The Evans

we are on "holiday," now, as all of our cute little international students call it! i am so glad to have a little break! the last two weeks of school have been crazy. the next to last friday, dan robbins and i had a movie night for the 7th graders. we watched "elf" in the library (my first time to watch it...i LOVED it! i take back everything bad i ever sad about it). the kids brought snacks.

then last saturday, we had to be at the academy pool ALL day for the inter-house swim gala (for some reason, south africans love that word: gala! we would just call it a meet). i put on TONS of sunscreen, but i was taking antibiotics at the time, so i got major burned. it was only on my face, but my nose and chin blistered, and my lips were sooo burned.

we had our christmas program on thursday night...i had to work on getting costumes made for two groups of ballet classes. plus we had practices, etc. so it was a stressful week, but everything worked out. the costumes got made in time and the kids all did great! bech videotaped both dances. when i figure out how to transfer video from the camera to the computer, i will attempt to upload video of the dances. but for now, you can go here and see the youngest kids dance.

i also put up pictures on facebook (it takes sooo much time to upload them to blogspot, and its a lot quicker to do it on facebook) of our safari. i will be putting up updated academy and just general life in africa pictures soon (either today or tomorrow). so please get on and look at them...they're fun! i will try to also put some pictures on blogspot, but i just won't be able to do as many.

on a sad note, i have two students leaving! Maria is just going to a boarding school in another part of Malawi. the school is run on the British system, thus the move. Sari (pronounced "sorry") is going back to Australia. i am going to miss both of them so much! also, Annie Williams (a Jr. High teacher) is going back to Florida, Connie Zude (Kindergarten teacher) and her daughter Caroline are going back to Illinois, and the Boersmas (clinic doctor and family) are going back to Louisiana. we are losing so many people! also, several other familys that are involved in ABC in one way or another are moving to other countries. its really sad :(

but we may be getting a new doctor in January (the Highs), so that would be great!

okay, well i better end this...bech and i are off to the market. the boersmas gave us an old cookbook of theirs, that has a foccacia bread recipe i want to try! bech has reminded me that he has a foccacia bread recipe in one of his many bread books he brought along. but this cookbook is called something like "trusted recipes of home cooks," which is a lot less intimidating than his "the art of breadmaking" (or something equally discouraging). so i will let you know how the bread turns out. i did feel inspired to make homemade crackers last night. they're pretty good, if i do say so myself!