The Month of May

What a month it's been! Full of up's and down's and roundabouts. I'm reminded again and again of squeezing the life out of each moment, embracing each day and more than that each person that steps into our path. And although May has been extremely busy it has been full of blessings, wonderful characters and lots of fun!

At the beginning of the month we had the school's first PTA Duathlon. The students had to form a team of 4 to run a total of 5km and cycle a total of 14km. The staff were also allowed to participate so Jon and I embraced the challenge and joined a team. Jon's team, pictured below were called 'The Great Escape'. I joined an all ladies team. Jon cycled 7km and I ran 2.5.
It was a fantastic day of community spirit as we all gathered to cheer each other on and raise some funds for the school. Apart from a few lost pupils who veered off course and a very sad Jon after our team beat his (!) hehe...It was a great event!

The Great Escape!

A lowlight of May was that we had to say goodbye to Mum, but the month she spent here was very precious and gave her a little peek into our lives in Zambia. She is already being sorely missed not only by us but also by the Grade 2&3's. It was a sad a goodbye but nice to know we will be back in England in December to see her and Dad!

Last week, we held a 'creative prayer space' with the youth group on Tuesday and Thursday evening, we also opened it up to staff members on Wednesday. We transformed the inside of the banana house with hanging material, fairy lights, candles and music so that the young people could take some time away from their revision and pressure of exams to just be still and spend time with God. We set up 9 prayer stations for the students to visit to focus on different areas of prayer including Forgiveness, Thanks and Decisions. It was encouraging that the students really enjoyed it, one even commenting "that we should do this every week", another saying that after spending time in the prayer room they "felt lighter".
Photo's coming soon.

Another surprise this month was the arrival of a container ship which had our boxes on! These are boxes which we packed almost 2 years ago before we came to Zambia. For one reason or another they were not put on the container until about 6 months ago. It was like Christmas unpacking all the goodies for the dorm and our house!!

Me unpacking the boxes!

It was great having Mum out with us as well because for her Zambian life was all new and exciting, things that we now take for granted she found fascinating and she snapped lots of pics which she was able to leave with us. I thought I would share a few with you...

unfortunately not a rare sight on the zambian roads!

Street side market

typical shops in town

Street sellers

Sunset!!

Boating, birthday and butterflies!

I have had a hard time trying to persuade my Mum that this is the 'cold season' as she enjoys a stay of skirts, tshirts and flip-flops! Very sad to think that this time next week will be Mums last day at Amano before we make the trek back up country to Lusaka for her to catch her plane back to England. But what a great time we have had showing her a little bit of our lives here in Zambia. Although, once back in the UK the flipflops may not last I am sure the memories of her African adventure will do!

We are now fully into the swing of 2nd term at school. It's lovely to hear the shrieks and laughter of playing children once again filling the school site!
Last week we had a day off for May day and what a treat to have a daytrip out with the boarders to Mindolo Dam. Once the bus was fully loaded with skipping ropes, bowling balls, table tennis, suncream, 70 students and enough sausages to sink a ship we were off! We enjoyed a LOVELY day relaxing by the pool, playing ultimate frisbee, having a BBQ and just being together. Most of the students got to have a brilliant time on Mr Boatmans sailing boat and others on a small canoe!

Sunday was filled with cake and chocolate treats as we celebrated my birthday with Mum and friends. We had a wonderful time getting beaten at UNO, having yummy cherry cake and enjoying catching up with our friends in the afternoon and then some board games with the trailer neighbours in the evening.

I wanted to try and post a picture of the beautiful butterflies which are covering the school site at the moment, at times there are so many that it looks like it's raining butterflies! They are a true picture of serenity.