So, this time in 4 weeks we'll be on our way to Lusaka ready to get on the Emirates flight out of Lusaka in the evening. It'll be very exciting heading back to the UK after 20 months but we're both looking forward to it. We're hopeful that during our month back home we'll have a nice break from Zambia and also have a better idea of what we're planning to do after the school year here finished in December.
In the last month since we wrote a very quick catch up blog we've been pretty busy, which is generally a theme of everyone's life i've noticed.
To start with We had Lucy's sister Bekah and her husband Andy come and visit. As part of the cornelius clan half of Zambia wanted to have them over for food to catch up with them so, we had to go with them as well which as you can imagine was a hassle, going to peoples houses and having them cook for us. Don't feel too sorry for us!
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| ISAZ at Ndola Stadium |
On the first Saturday they were here we had the ISAZ national athletics finals at the stadium in Ndola. Its only about 3 years old and is quite a decent place to be having athletics! Amano did well, but we're only small and with hefty restrictions on who is allowed to take part in an Amano team we didn't have a full squad and so we came 5th out of 10 or so schools. It was a good event and its always good to watch the pupils take part in things especially out of the normal confines of the classroom.
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| Our cabin in Nsobe |
After that was our half term which we spent mostly with Bekah and Andy. We stayed a few nights at Nsobe game camp which is on the way to Lusaka about 2 or so hours from us here. We stayed in a cabin tucked away looking over a lake which was lovely. We'd only been there a few minutes and a water buck came walking past and we saw plenty of animals about the place. It was a really nice and relaxing place to be. Also we cooked pretty much completely on fire which is just better (when you're not in a hurry). Unfortunteley Andy got bitten by something, we're still not sure what but it wasn't good so we drove down to the local clinic and got seen to but weirdly didnt have to pay anything which didn't make sence to us as everyone else did. But we checked and they said we didn't have to pay. TheDoctor thought it was an Ant bite which seemed unlikely to the rest of us but hey. He did have to check the spelling of ant as he wasn't sure if it was an Aunt bite but seeing as any of Andy's Aunties were in Europe that seemed unlikely.
We then drove down to Kabwe and Visited a friend of Bekah and Andy from the Ship who is working at OM Zambia where there doing heaps of building. Then we went to Lusaka and dropped them off to get a bus to Livingstone. This did involve going in to the intercity bus terminal which is something most Zambians don't look forward to so, as 4 white people we did receive a fair amount of attention. But with pockets and bags protected everything was ok and we left with 2 bus tickets from the correct bus company!
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| Some time rich Climbed up here, This is a bit of Chingola! |
On the saturday morning we headed back to the bus station, dropped them off and made our way up to Amano.
On monday we were back at school and spent a lot of lessons going through exam papers that had been marked at various places in Zambia on our half term break.
This last week has been spiritual emphasis week. We've had a team from GLO in Ndola who have come and done different sessions with the pupils along the theme of who do you say Jesus is. As teachers we've not had a lot to do with it but, it seems to have been run well and we've had at least 1 person become a Christian which is obviously good news!
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| Most of the primary athletics team |
Last weekend we had the excitement of primary athletics event again in Ndola but in the shadow if the stadium at Ndola Trust school. Again it was a good chance to see the pupils take part, and we were very happy with how they got on. Unfortunately Rich had to drive pupils there in our car as the school bus got taken to take some teachers to a private event which didn't quite seem fair. But handily we traveled safely and without hassle and Rich managed to judge the 5th place runner and spend another saturday driving!
This weekend is a long weekend so we don't have school until thursday as monday and tuesday are public holidays. Wednesday we are having a staff vision day which we don't really know much about apart from we have to go. Other than that, Hopefully we can change oil in the car and have a look over it and check nothing is about to fall off (we don't think anything is) and get reports written!
