Merry Christmas!

just found this saved as a draft... oops! Christmas this year is a bit weird as this is the first time in my life that I won't be celebrating with my family. I've sort of gotten over the sad part, but I'm having trouble with realizing that Christmas is REALLY here. I have my tree up and house decorated, I've been listening to Christmas music, wrapping gifts, and doing Christmas baking. I've been to several Christmas parties and Carol sings but it still doesn't feel like Christmas is happening tomorrow! Normally by this time I'd be as excited as a little kid, but this year I'm having difficulty getting excited. I AM looking forward to the fun things I have planned with my friends for tomorrow; mainly a progressive breakfast & gift giving! Sounds pretty yummy and fun!

One week in...

Just thought I'd add a quick update while I'm actually able to get online. Since school has started back there were some changes made to out internet and for some reason I now have trouble connecting or if i do get on it boots me off after a few minutes. We've now completed one week of classes and my class is beginning to settle into the classroom routine and rules, not that they always remember, but they're still making an effort. Unfortuntately I've had to discipline some of them already. I'm hoping that they'll learn quickly and I won't have to do it again any time soon! On the "home front" I have a sneaking suspicion my cat got herself pregnant last time she escaped.... great. Now what do I do? to make matters worse there is actually a vet on station and i was hoping to get her fixed for free while he's here but that probably won't be happening now as he's not here for too long. :S oops! just realized the time. have to go get readyfor a staff meeting...

As of today our holidays are over and the students decend on us again. For once, I think I'm actually ready for them :) I had a nice holiday, very casual; hanging around my house, reading, baking and various other fun activities. Christmas Eve the staff remaining on station had a lovely Christmas dinner with turkey, ham and all the fixings! Delicious! Christmas day I spent with the other single ladies and we had fun going from house to house eating and openging presents (a "progressive brunch"). We had various carol sings and games nights as well. New Years Eve we had a bonfire and singing, fireworks, food and some of us stayed up past midnight watching a movie. The past week I've spent in and out of my classroom prepping for the new school year. My classroom is finally ready (although it needs some sweeping etc in the morn) and i acutally have the first week of classes planned! i have never been so organized in my teaching career before! :D I found out last night that one of my new students may not be coming because she is a picky eater and her parents don't think she'll be able to adapt. HA! most of the kids that come are "picky eaters" but they find out quickly that picky eaters are hungry kids with sore bottoms... so they go home not quite so picky. :) Well, tomorrow is the first day of a new school year. So exciting as there are SO many possibilities! Can't wait to meet all my munchkin's!

holiday time

Since my newsletter school has now finished and there have been a few changes. I will have one student repeating grade 1 next year as we felt she just didn't have a strong enough foundation in the basics of reading and writing. Thankfully when i did parent-teacher interviews her mom was very supportive and understanding of our decision. I have 11 other students preparing to come in January for a total of 7 boys and 5 girls. Half of my students already have siblings here at Sakeji so hopefully that will help their transition into boarding school life. At least 2 of my students have little verbal English, although they seem to understand it. Please pray they'll pick it up quickly and not fall behind because of it. I'm very excited about meeting my new class, especially as I have some new curriculum i'd like to try on them. :) But i'm ready to relax and enjoy my holidays first! Lina and I only went as far as the Copperbelt this trip as we both needed some dental work, mine was pretty minor this time and was dealt with rather quickly. Poor Lina had complications this time which ended in an extraction. We got a bunch of shopping done both for ourselves and the school and enjoyed eating out almost as much as we enjoyed our host's Sri Lankan (sp?)cooking! We had only inteded to be "in town" for a few days but that stretched into a week. so we were quite happy when we finally got home again on Friday. The rest of the Holiday is going to be spent relaxing or prepping for the new term. Except for Christmas and New Years days where the remaining staff will get together to celebrate. Wishing everyone a very safe and Merry Christmas! and all the best in the New Year! God bless!

Part of my November Newsletter...

The rains have come once again and everything is green and growing. Even with a gardener helping I have a hard time keeping up with my own little garden! My students were very excited when they came at the beginning of term because they knew we’d be learning about plants in science this term. We planted bean and pea seeds and watched them grow a little before transferring them into our “bag garden”. Last week we finally saw the “fruit of our labour” as we were able to eat some peas and beans from the little garden. It’s funny how vegetables that you have grown yourself as so much more enjoyable then those served in the dining room! ******** Most of my class did much better than I had originally thought. There are still some who are really struggling with some subjects but they are all moving on to Grade 2! Praise the Lord, as I have a full class of coming in next year. We had between 19 and 21 students apply for the 12 available spaces for the coming year; 6 of which have priority as their siblings are already here. We are very thankful to see so many interested, but until we get more staff, we are unable to expand our class sizes. We continue to pray for new teachers daily. Especially as a number of staff are looking to go on furlough next year (myself included) which means we will be stretched pretty thin unless more teaching staff come. ******** Once again I want to say a great big “THANK YOU” to those involved with packing and sending boxes through ACCTS (MSC)! I received a bunch of them at the beginning of term (thankfully June was here to help unpack and sort them with me) and then a few more came ½ way through the term. It is such a blessing to be on the receiving end of such generosity! It was also very exciting to get a new fridge (a gift) as my old one wasn’t very reliable and occasionally “took a break” which wasn’t so great when I had a term’s worth of meat in the freezer! Thankfully I don’t need to worry about that any more. I have to say one of the most interesting experiences I had this term was a crazy shopping trip in Solwezi. On our half-term break Lina and I drove June down to Solwezi (5.5 hr. drive) so she could catch a plane to Lusaka. In order to keep folks here happy, we volunteered to do some shopping for anyone who needed anything before the term break as Solwezi is the nearest “civilized town” (meaning it has a grocery store). I don’t think I was quite expecting so many lists! Besides ourselves and the school, we had 9 other shopping lists. Can you imagine the looks we got as we pushed 3 very full carts (one full of bags of potatoes alone) around the store and then proceeding to ring through 10 separate orders? We determined not to let ourselves be daunted by the task and in the end I actually enjoyed myself a bit (except the no air conditioning in the sweltering heat part). There was only 2 items we weren’t able to get, (which for Solwezi was surprisingly good) and it took us 30 minutes just to check out but we managed! Our cashier deserves a medal! I won’t be home (in Canada) for Christmas this year which will be hard as my family is big into Christmas traditions and spending time together. But I will be able to join in on some of the traditions here with my Sakeji family. I hope you will all have a joyous Christmas season, remembering the birth of our Saviour and spreading His love to those around you.

Catching up...

I know I have written and posted at least 2 posts since the last one posted... but I see blogger has decided to eat those... hmmm. I've had a pretty busy term, but mainly because June was living with me for 3 months. It's funny how having someone living in your house can take up your time, not in a bad way, just in a "where did all the time go" way. Sadly, June is now back in Canada and I seem to have tons of time on my hands! Actually this is probably a good thing as we only have 2.5 weeks left in the term and my "free time" will soon be used for report cards and such. This term I've had to make up a lot of curriculum for my students as well in the Science and Social Studies departments. For example, right now we're learning about Seasons. Our Science books are American so the seasons are completely different/backwards from here (for ex. Christmas here comes in the Summer time). So we're busy trying to make a "Zambian Seasons" book. Hopefully this will make it easier next year when I teach the same curriculum. This is always the hardest term for report cards as it determines whether or not the students continue on to the next grade. I have a few students this year who probably won't be passing... or if they do they'll be sqeaking by. We've been interviewing for next years students, so far I've interviewed @ least 6, Mark did one interview for me and I have 6 more at the end of term. We only have 12 spots available. so that makes it a little harder. We've already told some of the parents they'll have to try again next year. I'm SO glad I'm not the person in charge of doing that! I've been assisting again with the drama part of end of term show. This year it's got a Sherlock Holmes twist to it. Not to worry, no one gets killed! It's a little corny, but what's a kids play if not corny? The rainy season is in full swing now; so the flowers and gardens are in full bloom. Unfortunately so are my allergies! I'm praying I'll make it through the rest of the term without getting my end of term cold-thing!

My Crazy Cat!

This was written ages ago but I guess it was just stored as a draft... My Cat, Smudge-Orion, is too smart for her own good! She has learned to open doors (unfortunately not to close them again) and will often let herself out; even though she is supposed to be an indoor cat. So I've had to start locking the door to keep the cat in. She then learned that windows are an alternate route of escape. Her first few attempts didn't work so well for her (see picture below) however she finally figured out that there are 2 windows in the house that I am not able to lock (based on the way they open) and if she plays with the lever and pushes she is free. We even tried to wire the one window shut but that only deterred her for 2 days. :S I now have to lock the bathroom door, the front door and tie the kitchen window shut! this is getting nuts...

This is Smudge stuck between the screen and the window panes (they're slotted and closed behind her)