I’m sorry our updates have been so dry. I’ve been writing them from the internet café, which means that we were paying for every minute, so my main objective was just to get them written and sent. Today, though, I’m writing from Scott
Here’s a look at our daily schedule, Monday thru Friday. The day begins at 6:29, when we roll out of bed and head down to the dining hall for breakfast at 6:30. As you all know, we are not morning people.
6:30 Breakfast, then the kids head off the school
7:10 Staff/Volunteer devotions (Aaron is using Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest devotional) Then, Aaron takes us through the schedule for the day, talking mostly about what work needs to be done, mostly maintenance/building projects.
8:00 Ben and I head back to our room to make our bed, have devotions together.
8:45 Start working—stucco walls, dig up the garden, etc. manual labor
12:30 Lunch
2-3:00 Kids trickle back from school, and we work on various projects in the afternoons
3:30 First Study Hall hour, for the youngest half of the kids
4:30 Second Study Hall hour, for the older kids
5:30 Bible story time
6:00 Dinner
So, that’s a rough outline of our day, M-F. I can never make it from breakfast to lunch without a snack. Six hours is a LONG time.
The Study Hall hour that we have started is going well. We are making some changes, gaining more help, and learning as we go. I always said that I never wanted to be a teacher, but studying education certainly would have been more helpful than Spanish. Really, we are trying to prep the kids to start a curriculum called ACE in January. The administration (Scott, JD and Barbara) would really like the kids to transition from the public schools to Christian education on-site. It’s not realistic to do it with all the kids, especially at this point, so we will tutor all of the kids, and then move some of them to ACE curriculum in January. They are looking for someone to come and be the ACE administrator beginning in January. If any of you are interested, let us know! If you’re wondering what ACE is, too bad. I don’t feel like explaining it, and I can’t remember what it stands for. It’s like a cross between private Christian school and homeschool.
Yesterday, I met with our director, Scott, two other older female American staff members, our Zulu pastor, a Zulu caretaker and a Zulu cook to discuss…dress code. I raised the question with Scott because everything I had heard and observed led me to believe that it was not appropriate for a woman to show leg above the knee. Yet when I looked around, all of our girls (teenagers included) would walk around in miniskirts, even wearing them to church. I’m not that conservative when it comes to dress, but I definitely thought it was probably inappropriate. When I brought it up to Scott, who had two sons and no daughters, he said, “Huh. I dunno.” Thus, the meeting. It went very well. Some new rules were made. Now, we just have to tell the girls. I’ll leave that to Scott, the pastor, and the caretakers. J I wasn’t the first to notice the way they dress. The pastor, cook and caretaker all basically said at the beginning of the meeting that it was scandalous the way our girls dress. So it’s good the problem is being addressed.
Ben and I looked around our bedroom after a long, discouraging day last Saturday. Our bedroom is 10ft x 10ft. There were ten boys, two girls, and three adults in the room. Half the boys were on our bed practicing Kung Fu on each other, four or five were watching the same movie preview on our iPod, over and over again. Seven of them were from Mary Jane’s room, and Mary Jane was on holiday. I was watching her kids for her, and staying in her room, so I let them stay up late. By the end of the evening, three had fallen asleep on our bed and floor. We had great fun, though. Ben and I decided it would be a great idea to adopt ten boys and live in a 10 x 10 ft. room.
Well, I have lots of great stories to tell you all, but you’ll just have to wait until our next update.
Love,
Michal (and Ben)
South Africa Update (Round 4)
Images from South Africa
Kwanele peeks out from his room. Kwanele, 2 years old, is the youngest child at the Laskop village.
Most people don't realize that the sun actually sets in the east and rises in the west in the southern hemisphere.
The girls practice their addition flash cards (for fun).
[click the images to see larger versions]
A Little Soccer Anyone
Michal and I are here in South Africa and there is one thing that I found surprising... okay, there are many things that I found surprising, but one in particular... soccer in South Africa is called soccer. I guess that isn't really true, many people do call it football (even though, as all heterosexual male Americans know, football is a sport where you through around a pigskin, hit one another and slap your teammates' rear ends). The kids at the orphanage call it soccer (when speaking english) and football (when speaking Zulu). Whatever it's called, it's a lot of fun. We played yesterday with a group from Mars Hill in Seattle and a bunch of the kids. I don't think I have ever played soccer on a full sized field but now I have a lot more respect for footballers as athletes (not to mention these kids).
Well, I hope to have some pictures up soon. We are just east of the Drakensburg mountains and the views are stunning (when the smoke clears out). If you are not on our mailing list and would like to get more regular updates send an email to me here.
Tesla Anyone?
Have you heard of the new Tesla sports car? Check out those sleek lines, kickin' curves and... oh I don't know, whatever it is that makes a sports car apealing (red paint?). So, do you notice anything really different about this car? Like most sports cars it goes from 0 to 60 in under 4 seconde, unlike any other sports car it gets the equivilent of 250 miles per gallon. "How?" you might ask, well, it doens't actually run on gassoline, it's an electric car.
Tesla Motors Inc., backed by eBay, Google and Paypal big-wigs is setting up shop and producing these amazing cars. Just checking out the info page gets some pretty cool info. The car will have built in iPod dock, no service necessary (until 100,000 miles), and the car has no reverse (the engine runs backwards to move the car backwards) - that means the car will be able to go 130 miles an hour... backwards (well, maybe not, but it should be able to)!
You can check out more on the Tesla Roadster at their web site [here] or read more on Wired.com and other sites.
End Women's Suffrage
That's right, signing a notebook to end women's syffrage (because it's "really bad"). "We rest our case". This video is great.
The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
| The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny - Music by Lemon Demon You've got to check this out! Who will win the Ultimate Showdown? Will it be Abe Lincoln? Batman? Shaq? You will just have to watch to find out. WARNING: This is not a kid friendly cartoon (some blood may be spilled) | |