The Winds Bring the Rain

Each morning one of the teachers at the school tells the students .. hear that bird, it is calling to the winds who will bring the rains. It is a commonly held belief here that the summer months, which are so dry and hot, have these amazing gusts of winds - mostly in the mornings and it is these winds that will bring the rains in Jan. I don't know if it's true or not, but it's kind of fun to think about.

As we near the end of September, it is getting hot. When I first got here it was not so bad - warm, but comfortable. Now, it is becoming warmer and warmer and I find that being outside around 2:00pm is not such a great idea. I am drinking lots of water, as are the children and others who live at the Village.

This week I began to teach recorder classes - it is a lot of fun and almost all of the kids have taken to learning this instrument. I have also completed 20 assessments of the kids here and am in process of completing the write ups and sharing with both the teachers and the housemothers here.

Some of the kids have decided that I should learn to speak their native tongue - nyange - so they say words to me, have me repeat them back and then tell me what it means in English - it is slow going :)

Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon with the kids at the Village - mostly the boys, though, as they wanted me to read to them. I read for 2 hours - they picked up book after book and this morning they were waiting on the porch for me to read some more. I think I have found my group. Also, the kids realized that I had video capabilities on my phone and, so I recorded about 5 videos of the kids just being silly or singing or dancing around. Then, of course, they had to watch the playback over and over.

Being with the kids and just being at the Village has been such a blessing and a great time. One of the funniest stories this week was told to me by one of the housemothers, Mommy Rose. As I was walking to school on Friday, Mommy Rose came out to talk to me. She said that Gift was with the other kids before walking to school, when he all the sudden appeared outside her kitchen window. She heard Gift saying, "I think you should stay here" - upon looking out the window, Gift was shooing the flies off his body and telling them to stay there - such a hoot.

On Tuesday I head to Livingston to go to Victoria Falls - should be an interesting and exciting trip!