Victoria Falls: dry season vs. rainy season

We have been privileged to have visited Victoria Falls, Zambia side, twice since we've moved here.  The first time was at the end of October: about the driest it gets.  And the second time... today!  Mid-April: about the wettest it gets as the rains are ending now.  So - here you go!  And I'd recommend visiting sometime in between if you ever want to go! :)  It's amazing though - so go see this wonder of the world!  Also called: Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that Thunders).  Yesterday we could see the mist of the falls about 20kms away - as we were heading into Livingstone!  And it does Thunder!

Dry season, Starting out walking to the Knife bridge

At the end of rainy season, starting out towards the knife bridge (everyone was stopped here and renting ponchos) 

The Knife Edge bridge in dry season

The Knife Edge bridge in April!

Family photo in dry season

No family photo in April! :)

Victoria Falls Bridge (photo taken from the Knife Edge Bridge trail)

Victoria Falls bridge in April (taken from the photographic trail as the path the Knife Edge bridge lead too was too wet!) 

Bottom of the falls in dry season

Bottom of the falls in April

And another just for fun...

Wet Wet Wet!

Dry season walking path

April walking paths

Some things never change.....

Baboons everywhere!

And to think - back in October I forgot to take my camera to Victoria Falls!  All dry season photos were taken on my iPhone.  I remembered the camera the second time!

More information about the falls here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Falls

"My" Schools

Sorry for the lack of blogs - if you haven't hear our lovely dependable internet at our house just stopped one day - and hasn't come back.  It's probably been about 3 weeks.  So we've been doing basic e-mail at the internet cafe. So - today I'm taking time to do a blog at the internet cafe too!

Here in Zambia, in Southern Province, I work with 8 primary schools that are run by the Brethren In Christ church (BIC) but are also government schools.  These are the schools that I visit and have gotten to know! :)

Batoka Primary School is on the Lusaka - Livingstone highway, and it's about a 30 minute drive East of Choma

Hamoonde School: Clustered with the 2 Macha schools as it's on the way to Macha (only about 5-10 minutes before)

Macha Central: Looking from the head teacher's office, in the main section of the school, to the primary building

Macha Mission: Macha is about 1 hour north of Choma

Mboole gets two photos because I just love driving up to this school!  (You can see it just ahead!)

Mboole school: To get here you'd drive to Batoka and then turn South and drive for another 30 minutes

Nahumba School: This is the only primary school that is in Choma: though it's still 5kms from our place

Nakeempa: To get to this school I drive on the Lusaka - Livingstone Highway West for 30 minutes and then take a dirt road south for another 30 minutes.

Sikalongo School: This school is another 10 minutes on a dirt road from Mboole.  Sikalongo has a Bible college, a guest house, and a secondary school.


So those are "my" schools! :) 

My first workshop(s)!

In February I held 3 workshops (all the same) with 9 different schools.  The teachers who were invited are teachers of Preschool - Grade 4 plus the administrators.   The workshop was well received.  I pretty much just went through this bin and explained it, then gave each school a bin to keep:

Each school received this bin with these resources that I made

There was the Alphabet Jive song (English) that teaches letter names, letter sounds, and a word that begins with the letter.  Then there was the song, same idea, but in Chitonga.  I brought one of the lovely ladies, Annie Chiyama, with me to help me with the workshop.  She did the Chitonga parts! :)  Another teacher from her school also helped prepare the materials however, she was ill most of the time we held our workshops so was unable to attend until the last workshop.  Here is Annie doing a review of the literacy lesson that teachers learned with the new Grade 1 curriculum the schools have rolled in this year:

Annie Chinyama reviewing how to do a literacy lesson based on the new Zambian curriculum for Grade 1

Also in the bin was assessments for the above songs.
And then 8 BINGO games!  These were a hit.  There's the BINGO game I'm used to playing with my Kindergarten class - ABC BINGO which teaches letter names, and then eventually I use it to teach letter sounds.  I ended up making 8 Chitonga BINGO games.  5 of them were made over the term break, before the new curriculum was out.  These 5 games, one for each vowel: a, e, i, o, u have the common Chitonga syllables that are used to make words.  After the new curriculum came out I made "advanced" Chitonga BINGO.  This has the sounds (vowels independent) that the new curriculum has for Grade 1 for term 2 and 3.  The first term was the sounds the previous BINGO games already had (with vowels independently though).  After the first workshop I did end up making a BINGO game for term one phonics (that was not syllables).  There was also assessments for the BINGO games.

Here's the first workshop at Batoka Basic School.  The schools to attend are Mboole Primary and Sikalongo Primary.

Listening to Annie

Practicing the assessments on each other

Here's the second workshop hosted by Nahumba Basic School (in Choma) with St. Patrick's School (which is the school Annie teaches at and not actually one of my BIC schools.  But since her and Amanda did so much work to help me I wanted to invite them!) Also attending is Nakeempa Basic School.  Here's a couple photos of this workshop:

The Nahumba workshop actually happened next door in the Nahumba church.  The school had some of the older boys haul in desks for us to use!

Teachers learning to play BINGO

The last workshop was held at Macha Central Basic School.  Other schools that attended were Hamoonde Basic and Macha Mission Basic School.

We used the library / computer room for our meeting!

The head of Hamoonde, Mr. Felix, practices the assessment on a teacher 

The teachers of Hamoonde Basic School playing Chitonga phonics BINGO

Overall it seems to have been a good workshop that the teachers are finding helpful.  I have visited a couple schools to do some follow up and BINGO seems to be really popular.  Teachers at Batoka, Mboole and Sikalongo have all made their own BINGO games (as many of them are waiting for copies  to be photocopied for them) or they are using the one that came in the BIN.  Mboole's head has told me he is going to laminate a school copy.  Batoka is photocopying all of it for their teachers to use.  Nahumba and Mboole also have taught the rest of the teachers who did not attend the workshop (as it was only up to Grade 4) the materials.  So this workshop seems to have been well received!

Here's a couple photos of my follow up visit at Mboole.  Mr. Hamasamu brought me into his classroom to have me watch him play BINGO with his students.  I did a quick headcount and there were 59 Grade 2 students.  I had made 40 boards and hoped that large classes made more (I included instructions for how to) but he's just jumped into it with both feet, using the original copies and the students are sharing. :)

Mr. Hamasamu calling ABC BINGO for his class

Students: Chileleko Kaseele,  Tunji Deka, and Tapiwa Mupande playing BINGO

The Grade 2 class shortly after everyone got BINGO

The class when everyone got a BINGO!  They look happy and excited right?

The teachers tell me the students BEG to play BINGO everyday.

I'm loving it!  Thanks for coming along and seeing some of the work I'm doing.  It sure brings me joy! :)

Equality and Shalom

Andrew’s preached twice at church now and I knew I was going to be asked again soon.  They asked me a couple weeks ago and I declined.  I told the person who asked that I wanted to see another woman preach in our church before I will again!  So they asked another lady in the church and she said yes!  She was supposed to preach last week but ended up being unable to attend, leaving her sermon notes with a man who preaches frequently (and I’m sure added to her notes?!) It was good but there was still no lady face at the front!  After the service, they didn’t even bother to ask if I would preach... they asked another lady!  (I was ready though - I was going to tell them I wanted to SEE another lady preach!)  :)  So - we’ll see how this Sunday goes.  I’m looking forward to it! Maybe I’ll say I need to see 3 different ladies preach before the next time I’ll preach. :) 

I found this blog post today and I really like the quote below:

“What we have going on is not a women’s issue; it’s a human issue. And I don’t believe the issue is about equality. I don’t think Jesus died so we could be equal. Jesus died for something bigger than that. Equality means I’ve got my rights, and you’ve got yours, and so we’re good with each other. Do you hear how we can simply tolerate rather than integrate? God created man and woman (community) to live in Shalom. That’s bigger than equality. It may include equality, but it doesn’t rest there.

Interdependent. Intertwined. In need of otherness. Oneness.

It’s bigger than equality.”

Read the whole post here:

http://www.jackiealwaysunplugged.com/2014/03/05/i-said-it/

For me this quote also speaks to my wealthy situation here.  Talk about really seeing the fact that I am in the 1% of the world for wealth.  I thought my family was living just above the poverty line in Canada... ha!  Poverty Smoverty!

I can’t see an easy solution to being equal - materially - here in Zambia. I could give away all my money, but it would still not make us equal.  I have a support system both here and in Canada.  I have a good job.  I have a really large and well furnished house (and I can’t really give those furnishings away since they are MCC furnishings - not mine!) 

But I can work towards Shalom and being generous with what I do have. Living in community.  Walking beside people.  And in many ways - it’s much harder to do that then to just give my money away.  It truly is bigger than equality.

Cooking Canadian meals in Zambia

When we first got to Zambia one of the things that overwhelmed me was trying to cook.  I can cook. Even from scratch.  But it still threw me off.  I can't buy everything I'd like to buy. There is a grocery store in town that does help a lot but it doesn't always have everything. And some things I'd like it never has!  My go-to in Canada was frozen peas and corn.  Always a quick easy vegetable that my kids like.  Or as a quick healthy snack.  I found some frozen corn in Lusaka this last trip but I've never seen any in Choma. I can find vegetables on the street - so we had a lot of cucumbers, carrots, and peppers when we got here (and continue to). There is lots of lettuce type plants that I'd never heard of… rape, chinese cabbage.  And plain cabbage - lots of it.  The seasons have changed and now I can find butternut squash and other vegetables that I don't know the name of.  (Some small white squash looking something). Slowly I started remembering and adapting recipes from Canada.  Chilli is now a favourite again (but I couldn't find chilli powder anywhere that's not the really spicy hot chilli pepper powder!)  I finally found some MSG loaded chilli spice that works.  And a friend gave me some of her stash that she brought from the US.  Part of the challenge is cooking food that Andrew can eat too.  (We ate a lot of pasta when we first arrived!  Luckily they make maize - corn - pasta!) There hasn't been any corn pasta in our grocery store in town since we got back from our Christmas vacation though.

I'm finally figuring things out… and it's been long enough (we've been here almost 5 months) that I'm willing to spend a couple hours in the kitchen for the gratification of taco night! (Or insert some other usual meal from Canada!)

It's blurry - sorry.  I was in a hurry to EAT it! :)

So, come with me on my Taco cooking journey with me… (we had them last night - and they were delicious!!)  Left overs for lunch!

The parts of the Taco we needed for Taco dinner:

1) Tortilla shells (corn ones too for Andrew)

2) refried beans

3) Beef with onions, garlic and taco seasoning

4) Cheese

5) Lettuce 

6) Salsa

So now looking at what each part required to get to the table:

1) Tortilla shells…. Andrew made flour tortillas and corn tortillas from scratch while I concentrated on the other parts.  Tasty - but time consuming!

flour tortillas

making maize (corn) tortillas

Refried beans

2) Refried beans: I had previously cooked a big pot of beans from scratch (luckily we did this a lot in Abbotsford!) but it requires soaking overnight and cooking for a couple hours the next day. I had put a container in the freezer for such an occasion as this - so I just pulled those out and heated them in a pot, mashed them up and they were really good! (Probably my favourite part!)

3) Beef was not hard.  I can find ground beef in the store (not very lean though). Onions and garlic no problem either.  Taco seasoning I made from scratch.

4) Cheese.  I waited a month to find cheese in our grocery store! They had it off and on before Christmas.  I hadn't seen any since we got back from Christmas break but snagged a large block of cheddar at the store yesterday morning!

5) Lettuce.  Also hard to find - plain lettuce. Our MCC friends in Choma have a farmer that comes to their house and sells them lettuce so they always buy us one.  But we have to soak it in water with a bit of bleach. Rinse it off. And let it dry before we can eat it.

6) Salsa - I was dreaming, we didn't really have any of this…. I can find tomatoes and onions and hot chilli peppers but I have no cilantro. (I have a friend who is growing some so I'm planning to get some cuttings this weekend!)  So we had plain tomatoes. (Well, Andrew and Malachi did).

Tacos were lots of work but they were delicious!

Quick peeks at other cooking:

I wanted a chicken wrap the other day. Took until the next day to get one!  Made the tortillas.  But the only chicken we can get (one time I found frozen chicken breasts!) is a whole chicken.  So I roasted it that night for supper so I could have leftover chicken to eat my wrap at lunch the next day!

I was given a pumpkin (large!) by our MCC friends from their garden. I had to get Andrew to cut it - it was so big I only made it 1/2 through (in about 10 minutes of trying) before I gave up and called him! Took out the pulp and seeds.  Then boiled the cut up pumpkin (skin included).  It took two days as my big big pot only held half of it!  I ended up taking off the skin after it was cooked. If I had a blender than it would have whirled up nice… but I have a potato masher and the peels weren't mashing!  I made pumpkin soup out of the first half.  I also picked out the seeds:  kept some to plant and roasted the others for a snack.  The next day I boiled the rest of the pumpkin and I ended up with about 10 cups of puree (after the soup!) Yeah for internet and being able to put in "pumpkin puree" into all recipes!

We made these very very yummy cookies: (Iced pumpkin cookies on allrecipes) Today I hope to make more AND some pumpkin loaf / muffins. :)

Iced pumpkin cookies (without the icing!) from allrecipes

The in and out of a day in Zambia

So, Andrew has shared his typical day with you in his e-mail update (send me an e-mail if you want to be added or comment below)…. now it's my turn!  So - here's what my Monday - Weds.  looked like for me.

Monday

7:30am - getting ready for the day

8:30am - getting my stuff together to go into town.  Flashdrive to print, papers to photocopy, my bin with my workshop in it to show off.

8:45 - almost ready to leave.  Going to try to photocopy and laminate and print before my meeting at 9:30 with the Education Secretary. (He said 9 at first, looked at me and said 9:30…. I double checked… "9:00 Zambian time. 9:30 Canadian time right?!")

9:00am - Andrew traps one of the dogs, Mango…. plans change.

9:05am - I quickly finish getting the kids ready for the day

9:10 - out the door with the dog in the back and me squished between the kids and our gardener up front with Andrew.

9:15 - they drop me in town at the internet cafe where I print my papers from my flash drive and try to buy internet.  The machine isn't working right now.  They don't have change.  I do get my papers printed. I tell them I'll come back in a couple hours and maybe I can pay then when I buy internet. No problem.  They know me.  I'm in there frequently! 

9:30 - Make it right on time for my meeting and the education secretary (he's in charge of all the Brethren in Christ school that I work with and reports to the lady in charge of the government schools: we call her the DEBS and I don't even remember what it stands for!) - as our schools are government schools run by the church… that makes sense right?! Ha!

-We greet each other and then I show him what I've been working on for a literacy workshop.  Get his help to clear our workshop dates with the DEBS, hand him a report I was given by a head teacher.  Show him iPad screen shots of information online about Edcamps and get him on board.  Pretty short meeting.  I think he liked my ideas because he told me to bring the workshop bin to the DEBS when he introduces me (even though I've met her once).

9:50 - I lock my bin in my office and walk into town.

My 8 literacy workshop bins - all done!

10:00 - walk down a narrow hallway where I've found lots of copy shop type places and enter into my (new) favourite one. They take my photocopying and start working on it.  Heat up the laminator and start running through the papers I want laminated (BINGO callers).  

10:30 - realize I'm going to be short some money so I excuse myself while they are finishing (they know me well enough now that this is okay) and I go back onto the main street and almost next door to the bank.  I withdraw more cash.  (Yes - a bank account!  It's great!  It took us about 5 hours in the bank over 3 days to open the account when we got here though!)

10:40 - I'm back waiting for my work to finish itself.  They even sort it all nice (I bring my paper clips!)  They charge me double for the photocopies.  I say, it was half that price last week.  They change my bill. I buy a stapler and staples too.

11:10 - I've loaded up my papers into my backpack.  I call Andrew - can you come pick me up at the internet cafe again in about 20 minutes?  (I'm carrying all these papers and soon my bin!)

11:15 - I pick up my bin that I locked in my office and keep walking back to the internet cafe.

11:20 - Buy my internet vouchers and pay for my previous papers. 

11:25 - sit at a picnic table outside and make a phone call to a head teacher (principal) that we're all waiting to hear from to confirm a date for our workshop.  He answers and I get my answers. I phone the education secretary and let him know.

11:30 - Andrew picks me up, bringing the kids with him of course.

11:35 - I unload my papers and the kids into the house.

11:40 - have some lunch and lots of water (that photocopying shop was HOT with 2 machines working and a laminator and a computer, etc. in a small space!)

12:00 - go into my home office and start sorting out the papers I printed and photocopied. Cutting up the BINGO callers I laminated and adding them and papers to my bins.  Realize I still need 2 more papers photocopied to finish my bins.  I start putting beans into bags (for BINGO chips).  It's POURING so decide not to go into town to photocopy just yet.

The amount of water we had on Monday turned our yard into a lake!

2:45 - I make more calls, send text messages.  Hear nothing back today….

3:00 - I emerge from my office, drink more water, and decide to take a good break since I remembered I have a work SKYPE call later in the evening.

3:00 - We load up the kids, my two papers to photocopy, our empty water bottles, my keys to my office and we head out to the other MCCers house on the other side of Choma. We stop for gas and the pharmacy and continue on.  Andrew fills up water bottles and our pail again (so we have good drinking water.  The stuff in town we filter but it doesn't taste very good so we get water from them…. they are just outside of town and on well water - that's safe to drink from the tap!) I take the kids next door to see missionary friends, Julie and Sara.  I give keys to Sara - she has recently arrived to Zambia and is helping teach / tutor street kids - and they use the same space as my office.  (Which I rarely use - I prefer my home office unless I'm meeting someone).  Then I walk over and talk to Jan in her office (she's an MCCer).  She's coming with me to Macha when I go Friday. So we discuss that.

3:45 - I gather up the kids and head back over to Andrew. He's on his way to see what happened to us.  

4:00 - we stop in town.  Andrew takes Malachi into the grocery store.  I take Kate into the Book room.  I photocopy my papers and buy her more sticky tac to put up her sight words and her art.  We buy bananas on the way back to the car, drop our purchases and head to the grocery store.

4:30 - Andrew spots pizza slices in the bakery area.  I buy 2 for supper for the kids and I.  Still waiting for the store to have cheese again to make my own.  They haven't had any cheese besides processed cheese slices since we've been back after Christmas break.

4:50 - arrive back home.  Unload groceries and kids and water as it starts to rain. Put the groceries away.  Cut the pizza for the kids and I.  Should have known - made with processed cheese.  Oh well.  Still good.  Won't buy it again though.  (Dough was under cooked too).  Kate didn't even eat hers.  So I found some leftover pasta and squash for her.

5:30 - Clear the table.  Change into jeans and socks and reapply mosquito repellant. 

6:00 - read a book for awhile.  Check my e-mail to make sure my meeting is at 7pm or if it's at 6pm.  It's at 7pm.  Browse online a bit.  Make sure everything is working, type in the new Skype name, etc. Read new e-mail. Keep reading my book.

6:55 - sign in online.  Try to group Skype but doesn't work so the one person phones the other and can hear us on speakerphone.  Chat about hosting an Edcamp and the challenges that come up and how those could be magnified by being in Zambia (with African time and all).  Encouraging and nice to know they are around to support me.  Surprisingly both of them have visited Africa.  One even to Zambia!

7:20 - Keep browsing the internet since I'm online anyways….

7:40 - Better go help Andrew put the kids to bed.  The kitchen is clean and the vegetables and fruit have been washed (and bleached).  Yeah Andrew!  I finish up the bedtime routine and get at least one kid to bed. Andrew puts the other one in bed.  

8:10 - start reading my book again.  Kids interrupt at some point before 9pm.  Both of them.  

8:30 - I get a "page" - a one-ring phone call.  Means someone wants to talk but doesn't have the money for airtime.  It's a number I don't have in my phone book but I have an idea who it might be so I call them back.  My Zambian friend Carol.  We chat a couple minutes.

9:00 - Kate eventually falls asleep.  Malachi still going strong - he did nap today. We just ignore him and he plays by himself.  

10:00 - Malachi goes to bed.  Us shortly after.

Now- since it's already Thursday and I haven't posted this yet…. another day!

Tuesday: 

8:00 - let in Memory (house help).  She starts sweeping, laundry, and cleaning the house after we greet.  I finish getting the kids ready for the day.

8:30 - the kids are watching a movie on the computer, I go outside to make a few phone calls.  The reception in our house isn't the greatest. It's hard enough to understand between my Canadian English and their Zambian English without a bad connection. The first call is answered. One workshop is now planned for Feb. 14th. I text the other two schools involved with the confirmed date and time.  Another head teacher I can't get ahold of.  He gave me two numbers - the first one tells me that that number does not accept incoming calls.  Okay. Strange.  Call the second number.  It rings one quick ring and hangs up on me.  Is he out of range? Or is he aborting my call because he's in a meeting? No idea.  My last call is about my meeting tomorrow.  I call. He's in a conference and quickly tells me he'll call me later. Done.

9:00 - I start sorting out the last bit of photocopying I finished yesterday. Put the last bag of beans together and put them all in my bins….. they are done!  Now to get them to the schools. I try calling the out of range head teacher again.  Nope.

Putting the last papers and beans into the bins

9:45 - I start getting "tea" ready.  When Andrew's not around it's more of a coffee break. Hot water, instant coffee (both Memory and our gardener like this better than tea - but it took me a month to figure it out!), bread, peanut butter, chairs.  I set it out on the porch.  The kids are all underfoot trying to help AND they are hungry.  They call to the gardener "Lwiindi time for tea." He washes his hands and joins us.

10:00 - we sit together at our table on the porch, I pray for the "meal" today. Then I help the kids get peanut butter and banana sandwiches and they drink their juice.  I  decide to have a cup of tea today instead of coffee.

10:20 - Memory starts collecting the dishes and the tea items and helps put everything away and she does the dishes.  I push Malachi on the swing for about 15 minutes. 

10:40 - I go back into my home office and the kids come inside too (seems like if I'm out they play outside and if I'm in they come in).  I sign onto the internet and look at the websites that the EdCamp leaders gave me via e-mail after our Skype call. I add information about EdCamp to MCC's "The Hub" in the education section.  The Hub is MCC's shared resources for other service workers. I also check my MCC work mail and my personal mail.

12:00 - start making lunch for the kids.  If I keep them well fed they seem to be happier! 

12:30 - eat lunch myself.  Read more of my book.

1:00 - Andrew is home for an hour for his lunch break. I'm surprised as he stopped in earlier in the morning for snacks as they were heading off to Macha to do some work (an hour away).  They must have been done quickly.  Chat with him for awhile.  Put Malachi down for a nap.  He's up within 15 minutes again.  No nap day.

2:00 - Andrew leaves again for work.  The kids are playing nicely for now.  I text the head teacher that was going to call me later. He calls me shortly after getting my text.  "Can we move tomorrow's meeting to Monday? Something has come up."  Sure. The 3rd time we've rescheduled, no problem. I am in Africa after all.  I'm just glad we keep rescheduling!

2:05 - decide I really want Chicken wraps for supper… do the next best thing and start prepping them to have for Weds. lunch.  Make tortillas (from scratch).  Make some of the them into baked chips - yum!  Start brining the chicken (makes it juicer and not as tough!)  

3:00 - gardener leaves for the day

3:30 - start telling Memory it's time to "knock off" as she didn't take a break for lunch. 

4:00 - Memory leaves (after quickly making sure the kitchen is spotless and the dry laundry is down.  She reminds me there is still some on the line).

4:05 - I put the (whole) chicken in the oven to roast. 

4:10 - Put the laundry away.

4:30 - start making chips (french fries), from scratch of course. Let the kids play iPad while I do supper.

5:00 - get the kids to put away iPads. Set the table

5:10 - Andrew comes home from work

5:15 - sit down to a yummy  meal of chicken and chips (seems like a restaurant meal tonight - that's mostly what we find that's actually ready at the restaurants in town)

6:00 - do the dishes while Andrew pushes the kids on the swings

6:30 - read my book, go online, the kids are playing nicely

7:00 - read stories to the kids.  Give them a bedtime snack

7:30 - 8:00 - put the kids to bed.

8:00 - pull out the Scrabble board to play a game with Andrew

8:20 - Kate out of bed.  Take her back. Malachi's sleeping good (no nap day!)

9:00 - Kate out of bed again.  Take her back.

9:30 - Michelle manages to win by 1 point - but only because of the house rule (that after one player goes out the other player gets one more turn)

10:00 - bed.

Now Wednesday:

1:00am - hear a noise.  Sounds like someone poking around the house - by the bathroom window. I lay in bed scared and listening.  Hear noise every few minutes. 

1:30am - still hearing a noise.  Really need to use the bathroom though. Get out of bed.  Turn on the bathroom light, see a gigantic cockroach. (At least this is only the first big one to be seen in our house so far).  Wash hands in other bathroom because it's too close to the sink in the ensuite.  Turn on the lights in the living room and go into the kitchen.  Get the fly swatter  Go back to the bathroom…. cockroach gone.

2:00 am - finally go back to sleep.  The noises stopped.  Rain starts.  

6:30am - Andrew wakes up to discover that there were thieves around last night - our two porch chairs are gone.  Strangely there is a pot on our porch with the lid on (otherwise we'd blame the dog). It ends up being Caleb - our neighbour's pot. Just the 2 chairs have gone missing, The lights I turned on all over the house probably scared them away.  All the tools, broom, pail, soccer ball were all still around.

Now to make a storage shed to lock the stuff up in.  And figure out how best to move our washing machine in and out of the house as needed so it's secure.  And we've been locking up the couple windows we've been leaving open at night. It's hot season when that is so much harder to do!  Right now it's cool in the evenings so it's not a problem.

I sleep until almost 9 as I'm tired from my night awakenings.

Since my meeting / workshop has been cancelled I feel like we have a free day.  So we do a bunch of errands we've been putting off: take the cat for booster shots, pick up more bread at the store, go to driver's services and get the papers to start getting our Zambian license. Andrew changes the oil and filter on our vehicle.  I actually play / hang out with the kids as I don't feel (much) work pulling me away.

Living Life

So, I don't really have anything much to say - but since I haven't written a post for almost a month I thought I should at least say hi!

So, life has gotten into a routine of sorts after the Christmas season ended.  After Christmas we got to go to Nsobe Game Park for a MCC rest and relaxation retreat.  It was nice.  Damp though.  Saw some zebras and antelope and got to hold a rock python!  Here's some photos incase you aren't on facebook!

termite hill

Zebras

Another zebra

Impala

These are some of the strangest animals seen on our first
safari in Zambia!  

Rock Python.  There was a snake house at the park which Kate and I got to see.

Kate preferred to hold the snake food though.

White breasted cormorant if I remember right.

Coolest Owl I've ever seen!  I need to take lessons on how to wear pink eyeshadow so well!

Chameleon!

So after that fun adventure we are back in Choma.  School has "opened" again for the year.  I have been out to one school, Sikalongo, to meet with teachers but I have mostly been madly trying to finish my first workshop.  I showed the teachers at Sikalongo a sneak peek: The Alphabet Jive song - in English and a Chitonga version.  I was very encouraged as they wanted to photocopy it right away.  I told them they had to wait for the workshop as it was not done (the actions I typed out) and I have assessments to go with it.  Plus the BINGO game.  They have scheduled me for the workshop for January 31st: the soonest date I was willing to do.  (I have visits to the other two schools that will hopefully come to the same workshop the Monday and Wednesday of that same week).  I am almost done.  A bit more printing, photocopying and organizing tomorrow.  Typing out the agenda today.

Our days are back into the routine of school.  Andrew works Tuesdays and Thursdays at Chodort. I take the kids grocery shopping in town in the morning of one of those days. Then I work in my home office (we moved all the junk out of our junk room and put down some new flooring - just thin laminate to cover up the other floor, and changed it into my office).  This weekend we'll probably put the other room (guest room) more in order.  My parents have plane tickets to come visit us in April.  Excited about that!  I was told we still need to take more holidays this year (before September).  We have lots of plans to spend next years holiday time though!  Andrew's parents are planning to visit next winter, and I'm hoping we get to go to Cape Town in December 2014 - adding on time to our South Africa MCC retreat which will be in South Africa (I don't remember exactly where - near Durban I'm guessing.  The beach was mentioned)! Anyone want to come visit before September?  We'll have vacation time to spare this year.  I'm guessing the last couple years will get busier with visitors and our holiday time will revolve around them.  

I'm feeling very blessed.  The spiders and beetles (and all the other critters) don't scare me quite like they used to. I feel like I can get around town and know where to buy most of the things I need. AND it's so great to see my kids playing every day in our HUGE backyard (in January!)  They seem to be adjusting really well now.

Prayer Requests:

-trying to get rid of our dogs is proving hard to do

-work: Chodort for Andrew, schools & workshops for Michelle

-Michelle is planning the first Edcamp to happen in Africa!  Hoping to do it in March. I'm excited about this and hope that I can do at least one per term (or help others teachers to plan them one per term!)

-good internet for Weds. evening (my time) Bible study to face time with my ladies group