Des pays et des gares...

I'm a posting machine this week. :) With fewer duties this year, I have extra time on my hands. This is a series of photos I took to try and use for one of my MatadorU photography assignments.  Money was found to build a new kitchen. Yay! Our new building has four solid, plastered walls, a tin roof, and unglazed windows for ventilation. Prep and cleanup is still an outdoor affair. The most commonly prepared meals are pap (corn meal porridge) and stewed chicken feet, pap and pilchards (canned sardines in tomato sauce), samp (kind of like hominy) and beans, and butternut. Sometimes we get roasted mealies -- roasted ears of field corn. In season, large cases of oranges will appear at school and get doled out. At other times, bananas will arrive. When the lunch ladies have finished preparing the day's meal, they portion it into large, repurposed plastic buckets and place these at intervals along the walkways in front of the school's classrooms. It's served at 10AM and t

I found the photos Perry took of some of the storm damage. Our family's church, Sambulo Church of Zion in Africa, lost most of its roof. What was left blew away a short time later... This building's roof peeled back like the lid on a tin of sardines! A closer view. - Elizabeth

Wow. We aren't good bloggers. Sorry about that. I'm going to try and catch you up with 2014 so far, but honestly, I don't quite know where to begin. I guess I'll start with photos of my number one science learner and Team Tiger's -- I had two science classes last year, Team Tiger and the Kaiser Chiefs -- most improved learner. Xolani (Wise) #1! Lifa, Team Tiger's Most Improved Part I: School I was pretty excited about 2014. I'd no longer have my own class, for one thing. While I very much enjoyed the teaching part of having my own class, I certainly did not enjoy the paperwork and record keeping aspects. In South Africa, each teacher is required to keep a physical portfolio, and each portfolio must contain the prescribed information in a prescribed format with prescribed components. Off the top of my head, each must have an index (TOC), a work schedule (essentially, a pacing guide), lesson plans (in the required format), assessments, memos (key