An Unexpected Meeting and Independence Day

Last week I had an exciting Thursday; I was supposed to take our three grade 9 students in to the local school where they are writing their national exams for a run through of the practicals on the music exam, but much to our surprise, the whole grade 9 music class and three teachers pitched up here! So, there was a scramble to set something up in the hall, we had to source a CD player to play last years test, and when their two CD’s didn’t work I had to run and get my iPod on which I had thankfully just put a copy of the 2015 music exam. We gave the kids the exam, and then the music teacher and I sat down and marked them all using the answer key we (really mostly I) had made. All in all, two hours of my day went to this most interesting of exercises. I was a little stunned when they left to see the number of electronics they had brought with them for apparently the express purpose of charging them on the sly off our electricity…oh Zambia!

I was off this weekend and got to spend some time with Ruthie and Beth as well as get some rest and try to dig myself out from under marking mountain. Today, Monday, is the 52nd anniversary of Zambia’s Independence, so we celebrated with our traditional swimming gala, lunch at the river, and bonfire in the evening. Heavy rain this afternoon curtailed some of the house events, but as it is very much needed I was thankful. Here are a few pictures:

The flag raising in the morning,

And the bonfire that evening. No picture of the swimming gala as I was rather busy getting kids to their races! Happy 52nd birthday Zambia.

Slower Week

I was on this last weekend, so that meant that there were two damaged toes to deal with at the river, a splinter, and a grievous green mango eating incident. I had Ruthie take some pictures of the first part of Sunday school--the nice part where I still have 240 power! Here I am directing the juniors into my classroom for some singing before we split up,

I did a lot of marking this past week, so much so in fact that I was able to enjoy a Saturday evening with NO MARKING. What a nice treat!

This week I will be switching back into history; Tim has taken my science class, so I am excited to dive into ancient Greece. I have an interactive notebook resource that I'm excited to use, and of course I love teaching history. That's pretty much all for now--a slower week is a good thing now and then!

Parting shot: I enjoyed this glorious sunset a few nights ago.

Two weeks--Birthday Party and Half-Term

These last two week have been so, so busy, so yeah, blogging didn’t happen. This weekend I was off, it was half-term, and I powered through a good portion of my to-do list. I would like to think that I leave myself some goals, but the bottom line is that I just put more on as I cross things off.

First, a few pictures from our farming birthday party.

Half-term was a nice time of not just marking and accomplishing, but also some rest. My swim supervision turned into dorm supervision due to a big rainstorm on Friday, but after that we had lovely weather in the afternoons that let the kids take advantage of the lovely river playground. I even went swimming after lunch on Saturday! Here are a few pictures.

Rainy afternoon in the dorm,

'Bag supper' in the rain.

The amazing chocolate chip cookie dough cake I made for Bethany,

And down at the river on the second day of half-term.

Parting shot-- A lovely sunrise over the misty soccer field before early morning swim this half-term.