Cycling in the storm....

Half term has been and gone so quickly for us! The boarders arrive today and then school starts tomorrow.
It's been a busy week, we have visited and caught up with lots of people which has been really good :-)

On Monday we went to Kitwe Market and bought lots of crafty things, Jona got a Zambia football shirt after their victory in the African Cup Of Nations.

On Saturday we cycled to our friend Hilda's house (also our bemba teacher) to visit her family and see where she lives. It was quite out in the sticks but we were escorted there by her son. Was great to see her daughter and grandson too :-)

When we left we had to find our own way back to the school. We decided to go the long way round rather than travelling through the bush but unfortunately a storm started. The rain was horrendous and then the thunder and lightning started! Pretty scary when the whole ride home is under tall tree's and the lightning here is crazy! I think we both prayed the whole way back and cycled as fast as we could. VERY happy to get back to our little flat, even if there was no electricity for a cuppa!

Me absolutely soaked through!! 

Looking forward to seeing the students again and lots going on for the rest of the term :-)

Half Term. woop!

It's been quite a long tough week this week. Been a few issues in the girls dorm which have been challenging and quite sad but I'm so happy that God has been with me and the other staff and things have been resolved   :-)

But the good news is that we had 'Quiz and Cakes' last night at T4:12 which was great fun and a good ending to the first half of this term. And Jona went to a friends house on site to watch Zambia play football on Wednesday against Ghana in the African Nations and they won! Which means they'll now be going into the finals against Ivory Coast! woop! The picture below shows lots of students cramming into the house with the TV!!

We haven't  made any specific plans for half term apart from relaxing and visiting friends.

I wanted to ask whether anybody reading this might have unwanted dvds, board games, decent primary/teenage clothing and specifically shoes which are in fairly good condition. Also, any craft materials etc. We are returning to the UK in April and would love to make up some parcels to send out here for the school. So please let me know and we could try and make a plan of how to collect it from you if possible.
Thanks
Jona and Kerry x

Mud Run!!

Had a VERY fun day today! The school P.T.A (parent/teachers association) ran a 'Mud Run' to raise funds for the school. The kids get sponsored for every lap of the mud run they complete. It's an obstacle course set up behind the boys dorm which is very muddy :-)
Was great to get involved and we both ran a few laps :-)

Yesterday Jona got involved with the first meeting of a Student Forum thats being set up in the school. It was just an introductory meeting but please pray for it's progress and that students and staff can work together.

Last night we also had another session of T4:12. Was another great night- lots of fun and it's nice to the students relaxing after lots of studying :-)

We did a series of team challenges, one of which they had to stack 3 golf balls!

There's only one week remaining until half term now. Can't believe how fast this term has gone by- it's been busy but really great. Really enjoying it here :-)

Last weekend Jona went with some of the pupils to Ndola to watch them play volleyball- both the boys and the girls team did very well and all had lots of fun :-)

Last weekend I was on duty in the dorm. I had brought some facemasks with me from England and so we had a bit of a pampering/beauty session run by Tanja (one of the volunteers). Was really lovely :-)

Last weekend we also had 'Rock Of Hope' (Sunday School). About 20 children came along both from the dorm and children living on site. It went really well and it was really good to see them interacting and joining in discussions as opposed to having to listen to a long adult talk at church.

This week Jona has been helping out a bit with P.E lessons and unfortunately on Thursday hadn't quite realised how strong the sun was as it seemed a bit overcast-eek! He's now glowing red!!!

We had youth group on Thursday evening again- we were thankful that the rain held off (because you can't hear anybody if the rain hammers on the tin roof) and that the power stayed on! The youth group is optional for the kids but it was great that all of the secondaries chose to come (roughly 40). We voted on a new name and they chose 'T4:12' which represents the bible verse 1 Timothy 4:12 which talk about not letting anyone make you feel unimportant just because your young. We played lots of games and had a very messy demonstration (using old baked beans and gravy) to represent the gospel message. They seemed to really enjoy it :-)

Yesterday we visited immigration and got a 2 month extension on our visa's but were quite shocked to find out that we had to pay an additional 1million Kwacha- roughly 100 pounds as top-up fee's on our visa because of the new government! Eek. Oh well- at least we can stay in the country now!

We now have a nice free weekend together- enjoying doing nothing!! We had some friends over for dinner last night. The guy in yellow is called Jarret who I am working alongside doing youth work. All of the lovely ladies are from Ireland and are a combination of secondary and primary teachers. However, they all leave in April :-(

A good week :-)

We had the first youth group session yesterday at Amano! It was quite a challenge setting it all up because of the lack of space to meet and resources. But we managed to take a corner in the big new school hall and transform it into a comfy cosy meeting place. We pieced together some scraps of carpet that we found (even had to use the rug from our house!) and some cushions we found in a container. Unfortunately there's no lights in the hall so we had to bug the electrician and he managed to set up enough lighting to make it possible. And we found a good speaker for music.
Roughly 35 secondary students came along and it was really good fun and they seemed to be positive about it. Mainly just games and time for them to be with their friends and have fun!
Managed to get some pics but not too good quality

Jona had fun yesterday as he has been helping out at the rugby club, rainy season means that it was absolutely pouring down with rain and he came home covered in mud! This was followed by 5 games of squash which he reported he very narrowly lost "due to the racket of course!" haha. Tomorrow he is going to Ndola to help out with a Volleyball tournament so he's really enjoying the sport life here :-)

We're also starting the new Sunday School this Sunday which the primaries have voted to call 'Rock of Hope' so looking forward to that too!