Today is Sunday and we have our weekend off. It is nice to just sit and relax and not have to worry about the students. We went to the little village church on the edge of the farm this morning and then decided to go for a bike ride to the Ferguson's in the afternoon. A storm was threatening but seemed far enough away. We should have known.
Apparently this area has the highest number of lightning strikes in the world! Makes you wonder who has time to count things like that! But we do have some amazing storms and they come up really fast. Friday, one of the girls took 15 boys for a bike ride before supper- the sun was shining when she left and the boys came riding back within 15 minutes in a terrible storm. We have a lightning siren so all the kids know to get into the nearest building as soon as you hear it. This poor girl though had nowhere to shelter the boys except trees so she had them make a run for it. They were soaked and scared and the girl had an asthma attack. But everyone was okay in the end- even me!
Well back to today, we had a nice time at the Ferguson's and saw some herds of Sable, Spring Buck, Kudu, Pocu and Zebra. It was tremendous watching the storm as it came across the valley and hit with a vengeance. There was a lull in the storm so we decided to get back to the school. Needless to say we got wet and muddy. The wind had blown down trees on the trail and it took a bit longer than we thought. When we got back we heard from the guard that some children in a nearby village had been struck by lightning. We have not heard how they are. We heard as well that a tree had come down on the power line at the orphanage. No one was hurt there. As I write this note the rains and thunder is starting again, I guess the rainy season is here. The young 17 yr old girl who is the niece of the headmaster and staying here this term was down on river yesterday and ended up killing one snake and one got away. These two were "boomslangers" and quite nasty I understand. They say as the rains come, we will see more snakes.
The grade 7's wrote their national exams this past week which was quite stressful for them as it affects their opportunities for getting into the best high schools. The exams are to see if the student can think through things or whether they have just memorized the facts. Also tests their understanding of English. The Sakeji kids usually do very well on the tests as they are taught completely in English and by native English speakers.
We have a term break Monday and Tuesday so there will be no classes just supervision. Sometimes it is more difficult as the students get more bangs, scraps and injuries. We will be back to regular classes on Wednesday. Hope all is well with you. That's all for now.
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Tim McDougall
Check out our blog www.timmaryadventure.blogspot.com
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