Happy Thursday to you all. This morning my am run was cancelled due to the fact that it was POURING. We’ve been told that we are at the end of the rainy season, but ever since my birthday, the Zambian weather has showed us the rainy season. For at least part of every day in the past week it’s downpoured for awhile, and this morning was no exception. Our tutoring is done outside, and I was impressed to see our kids ready to learn, out under the tarp above the picnic tables. It was like we were yelling at each other while sitting next to each other because of all the pounding of the rain. While T was doing some math with our kids, I had to run off to the Lutheran Press on campus to make some copies, and I nearly fell in the lake that was our front yard on the way over. The ground here certainly floods easily! It reminds me of the huge pond we would have in our backyard every spring when the snow melted when I was little. Oh and the “stream” on campus actually looked like a stream today—a stream of chocolate milk—but a stream nonetheless, instead of a trickle of water.
Our ladies also showed up for English class, despite the rain. We continued with reading our novel about murder with the uppers, learning and practicing conversational English with the lowers, and making the uppers role play conversations like telling their children why they should eat their vegetables or telling their husbands what they learned in English class. And all this was accomplished, despite the fact that we were all barefoot. Muddy flip flops on carpeting just won’t do, so yes, I taught barefoot today.
Afternoon tutoring went well, too. Those p.m. girls sure are smart and are doing very well in English. AND my little second grader friend continues to spell her name correctly every time AND can go through all the flashcards saying “nest starts with n. n says nnnnnn.” (Nest is the difficult one that EVERYONE forgets, too!)
Other random happenings of the day include finding a large snail just chillin on the road (of course we stopped to play with it). Also, I finished “The Hole in the Gospel;” score one for the nonfiction book list! (I can’t remember the last time I read a nonfiction book by choice….) I also started, and fell in love with, the birthday gift from my friend J. She gave me a book called “The to-do list” in London and it’s for “anyone who has ever written a to-do list and left it undone” which basically fits me to a T! I’d recommend it; it’s hilarious. I heard some students yelling “Mzungu teacha!” aka, white teacher, as I was running to and from the copier today. Too bad they were preschoolers and I don’t teach them on Thursdays…they’re so cute.
Oh! And last but not least, T let me be adventurous tonight. Not only did we take a walk around the campus at night in the DARK, but after we came back, she finally let me fashion a home for some frogs and then catch two of them. J Methuzela and Japhosephat, or Meth and Phat as we call them, are about the size of my pinky finger nail each. I’m sure their contribution to our Zambian family will be short-lived, as I don’t know how I’ll go about catching bugs daily for them to eat, but I’m glad they are here for the time being. J
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