back at school

Just a quick blog to let you all know we're still here!  Now at the end of the easter holidays and as always we've not got as much done as we were hoping but, thats the way it goes we are a heap more prepared for term 2 than we were for term 1! so thats handy!

Currently we've still not got our driving licence we've got our medical done and we have our theory test tomorrow morning so i'll tag a bit on at the end explaining how we got on.  But basically its been a bit of a mission to get this far as the lady at chingola wasn't there to trnsfer licence over so, we tried kitwe and got told lots and decided we were best waiting for lady to get back to chingola which she is now so, on thursday we booked out test for this thursday and we'll see how we get on, We've learnt the 10 basic rules of the road and as many of the signs as we can so, we just have to hope the test is nice and simple!

Other than hanging round rtsa we've got a heap of work done which is always good, there is always more to do at any school but at Amano its particularly the case with lots of people coming and going and not leaving any sort of plans so, we've been looking through that and trying to sort out our respective areas a little more than they were before and we're getting there!

Mindolo Dam

Mine truck being transported on the way down to lusaka

Having a drink at mug and bean (very exciting for us!)

Also we've been relaxing! We spent a day at mindolo dam (lake left over from an old mine) which was lovely, it was very nice and relaxing and we had 4 nights down in lusaka. We stayed at a backpackers for 3 nights and treated ourselves staying in a hotel for the 4th night.  It was just s well it was only 1 night as it cost the same as the 3 nights at the backpackers! Lusaka has developed very quickly since rich was there 5 years ago and so was quite a shock to both of us to see big new shopping malls and extensions to old shopping malls meaning that they'd be worth a visit in most cities in the UK it was quite a culture shock coming from little amano near little chingola! We also went to the sunday market at one of the shopping malls which was good fun with a lot of crafts were being sold and it was fun going round talking to the locals an bartering with them. Other excitements were sitting in a coffee shop (mugg and bean) and having a coffee which tasted very good having not been to a coffee shop since december and going to spur steak house which was very very tasty but rich had an ulcer on the joint of his top and bottom jaw which made chewing painful, so, for the first time ever, lucy finished eating before Rich and had to help him finish off which was very upsetting for rich as it was a very juicy and tasty steak, in fact its making him upset just thinking about it.

Just a quick driving licence update, been in to rtsa a few more times, we now have a provisional driving licence. We thought we should get a full one, but no, so we have to go in again in a week to see the manager who we hope will then change our licences over to a full licence..... but, who knows exactly what will happen, we may still have to do the driving test, although we think and hope that it is just a matter of the manager ticking a few boxes on the computer and then we'll be done, however, this is zambia so, we'll wait and see!!!

Also, our provisional driving licenses have a few mistakes on them, we're both from British Honduras which is quite funny, but especially as the country no longer exists, its belize now and has been since 1981! Also Rich's birthday is 04/11/04 which makes him 8. Lucy's is 24/08/1998 which makes her 14. Handily the manager says she can change these when we see her next week.

Easter!

The last few weeks of school were hectic as you would expect with reports and what have you going out, the school sends out reports at the end of every term which is ok if you teach a few classes quite a lit of the time but, if you teach lots of classes once a week then it becomes quite hard work. Handily we didn't have it too bad, especially when compared to some. The last day of the term school finished at lunch and then after that we had a parents afternoon especially for boarders its a chance for parents to come and check up on their kids at the same time as they pick them up, as always talking to parents is quite fun talking to parents explains quite a bit about why the kids are like they are.

We've had another house event, primary football, again won by luano (our house) we are it seems very handy at football having won the secondary one as well. The primary football wasn't quite as high  standard a the secondary and even included some attempts at netball. It was getting quite loud with all the secondary's  cheering their house on and i don't think that all the primaries appreciated it but it was a good afternoon especially as we won. We also had a secondary house rugby event which Luano lost, and it rained quite heavily and it was rugby so i didn't see much of that, but what i did see suggested that most of the guys should stay clear of a profession in rugby.

In other sports news the girl u19 netball team came 3rd in the ISAZ (international schools association zambia)  competition in Lusaka which is a mighty effort for a small school.

Teaching has been going well, getting better relationships with pupils which makes things easier although it will take a while to build up as strong ones as were left behind when you've been teaching for 3 years at the same place, plus there is still a little bit of a wall up from some students which makes it hard. I think i have found all there is in the science lab and found any experiments that are about. But while there is a fair bit of equipment there is very few class practical's so, i've been making steps to rectify this buy buying and making some new experiment equipment.

Also the school needs to buy new PA equipment now it has a large hall and more people their old stuff isn't loud enough and has too little capacity for the number of people that it has to deal with so, i've been drawing up an equipment list as well for that, and it turns out its fun spending other peoples money! The school has put a amount of money side to buy PA Stuff and so its good to be able to put to use all those years of setting up PA systems and get them a decent set of equipment at a decent price.

Hopefully soon we'll get a newsletter out, if you've been following the blog then there really isn't going to be much new appear on that but if we can i'll try and attach it to the blog if i can remember how to!