Road to Rwanda---Weekends

 A long-napped Sunday afternoon.  I have continued to be pretty tired every day, but it is some better.  We are enjoying ourselves.  Saturday afternoon we spent 4 hours playing "Chicken Foot", a domino game with 7  other ladies.  It was at a gorgeous brick home built by a missionary who has since moved to another field.  It has about 5 bedrooms, and a small guest house.  When you look at these buildings (including the school's magnificent buildings) they are absolute miracles.  I was told this beautiful brick home and the land it was on cost about $80,000 USD.  And to think that each of these thousands and thousands of bricks were hand made.  The speed of construction here is also phenomenal.  I  am used to endless delays in any building project, but the work force here seems more than willing to put in the time and effort.  To finish off the Saturday evening was a meal made by the Zimbabwean friend.  It is nshima and relish that we enjoyed in Zambia 40 years ago: a corn meal dumpling with greens and chicken on the side.  Oh what a treat.

I have worked many hours this weekend doing school prep.  I am moving on from materials (Elements of Fiction) that I have used many times to the curriculum provided by the school, teaching novels.  It is a curriculum out of NY.  Interesting in that the novels are more contemporary and not the classics I am used to teaching in MS and HS.  To make sure that the students also leave with the knowledge of the classics, I am going to have them read a classic novel on their own every quarter and conference with me.  My sister was concerned that the students would not read books by themselves, but I do not have this concern at all.  There is almost no TV here and even internet access for many students is rather limited.  One of their favorite times is when I take them to the library and they check out books.  You see students sitting around reading on their own during breaks.  I am used to this at other locations as well. Certainly students at Hillcrest in Papua regularly spent breaks reading. I guess I am not enough aware of how unusual this may be.

After my long nap, we rode a mototaxi the few miles downtown (for 50 cents) and went shopping, then walked the few blocks back to the main restaurant we know of in town, and ate supper.  I am trying to finish up the lesson prep I have spent all weekend on, while being able to watch some US football on the free streaming service our VPN on the computer provides.  We are 6 hours ahead, so watching the 1 p.m. games at 7 at night. I doubt I will make the Vikings/Packers at 10:30 tonight.