Go Fly a Kite

Not much rubbish here gets wasted by throwing it away. Most things have the possibility for much more than one use. When Katie and I buy are groceries we always save the plastic bags. Sometimes the boys want to use them to roll up into a soccer ball (when I won’t let them use the nice one), or use them as a bag to carry their notebooks for school. Yesterday they all came by asking for a few “plastics” each. They took a few sticks and turned it into a kite. They then took the woven bags that we were storing the maize in, and unraveled some parts of them to make some string. A new piece of string had to be tied on about every six feet or so.

Here is a picture of Bobo (2^nd grade) getting his kite started in the air.

Here is one that Boyd (5^th grade) had built. All the other boys said that He was the professional, and his was the highest flying kite.

Relationships

Over the last week or so our relationships with the kids have really bloomed. I think they are realizing that we are here to stay and not going to leave them any time soon, and they have learned that we are here for them. It has been nice getting to develop our relationships a little more deeply, as we are learning the best ways for us to be help to the kids.

Although it took quite some time, we finally got (almost) all the kids together for a group picture. Rather than trying to name them all and have you try figure out who is who, we are just going to make sure to include a variety of individual kids in our posts

.

This is a picture taken while we were waiting for all the others to be rounded up for a group picture. It will be easier to name these kids. To my right is Elvis (5^th grade), with his arm around me is Kelvin (7^th grade), saluting is Simon (7^th grade), the boys kneeling are, from the left, Boyd (5^th grade), Gift (5^th grade), Martin (1^st grade), Allan (he is a day student in 1^st grade).

Sports Day - UPDATED WITH VIDEO!

This is Curtis,

The kids finally got to have a sports day with another team. We walked to the field which was probably only a half an hour away which is much better than what I have heard about some of their walks to other games (5 or so miles). We started the day with the younger boys playing a soccer game (football as it is called here, I don’t know if I can ever get used to saying that). The girls then went ahead and played Net Ball, which is similar to basketball, just different. This is a picture of the girls (blue is Upeme) just about to score.

The last game played was the big boy’s soccer match. This is a picture of Kelvin (7^th grade) getting ready to take a free kick.

The day was a lot of fun. I have been excited for the soccer season to start. The team is really strong. I couldn’t tell which was more fun, the games, or the songs and dances from the people on the sideline cheering them on. Here is a video of some of the girls cheering the big boys on during their match.

VIDEO WORKED!

Just hanging out!

Well, sometimes exciting things don't happen...just everyday life! Here are some pictures of us just hanging out, the kids just hanging out, etc! This first picture is Ruthie and Rachel cutting a fruit (or maybe vegetable). I was teasing them one time because they were eating them and hadn't offered to share with us and had picked it from right behind our house. Well, the next time they went searching for it they brought us some! They had to show us how to cut it because it is like holding a ball of nails! Tasted exactly like a cucumber.


The girls love having their picture taken - in the orange shirt is Precious, with the bucket on her head in Wendy, being hugged is Irene, hugging Irene is Catherine, and holding the flowers is Rebecca. So cute and so happy!


Me with Rebecca and Wendy...


Us again!


All the younger girls from the first picture with Curtis. They LOVE giving us flowers that they pick from our bush and putting them in our hair - Curtis is a good sport :)

Lion's Club Donation!

In this picture is the Lion’s Club donating a lot of text books, work books, blankets, laundry soap, and salt, to the school and orphanage. The man in the yellow is the President of the Lion’s Club, and the man in the white excepting the donations along with Katie is Mr. Mwanakasale (the Headmaster of the school). It was a very good time; in their appreciation of the donations the kids sang a few songs. The most exciting part was listening to the members of the Lions Club talk about their goals for some future donations to bring here to Upeme. Hopefully we can keep in contact with them and make sure this happens. The donation they brought this time were worth about 3.5 million Kwacha which is around $700.

On an unrelated note, the boys are in big trouble (haha). They had killed a large snake at some point during the day; I saw some carrying it around. While the Lions Club was here I ran back to the house to pick up the camera, and saw a very large snake that looked like it was slithering its way underneath our door, into the house. I quickly remembered seeing the boys with it earlier and went and got them to pick it up and throw it down the latrine. I told them all they were lucky I was the one who found it and not Auntie Katie.

One more thing, we ask everyone to keep Nelson in their prayers as he is going into surgery on Wednesday June 17^th for a Hernia. It shouldn’t be a very big deal, but any surgery has risks involved, and it is always helpful to

have as many prayers as possible. We will keep you posted on his recovery.

Dirty Hair

Part of our jobs is to make sure the kids are all keeping their hair brushed and washed. Sounds kind of silly, but it has been some what of a problem. Since we have been here the girls have been great, and the older ones brush and style the younger ones’ hair. But the boys…at the beginning of the term one of the teachers shaved many of their heads. (I am still angry at him for doing this) He didn’t clean the razor in-between and consequently many of the them got infections. I have been washing those boys’ heads with a special medicated shampoo and putting a special cream on after. I think the boys like the extra attention from me :) I have a system now, and I can wash about 20 boys hair in just over 30 minutes!

Here is a picture of me washing Gadrose’s hair, and Winford watching and waiting for his turn. I wash the hair outside and save all the water for flushing my toilet later. Curtis and I try to only flush with ‘gray’ water, water we used for bathing, washing dishes, and now water I save from washing the boys hair!