Pyramids, Firebreak, and the joys of being an adult.

Friday was one of those days...you know the kind! First thing that morning my cat threw up on my bed, so I had to clean that up before heading over for class. House meetings threw off the normal routine a bit, and one of my kids needed to say her last two verses after I lead the dish crew after supper. As I struggled through those with her, she informed me that another of my students had thrown up right after supper. Where? I inquired uneasily. On, somewhere around upper school she said. Yeah--right in the doorway of my classroom! When incidents of that nature occur out here, we throw sand on the mess to dry it out and cover it up. So, this morning I helped my student scoop, shovel, and sweep up her mess from the night before. You never know what you'll have to deal with when you work with children and animals!

This week has been firebreak burning week, so there has been lots of bits of ash everywhere. You learn very quickly not to swipe them off when they land on you as that would leave a big black smudge, and you also learn to keep your windows closed at certain times! Here are some pictures from the burning right by my house. Thankfully my garden survived!

My students and I built pyramids this week--what fun! I had the grade 7's draft their pyramids from scratch, and because I am a continually growing wiser teacher who knows what a good recipe for crazy is, I had the grade 6 students do a cool pop up pyramid project that I found. Here are some pictures of them hard at work, and then the finished products:

We blew a water tank!

Last night was very windy (and COLD), and about 10:30 one of our water tanks which was partially full couldn't take the strain anymore and exploded.

As you can see, about 1/3 of the tank is on the tower, and the rest is in a mangled mess on the ground.

In other news from this week, I had yet another attempted termite invasion in my dining room, and they had to be chiseled out with a trowel and unceremoniously dumped outside. I worry sometimes about what lurks under my floors...

Today is the winter solstice, and it was in the upper 40's when I headed to the dining hall this morning. I know, I know, that isn't anything, but when you are acclimatized to Zambia it is! It's so wonderful to be able to use my handknits this time of year; sometimes I feel rather silly about adoring wool and living in an almost tropical climate!

Kids are a never ending source of laughter

I got some good laughs from various students this week, and thought I'd share some of what makes a teacher's job endlessly interesting. The other day one of the first grade girls came running up to give me a hug, paused, and said in a slightly put out tone of voice, "Miss B, when I hug you I can't reach 'round your back!" Considering how much taller I am than her, fair 'nough!

I gave the exam for my astronomy unit this week, and in the days leading up to the test I heard a lot of people chanting the mnemonic 'My very energetic mother just served us nine pizzas' to remember the order of the planets. Well, when I marked the tests, I found that one kid had written, "Uranus, Neptune, Pizza" on her paper! We both had a good laugh when I told her. Poor Pluto--demoted again!

I was talking with Jill in the dining hall the other morning, and I looked over and saw one of our grade one students stuffing a massive bite of rice cake into his mouth. "B!" I said. "That was a huge bite! I can see your cheek sticking out to here!" As I exaggerated with my hand how far his cheek was sticking out, he gave a puzzled look at his shoulder, and then over his shoulder to try and see what I was talking about. They can be so literal at that age!

Parting shot: One of my hibiscuses has been been blooming spectacularly this week--how lovely!

How is it week 6 already?

It’s been a slightly wild week for me—half-term always throws things off somewhat, and while I did a lot of work to catch up on marking, there was plenty to keep me busy! Some of the staff have been struggling with a violent (yet thankfully brief!) virus; we’re praying that the kids will be spared, and that there will never be to many of us down at a time. Other than that, it’s just been a typical week at a boarding school. I’ve actually had my camera out some; here are some pictures from the last week.

Work on the ‘container depot’ continues—this is what it looked like at the beginning of the week.

Mid-week they brought another container over on the school lorry; you can see the container jacks on the sides. Not a job I’d like to be in charge of!

It’s poinsettia time in Zambia!

Most people don’t realize that they actually grow to tree size when they are in the right climate.

Parting shot: Two junior boys enjoying half-term.