Zebra's, Sports, Music, Killing chickens and more Sport!!

Thought I would start this post with a few more pics of our amazing trip to Nsobe in the half term (beginning of July)

Since Half term we have had a very jam packed half of term! Can't believe my cousin has already been and gone, a month passed so incredibly quickly!!

Beginning of July we had the primary 10-step athletics where 4 others schools came to Amano to join in with skipping, throwing, high jump, running and lots more! All staff members got involved- it was a BRILLIANT atmosphere. Unfortunately Amano didn't come in first but it was great fun.

The students were all involved in a school production, organised by parents and students! They performed 'Around the World in 80 minutes'. The whole performance was outside with the audience in the centre watching the journey through different countries happening all around us.- lots of amazing dancing and acting! 

Don't have any photos at the moment but hope to get some asap.

We've had some lovely times recently in the girls dorm- lots of girly fun! We had another pamper day recently with the products donated by my Mum and her workmates (Thank you)!

And some limbo fun with the primaries!!

Last weekend we had another beautiful sunny day for secondary sports day. It was Amano Secondary students competing against each other. Again all the staff got involved and it was another great day!!

Last week was a sad week for us as we said goodbye to the German volunteers who have been helping in the girls dorm, boys dorm, school and building site! Miriam and Tanja (helping in the girls dorm) were here when we first arrived and really helped me to settle into the dorm. It was sooo sad to say goodbye and scary to think that we have nearly been here a year already!! wow!! It has also been a hard few weeks here in the dorm without the volunteers helping out.

Today, Jon went to give out some clothing donations at a local church, he decided to take some students along too. I will ask him to blog soon and write about it. But I was shocked when they returned with a live chicken in the minibus. It was given as a thank you present from the receiving church!! One of the local ladies killed it for us and the girls cut it up so we can eat it for our supper tomorrow! (Photo's to follow)! Not sure if I will now go back to being a vegetarian after seeing the head chopped off. eek!!

We have one week left now until August holidays-can't believe how time is flying so fast.

Lots of Holiday Fun!!

Sorry that it has taken us so long to update our blog recently! Been very busy. We had a BRILLIANT half term. The first few days we spent getting work duties out the way. Jon has been busy writing reports and planning lessons. Kerry was busy tidying the dorm and getting ready for the next half of term. On the Tuesday of half term (26^th) we went to the church on Solwezi road to give out donations. I managed to safely drive the whole way, it was quite out in the bush. We were very surprised when the WHOLE church came to greet us with dancing and singing. There was a short church service and then we gave out the donations. It was a little difficult as some of the women and children were arguing over what they wanted!! Eek! Next time, we would like some of the students of Amano to come with us and perhaps build a link with this local community.

 Me driving to the church!

On the way!!

On the Wednesday we had the long old trip up to Lusaka, but thankfully we travelled smoothly and were delighted to arrive at ‘Stay Easy’ in Lusaka, a hotel much like a Holiday Inn in England. In a way it was nice to have some home comforts and we even got to eat a KFC at the mall opposite the hotel! Woop. We had a lovely few days of rest just reading books and watching some football.

                                                        On the BUs to Lusaka!!

                                                     Stay Easy Hotel- Verry posh!!

On Friday 29^th my Cousin Lauren arrived into Lusaka airport and she thankfully arrived safely. It is really lovely to have a family member visiting and she has really got stuck in with life in Zambia.

Me and Lauren enjoying a yummy treat in Lusaka!

We arrived back (after a verrrrry long and interesting journey!!) at Amano only to depart again on Saturday for Nsobe Game Park. We were keen to show Lauren some African wildlife. Unfortunately the game park had double booked our accommodation at the last minute, so they changed us to a bush camp in the middle of the game reserve. I had been a bit annoyed but it turned out to be an AMAZING blessing. It was a 5km drive from the main camp and was completely isolated and exclusive. But the 5 chalets were incredible.

 Sunset on the lake (with Jon's fishing boat in view-unfortunately no fish though! hehe)

Toilet with a view!!!

 The bathrooms were all outside with a view into the forest! In the evening we were able to sit outide around the camp fire and watch the Zebra’s and other animals feeding from the trough. It was truly an amazing experience. There was Jon, Lauren and I and 5 other friends. We really had great fun; game drive, massages, lieing in the sun, singing around the camp fire. The perfect holiday. If only it could have lasted longer!

We started back at school on Wednesday. It has been great seeing all the children once again J

On Thursday night we had a ‘Creative Prayer’ night. We set up 10 different creative prayer stations with creative ways of praying. It was nice to have something different and the young people seemed to really enjoy the time to be still and reflect (photo’s coming soon)!

Yesterday we had 4 other schools join us here at Amano for the Primary ’10 step’ athletics competition. It was a great day involving lots of skipping, hopping and throwing. Lots of staff got involved and although Amano didn’t win it was still a brilliant event!

Hope you are all well, we love hearing from home so let us know how things are with you!

Busy busy Busy ......Rest :)

Sorry for not writing sooner but as the title says it has been really busy at up too a lot of stuff. Jon was a judge at the primary science fair and they said that he asked very hard questions but they did well there was some really cool experiments. This week the exams have just finished and so Jon has been doing lots of marking. Yesterday we had a good bye party for Ulfert who has worked here for 4 and half years, lots of food and some games. Also several others are also leaving Fransizka from Germany who has been working in the school and Mr sammuel and Chris who have been working in the dorm and building site.  Also two new people arrived from England called Matt and Louise, the weird thing is that we visited there church in Poole last year but they had their wedding that day, which is weird connection.

 as promised the New Ndola stadium pics, was really nice so nice that even the toilets some people were posing and getting pictures taken in. The stadium holds 41000 and it was about 98% full stadium worked well although the traffic was another mission.

 from left Marcus, Mr samuel, Johhanus, Frank, Chris, Jon, Daniel, Jarrett, Margret.

Mr Samuel with a snake one of the 6Th formers found DEAD, Luck for him as he rode over it on his bike and if alive would have killed him as it was a 2.5 meter to 3 meter BLACK Mamba.!!!!! Also below another funny Picture Look at the spelling of team !!! lol

 This week we are off to Solwezi (2 hours journey) to give out clothes and gifts to people there, then travel down to Lusaka by bus ready to see Kerry's cousin on Friday and bring her back to school and then on Sunday travel to Ndola.  A Lot of travelling but hope to have a nice relaxing few days before the busyness starts again .... enjoy

voovoozalla's and cake sculpting!!

Cannot believe we are already halfway through June! We have now been here at Amano for 9 months- time is passing so quickly!

We’ve had a busy but brilliant few weeks. We had a lovely time celebrating Jon’s birthday on the 5^th. I had bought some goodies back with us from England in April- the sight of a packet of minstrels was pretty overwhelming! Haha.  The girls in the dorm had made him LOTS of cards so our mantelpiece is full! And we went out for a lovely meal at a local restaurant which was a real treat.

Last Saturday Jon went with some guys to watch a live football match in Ndola- Ghana verses Zambia. He said the atmosphere was overwhelming! Voovoozellas, screaming, shouting! Thankfully Zambia won J (photo’s to follow at some point!).

Last week one of the 6th form pupils found a dead Black Mamba snake in the bush and decided to bring it back to show us all. Wish I had taken a picture but it was sooooo long and very scary!!! These snakes are deadly. eek. 

We’ve been having great fun at T4:12- This Thursday we did a ‘cake sculpting’ competition. The youth got into teams and were each given a plain slab of cake which they had to sculpt into something creative! Was so funny and they really got into it.  Especially Mr Matt who ended up putting his face in one of the cakes.

 Jarrett and I now have our own 'youth office' and we allowed the young people to go a bit wild with the paint!

Mr Jarrett did a talk about the ‘fear of failure’ which was very apt for the young people as they are all in the midst of exams.

Yesterday we had a FANTASTIC day out as we went to visit another mission school in a place called Masaiti. It was about a 2 hour journey and very rural- out in the sticks! It is a Christian teacher training college with a model primary school on site where the teachers can gain experience. The primary schools intake is mainly all from the local village so the school fees are extremely low (the equivalent of £1.20 per month). It was so encouraging and inspiring to walk around the school, the kids were so welcoming! They also have a farm and an orchard, the idea being that the place is self-sustainable. We both fell in love with the place and hope to use this inspiration to encourage Amano. Their whole approach to everything; farming, community work, school is Christ-Centred! And you can really sense that too. There was a wonderfully peaceful and inspiring atmosphere.

We have one week left here until half term. My cousin Lauren will arrive here at the end of half term which we are really looking forward to. So we have decided to double up with collecting her and have a few days beforehand in a hotel in Lusaka to chill and have some time together.

Fun at the fair!

Another busy but great week here at Amano. Last Thursday we continued our theme of silly Olympics at T4:12, this time we had mop javelin and more crazy wheelie chair races! Overall, Ivory Coast were the winners and received their big bag of sweets! We also continued our talks based around the theme of ‘Freedom’ and Mr Jarrett talked about being free of worry.

Friday was Africa Freedom Day and we had the school fair organized by the PTA- fundraising for the school. It was an excellent day and brilliant to see the students so involved with setting up their own stalls and helping out! There was popcorn, beauty salon, face painting, mini bouncy castle, lucky dip, playstation playing! lots! 
We also had a tug of war where unfortunately the students beat the staff which meant they got given a non school uniform day as a prize!

Sat and Sun we both had the weekend off and enjoyed relaxing. Finishing the week with boarders fellowship.

Many of the students here are gearing up for their mock exams and various tests etc, please hold them in your prayers and the teachers too as everything gets more busy!