Monday, October 23, 2017

A rough week with good spots

Last week was…difficult to put it simply. There was a lot of frustration, I was very tired, and let’s just say it was a good thing I had the weekend off and could barricade myself in my house for all of Sunday to recover. So, here a few good things about last week.

I now have an ANTIBACTERIAL STAPLER in my classroom. I can’t believe it has taken us so long to some up with this obviously necessary piece of equipment, and I am so glad I can rest assured that I won’t be spreading the plague via my stapler.

We are wrapping up our physics/simple machines science unit, and my students got to 'reinvent the wheel' last week.

I found a huge beetle while inspecting clean-up one afternoon; it made a terrific noise!

I captured it and took it down to show the grade 1’s as they have been really into bugs this term. I love showing young kids cool things; they are so enthusiastic!

One of the junior boys found this delightful chameleon who showed his displeasure at being captured by going yellow and curling his tail most charmingly.

Parting shot: This bush at the end of my house is a cheery welcome when I come home every evening!

Monday, October 16, 2017

I eat another kind of bug, get a shot, and cut my nose in an unorthodox manner

So, last week was a bit crazy. In the yeah, ain’t got time for a blog post kind of way. Recovering from half-term/sports tour was the big project. So, here are some highlights.

We had a few big, soaking rains over half-term! There was a river around my house for a while there…

The kids made it ‘snow’ with little flowers after bag supper on Friday. Hey, you make do with what you got!

I experimented with double boiler leftover reheating as I can only light my oven when we have 240 power, and used old panty hose to stuff cracks as bug proofing. Living the dream folks!

I potted Groot and put him outside,

and the flying ants (ntuswa) came out in force, dropping their wings in clouds as they did. The kids caught a bunch, the cook fried them, and I tried eating one the next day. Way better than caterpillars—nice and crunchy!!

In the big news around station, we put in some liquid soap dispensers. I was wondering what could be more marvelous than escalators (no, I’m not joking). Well, now I know—soap dispensers! When they were installed on Friday, there was a non-stop potty parade all afternoon to check them out.

A few other highlights include,

I got my yellow fever shot for free via an initiative of the Zambian health board. Nice to finally have that done… All the students who hadn’t had it already received the shot as well. Zambia is not an area of yellow fever concern usually, so I hope they are just being safe.

I smashed my guitar into my nose right before assembly last week, and didn’t realize I was bleeding till halfway through. Oddly enough no one pointed that fact out to me, as usually they are all OVER that kind of thing. That and spelling mistakes on PowerPoints. Thankfully, the damage wasn’t great despite how it felt for the first minute!

Ruthie, Anna, and I took the 5-6 girls for a craft over half-term. No pictures were taken for my part as my hands were busy, but it went well. I hope we can make a difference in these young lives…

Finally, in the small yet important victories category, I unclogged my bathroom sink. Yay for drainage!

Parting shot: Grade 1-2 Sunday school yesterday.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Two weeks of term and a some pictures to make up for the silence

Sorry about last week—I had every intention of writing, but after a busy weekend off and then a wonderful but intense two hour conversation with some visitors from CMML, it just didn’t happen. Nothing of much note happened during the second week of term; I taught and marked, worked a lot on getting Christmas music together, and had a good handwork class with my grade 3 & 4 girls. Week three however, included one of our major term events—birthday party.

The theme was bugs and creepy crawlies, so there was some wonderful artwork in the dining hall, cakes were decorated, and instead of a show we watched the first part of A Bug’s Life. While the kids had a great time, it was a bit of an intense week for me trying to keep kids focused until birthday party, and then refocusing after their sugar crash. While it was unusually early in the term, I’m glad that it’s over! This coming week half-term starts on Friday, but the grade 7-9’s are leaving before that for their Copper Belt Sports Tour. So, I suspect Monday-Wednesday are going to be a bit crazy as I try to make sure that my 10 grade 7’s are caught up and able to go. We started statistics and permutations in math last week, and boy has it been a doozey!

Oh- one other thing of note about last week. I tried caterpillars for the first time! They weren't as hard to get down as I might have thought, but they were too 'fresh' textured for me. If they had been fried crispy they would have been better, and they didn't have an interesting enough flavor to become a regular indulgence. However, I can now say I've tried them!

September and October are somewhat difficult months because of how hot it is during the afternoons, and because of how little power is available because of water levels. All the heavy electrical work on station is via 240, so it has been an exercise in flexibility and planning to get things done in the few hours each morning and evening that we have power. We unexpectedly got 0.8mm of rain on Wednesday—between supper and the show, but we are praying that a lot more comes and soon so that the river can fill up again and the temperatures cool off a bit.

I can't remember if I've posted a good picture of the new child noise amplifier covered play area, so here is one I took this weekend, as well as pictures of the blooming jacaranda and flamboyant trees--one of the best part of this time of year.

Parting shot: Groot is almost ready to be put in a pot!