Monday, April 30, 2007

2nd Wedding Anniversay

Today Pete and I celebrate our second wedding anniversary. We got married under 14 inches of snow in the beautiful Rockies. Our first anniversary was spent unloading a moving van after traveling across the US to store our stuff while in Cameroon. We thought it was bad luck that we could only go to the "House of Biscuits" or "Applebee's" for dinner. Here no restaurants are open on Mondays AND it is a National holiday! So we went to dinner with good friends last night and today we are working at school. Not as romantic as I had hoped, but at least we are healthy and pretty happy. We are having the adventure we wanted and it can be tough at times, but we stronger for all the challenges we face.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Dehydrated Brains





The ones on the tree look like greenish-brown dehydrated brains. I am not brave enough to cut one open. I think I will ask a custodian to get one down for us.

What is that?!?



Yikes! These grow all on their own. No one in my class knew what the name is. Although one boy said he thinks you can eat the insides raw.

Running Path



I run laps at school while I wait for Peter to be finished with his work. Part of it follows a wall painted with the flags of the countries our students are from. There are mango trees and then these other ones with humongous green fruits. So far I haven't been hit in the head by any, but the rotten ones are under foot. The left shot is of the mangoes. They are different than the ones available in America. They stay green and taste so much better. Yes, that's barbed wire--everything here has barbed wire. The right shot is the path and you can see some of the tennis courts.

Classroom Antics



I was using the camera holder that Heather sent me. I hung the camera upside-down from a wire that displays work. I then used the self-timer to get into the shot, well, once anyways!

Picture Perfect


This our office. I hang up all the cards and photos we get. They extend to the next wall. This is also a new outfit. It is a top and skirt in a very common style for here. Turned out nice huh? I couldn't figure out how to turn it once it's on the screen!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Things People Say

This year has been a doozy for excuses, here are a few...
"Mrs. Schmitt, I couldn't do my homework last night because the electric was out and our generator is out of oil"-legitimate-gets dark at 6:30, we don't even have a generator!

"My mom couldn't sign the form because she's traveling to _______"--fill in any country you can imagine, it would probably fit

"I'm sorry kids, I thought growing rock candy would work, I had no idea it would grow mold as it was eaten by hordes of ants"-- the bugs just mocked me!

"I don't have my homework because I forgot it and my driver wouldn't go back in the gate"--hardly any parents actually drive their kids themselves

"Sorry kids, I couldn't do the static electricity experiment I had planned for today, due to the rainy season"--I also had to really search the whole city as no one here uses combs

"No coach I couldn't wash my uniform because the water has been cut for 3 days"-- the return of stinky basketball uniforms