The big event this week was the 50th anniversary celebrations of Zambian Independence. The special service we had on Sunday remembered the road to human freedom as well as being set truly free by the Son of God. On Thursday we had a whole school tea—students, staff and Zambian staff—to say thank you for all the work our staff does for us, and then yesterday, Independence day, was a holiday from school and packed full of activities.
We started out with breakfast, a flag raising and devotional, and then we took some special pictures of the kids dressed up in the colors of the Zambian flag. The school was decorated to make it extra nice with bunting and as many Zambian colored things as we could scrounge up on short notice.
Around 10am we started our Independence Swimming Gala, and I spent 2 hours tramping up and down the side of the pool getting kids to their races on time. I was starting to envy them the still rather cool water! Lunch was at the river, there was a brief break, and the it was back to the pool to finish off the races and to have some silly competitions. When King of the Plank was finished we brought the kids up to school, gave them some tea, and then started on a star orienteering activity. I had never done it before, and I had 6 juniors and a short termer to ‘help’ me find 7 points and collect letters, but I had a good time. I got pretty scratched up while bushwhacking to our first post behind the Ronald’s house (it’s a jungle out there!), but I enjoyed the challenge. The kids and I actually made a pretty good team—I was good at reading the Google Earth map and getting us to the location, and they were good at spotting the posts. No, I didn’t get any pictures as I was to busy scrambling through the bush and keeping some flagging children going! After that it was time for the bonfire. The men had assembled it the day before complete with lots of bamboo. Before it was lit it was this big,
And this is how high the flames got!
I think it gets a little bigger every year… We had a few fireworks as well—when one of the tubes fell over and shot fireworks at the girl’s dorm there was some real excitement as kids scattered out of the way, but no one was hurt thankfully. At the end of the day there was a school full of tired, but happy kids, and some very tired adults. The weather was beautiful (though very hot!), and a good time was had by all.
Parting shot: The flames of the bonfire were reflecting in the windows of the main sitting room—I just wish the picture did it more justice!
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