Actually teaching!

Today was the second day I taught the second graders at Trinity. I learned from Monday's mistakes and feel much better about my performance. Teaching was somewhat complicated by my sore throat/gland thing, but by God's grace I had enough voice left by 1 to sing not only the national anthem, but the other two songs they are working on for family day. I love these kids so much already--their unique points of view, personalities, and the way they make me laugh will make leaving in December hard.

I have been so blessed by my student teaching placement--I have a WONDERFUL mentor teacher and a whole school of teachers who are willing and able to help me prepare as much as I can for my Sakeji adventure. I'm learning a lot--I still wish I had been able to take some music ed classes, but I think I'll be alright.

I got an e-mail today telling me that my work permit paperwork arrived safely in Zambia (YES!) and all I need to is get them a Police Clearance certificate which luckily I already have because I had to go through an extensive background check to teach at MAPA this fall. Truly the Lord is good!

Here are some pictures I found as I was putting my presentation together for Sunday-

This was on Sports Day--my friend Candy ended up with an enthralled audience when she started reading. The Zambian kids LOVE to play with our hair--the texture is so strange to them! Unfortunately they are rather rough when brushing it, and all they can do with it is braid it, but its still kind of fun to let them play!

This was the junior boy's Rally cookout--they had a blast running around, gathering sticks, washing in the river, and just being 1-4 grade boys. As you can see, they were rather proud of their fire efforts!

Swimming is a big part of being a kid at Sakeji--of course in the second term you can only swim for about half the time before the water gets so cold you can't breath when your chest hits the water. Yes, I did go swimming at that point, and yes, it took me awhile to warm up again!

This was at the end of term when the kids were eating outside because the parents were in the dinning hall (I think!). So well behaved!