I've been wanting to post since school let out,but we haven't been allowed to use the internet as we went way over our limit last month.
i spent the first few days relaxing and trying to get caught up on my dishes etc. Now i've buckled down for the bigger tasks. Yesterday I cleaned out my pantry/storage closet which took 1/2 the day as the previous owner was a hoarder and left a bunch of stuff. Now i've finally got some space for storing my stuff. I've also been "doing down"some veggies for my freezer so I'll have veg during the term.
Lina and I are in charge of 'morning tea' for the brass tacks men so we've been taking turns baking various things.
other things i've been up to...we all (the staff who are left on station) went to the cottage (or what's left of it) for a bbq/picnic which was pretty fun. Lina and i had planned to have a 'christmas in july' that day but had to re-arrange our plans. we still listened to christmas music and made a fairly cool looking gingerbread house. that all came about b/c I had sent the kit to Lina for christmas but it didn't arrive until June. we were much to busy to do it then so we planned on a 'christmas in july' on July 25th.
i don't think anything else has happened.
oh wait! i forgot to write about the baptisms. on the last day of school 22 of our students were baptised down in our pool. it was very exciting and cool that the parents were able to join us for this wonderful event! earlier in the day they kids who got baptised shared their testimonies with the whole school; it was very moving.
end of term program also went very well. Jill and Lina worked hard with the students and it paid off. the theme was 'Heaven and HOme' with the kids singing various songs/hymns about Heaven with Bible verses quoted intermitently throughout. I tried to tape it but had some trouble with my camera (especially as i don't have my tripod - hope it went on the container mom!) the sound turned out ok but the picture quality is pretty bad. I'm going to see if i can fix it up as just a sound recording, then i'll try posting it. don't hold ur breath though!
right, well i better get offline before i get into trouble!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
time to clean...
Just a few more days and then I can sleep in! I'm really looking forward to that! Today is the last 'full' day, tomorrow the parents come at 1:30 and then by THursday lunch the kids should be all gone. :)A lot of things still to happen between now and then but I'm not involved in it all so I have some time to relax and get my classroom (and house) in some order.
Tomorrow after the parents arrive we are having a baptism for about 12 of our senior students; it should be an exciting time. After that we have parent-teacher interviews which I've never enjoyed. I'm not as worried about it as last term, but there are some that I'm really not looking forward to! After that is the AGM (annual general meeting - i think). Basically it's a long boring meeting in which we update the parents on any changes and they can put forth any concerns etc. I've never been to one before as i skipped out early last year) but i'm not a huge fan of meetings and i've heard these ones can go quite long...
I'm still struggling with the fact that i'm not going home this break as I did last year. my brain keeps telling me that I need to start packing soon. It's weird because I don't want to leave, this is my home now, I think it's because I haven't stayed past 7 months before so my brain is freaking out a little. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon.
Well must get back to work. The kids are all practicing for their end of term show so I need to use the time 'wisely' and get my classroom presentable for parents!
Tomorrow after the parents arrive we are having a baptism for about 12 of our senior students; it should be an exciting time. After that we have parent-teacher interviews which I've never enjoyed. I'm not as worried about it as last term, but there are some that I'm really not looking forward to! After that is the AGM (annual general meeting - i think). Basically it's a long boring meeting in which we update the parents on any changes and they can put forth any concerns etc. I've never been to one before as i skipped out early last year) but i'm not a huge fan of meetings and i've heard these ones can go quite long...
I'm still struggling with the fact that i'm not going home this break as I did last year. my brain keeps telling me that I need to start packing soon. It's weird because I don't want to leave, this is my home now, I think it's because I haven't stayed past 7 months before so my brain is freaking out a little. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon.
Well must get back to work. The kids are all practicing for their end of term show so I need to use the time 'wisely' and get my classroom presentable for parents!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
time is running away again...
I have started writing a blog several times in the past few weeks but obviously it has gotten no where. today i am determined to get one 'out there'. so although i'm on 'yard duty' i've brought my laptop out and have one eye on it and one on the children. so if there are parts that don't make sense i appoligize, it's hard to type while sorting out grade school dramas...
In the last two weeks we had 2 'big' events at the school. The first was our term birthday party (i've written of these before). This term our theme was "Around the World". The students made some nice artwork for the dining hall, various staff and visiting ladies made our usual beautiful cakes and Miss Saunders (the cook) went out of her way to come up with an 'ethnic' menu. The food was great although the students had differing opinions; as kids will. Some of the staff did a great job with their costumes others just threw things together. i had mine planned out, but ran out of time before i got it all together! I was a Maasi warrior (Kenya & Tanzania). I don't have a good picture of me in costume, but i'll see if i can find one from the other staff member's cameras and post it later. The evening 'entertainment' wasn't too bad as far as kid's skits go. some of the senior girls wrote and sang some great songs.
the second event was Sports Day. some of you may remember last year how the night before sports day it was decided that Mr. Ronald was too sick to run it and i was sort of thrown in charge. This year i knew i was 'safe' from that as there are 3 men on station! :) Phil Towse took a lot of time to organize things to the point of complicating and then... proceeded to get sick. Ahh! He was a great sport though and came out anyhow and made sure things ran smoothly and well, which was good as the rest of us had no clue how he had it planned out. :)
things went well with the kids running, jumping their little hearts out. as we now have "house" teams the kids seemed more determined then ever to win and again points for their team. as the Fisher house mistress it was my duty to yell and cheer them to victory. at the end of the day it was announced that Fisher had won. sadly our victory was short lived when it was discovered that the their was a miscalculation of points and it was infact Poole that won and Fisher was a close 2nd. As our house has been dominating the points board for most of the term i convinced my team that we have to let others have SOME time in the spotlight. :) i got hundreds (literally) of photos taken as i was one of the photographers. i'll try and get some posted up soon; once i sort through them.
in other news we had to say goodbye to 4 of our students this week. one of my students went home early as he had broken his tooth off almost to the root and in order to save it needed to visit a dentist immediatly. yesterday a grade 3 student was suspended (for stealing) yesterday. please pray for her as we've had a varioius problems with her this term. Today 2 boys left early as both of their parents are going on furlough. Daniel will not be returning as he'll be finishing elementary in Canada and so when he returns to Zambia will be at a high school. Josh will be in the US for 1 year and then will come back Sakeji for a year or 2. Please pray for them both as furloughs can be rough times for MK's particularly when they're junior high age. Daniel is having a particularly rough time of it as he has been at Sakeji since grade 1 and has spent the majority of his life in Zambia so it is hard to say goodbye to what he's always known. 2 more of our students will be leaving us (probably for good) as they too are moving to Canada. Their mother has lived there for a number of years and they will be joining her there. They are Zambian and will most likely find the move to Toronto a HUGE culture shock! Ntsheneshi will most likely be going into grade 7 in the fall (a difficult age to 'break into' a new school/make friends) and Musani will be in either grade 4 or 5. he already has trouble making friends and has a low self esteem.
on a positive note; classes will be done a week today! hurray! unfortunately i have to survive report cards first. one of the reasons i'm writing my blog today is b/c i'm avoiding the dreaded report cards!i've got the grades in and have now simply need to enter the remarks/comments (the hardest part).
well i guess i should wrap this up for now. pictures to follow (either on facebook or here)
In the last two weeks we had 2 'big' events at the school. The first was our term birthday party (i've written of these before). This term our theme was "Around the World". The students made some nice artwork for the dining hall, various staff and visiting ladies made our usual beautiful cakes and Miss Saunders (the cook) went out of her way to come up with an 'ethnic' menu. The food was great although the students had differing opinions; as kids will. Some of the staff did a great job with their costumes others just threw things together. i had mine planned out, but ran out of time before i got it all together! I was a Maasi warrior (Kenya & Tanzania). I don't have a good picture of me in costume, but i'll see if i can find one from the other staff member's cameras and post it later. The evening 'entertainment' wasn't too bad as far as kid's skits go. some of the senior girls wrote and sang some great songs.
the second event was Sports Day. some of you may remember last year how the night before sports day it was decided that Mr. Ronald was too sick to run it and i was sort of thrown in charge. This year i knew i was 'safe' from that as there are 3 men on station! :) Phil Towse took a lot of time to organize things to the point of complicating and then... proceeded to get sick. Ahh! He was a great sport though and came out anyhow and made sure things ran smoothly and well, which was good as the rest of us had no clue how he had it planned out. :)
things went well with the kids running, jumping their little hearts out. as we now have "house" teams the kids seemed more determined then ever to win and again points for their team. as the Fisher house mistress it was my duty to yell and cheer them to victory. at the end of the day it was announced that Fisher had won. sadly our victory was short lived when it was discovered that the their was a miscalculation of points and it was infact Poole that won and Fisher was a close 2nd. As our house has been dominating the points board for most of the term i convinced my team that we have to let others have SOME time in the spotlight. :) i got hundreds (literally) of photos taken as i was one of the photographers. i'll try and get some posted up soon; once i sort through them.
in other news we had to say goodbye to 4 of our students this week. one of my students went home early as he had broken his tooth off almost to the root and in order to save it needed to visit a dentist immediatly. yesterday a grade 3 student was suspended (for stealing) yesterday. please pray for her as we've had a varioius problems with her this term. Today 2 boys left early as both of their parents are going on furlough. Daniel will not be returning as he'll be finishing elementary in Canada and so when he returns to Zambia will be at a high school. Josh will be in the US for 1 year and then will come back Sakeji for a year or 2. Please pray for them both as furloughs can be rough times for MK's particularly when they're junior high age. Daniel is having a particularly rough time of it as he has been at Sakeji since grade 1 and has spent the majority of his life in Zambia so it is hard to say goodbye to what he's always known. 2 more of our students will be leaving us (probably for good) as they too are moving to Canada. Their mother has lived there for a number of years and they will be joining her there. They are Zambian and will most likely find the move to Toronto a HUGE culture shock! Ntsheneshi will most likely be going into grade 7 in the fall (a difficult age to 'break into' a new school/make friends) and Musani will be in either grade 4 or 5. he already has trouble making friends and has a low self esteem.
on a positive note; classes will be done a week today! hurray! unfortunately i have to survive report cards first. one of the reasons i'm writing my blog today is b/c i'm avoiding the dreaded report cards!i've got the grades in and have now simply need to enter the remarks/comments (the hardest part).
well i guess i should wrap this up for now. pictures to follow (either on facebook or here)
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