holiday time

My end of term cold hit me with a vengence but once I was able to sleep-in and relax I was able to get over the worst of it. Hurray! Unfortunately poor Lina seems to have her end of term bronchitis which has messed up her term break plans. Not just because being sick on your holidays is horrible, but also because she was unable to drive down to Lusaka as planned. However, the Lord is still in control, Hannah (who had planned to get a ride with Lina) was able to get a ride with the Sr. Towses to Chingola and then with the Studds to Lusaka so that she could meet her father and brothers at the airport. The vehicle that Lina was going to be driving is sorta not working right as the battery is pretty dead. Today we pushed started it and were able to get to Ikelenge and back, but the whole time I was worried that if I turned it off I wouldn't be able to get it started again. So it's a good thing the girls didn't try to take it down! I will (Lord willing) be heading down to Lusaka in Jill Avery's truck (she and Bethany are in Europe on holiday)and Lina is able to get a ride with me. Unfortunately it's only a 2 seater, so on the way home, after I've picked up June, one of us will have to ride in the back. Not ideal, but we'll make it work. TIA! A praise item to note, I was able to have a few good interviews with parents/guardians of some of my students that have been struggling a bit. It was refreshing to see that they want to help out any way they can and are backing me up. You never quite know how parents are going to react when they see poor report cards and some of them will blame the teacher (as happened to Lina :( ) so I am thankful that mine went so well. Now I have to wait till September to see if it was just talk or if they actually did work with their children. Unless something major/exciting happens. I probably won't blog again until I get to Lusaka. Please pray for safe travels!

And suddenly it's the end of term...

Yes, the end of term draweth near! This time next week the station will be eerily quiet and all the staff will be rejoicing in their own particular way. It has been a very busy term, cramming so many things into 10 short weeks, but we seemed to have made it through. We've had LOTS of visitors and to quote an old saying "all our visitors bring us joy. some buy coming. others by going." (I won't go into details on who falls into which category) Despite all the cramming and such I also feel it was quite a productive term. My students have really come a long way and (although I need the break) I am looking forward to how much we can accomplish next term. I am especially thankful at this time of the term to only have 10 students as that meant I only had 10 report cards to do! Teaching grade one is definatley challenging but one of the perks is that they don't have to take exams... which means I don't have to mark exams... and was therefor able to get all my reports finished by Tuesday night! I do feel kind of bad though as the rest of the teachers are still slaving away on theirs. One challenge I've had this term is trying to find out how I can better help my students who are struggling with their learning. one boy (who i think i mentioned in previous blogs) appears to have dyslexic symptoms. Zambia is not equipt to deal with things like this so his parents are unable to get him tested. I've done a few quick "online" tests but unless I want to drop a few hundred bucks, i can't get any real evaluating done. My mission for the holidays is to arm myself with as much info and resources as I can get my hands on (which is limited to the internet) to try and prepare for how to better help him next term. Please pray! I would also GREATLY appreciate any info anyone can share of helpful techniques either from teaching or personal experiences.

Wow, silence for the first time in 3 hours! It's almost a scary sound. Over our half term break 17 of our senior students and 3 staff members went to Amano Christian School (and 3 other schools) to compete in netball (Girls) and soccer (boys). Today 20 Amano students and 4 or so staff members have arrived here. Our students have been anticipating it all day and the excitment has been building since assembly. Even my students, who won't have anything to do with the competitions, were bouncing outta their seats (literaly) today. This was my afternoon off and generally when I'm down at my house I can't hear the students too much. However, I knew exactly when the Amano bus rolled in as the noise level tripled! Starting tomorrrow they will be competing in various sporting events against our students; mostly track and field stuff but I believe their will also be soccer and netball (it'll be switched tho boys playing netball and girls soccer). Our boys might actually win this time. The girls (who were undefeated in netball - except when they played the under 19 team) may taste a bit of what it feels like to lose. I've been trying to help Phil Towse with coaching them.... but they have so many bad habits I spent most of my time trying to undo the habits and reteach the correct way! It should be an interesting weekend. Even though it is my weekend off I have offered to help in the kitchen as our cook is now in Canada and Pam Ronald is subbing for her. Pam is also runs the nursing clinic and is one of the dorm parents for the boys so she's quite busy! I figured with the extra bodies on station she might need a break or two, plus 2 of her 3 kids will be competing so it might be nice for her to get to watch them. On Tuesday the whole school participates in Sports Day (track and field). I think by then our seniors will be wiped out! They might even be grateful to get back to regular classes on Wednesday.... well maybe not. :) I know it's early but I probably won't post again before so..."Happy Canada Day" to all my Canadian friends! and "Happy Independence Day" to my American ones. :)

Falling behind yet again...

Monday and Tuesday of this week were our half term holiday. The students all think the break is for them... ya right! My duties for the last 2 days was afternoon swim. I took my lawnchair down to the pool and worked on my tan. :) ya, life is rough. Actually it was rather rough this morning getting up and back into the school routine. Apparenty the kids thought so too as they all seemed to have left their brains in the dorm this morning. I can't complain too much though, they were all too tired to act up! One quick prayer request. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before but I'm fairly certain one of my students suffers with dyslexia. I've been trying to find creative ways to help him understand and learn the material but I feel like I'm failing him. Please pray that God will give me the wisdom I need to help this little boy get a good start on schooling, so he doesn't end up falling through the cracks.

The Good and the Sad

The past weekend was a rather interesting one. It was my weekend off, so after lunch on Saturday I was free to do as I pleased until breakfast on Monday. I have begun working with a group of kids in a village called Kazomba (I think that's what it's called) which is not too far from Kalene Hospital. The parents of the children I'm working with are very good friends with my parents. Hannah Garcia joins me on our Saturdays off and we go out to the village and work on English/ reading and math skills specifically with the two youngest as we would like to be able to get them enrolled at Sakeji next year. However the older 3 are always hanging about as well and enjoy taking part. This week when we arrived it was obvious word had gotten around that we were coming because there was a lot of cheerful youngsters chasing the truck down the lane. They all joined in our "class" which ended up being somewhere around 15 children ages 2 -15+. It's kind of like teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. only this was a very small livingroom. I think next time we'll have to sit outside under the trees! It's a lot more of a relaxed atmostphere then my school classroom and the children come and go as they please. After a few hours there we packed up and headed to Kalene hospital as there was a special "Jubilee Tea" planned in honour of the Queen of England's diamond Jubilee. The hosts had gone out of their way to make it a fun and special evening. Of course when we arrived we were served tea and shown to the buffet table which was full of scrumptious "British" fare such as cucumber sandwiches, triffle and little cupcakes with the Union Jack on them. We were divided into teams based on the Common Wealth country we came from. Hannah felt a little out of place, being American. We had missed the physical games (such as tug-of-war) but were there in time for the 'mental' games. Of course in the end England won (it would have been a shame if they hadn't as most of the questions were about their country!). Sadly Canada came in third, but then, we're used to not winning at Olympic events, so we took it quite well. :) Just as we were preparing to leave a phone call came in with some very disturbing news. A missionary plane was seen floating upside down in the Zambezi River! After much telephoning between mission stations and prayer we got most of the story. A new young missionary pilot, stationed at Chitokoloki Mission Hospital had crashed into the river. This really shook us all up. We didn't get all the details until yesterday evening. I won't write them all now, but if you look on the Chit website http://www.chitokoloki.com there is an update on Jay and Katrina Erickson. Please pray for their family at this time of loss. Although it is a great tragedy for us left behind, they are rejoicing with their Lord and Saviour in heaven and for that we give the glory and praise to God. It was a great reminder to us all that life is short and can be over in the blink of an eye. We need get right with God and make each and every day count for His glory and honour!

I don't have much time to blog, but haven't written in ages so here goes... Highlights: 1) last week one of the new grade 3 girls (Hannah) gave her life to Christ. She had been very shy and quiet since coming, barely speaks above a whisper. Last Tuesday she approached the dorm Mom and said she wanted to ask Jesus to forgive her sins. Since then I've noticed a new happyiness and peace in her life. Very exciting to see. Please pray for her as she grows in the Lord, that her faith with strengthen daily. 2) I'm down to 10 grade ones, but this is good because one of my grade ones is now a grade 2. He is a super smart little boy and could probably do the grade 3 with without too much trouble! He reads at a grade 4 level! It's been a challenge to keep him from getting too bored in class as he always finished his work waaay before the others. Praise the Lord, he is settling into grade 2 quite nicely, I just pray the grade 2 boys don't corrupt him with their bad behaviour because right now he's a good kid. 3) My church extended my commendation another 2 years which was a real answer to prayer for me! So I will be out here (Lord willing) until at least 2014. I had planned to come home for a visit during the summer but have decided to put that off for a little while. Perhaps next summer. well, that's about all I have time for right now. Need to finish marking and planning for the week!

it's amazing how much noise 60 excited children generate!

yep! the students are (mostly) back once again and so starts another term. my classroom is about 98% ready and i'm about 89% ready but that's ok. i don't really have time to write as i'm supposed to be heading up to watch "Popeye" with the kids on our new flat screen tv. i think i'm more excited then the kids about the tv! the old one we so bad that we couldn't see have the movies as it was just too dark. we now also have "surround sound" (sort of) so it should be a pretty cool experience. :) this term is our shortest one - 10 weeks long but is also one of the most busy/crazy as there is SO much packed into it! not only is there another sport's tour for the seniors, we have another school coming up here for a sports tour. of course we have the usual birthday party (this term "nautical" theme) and Sports Day. so we'll all be very in shape this term... well, the kids should be anyhow. gotta run, gonna be late for the 'good seats'!