Another good day

Well the Paraguay match turned out to be a well-fought match but no winners. We still had some fireworks exploding around us though.

School uniform changed slightly today!

Giovanni survived his first day. He worked hard and he is keen to learn so I think that, given a week or more he will be a helpful assistant. He is a lovely Christian lad.

Photos at last

Pastor Ronnie Irene recently baptised Yanin, a young member of the St. Andrew's cathedral congregation.

Hoe, Hoe, Hoe

You are having an overdose of me this week. In this picture I have just arrived home from school (note the school uniform!) to try out my wonderful new hoe which Elaine Hutchinson brought out from Northern Ireland for me. It has been very useful for weeding and for digging holes for my new plants. (We have no proper spade or fork).

World Cup 2010

I cannot believe that it is four years since we were prancing around in England strips for the World Cup 2006. It seems like yesterday.

Everything stops for football in Paraguay, especially for the World Cup. On Friday morning we all assembled in the school hall to watch the opening of the World Cup 2010 on the big screen. Of course Mrs. T. was well into the spirit, having bought her t-shirt in South Africa....... the real thing!

What happened to England's goalie??!! on Saturday?

A measly draw. Come on England, you can do better than that.

Here I am bracing myself ready for the Albirrojas playing on Monday. (Paraguay v. Italy for those who don't know).

Aside from the fun, there is good news. Please pray for Giovanni who will start to work with me in the library on Monday. I said that the Lord would send me a handsome hunk to work with. I will post a photo later if Giovanni does not mind. Pray for him to learn the job quickly and also for him to be strong and firm with the students and staff about the rules of borrowing books and materials. He is very young so this may be difficult for him.

Rain, rain go away (preferably to the Chaco).

There are still some areas in the Chaco in need of rain, hence the headline.

At the moment I am resting at home after Mags so generously shared her bugs with me and I now have a bout of bronchitis. This has not been helped by our current spell of cold, wet weather. Some cold fronts have been whistling up from Argentina bringing storms and some torrential rain. Everything is extremely damp. We have had some spectacular rivers running down our street. I eventually dug out my winter quilt and my fleece jackets have been in use as temperatures have plummeted.

We now have the first of a stream of visitors this year. Elaine Hutchinson has returned for a week of holiday, bringing her husband Barry with her. They arrived on Saturday in perfect weather but within 24 hours they were drenched to the skin in a storm. (Fortunately I had spare wet weather gear to lend them but then the weather improved so it was not needed.) They have been surprised by some of the changes that have taken place over the past two years since Elaine left us, not least by the lovely supermarket that we now have nearby.

Last weekend it was Mother’s Day and Paraguayan Independence Day on the Saturday. The children invited their mothers into school on the Friday for a show to express their appreciation of their mums. Of course this included some patriotic national dances.

On Friday most of the Primary staff went off to a conference for Christians in Education. A few of us stayed in school to teach the children.

On Saturday Mags Southern and our P.E. staff went off with a group from 7th to 9th grade to Brazil for a Sports Week. They were all very excited, but I think that most of them did not relish the extremely long bus journey to get there, (something like 24 hours). In spite of Mags’ meticulous administration preparing documents for the border, they still got held up by the Brazilian authorities. However, we heard that they all arrived safely and were settling in.

On Sunday we had a lovely service in the Cathedral. A young girl, Yanin was baptized by pastor Ronnie. It was a very special time. There have been a few new faces in the congregation recently. As it was Pentecost we had a call to get out and evangelize to the poor and hungry on our streets. There are plenty who need to know the Lord's love.

Busy, Busy

Last week we held a Book Week in Primary. In the library I chose books to read to each class. In the classrooms the children made individual books or a class book, depending on age. Bookmaking has always been something that I love to do with the children and we usually begin the year with a bookmaking project.
This month we started an investigative geography project about the difference between the Arctic and Antarctica. The children have been engaged in searching atlases and encyclopaedias for information. The first and second grades loved watching some Utube videos about the Inuit. They drew some lovely pictures which are now on the wall. (teachers in UK note that we have limited backing resources here so no double or triple mounting.)

On Thursday it was Teacher's Day. The staff had an early breakfast together. We were then entertained by the children. This was followed by more food as there were parties in the classrooms, organized by parents. We also recived gifts.

The children went home at lunchtime and the staff were then treated to a delicious lunch, before leaving for a long weekend.

We have been fortunate with the weather. I have been able to get out into my garden, where the Autumnal temperatures are bringing my bougainvillae into flower, but also making the weeds grow, so I had a bit of work to do.

Terremoto in the library

Last week we had excitement in the library when a hump appeared in the floor. Was it a hippo making it's way up from the swimming pool below?

The hump continued to grow until Alberto our head of maintenance (a big lad!) jumped on the hump. There was a loud shattering noise as all the tiles broke. This led to the closure of the library for a day, whilst the maintenance guys dug up and removed a large chunk of the floor.

Apparently gas had built up under the tiles and as it expanded in the heat it had caused a problem.

Meanwhile runour spread around the school like wildfire and we soon had little noses poking around the door asking to see the "earthquake". We had a good laugh.

The area affected was quite large and it is not possible to repair it all until the holidays in July as the entire floor needs to be relaid.The result has been that we have acquired some nice carpet to cover the uneven floor to make it safer for the children and to enable library life to continue as usual. It has added a certain "warmth" to the library.