Saturday, August 12, 2006

News and Notes - August 12

The mission and our house are settling into a quieter time. The secondary students left for their break on August 4th, and the college students left on the 10th. A mission team from Canada had been here since July 20th working with schools in the area. They left yesterday. Ellie Hamby starts her journey back the US today. Now the campus seems eerily quiet!

Thankfully, we still have houseguests to keep life interesting. Michelle Drew, a nurse practioner, is doing a clinic rotation to complete her master's degree in tropical medicine from Tulane. Lauren Hickmon from Searcy, Arkansas, is staying with us and working at The Haven with the babies. These two have been a joy to host! They are flexible, enthusiastic, and can always see the funny side of our unique African experiences.

Obrien and Victor (see related blog articles "Starfish" and "Victor and Obrien" from January) are also here during their break from Kabanga Christian High School. As usual, they are devoting themselves to studying. This week they have been getting some special tutoring in geography and history from a teacher at Namwianga Basic. The next two weeks they will be taking special classes to prepare for the Grade 9 exams in October. We talk about high stakes testing in the US, but in Zambia the stakes are even higher. Only those who pass the Grade 9 exams can continue to go to school. Victor and Obrien are taking the test very seriously and spend every free moment studying.

Last night, though, we tore them away from the books long enough to introduce them to S'mores. We had some Hershey bars and graham crackers left from the medical mission. Lauren and Michelle managed to pick up some marshmallows in Lusaka on Thursday. Obrien and Victor built a fire in the outdoor kitchen for us, and then we taught them the fine art of roasting marshmallows and making S'mores.

David is camping at Nazzibula this weekend with Bart Bruington, Rodgers Namuswa, and Peter Mafwafwa. They are doing a leadership training seminar as part of the medical mission follow-up. The rest of us are going out to Kasibi tomorrow to do a children's program for the camp meeting that is being held there.

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