Tuesday, Dec 2
Where did I leave off? Oh, it was Thanksgiving. We celebrated by having sandwiches for lunch. Ray has two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I had a tuna sandwich. For dinner, I made chicken and attempted stuffing, with what ingredients I could find here and mashed potatoes. It worked but not as we are accustomed to. But as they say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.
Friday was my birthday and other than the phone calls from home, no one would have know it. Ray & I went to lunch at a chicken place in the shopping strip mall but that was it. It was just another day.
I found some addition flash cards and played with the kids with them. They kept wanting to go through them over and over and over again until I finally had to stop because I was the one who was tired. Some of the kids were great at addition and others were a bit slower but we had all grade levels working on these. It was fun for them and fun for me. We’d play games by acting out the problems. If the flash card was 7 + 5, we’d put 7 girls on one side and 5 boys on the other to come up with our answer. I’d try to confuse them by having two cards that equaled the same answer and asking them how that could be. For example, we’d have 8 + 2 = 10 and 5 + 5 = 10. I’d ask them if that was right and how could that be. Sometimes we’d have to act it out just to make sure. That was fun.
The puzzle we gave them a couple weeks ago has been completely destroyed. It was so worn out that we threw it away. They played so much with it that the faces were off the pieces and most of the tabs were missing. It was in sad shape. We do have another one at our house that we have not taken to them yet but will do so in a while.
I typed, and typed and typed the school exams for this year. That was a long job. I had no problem preparing the exams that were written in English. I knew what they wanted and when I needed to leave spaces for answers, when answers were multiple choice, filling in the blank, etc. However, it was much more difficult with the exams written in Chichewa. I had to have our day security, Evance, help me. He would read the letters to me and explain to me what each section said so I knew how to prepare it. It took hours and hours to type all of these exams but it is a culmination of what they have learned in each subject all year. Each class has five or six exams to take this week. Next week will then start school break until January.
We hike the mountain to pray yesterday with some of the kids. Wow – what a journey up and up and up. I took several breaks on the way up but what an experience at the top. The scenery was beautiful and the worship was great. God is definitely on the mountaintops!! This mountain is behind our house in Chilobwe so we walked from our house. This is the same mountain Ray has said several times that he wanted to go to the top of. Well, we were not to the top but we were on the next peak down from the top. God’s glory in His creation could be seen for miles. I cried it was so beautiful. All the mountains, the villages, the town, the trees, the rocks --- all this for His glory!!! It was so worth the tiresome trip to the top.
While on the mountain, one of the groups prayed for rain. Well, since God answers prayers, it rained. It looked like it was going to rain on us when we left so we scurried down the mountain. It rained all around us and we only got a couple of sprinkles. We arrived back to our house and within 5 minutes of arriving, it downpoured. Thank God for the rain. This country needs it. The rainy season started the beginning of November and we have not had enough rain for the crops. We visited the three fields we planted and one of them (of course the one furthest away) had not had rain so the seeds will no longer grow. That one will need to be replanted if we can find money for seed and fertilizer.
When we access our email, we have found that our Cox account runs so much slower than our Gmail account so we are using our Gmail account more often. Therefore, if you wish to email us, please send your messages to asmith1133@gmail.com. The link on this blog has also been changed to use that address.
God’s blessings to you!
Ray & Alice
asmith1133@gmail.com
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