Thursday, December 11, 2014

throwback Thursday

As I write this , the campus is filled with the sound of children singing Christmas carols as they practice for the pageant this evening..  The wind howls through the trees outside my classroom and an occasional rooster will cackle as they walk about the campus as well.. It's very surreal as everything seems out of place.. Christmas carols when its 90 outside? Roosters on campus?? It's nice.

I have found a great place to get my haircut.. Salon Mystique in the Crossroad hotel just down the street from our home.. I know I've mentioned them before, but they do a great job and the price is right.. yesterday I went for a cut.. As they were cutting my hair,, the power went off.. The salon became pitch black..  as soon as the power cut off, the stylists start wheeling all of the customers out into the hallway where they could see better..

At home, it seems that our water problems are finally coming to an end.. but I can't say for sure.. the water is working, but is sporadic.. .. You flush the toilet and hope that everything goes down the drain.. It did when I left for work this morning and I was able to eek out a shower.

Since the tradition amongst hip young kids is to post a "throwback" image or video or something on Thursdays, I thought I'd put  an image and audio clip on the blog from our last time in Africa..

This image was taken on the day we busted open girl scout cookies that were sent to us via Ellen Lonneman .... We ate everything in one sitting..  Kids were a little smaller.. I remember the concerns in Botswana were day to day, minute to minute with the twins.. the whole house we lived in was tiled and the twins always fell.. Every edge was sharp, the electric outlets would kill you if you stuck anything in them... Jude was always up to no good, and Frances would try and climb out of her crib, landing on the hard ceramic floor.. I'm grateful we don't have to worry about that stuff this time around..
The audio clip was recorded by my brother in law Bob when he visited. It's our friend Celeste telling a story in English, translated by her cousin.. The African language is Ndebele, a language that can be found in Zimbabwe and in South Africa. If you want to hear a beautiful language check it out.



We have a christmas pageant tonight , then I am officially finished with school duties for a month.. I have no idea what we will do with our time off, but really looking forward to it.. The kids will enjoy not being awake at 5 30 in the morning, and I will try to work on some photography (I hope).  Michelle will be very busy for the next few months as malaria season is upon us.

The rain is near, but we haven't seen a lick of it .It has rained twice since I arrived in early August. It gets sweltering hot during the day and it feels and smells like there will be a storm, but never comes to fruition.

Hope you enjoy the recording.. Cheers everyone.