Sunday 11 November 2007

Bonfire Night Party

Things are slowly returning to normal here - well at least for the next 3 days! This last week has been very surreal. Amanda and I stayed at Dave and Esther's house house-sitting for them last week, which I loved. I got to drive into school and town and the feeling of independence was priceless. In fact so much so that I am going to buy a car here! I realised how much I was missing my independence here. Living in the school means we have limited things to do! We walk into town but that's about it without having to catch buses, taxis or relying on others. Anyway, the father of one of my gorgeous Grade 1's is selling his Toyota 4Runner at a reasonable price. It's 17 years old - but apparently that is standard for used cars here! It means we will all e able to get out and do things at last!

Noels friend Kristen has also been here this week from Canada. She was sitting in on classes as she decides which age she wants to teach. She loved my Grade 1's and so used to come into my classroom a fair bit. She was really lovely and we got on very well indeed - someone else to laugh with is always a bonus!

On Friday we had a 'Fireworks Party' to celebrate Bonfire Night. We have had Canadian thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving is coming up and needed to have something British!! It was great, we invited all our friends and went up to the camp for Chinese food, fireworks and a campfire! Obviously I took my Union Jack playing cards with me! It really was an excellent evening, great fun. This isn't really firework time right now and so our choice of fireworks was somewhat limited! The boys enjoyed the challenge of lighting them!












The weather this last week has been awful. Really cold, wet and miserable. We have all been wearing our layers and the kids sit in class wearing coats, hats, gloves etc! It is probably about 15C but the rain means everything is damp all the time and we have no heating so nothing ever dries and the damp concrete buildings are great - not to mention all the mud! Today however has been lovely and hot - not sure how long it will last. At least we had a nice evening for the bonfire!!

On Wednesday, Amanda has her friend coming to stay for 2 weeks and then next Monday Pete comes for a week - I'm looking forward to that!!