The Lady On the Porch

Yesterday evening I came back the house to drop off my basket of marking, and to my very great surprise I saw a pair of feet sticking out from behind the crates on my porch. Cautiously advancing I found that the feet belonged to a little lady wrapped in yetengi with a bowl beside her who was apparently quite happily camped out back there. After greeting her I then stood there and tried to think of any Lunda phrase I knew along the lines of, “Do I know you and why are you on my porch?” Nothing came to mind, so I asked her if she was waiting for someone. She showed me her crucifix that hung around her neck, and just kept sitting there. So, I texted Pam to see if she could come down or send Mark, and then headed back towards the school to see if I could find someone. Mark happened to be in the office, so he came and escorted the lady away—apparently she is a local crazy lady who has showed up here periodically.

I have to say I was a little unnerved by the incident, but proceeded to go on the walk with Beth, Jill, and Bethany. By this time is was pretty dark, so I had my flashlight out in case of snakes and to prevent myself from falling in a hole. When Beth and I were coming down the road from the shop we saw someone at my house moving around on the porch, so my first thought was that my visitor had come back, but it turned out to be Pam coming round to see if I still needed help—she had forgotten to check the time stamp of the text. Never a dull moment!

The past few days have been interesting weather wise as it has been really overcast and even thundered a bit, but hasn’t rained. It would be so nice to get a decent rain, but I’ not sure if it’s going to manage it today. I guess that means I need to start keeping track of my umbrella again! The jacaranda trees are starting to bloom, and the flamboyants won’t be far behind. The jacarandas color reminds me of the wisteria back home in the spring—sometimes I miss East Texas’ seasons!

I’ve been encouraged by the way many of my students who were really struggling are doing so far, but it’s early days yet. Any prayer for my sanity and their progress would be appreciated! This is the term where we have to make the hard calls on whether our students pass into the next grade or not, so we are all praying for wisdom as we evaluate each one. We are also going through applications for the next school year and setting up interview weeks. Third term is a very busy one, but with the Lord’s help we can do anything He calls us to!