to a fancy restaurant for supper. Not a complete waste after all... the steak was AWESOME and about 1/2 the price i'd have paid at home!
Friday we left about 7am (this time i was driving) heading for Chingelo School. The drive seemed to take forever this time, not sure why. We made one roadside stop where i purchased a couple chairs for my porch/chota. We stopped in Kitwe to run a few errands, the first was to see if we could take our drivers test there. after giving us the run-around and making us fill out another form, they informed us that we had to finished the test in solwezi because that is where we had started it. sigh... TIA. We had to make a stop to order some baby chicks which will (unfortunately) be making the return trip with us (to later become supper during the term). When we stopped in Shoprite to pick up some lunch a boy told me he would watch the car "real nice" - Zambian "parking security". i didn't want to argue so i said 'fine'. when we came back out we didn't recognize our vehicle b/c a bunch of teens had washed all the mud off! of course they (at least 6 of them) wanted to be paid for this. I told them no b/c i didn't ask them to clean it in the first place (yes, i'm that mean). i did however pay the boy who watched my car a few kwatcha which he found great pleasure in showing to the others. We finally made it to Chingelo at 4pm-ish and enjoyed a nice cup of tea; my first ALL day, which for me was pushing it! Kukena (a Sakeji alumni) took us on a nice walk/tour of the grounds. it was so nice to strech our legs after all that driving!
This morning we slept in... till 8am. after a nice breakfast we set off once again, this time for Lusaka. Lina and I continued working on our 'truckers' tans, switching driving to 'even out' the redness of our arms. We made it into Lusaka after 4 hrs of uneventful driving and were greated by teh sights and sounds of 'big city life'. We're quite proud of ourselves for being able to navigate the city so well and only got turned about once, but quickly figured out where we had gone wrong and found the CMML Flight House rather quickly after that. We've had a rather enjoyable day doing soem light shopping, eating ice cream, discovering and enjoying KFC (yes, it was just as good as Canada!) and ended the day with a Latte from a nice new cafe. Sigh... life is good. :D (for pictures, check out facebook)
Monday, April 11, 2011
fixing a 'faux-pas'
I was told that i have commited a blogger faux-pas... i have blogged about a kitten without showing pictures. i will try and rectify that now. although in my defense, it is extremelty hard to get a picture of Callie as i only see her in the wee hours of the morning & she's hardly a kitten anymore as she'll be a year next month.
(blogger won't let me post a pic at this time; will try again tomorrow...sorry!)
in other news i've been really enjoying my current freedom, although i have yet been able to sleep in past 6:30am thanks to Callie and the station kids. I spent a good part of yesterday morning cleaning and re-arranging my bedroom (for the first time since moving in). Then when my allergies where beyond coping with i went out for some fresh air and then over to Lina's house for sewing. Quite an enjoyable afternoon. :)
Today i got up and made an awesome breaky for myself, Lina and Rachel then the 3 of us drove off into Ikelenge for a few errands and "shopping". Lina and I are trying to get used to the Patrol before we attempt our driving tests. When we got back, Lina and i drove up to the airstrip to practice the dreaded backing up through pylons test. this is the stupidest test i have ever seen for driving. i'm not sure when i would ever use the technique needed to get through the narrow cones backwards unless of course reverse was the only option available on my vehicle. :S
(blogger won't let me post a pic at this time; will try again tomorrow...sorry!)
in other news i've been really enjoying my current freedom, although i have yet been able to sleep in past 6:30am thanks to Callie and the station kids. I spent a good part of yesterday morning cleaning and re-arranging my bedroom (for the first time since moving in). Then when my allergies where beyond coping with i went out for some fresh air and then over to Lina's house for sewing. Quite an enjoyable afternoon. :)
Today i got up and made an awesome breaky for myself, Lina and Rachel then the 3 of us drove off into Ikelenge for a few errands and "shopping". Lina and I are trying to get used to the Patrol before we attempt our driving tests. When we got back, Lina and i drove up to the airstrip to practice the dreaded backing up through pylons test. this is the stupidest test i have ever seen for driving. i'm not sure when i would ever use the technique needed to get through the narrow cones backwards unless of course reverse was the only option available on my vehicle. :S
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Term one is done!
Well, i managed to survive to the end (or pretty close). I was right about the report cards, i did miss something... one whole report but i got it done in no time and was one of the (if not the) first to have mine ready. (that's gotta be a first for me!)
the rest of our week flew by and this morning i got up in time (barely) to say goodbye to the first lot of kids to fly out, as well as Bethany Fuller who is going on furlough. My class spent the morning watching videos and playing in the beautiful sunshine anxiously anticipating the arrival of their parents. At 1pm the children are allowed to go to the 'round about' to sit and watch the parents arrive. At 1:30 the parent-teacher interviews begin. this is what i was dreading! i've never enjoyed the interviews but they were all rather quick here and i only had 4 show up so most of the time i spent sitting in my classroom kinda bored.
just before 1:30 my new kitty arrived! she's SO cute but rather timid/shy at the moment. i had to leave her alone to explore the house as i had to get to the interviews. when i came back an hour later she was NO where to be found! it was then i discovered the open window with a convenient chair sitting right underneath it. we spent some time looking for her but i again had to return to interviews so i spent the rest of the time worrying about her as there's a rather dense bush area behind my house and lots of traffic today. around 4pm i returned to my house, still no sign of Callie. Lina joined me for a cup of tea and a time of relaxing then a huge storm hit with crazy winds blowing the rain (and trees) everywhere. Suddenly i remembered the open windows upstairs! i ran up and sure enough the rain was pouring through and everything was soaked! Lina grabbed some of my towels from linen closet and rushed up to help clean up. while we were up there we heard a cat cry! lina ran down to open the down but she wasn't outside. when i went back downstairs to look for her i found her in the linen closet. she had been hiding under my bathtub (as there's a little crawlspace under it). i was able to pet her a bit and then she charged back under the tub (gotta cover that hole!) and has decided to stay there for now. hopefully she'll get used to me soon, she has, after all had a rather tramatic few days of travel.
well i'm off to celebrate with a lina, watching a movie and treats. :)
the rest of our week flew by and this morning i got up in time (barely) to say goodbye to the first lot of kids to fly out, as well as Bethany Fuller who is going on furlough. My class spent the morning watching videos and playing in the beautiful sunshine anxiously anticipating the arrival of their parents. At 1pm the children are allowed to go to the 'round about' to sit and watch the parents arrive. At 1:30 the parent-teacher interviews begin. this is what i was dreading! i've never enjoyed the interviews but they were all rather quick here and i only had 4 show up so most of the time i spent sitting in my classroom kinda bored.
just before 1:30 my new kitty arrived! she's SO cute but rather timid/shy at the moment. i had to leave her alone to explore the house as i had to get to the interviews. when i came back an hour later she was NO where to be found! it was then i discovered the open window with a convenient chair sitting right underneath it. we spent some time looking for her but i again had to return to interviews so i spent the rest of the time worrying about her as there's a rather dense bush area behind my house and lots of traffic today. around 4pm i returned to my house, still no sign of Callie. Lina joined me for a cup of tea and a time of relaxing then a huge storm hit with crazy winds blowing the rain (and trees) everywhere. Suddenly i remembered the open windows upstairs! i ran up and sure enough the rain was pouring through and everything was soaked! Lina grabbed some of my towels from linen closet and rushed up to help clean up. while we were up there we heard a cat cry! lina ran down to open the down but she wasn't outside. when i went back downstairs to look for her i found her in the linen closet. she had been hiding under my bathtub (as there's a little crawlspace under it). i was able to pet her a bit and then she charged back under the tub (gotta cover that hole!) and has decided to stay there for now. hopefully she'll get used to me soon, she has, after all had a rather tramatic few days of travel.
well i'm off to celebrate with a lina, watching a movie and treats. :)
Friday, April 1, 2011
time to relax... well almost
ahhhh... report cards done. at least i think they're done. inevitably i'll get a little note in my box tomorrow telling me i missed some comment or grade, but that i can handle. poor Lina is still plugging away at hers as she has grade 5 & 6 marks as well as the whole school's music marks and comments. so glad that's NOT me!
i can't believe how quickly this week has flown by, i was looking forward to my friday afternoon off all week and then i spent the whole afternoon doing report cards so i feel rather cheated. :( this is my weekend on, but i don't have too many duties so will have time to relax somewhat. then monday is the last full day of classes, tuesday and wednesday are half days and wednesday afternoon/thurs morn the kids leave. HURRAY! we're definately all in need of some time away from each other.
exciting things that have happened this week:
1) 2 baby lambs (3 days old)arrived at the school yesterday from the farm. they're orphans and Pete Fisher tho't we (the school) might enjoy raising them. i think he just didn't want to bother with the several times a night feedings! they are SO cute! they look like baby goats (as all sheep here do) except their tails go down (goat's tails stick up). that's pretty much the only way we can tell the difference here. they're not 'whooly' sheep like back home.
2) Janet read a whole sentence without assistance! (i guess this should have been my first exciting thing, but i was thinking about the lambs first.) she will be coming back next term (i didn't really get a say in the matter) but will probably be repeating grade one (unless there is a drastic improvement in the next two terms).
i'm sure there are other things i should be blogging about but my brain shut down several hours ago so i'm off to bed!
i can't believe how quickly this week has flown by, i was looking forward to my friday afternoon off all week and then i spent the whole afternoon doing report cards so i feel rather cheated. :( this is my weekend on, but i don't have too many duties so will have time to relax somewhat. then monday is the last full day of classes, tuesday and wednesday are half days and wednesday afternoon/thurs morn the kids leave. HURRAY! we're definately all in need of some time away from each other.
exciting things that have happened this week:
1) 2 baby lambs (3 days old)arrived at the school yesterday from the farm. they're orphans and Pete Fisher tho't we (the school) might enjoy raising them. i think he just didn't want to bother with the several times a night feedings! they are SO cute! they look like baby goats (as all sheep here do) except their tails go down (goat's tails stick up). that's pretty much the only way we can tell the difference here. they're not 'whooly' sheep like back home.
2) Janet read a whole sentence without assistance! (i guess this should have been my first exciting thing, but i was thinking about the lambs first.) she will be coming back next term (i didn't really get a say in the matter) but will probably be repeating grade one (unless there is a drastic improvement in the next two terms).
i'm sure there are other things i should be blogging about but my brain shut down several hours ago so i'm off to bed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)