Update 24 March

Good Day

 

I am sitting on my back porch at 5:09 pm on Saturday. Tickling my feet are our 3 soon to be departed (we hope) kittens from the cat who owns this house we rent. They are about 4 weeks old now and no box we have can hold them. They are still awkward but getting around very well. Mama cat is weaning them off milk in the last few days so we are stepping in as foster parents. Betsy has some elaborate names for each of them. Ophelia Cappuccino and Francisco I think. I like mine better. White, Brown and Gray. I just found out the hard way that their claws are certainly developing fine. Ouch. Brown seems to be the adventurous one of the 3. He is always the leader and seems to be the first to test new waters. Betsy was reading in the bedroom but now came out to see what the screeching is all about. Those claws are sharp.

We are off school for 2 weeks. Many of the missionary families are in town to pick up their kids from school and to attend a conference of some sort. It gives us a chance to talk face to face with them on their kid's progress. The big Drama Production was Thurs and last night. They did "The Merchant of Venice". Betsy was assistant director and designed all the costumes. A tailor from our quartier did most of the sewing. He is a friend of our guards and we got to know him a few months ago. He made around 45 costumes, tops and bottoms, and some hats. Betsy bought all the material from the big (crazy) market north of downtown. That place is a zoo. Americans certainly get all the customer attention they could possibly want. She gave her plans to Edmund and he did a good job. He made around 75,000 cfa ($150) for the whole thing and a ticket to the show. That is probably at least a months wages he made in 5 days.

I am the 10^th grade class co-advisor and they got the opportunity to sell refreshments outside before, during and after the show both nights. Getting 26 10^th graders to agree on anything is a miracle in itself but they managed to pull it together nicely. We called it Café Italiano and made booths like a marketplace. We had Italian café music playing and sold little pizzas, biscotti, lemonade and frappuccino along with a wide variety of desserts like mango pie and leopard brownies. Previous fundraisers have yielded about 60-100k for events like this so my expectations were low. On Thursday in 90 degree heat and humidity, the cold water fountain went out during volleyball practice and wasn't repaired until Friday. Our lemonade sales were out of sight. A few people asked if we broke it on purpose but I assured them we did not. We ended up making just under 200k which is about $400. They will use it for their class trip eventually. I was really impressed with a handful of kids who worked very hard both nights to get it done. Most of the rest chipped in a little but were invisible most of the time. We gave the leftovers to the cast and crew all-night party. We were asked to chaperone the event with the director, Kevin Chilton the English teacher, and agreed because we were afraid nobody else would do it and they would have to cancel. I knew the art teacher was invited and it turns out she planned to stay all night and then we were off the hook. We got the place cleaned up and swept out by midnight and after heavenly thanks, a game of Risk and a round of leopard brownies and Coke went home at around 3:30. We have been just lounging today. After 2 long days, we need some rest.

My Geography class is studying wind processes and we decided to build a windmill. The class designed it and we built it with scrap parts from the CAM shop. We had a public showing on Friday morning and it went well. I have some pictures I will attach from the show.

Other than that, we decided to go to the beach instead of Equatorial Guinea for break. The travel costs were just a little too much. We have reservations at the same beachfront hotel we stayed at last October when I crashed on a wave and about broke my neck. We are going with a couple from Florida we have gotten to know well here. She teaches Bible and English and he is the maintenance supervisor for the school. They are a lot of fun and we are looking forward to getting away.

Try the video with Windows media player.

Until next time

Take care and God Bless

Brian & Betsy