Sunday, February 22, 2015

Short week, but oh so long!

Week 6 started with two days 'off', half-term, but I sure didn't feel like I was very off! There were two big tests to prepare for and give, a backlog of marking to get caught up on, and the million and one little jobs that cry for attention every day. Was I ever glad that I'm off this weekend!

The big item of news in my life this week is that my new chairs arrived! My old living room chairs in addition to being rather plain, are not very comfortable at all. Here is the old-

-and here are the new chairs and coffee table!

Buying furniture and assembling it makes me feel like I might actually be a grown up!

Please pray for the staff at Sakeji over the last few weeks of school. We are managing with the Lord's help, but we are working full out. The 240 power situation has been a real challenge, and so far there are no short termers looking to come out this year. We know the Lord provides all things; pray that we will wait upon Him and continue to serve faithfully.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Valentine's Day in the Bush

Yesterday was a very pleasant Valentine’s Day here at Sakeji School. The kids really got into making valentines for their friends and favorite staff members, and it was really neat to see the outpouring of good wishes and love.

I had fun making a 1 Corinthians 13 wreath with my handwork group yesterday—a nice change of pace from cross stitching!

We had our board meeting on Friday; it was good to see the board members and a few other visitors. Plans for renovating Lower School are moving ahead, as well as trying to come up with some better solutions to our power issue. Zangamina, the hydro plant near Kalene, has really been struggling this past month, and when your kitchen runs on electricity, it’s just not an option to have it cutting out on you all the time! Washing machines, computer class, and light bulbs in classrooms are just a few other areas that are affected by the sudden power cuts. We have two generators, but the larger one is currently out of commission, so the little one is doing its best to keep us feed, clean, and functioning. Never a dull moment!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

'Zamish' and the confusion thereof

Even though our kids are pretty Westernized, there are still some interesting cultural and linguistic barriers to get over. We were talking the other day about how the kids say 'sheep' the same as 'ship,' and sometimes they get sloppy with the end vowel which really results in an interesting word to catch out of the corner of your ear! 'Salt' is pronounced 'sote,' and there was of course that one end of term where the whole school cheerfully sang, "He's got the whole wo-owd, in His hands!" I heard a younger sister asking her big brother to get her a 'bauw' to play with after supper one night, and of course once a week the standard 'flied lice' joke comes up when we see the soy sauce on the boards. Last week the cook shared with us one of my personal favorites--the kitchen guys had carefully labeled a jar of old oil 'Dip fly only' instead of deep fry only! Bethany also told us that one of our cooks who has been making pizza on Friday nights for years was under the impression that he used "Isarella cheese" to do so. It's a good thing that there are moments of laughter to remind you not to take life to seriously!

Things in my classroom continue to be busy; trying to learn my new students, sort out some interesting failures to add and subtract among my seventh graders, and hammer in my expectations so I won't have to fight so hard the next two terms are all keeping me pretty busy. This week is the last full week before half-term, so I'll be planning out my science exam and getting ready to start history. The other challenge with this week is getting things to a stopping point so I'm chasing as few as possible people for homework next Monday and Tuesday... Week 5, here we come!

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Mangoes, marking, and rain oh my!

Getting to know my new class--learning who to push, who to support, and what homework to assign--has been keeping me pretty busy this week. Keeping on top of 'Marking Mountain' has been another big part of this week. Not sure if I've won yet... Making life more interesting lately has been the pouring rain three mornings this week. Some of my current best friends are these three items:

When you have to tramp through as much long grass as I do to get to school, having dry feet is something you think about rather a lot! One of my other big projects this week was to make mango butter using the bounty of late mangoes that we are currently enjoying. An afternoon and evening in a slow cooker, 9 cups of mangoes, and deliciousness results! I miss apple butter when I'm out here; I think this is a more than acceptable substitute.