Where did October go?

Wow, I am shocked to log on to our blog and find that I haven't posted since 9th October! This month has gone in the blink of an eye! But what a fantastic month it has been filled with activities, events, praising, reflecting, laughing, joking (mainly jona!), friendship....
For us it has been and still is a strange time, we came back from half term on Monday with the thoughts of '5 weeks to go' looming in the back of our minds. We strive to make the most of each day, embrace each moment and person, and squeeze the life out of the remainder of our time here at Amano. But the thought still remains and it gets harder and harder each day to comprehend that we will be saying goodbye at the end of this term. But as I was saying to the youth group on Thursday night 'One step at a time'.....
I have recently been reading a book called 'Just Enough Light For the Step I'm On' by Stormie O'Martian. It's been great to reflect on the truth that God is in control and trusting Him for each step of the way. I LOVED this quote; 'It's a more certain proposition to follow the Lord, not knowing where you're going, than to think you know where you're going and you're not following the Lord'. So as we start to think about jobs, money, where we will live back in the UK we both have a deep sense of peace and trust even though things are still quite uncertain.

I think there's just sooo much that has happened in the last month that I will just upload lots of pictures and captions of October highlights!

Cake Sculpting Competition at youth group!

The Eiffel (eye-full!!) Tower

The Winning Cake!

Ants Everywhere!! Argh. We have ants invading our trailer all the timmmmeeee, stealing our sugar at night!!!

2 of the most beautiful people in the world! My friend Hilda and Grandson Baby Harold...

PTA Cake Sale and Car Wash!

Car Wash....aka Amano Water Fight!!

On the road to Kitwe...
We went shopping with the Grade 12's for their graduation dresses. Sometimes we take the roads/landscape for granted so thought I would upload some general pics of surroundings.

Bit Wobbly! You can't see from here but this trucks numberplate was 'Spiderman'. haha

Inter-house Girls Rounders on Thursday! 

Interhouse Primary Benchball...

Benchball.

Smoothie Making at Youth Group

Youth Group in The Banana House

Playing a mad game of 'Wiggly Worms' at youth group!

Today, Jon went off to watch the boys playing Cricket and THEY WON! I hope to upload some of the pics asap.
And I have been on duty in the dorm. We have had a great day putting up the xmas decs, dressing up and singing along to xmas music (a little weird when it's 30 degrees!)...

Christmas Hats (Kind of...)

YaY! Our dorm Xmas Tree!

Haha our very own Mrs Clause (with a beard!!)

Beautiful Baptisms!

Wow, what an AMAZING day we had on Sunday! As some of you may know, Jarrett and I have been working closely with some students over the past few months as they have prepared to be baptised. There have been various up and downs, challenges and joys along the way but the service on Sunday was such a blessed day :-) As you can see from the pictures, the service was held outside the classrooms and we put up some marquees to protect us from the sweltering heat! It was encouraging to see such a great turnout of parents and guardians to support the young people.
The students had chosen songs and each of them told their testimony of how they became Christians. We felt so incredibly proud and inspired by the students and their stories! I don't want to say much more as I think the photo's speak for themselves!

How was I supposed to do the hand thing again??

Safari Snacks, Public Speaking and Mr Scarecrow!

Another week has unbelievably whizzed by already. We continue to have Fridays off together and have spent a lovely day resting so far. Unfortunately Jon has been a bit under the weather this week and has spent most of the day sleeping :-)
It has been another action packed week! This week at youth we decided to do something a little bit different and based on the idea of a 'progressive supper' we asked teachers living on site to help us host a 'safari snacks' evening where students got into groups and went to different teachers houses for different snacks. We had a brilliant time indulging in peach cobbler, ice cream and coffee!! Each teacher hosted a group of between 8-12 students for 30 mins and played a game with them too. I think youth group continues to be a great opportunity for the students to take their minds off of study and spend time together. Especially as the grade 12's and other secondary students head towards exam period!

One of the students 'enjoying' the mints!

My group :-)

This week we enjoyed Amano's first ever Public Speaking Competition. This was an inter-house school competition. Nearly all of the primaries took part either reciting a short poem or choosing a subject of interest to talk about for a few minutes. Wow, I think it is a real glimpse of what it will be like to be a Mum as I watched our dorm girls perform their short poems. So proud of them!!!

In the evening I went along to watch the secondaries, unfortunately Jon was enjoying the inside of his eyelids as he was still feeling sick! The event was a formal occasion and it was lovely to see all of the secondaries looking smart and beautiful! There was a great atmosphere of nerves and anticipation and I really was not expecting such an incredibly high standard from the students, especially for a first time event and the fact that many of them have been studying so hard for their exams. Again, it was SUCH a delight to witness the incredible talents of our students. There were 9 speakers in total and wow, they did such a good job! They each had to choose from a pre-chosen list of topics. Some included; 'real learning occurs outside of the classroom', 'Children shouldn't watch television' (which was very funny as the student was later questioned "do you believe everything you have just said?" to which he replied with a confident "yes!" only to then be questioned "Do you watch a lot of of TV yourself?" to which he confidently replied "Yes!" haha). I came home that evening feeling so inspired and passionate about the talents of our students. They really have such potential to make positive change in Zambia, they really are the next generation!

Ethan talking about Rastafarianism

Tarisai and his anti-tv talk!

Wednesday morning Jon did a brilliant assembly about our trip to Masaiti with the Grade 10&11's. He produced a great power point of pictures which some really enjoyed (others not so because of the embarrassing pictures!!). Some of the students stood up to share about their experience at Masaiti and it was encouraging to hear them sharing about how they learnt more about themselves, their friends and God. Jon shared a very poignant and heartfelt message as he talked about what we had learnt regarding 'living by faith'. It reminded me of how much we have been through here in Zambia. How tough we found it in the first year, settling in etc and how often we have had to live by faith and trust God in so many different areas. And now as we move closer to a new period of our lives, looking to the future in England we continue to learn what it really means to trust and know that He is in control of our lives. This week I have been looking at and memorising Psalm 91:1, 'He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty'. Woop Woop!

And last but not least, Mr Scarecrow! I think some of the youth think I've gone nuts as I suggested making a scarecrow, to some who have never heard of a scarecrow the concept is quite bonkers. But nevertheless, we had great fun yesterday making Mr Scarecrow and putting him next to one of the dorm parents vegetable garden :-)

Hot Hot Hot

Indeed welcome to this latest entry of our time in Zambia. As I write it is a warm 36⁰C, almost any activities result in profuse sweating. It was nice because yesterday we had a swim which is very refreshing in this weather.

painting play ground 

Over the last 2 weeks we have had amazing experiences and some very thought provoking times. Jona (Me) went to a collection of Christian schools conference in Kitwe and did a seminary on science enquiry, it is nervier talking to adults as I am more used to kiddies. However the talks were extremely thought provoking to me, the 1^st seminary was about the need to Christian education and I was shocked at the statistics that in Southern Africa the class teacher to student ratio is 1:80, with the teachers only present 50% of the time and out of all those who pass their final exams in Grade 12 only 14% get jobs in formal employment. On reflection some huge challenges to student due to the system that they are in, similarly the other 2 seminary proved equally thought provoking and challenged by mindset of what it means by Christ centered education.

Straight after the conference, the next day we left for FCE Masaiti with the Grade 10 and 11 Students. For one the students had a great time and so did we. The four teachers who went all commented that at some point they felt like very proud parents. I am sad that I cannot share all the experience we saw and experienced but will share a few highlights.

We started with the obstacle course which me and Kerry both agonizingly took part in and it was a great experience for all to learn that in life we need to work in a team and to encourage and support it looked like a small course but was indeed a hard challenge.

On the 2^nd day we went to Ibenga market and the student we each given 5 kwatcha which is equivalent to $1, we wanted to highlight the fact that many of the families from the village that we were situated very close to lived on $1 a day or less for all their meals. The way they spent the money was intriguing some headed straight for a coke and this took half their money straight way, to quench their thirst and provided some much needed sugar after digging in the fields prior to the market. While other collaborated and pooled their money together to provide a bigger meal. See a classic photo of Kerry’s group using a pen to put peanut butter on bread J. 

The 3^rd day we could see that the kids were still high spirited but were getting more tired and they had another day full of some activities and a massive surprise for them later on. In the morning they had did various projects and later in the afternoon leading various sports activities. And THEN at lunch we dropped a bomb shell on them!!! Not literally lol we had told them that after the sports they were heading off with a student from the school to spend the evening with them. I think the hardest think was a) to get to grips with the fact they were spending the night in the village and b) that they could not come back and have a shower however they could in the village if they collected their own water and heated it.  The responses were a mixture of disbelief and amazement and this was definitely out of their comfort zones. All they had to take was a sleeping bag and toiletries with a change of clothes.  They learnt a lot from this experience, my time in the village was very welcoming and basic too. But the family that hosted us were tremendously welcoming and kind to share the best they had out of their poverty.  Later in the evening we sat around the fire singing and dancing, till about 11 pm and then slowly drifted off to sleep. It was a terrific time and secretly the students enjoyed it even though they won’t admit it.

There are many many more stories I wish I could share with you and fully explain what an amazing time we all had. Currently Kerry in working in the dorm and I am working on completing this year’s year book. It is crazy how time is doing by so fast!!! Already 4 weeks have gone by and next week we have 8 people being baptized and them iGCSE exams start for Grade 12’s.        

     

Preparing for Masaiti.....

So we have just returned from a hot and sticky long morning in town! We are preparing for our trip away next week with some of the students. Jon has been busy planning and organising a 'community outreach' trip to Masaiti with Grades 10&11. I've written before about Masaiti but it is known as a 'cross cultural training centre' which offers teacher training, a local school, community outreach/teaching skills to locals, agriculture etc. We hope that this trip will give the students an opportunity to see a different way of life, learn teamwork skills and have a chance to help towards projects which will make a lasting impact on the community. So we've been out this morning to buy some red, yellow and green paint and 100m of nylon rope for the jungle gym that we hope the students will help to build! (Hopefully will have some pics once we come back!)

We have now been fully back in the swing of things at school as the students have already been back for 2 weeks!
This week I had a very special evening with the grade 9 girls and our neighbour Miss Lukundo as we organised a dinner and pamper evening. Lots of makeup, madness and mischief!

I think it's cucumbers you're meant to use not aubergines??!!

Jon admitted fishing defeat this week as he settled for filletting and cooking some shop bought bream but he did well for his first ever time of filleting a fish :-)

We both have a lot on this term but it's all very exciting stuff. Jon continues to work with students on the year book and the student forum. I continue to enjoy youth group on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. We have also started a Youth Alpha course exploring the basics of Christianity for students who want to come along.