Just thought I'd do little blurbs from this week rather than long paragraphs about one topic!
Did I ever mention that on the weeks that we go to schools we leave Joshua at 5:30 in the morning?! That's so we can drop off Janet and Corinne at St. Dorcas, stop by Angaza and see where we're staying THIS time (!), then be at school in Karanse as close to 7:30 as possible, but at least by devotions at 8.
This time we stayed at the small guest house at Angaza, just Joelle and me, with a fridge (but not the one has been following us from house to house!), but no "kettle." We both drink a hot drink in the mornings, me tea and Joelle coffee, but this time we got our serving girls to bring us a thermos of hot water on the 2 nights they brought our soup and bread for dinner. That gave us hot drinks 2 mornings, at least. The other 2 nights, we make soup in a crock pot, so it's waiting on us when we get home from school.
My sponsored child, Debora, has 2 best friends named Grace and Salome, who are good friends of mine, too. They have "tuition" (tutoring) after school a couple of times a week, so they finish up the same time my student teachers and I do. They have recently started asking me for rides in my car, "to sokoni" which is the shops at the beginning of town. The first time I took them, I'm not sure they had ever been in a car before, as they didn't know how to get in, close the door, etc. I rolled down the windows so their friends and family and neighbors could see them, and they squealed all through the town. We started teling people we were going to America! One day Grace came and told me her mother said she could go to America in December! Not sure who she's going with, but it won't be in my car!!
Thursday was a nat'l holiday for everyone except Joshua students! At all 3 of our schools, we went to classes, but we all tried to do it a way that wouldn't completely demoralize them. At Karanse, Godfrey had arranged for us to still have morning tea and chapati, which we weren't expecting, so that was a real treat. I had also brought in our left-over bread and peanut butter for a morning snack, so that was a fun extra. But the best part was that we had arranged to take our teachers out for lunch! We took their orders on Wednesday, Abraham (one of the students who lives and works in Karanse) took our order to the "restaurant," and we went on Thursday at lunchtime. Of course, it wasn't ready, but we enjoyed the time with our students. They were so appreciative as this whole cooking thing is still very new to them, and they hardly ever have their favorite foods: ugali and meat, so that's what they ordered, along with sodas, so it was a big treat!
Back at En Gedi, I had a package waiting on me, so that was fun to come home to, and a family with a small pool at their house is gone for the week, so I jumped in it yesterday afternoon since it was so warm. Today, after church, several of us went to the hotel pool, had lunch, and I got some more exercise. (Then, of course, we went out for ice cream sundaes, so I may have exercised in vain, but the water sure felt good!)
This week there will be meetings as we go over curriculum, reviewing what we did last week, and getting ready for next week. I'll also be in preschool several mornings. One very sad note about the preschool. One of the little girls from Celina's class died last weekend, and the funeral was last Monday. She had a brain tumor and when they diagnosed it they told the family she had 6 weeks to 6 months to live. It turned out to be less than that, as that was just a couple of weeks ago. She was only 4 years old. I heard that her classmates went, and I haven't seen them or their teacher yet, so that will be a sad thing to go back to. Her name was Ana, and her dad is one of our security guys. We've all just been praying for her, and now will be praying for her family and loved ones. That's never easy to understand or explain, so I'll probably do a lot of hugging and praying.
I'm still trying to upload some pictures from mentoring or me with Debora and Aneri, so I hope that happens this week, too!
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