happy days :-)

We're having a lovely holiday so far. Really enjoying our time at the farm- so peaceful and relaxing. Last week we spent most of the week catching up with friends, watching the American 'Office' (amazing!) and doing a bit of preperation for next term.

Tuesday was our 2nd wedding anniversary and we enjoyed a very chilled out day which mainly consisted of me getting thrashed at Monopoly again(!) by Jona. We had a mini braai in the evening where Jon cooked us a lovely steak and we ate in the garden :-) We both can't believe that 2years have slipped by so fast...but what a brilliant 2 years it has been :-)

On Wednesday we had an 'interesting' day in Lusaka when we went to try and collect our work permits. It was great that we were able to fly down in one of the little planes, only took 1.5hours as opposed to about 7 on the bus! We arrived at immigration, never been there before and it was a real experience!! lol. I think we spoke to most of the staff members in the building and were back and forth between desks and after approx 3-4 hours we unfortunately left empty handed :-( It seems that they have been misplaced somewhere in the endless stacks of blue files!  So after waiting a year for them, the search goes on!
But we did have a lovely lunch with some friends at a curry place. I had an AMAZING sweet and sour, almost like what you might get in England :-) We had a quick look around a few shops, it's very interesting to see how westernised the shops etc are in Lusaka, it was almost like looking around West Quay in Southampton!

On Thursday Jon and Jarrett spent the morning painting the banana with a white undercoat. It's very exciting to slowly see the banana house taking shape as we prepare for it to become a youth building where we can meet for youth group/discipleship groups/socials etc. We plan to let the young people come up with ideas for what colour it will be and all the interior designs etc. Should be fun :-)

Yesterday Jon went to Ndola to meet his brother who has arrived in Zambia! woop. He will be working just past Ndola for a charity called Kaloko. He will be helping to set up a radio station and doing some business research for them. They came back on public transport and it's really great to have Rob here for the weekend. We went to a friends house last night and had a great evening playing board games and relaxing.

Whilst Jon went to Ndola, I went to Amanda and Sarah to Chingola to see Illona (a primary teacher from the school who has gone on maternity leave). Her baby is called Mumba and is now 4 weeks old. He is soooooo cute and it was great to see Illona looking so well!

Really enjoying our hols so far and happy that today has no schedule apart from reading books and playing squash (for the boys!).

TwaDusha (To Rest)

In the last couple of weeks it has been quite busy, stressful and felt like a cricket innings at times. And now we have reached a rest and recoup point. There have been some real gems from the last few weeks, firstly spiritual emphasis week came at just the right moment and was really refreshing for all who attended the talks. In that week one of the students decided to become a christian. The Girls dorm has become more of a community, last weekend they all had a meal together from the chicken the village gave us and they have also been helping with different dorm duties. We are very pleased with how there is a good sense of community developing and hope it continues into the new term.

Also Did  not mention this in the last blog but it was a historic moment for me as I managed to beat Dave at squash 2-1, which is a 1st so now need to keep running for the ball, Good thing the court is small in Squash.

We're excited that Jon's brother is currently travelling to Zambia, he is coming to work in Ndola (about an hour and a half from us) for 3 months with a charity called Kaloko Trust. It will be brilliant to see him and we're really excited for his arrival!

Today was a sad day as we said goodbye to Matt and Louise, a couple who have been helping at the school and in the dorms for the last 3 months. We have become very good friends with them both and it will be very sad to see them go. But we had a fantastic day together with them; they cooked us a lovely lunch and then we had a dip in the verrrry cold swimming pool.

We are currently staying at our friends house. They have gone to Germany for the holidays and offered for us to house and cat sit. It is a gorgeous location and we're absolutely loving it already :-) They have 5 cats which is pretty fun! One of them brought in a dead bird this morning- yuk! Feathers everywhere!