It's PAW!

This week, we are celebrating (for lack of a better term) PAW - Primary Activity Week.  The secondary school is out doing other activities around the country and the primary school is going to school in the morning, and then doing the SKY VBS from Group in the afternoons.  The kids seem to be enjoying it and since it is a science-based VBS, we have a lot of kids thinking its cool (The young ones loved the hovering experiment).
I am leading the large group times and so far my voice is holding out.  I love the chance to act goofy and fly around, singing, and telling stories.

For the mission story session, I wrote a CEF-like story with pictures that talks about bible translation in PNG (I know, right...surprise!), but I am not reading it.  Which is even more scary as I have others tell a story I know. But it is good for me.  

When not teaching, I am taking photos. (okay, I am full of surprises.) Just want to make sure that we have documentation! And for the record.. I am not coordinating this one... someone else is... I am just her assistant. So imagine how busy she is!


I think at the end of the week.... I will collapse...oH no I can't... I have a meeting... drat!

Bandha News

Quite frequently an email appears in my inbox, explaining the upcoming strikes around the valley and the country.  A couple days ago, I got a new email. There had not been one out for a while because we are in a major festival season, and no one would dare interupt a holiday by calling a bandha!  So I was a bit surprised to receive an update.

(We have one more major festival coming up the beginning of November and then national elections are on the 20th.)

Anyways.... this email mentioned a couple small bandhas (strikes) over the next week and then there was a line that read.

                                  November 11 - 20 Nepal wide strike. Vehicular disruptions.

I was like....WHAT!? I had to read it about four times to make sure I was reading it right.  A two week bandha!  No way!

Guess I will be heading to the store to stock up on supplies and picking up some books at the library just in case school is shut down.  Should be a fun month!

Painting Party

This was my entry

Artist and her art

MAGS Art Gallery

One of my friends had a birthday coming up this week, so a group of us decided to get away from the dust of the city and head up the valley wall to a favorite get away.
There was a jazz festival going on that evening  at the hotel and since the birthday girl is a jazz fan, we humored her. Talk about a different circle of people than I am usually around! The music was good though.
The next day we had a late breakfast before starting with the real party. I had brought along a bunch of small canvases, a set of paint,and brushes. We spent a couple hours painting (and dodging monkeys) before eating lunch.  Then we packed up and headed
down into the valley again to start the week. It was a good get away and I have some more art for my house. .

One More Wacky Conversation

During the Wacky Week, I had a number of funny conversations, but I think this one takes the cake. The new librarian and I decided that we need more plants than the measly five cactus plants to crazy-up the library one day. So we went back to one of the gardeners to get some more plants.
I asked to have some more. The answer was, "It is not good to put more plants in the library because then there will not be enough oxygen."  I  thought about doing a quick science lesson, but voted against it  as I didn't have the time. So I asked again. This time the response was. " Well, we can put them in there during the day, but they have to come back out at night because they need light to grow."  Again I thought of doing a quick science lesson, but I decided not to. Instead I said that it was only for one night and I think the plants would be fine for one night without sunlight. There was a grudgingly nod and we had our plants.

Sometimes I am just humored at what comes out of people's mouths.

The Paved Road

There was been some excitement around the hood lately. The road that runs in front of the school has been paved. Finally!  Crowds came out to watch and applaud as the paving crew paved first one side, then the other. As soon as the bitumen was laid, motor-cycles were trying it out and people were walking across it. The crew took it all in stride.
 The next morning it was still there , surprise surprise, and covered in sand.  I asked why and was told that the sun was so hot during the day, that  the paving would dry out unevenly, so they put sand on it to help reduce the heat build up?!?! Really? Oh well.
By the following afternoon,  it looked well used. But hopefully it will cut down on the dust and dirt.

Wacky Week at the Library

This week at school, we had a wacky week celebration and contest to welcome the new librarian,who is crazy-wild about books. Well I am not sure that he actually is, but it worked out well having him start with this crazy week in the library!

This photo has three wacky things
in it. 

Each day in the library we put two things up  or did something unusual  around the library. We then asked the students to come in and find  the wackiness!  On Monday we put empty food boxes and juice cartons  among the books in the stacks and turned the world map upside down. On another day we hung up a clothes line and pegged lost and found clothes to the line. (We actually got rid of some of the clothes, when people realized we had hung up their clothes - Bonus!)
Another day we cut out mustaches and put them on all our wall mural characters.  It was been fun to see students come in eager to find out what crazy thing is happening in the library each day and be introduced the new librarian.
 The number of entries has grow through out the week, so on  Monday we will figure out which of the students had the most points and hand out prizes!   (Which are books of course about being wacky!)

All in a week's work!

Conference Update

Had a great conference and got to meet a number of folks from schools in the middle east. It was a nice change and feel good about the session I was in. I am actually headed back tomorrow to take a training course for MSA, so that I can be on a team.