Sarakawa Safari

So in amongst getting lesson plans done and living without internet for a weekend... we went on Safari with Brett Emerson and saw Zebras and monkeys :) Really close up. So exciting! This is one of my pictures! It is such an experience living somewhere where you can walk out your door and see lizards and geckos that would be on some special exhibit in a zoo... or go on safari 30 minutes from your house.

This is the third week of school and the boys have been so much fun! They get really excited when they figure out how to spell a new word or just in sharing stories with me. I really enjoy teaching and I am so excited to progress with all that the students are learning, I hope they look forward to what they are going to learn this year :)

Weekend!

So this is the end of our weekend here! Instead of Saturdays and Sundays off we have Sundays and Mondays off. On Sunday we went to Jim's house again for games and coffee with people from their team. We played scum which was hilarious. There is a president and vice president and you are ranked based on how well each round goes. The lowest person gets the title of scum. I ended the game with the least overall points making me scum :) hehe.

After that we hitched a ride over to the Emerson's for our team devotional and taco pile up! Yummy! It was so good enjoying the fellowship of everyone together and hearing Brett read from 1 Corinthians 12 about the body of Christ. The reminder that each of us play different roles in the work that is being done here and how each is necessary really encouraged me. It was something I needed to hear.

Today we were going on a hike with Brett Emerson, Mark Kennell and Ryan Richardson. We began the walk on a trail, but to stay closer to the water we had to walk through some brush and we ended up having a minor injury. Bethany had her foot sliced by a cornstalk in between two toes so we ended the hike early to get it cleaned out. So now we are all enjoying the extra time with internet at the Emerson's house :)

Keep us all in your prayers this week as we begin the second week of school!

Kindergarten

This is a picture of the outside of my classroom for the kindergarteners. I love the colors of the windows and the plants outside :) Oh and note the freshly painted floors in the picture... This was taken prior to decorating.

As was this photo... Note the beautiful white walls that were repainted :) Also note the organizing and decorating that needed done :)

Here is a picture of my classroom at recess today.. it still could use a little love, but looking at how far it has come, I love it :) I will post pictures of my students soon, I took one during recess today, but it is too comical to post.. perhaps I'll post that one with a good one later.

The first day of kindergarten was today and it was good to get accustomed to our schedule and work on transitions between subjects. We had 'A' day in kindergarten today :) It was a blast familiarizing myself with the materials available and getting to know my students, Asher and Gabriel. We had tons of fun reading books together and learning to write uppercase and lowercase A's! We read some 'A' books together during snack time after recess, which was so much fun. I really enjoy the curriculum I am using for teaching Reading and Writing. Sing Spell Read and Write incorporates music and it is very detailed and easy to use.

I am so excited to see how these boys grow in their reading and writing skills throughout this year... and they are already so far ahead!

Other than school things, all of us teachers have been getting in a good amount of walking this week :) Saturday and Sunday we walked to the Emersons, (which is about a 15 min walk) and then we walked to the Millers (12 min walk) on Monday to visit before we walked to the market (25 min walk) to do a bit of shopping. Today after school we walked with Nicole and two of our students, Hannah Reeves and Maddie Kennell, to the Kennells (20 min walk) for dinner, internet access and good company :)

So everyplace is in walking distance, but I definitely will be getting my exercise this year :) It has been fun to walk and greet people that I pass and it has offered opportunity to meet other local Americans. We met Matt from DC in the market yesterday who is working for Peace Corps for the next year and a half in Kara area. It was so odd to be approached while looking at a fruit stand with an english voice asking if we were in the Peace Corps. It was nice to meet another english speaker though and I think he hadn't seen very many Americans in a long time.

Many random things have happened that I have yet to blog about. If you would like to email me and ask any questions feel free to email me at sarah.elizabeth.hug@gmail.com or facebook me. Just be aware that it may take a while to get back to you. Also feel free to check out my fellow teachers blogs (listed on the right) if you would like to read more about our life here.