Wild African Sky

I'm in love with the sky here...

A lightning strike and some recovery

Things are fairly quiet on station now except for the ever present cement mixer. I’ve done some house cleaning, lots of reading and knitting, and have made some progress on some PD that has been waiting till now when I have time to do it. The only things noteworthy that have happened the first week was the accidental felling of a tree onto one of our chalets,

and I almost stepped on a snake while walking on the airstrip. Thankfully I noticed it in time, and was able to levitate out of the way. It was fat and a light green color, and looked as grateful to not be stepped on as I was to have not stepped on it. That got my heart pounding for a bit though, let me tell you!

I was going to write yesterday, but we had a big storm come through that didn’t seem like such a big deal, but a tree just below my house was struck by lightning, and that strike did quite a bit of damage. Covers of breaker boxes and phone jacks were shot off in several houses, and the strike must have hit something in the ground as several houses have a small chunk of cement or a line of tiles from the floor blasted off. I’ve got partial power in my house just now; they haven’t figured out how to get the 110 lights back on again. You would never have thought that particular storm would produce such a fierce charge, but it all goes to show that you just never know!

Parting shot: One of the best parts of holiday, is getting to enjoy this view, pink lemonade, knitting, and Great Courses on my back porch.

A quiet Easter

The last of the students flew out Good Friday morning due to adverse weather conditions on Thursday, and now the station is blessedly quiet. That Friday I went in to Ikelenge with Jill to pick up some veggies, and I was able to get another of the bigger tins of powdered milk and some apples. Apples, in Ikelenge! Coming up in the world…

It was a quiet weekend, but that was what I needed. Friday I made a small batch of hot crossed buns, one of my families most cherished Easter traditions. On Saturday I vacuumed and moped my house which sorely needed it, and did the first of the many loads of laundry that had built up. Sunday I went to Hillwood with the other single ladies on station, and I made a lemon meringue pie for evening fellowship as the most ‘springy’ thing I had the ingredients for. I find Easter one of the most difficult holidays to be over here in, and I couldn’t help but remember the heart ache of last Easter. However, God is good, and He is risen!

I don’t have any big plans for the holiday beyond sleeping, cleaning, reading, cooking, knitting, working through some professional development, and doing some odd jobs to prepare for next term. There are so many little jobs that get pushed to the back burner during the rush of teaching, and it’s therapeutic to get a few things knocked off the to-do list. My house needs a deep clean, I have a stack of books and a slew of knitting projects, and I’ve already started on the all important catching up on sleep! So, it will be a quiet April, but that suits me just fine. Times of rest are so vital when you work all out for three months!

Last few days of term 1!

Through the grace of God I managed to survive my 19th report card and exam week. I even finished my reports in record time—by 10am Saturday morning! (They are due at midnight, Saturday) I was able to take a nap on Saturday afternoon, and to go to joint prayer meeting at Kalene on Sunday afternoon. After having pushed so hard all week to get this massive project done, it felt so good to relax a bit over Saturday and Sunday evening. I got some knitting done! I started a new mystery novel!

Yesterday was clearing out my students desks, throwing out unneeded papers, and taking care of some loose ends. I finally got their paint chip color poems up,

I baked their cylinder seals (we were learning about ancient Mesopotamia and I happened to have enough polymer clay. 1/3 of a brick is perfect for this project, just in case you wondered!),

And here they are working busily Monday morning.

Today was our Easter music assembly; I have to have my dose of Easter. The kids started flying out this morning morning at 10:15, and by Thursday morning we’ll have the place to ourselves again. It’s been a good term in many ways, but boy am I glad it’s over!

Parting shot: They now have the roof on the new covered play area! (The upper tennis court for those who know the school)

Student Howlers or Sometimes You Don’t Know Whether to Laugh or Cry

This week has been a long, weary fight. A fight against way to much late homework, a fight against lame excuses, and a fight against the growing tide of apathy resulting from the countdowns being up in the dorm. So, here are some of the things that have had me laughing in the midst of all my battles. Student ‘howlers’ that have made me laugh out loud while marking less than stellar papers and worksheets. All of these were penned by real live grade 6 or 7 students in my classroom this term; no brains were harmed in the producing of these lines!

“lemon rhine” instead of rinds

“breath-stroke”

“The Persian Golf”

“The worst thing at Riley plantation is being wept with the cattle nine tail.”

“gumy bares.”

"The Gulls overcome" when translating a Latin sentence

I am one of those fiendish grammar teachers who likes to ask kids to write sentences to prove that they actually know how to apply those rules I'm teaching them. I always tell my kids to have as much fun as they can with them--just make sure they meet the requirements. This is now my all time favorite interrogative sentence:
"Miss Burklin, do you become batman after light out?"

I wish... I wish...

Parting shot:

Beach Birthday Party

The highlight of this week for the kids was birthday party on Wednesday. Birthday party is not my favorite event; it means that three days in a week are all but lost from a teaching perspective and behavior definitely goes downhill, but it’s only three times a year… This term we decided to do something TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

Yes, we, here at Sakeji, broke tradition. No show! No skits!

Instead, we made bonfires,

played volleyball,

and roasted marshmallows. It was wonderful. Can we do this every birthday party?

Not much to say about last week...

Last week was a challenge...

After spending the weekend fighting the worst sore throat of my life, I spent the week on antibiotics because we are pretty sure it was strep, and I began to feel better fast. My chillin's on the other hand thought that I was too sick to notice their tom foolery, but they were WRONG. So, it was not the nicest end to a sometimes difficult week as I struggled through the discomfort and tried to make up for the fact that I was too sick to do much marking over the previous weekend. I was on duty this weekend; busy, but fairly good, and now I'm trying to get my head back above water in the sea of marking that piled up.

I'm thankful that I'm feeling so much better, and I'm thankful for the fact that even though my kids totally sluffed off last week, they were very considerate of my weak voice during classes. I'm thankful that I'm off this coming weekend, and I'm thankful that I have some time to work tonight. So, that's about all I have to say for now. I leave you with this picture: