6 months in.

Hello again

So i just realised that its exactly 6 months since we were on our way to Heathrow to fly out here. That also means that our initial term of 18 months will be up in 1 year! Although i suspect we may end up staying until the end of the  term, but whatever that's a years time, if your reading this your are probably more interested in what we've done in the last few weeks than what possibly might be happening in a years time.

ISAZ athletics at Olympic Youth Development Center in Lusaka

So since last blog things have been fairly busy but a half term holiday helped keep things a little chilled! The Friday we broke up for half term we headed down to Lusaka after school and after Amanda had plumped up the cushions in her house. its a long way to Lusaka and despite what people tell you 6 hours is the quickest you could not too illegally do it in. Its about 400km err 240miles ish so, not too far but with traffic and only about 30miles of dual carriage way it takes a while. Next morning we got up early and took Andy, Amanda, Sam and Joe to the airport and said goodbye. From there we went to the ISAZ national athletics and Rich sat and cheered and helped keep pupils organised (luckily they were happy doing that without me) and Lucy ended up judging the shot put. The main excitement was lucy's as a girl running the 1500m decided not to run any more and collapsed right near the shot put, so lucy's first aid came in handy as the girl had fainted but also seemed to not breathe very often which was all slightly concerning, but eventually she was taken to the hospital and was seen later in the day so, must have been sorted.  Amano did very well and won several gold medals and broke a few records which was very pleasing. One guy Chigo managed to win both 1500 and 800 by 5-10 seconds and set a new national record in both which is decent!

After the event finished we went and had food in town and realised that Zambia were playing Lesotho so it was all a bit noisy apart from in shops where no one was doing everything as everyone was watching the TV. We spend the evening and Sunday relaxing and then headed back to chingola on Monday morning and made an exciting stop in Ndola which involved debonairs pizza for lunch and shopping at pick'n'pay. I have no recollection of what happened during the rest of half term. I suspect it involved fasting and praying and such.... Ok maybe  not. Probably school work, sleep and the odd game of age of empires (for Rich)

Us With Eli at Nsobe

The first monday back at school we had a team from Sakeji come for a few sports fixtures. Lucy was a little in two minds as to who to support but seeing as she teaches them PE she really couldn't cheer on anyone else than Amano. It was a good event and the guys from Sakeji were very good competition for the Amano guys especially good as there are even less in a year at sakeji than there is at Amano!

Last weekend was busy, Lucy was ref of u14 hockey tournament  here at Amano on saturday morning. There were boy and girl teams from 2 other schools at U14 and just 1 other school at U19, the Amano pitch isn't the most carpet like so hockey is a bit of a challenge some of the opposition seemed to not appreciate the bumps and divets about the place but its the same for both sides ay! Then on Sunday we went to Nsobe Game park the other side of Ndola, its about 10km off the main road so, we were stating to wonder where we were going to end up. But we got there and saw our Friend Eli who was over seeing other friends from around Chengelo. So that was exciting, also she brought with her skittles and chocolate which was very exciting.

Inter-house hockey

On Monday Rich drove to Ndola again to pick up Brian and Deirdre Davies from BSE, they were on route to Congo to see the place they lived a few years ago 1968-1978 i think they said, anyway they'd not been to Zambia since 1974 so things have changed a little since they were last here.

So it was fairly busy last weekend, Handily this weekend is a long one as we've got Monday and Tuesday off as well. Which is nice as it means we get a chance to write our reports!

Also We had inter-house unihoc (for primary) on Tuesday and Boys hockey (seondary) Thursday which Luano (our house) won which was very good news. 

I thought i ought to show you some of the construction projects that are going on at amano at the moment. The new Technology block is on its way up, unfortunately the saw mill are slow at getting us roof timbers (we chop down a tree, take it in to town and then bring back lots of bits of 6 x 2 well that kinda size). So currently we're just waiting for more of those so they can finish the roof and then get the insides sorted. It looks great inside as its so big! all the old container classrooms are fine but very small so are very cramped with 16 pupils in. The other thing that's going on is constructing a new field. to make a nice flat field we've been given a bull dozer by one of the businesses in town to use for 10 days. Its quite a job, there was just under an 8m difference between one corner and another which translates in to a lot of dirt. Steadily its getting there, its on another job on Wednesday so, hopefully it'll get it  fairly well level by then!

Technology block

So thats how things are with us, hope things back home are good with people and your enjoying the sun which i hear has turned up recently!

May, a hectic month!

Hello

So, its been about a month since the last blog and a heap of stuff has happened since then it really has been crazy busy around Amano. So, we're all just about hanging on for one more week before half term arrives.

Last blog was a quick note to say we can drive! which has been really useful and really good to not have to be waiting at RTSA for hours and hours so that's nice as well as being able to just head places if we want to rather than having to wait for lifts in our own car.

Waiting for Duathlon prize giving.

So, just after the last blog i think was the Duathlon which was a PTA event, there weren't many taking part so it was a bit of a disappointment from that point of view but, it was good fun. There was a 5km run followed by a 13km bike ride which was done in teams of 4. There were 3 change over points on both the biking and running so you could split it up as you like. Rich did the first half of the bike ride and managed to keep ahead of Jo Grove (PE teacher) so he was happy about that. Unfortunately our tactics weren't great and with hindsight rich really should have done some running as well.  While we're talking about running rich did his cross country personal best last week with 19 mins 11 seconds beating Mr Kirk... its the last one this week so, hopefully i can just get in to the 18 min mark. But anyway back to duathlon, Rich's team came last. But we didn't ever expect to win, and when winning isn't really an option its the taking part that counts.

Sleeping in the bush!

A week and a bit later Lucy went off to Ndubaluba which is an outdoor activity place with grades 5-7 (years 4-6). They were there all week and were pushed a lot in the hope they would be able to bond as a team, they certainly learnt a lot and time will tell if it helps them get along long term! They had a faith pole (10m telegraph pole) which had wooden blocks nailed to it so they could climb and them stand on the platform at the top, they were obviously harnessed up and such but still its a wobbly pole a long way off the ground. There were lots of team activities where they had to learn to work together in order to accomplish a task while racing the other team. They'd planned to go canoeing but due to health and safety (which exists a lot more in Africa than people like you to believe) they couldn't go (they saw a crocodile in the water)And on last night they slept under the stars with just mosquito nets above them. Its currently cold season in Zambia, before you feel too sorry that means it gets down to about 10 degrees which is i dunno 50 Fahrenheit  for those of you who still measure temperature in Latin. Which is a little chilly to sleep out in if you're used to frosts and snow but from the sound of it is actually like sleeping in snow for some people in Zambia. It turns out a Zambian talking about cold is like an Eskimo talking about hot. Its cold season and its still 29 degrees outside as i write so, basically like a lovely hot end of/early summer  day back home. Cold in the morning but lovely by afternoon.

School Fair

Anyway back to what we've been doing. So Lucy got back on the Friday and Saturday was the school fair... another PTA event. All the secondary grades had stalls out as well as a PTA one with food and others that people had paid for.  Again it wasn't that busy possibly as it'd only been a few weeks from the last PTA event. But was again good fun but a busy morning/ afternoon. Then on Sunday evening we had borders christian fellowship, so we were  along there  with rich playing guitar as they sang random songs they picked. Its good fun, but i'd be nice if there was a chance to practice some songs and put a little more dynamics as they end up all sounding the same, but, they seem to enjoy themselves so, i guess it must work well!

Primary athletics at Ndola Trust school

 Then the week gone by we've been busy setting exams for next week and then yesterday we got up at 5:45 (yes on a saturday) to take a primary athletics team - (u9,u11,u13) to Ndola (about hour and a half away) to take part in a tournament. There were 4 other schools and the amano team was by a long way the smallest, which became very evident during the relays when the fact that basically all of our eligible pupils were taking part rather than the 4 best meant we struggled. But despite having no under 9 boys team at all we came 4th out of 5 which we figured was a decent effort by those competing.  Rich was given the tricky task of deciding the 5th place person for the races, which was generally nice and easy as he just found the person with no place card!

Next week we've got exams set for every year in every subject, so very little planning for this week and just invigilating a few exams and then of course marking them when they're done. Also we have to head to RTSA to pick up our driving licences (we currently just have temporary ones that last a month it can be renewed easily but our permanent ones should be(might be) there! Next weekend we're off down to Lusaka to drop the Kirks off at the airport and  then go to the Olympic youth development centre to watch the secondary compete in the ISAZ national athletics competition.  followed by the inevitable trip for a coffee at mugg and bean and a steak at spur and possibly a film if there is anything good on. Then back next Sunday ready to enjoy a well deserved week off as it'll be half term!!