June travels turn into July

First, I apologize for any grammar errors or other sentences that don't make sense....you try writing on weird sleep patterns, traveling through a variety of time zones, etc.  Continue reading for a taste of what life has recently been like for me.....

Well for all you curious readers, here is a brief update of my recent travels.  It all began at the wonderful hour of 4am on Friday June 27^th.  After multiple stops, a delicious road lunch, being extremely squished, and watching the sunrise and set, I arrived in N’Djamena.  It only took approximately 14 hours.  I had the privilege of spending the night in the home of some family friends.  The hospitality was amazing and I truly enjoyed myself, however……I had no mosquito net and even with the assistance of good ole Deet, I still pretty much look and feel like I have the chicken pocks.  Saturday morning I sat chatting with members of the family.  I headed to the airport only to discover that my flight was cancelled or seriously delayed, who really knows.  Instead of leaving Chad at 2:00pm I left around 12:00am.  Needless to say, my connection was long missed.  Thus began the long process of waiting in lines.  I waited in line to obtain my boarding pass.  Then I waited in line to obtain a hotel voucher.  I had a scare that I would be trapped in Ethiopia for quite some time, due to my voucher saying that my flight would leave at 11:00pm on July 1^st.  Turns out that paper was wrong!  Upon arrival in Ethiopia, I began standing in line again.  I had to get my hotel assignment.  Then I had to go through customs in order to leave the airport.  Finally I caught the shuttle to my hotel.  All together I spend about 2 hours waiting in the Ethiopian airport just trying to figure out where to go.  Now remember, I am exhausted, itchy, and these are not nice neat orderly American lines I was waiting in.  There was a whole lot of pushing and crowding and I was honestly ready for a bit of personal space after the whole ordeal.  So I arrived at my hotel and immediately took a WARM shower.  It has truly been months since I last did this, and let me just say it felt amazing.  It was rather disgusting when I washed my feet and I could see the dust just melting away from them.  Also another shocking things was simply sitting on my bed and having it bounce a bit.  It has been some time since my bed bounced!  Being slightly more comfortable I took a long desired nap.  After my nap I went to eat lunch…It was rather strange.  The food was good, but it is never nice to eat alone and then they took my water.  The greatest discovery of the day was WiFi in the hotel.  So I was at least able to contact my beloved family, their plans are also ruined due to my late arrival…

Later in the evening I returned to the front desk of the hotel to double check the shuttle’s departure time, because I did not want to miss that!  The lady at the desk said my name was not on the list and asked if I was sure I was leaving.  I immediately said yes, I have my ticket.  She said, well if you think so, the shuttle leaves around 8:00pm.  So I was prepared and managed to get my flight and arrived in Washington.  I will finally reach my destination of SanFran at 3:18pm.  It most certainly was some long days of travel but I am very grateful to finally be back.  I highly anticipate seeing my family waiting for me to travel to my grandparents and enjoy a nice swim in the pool.  I am ready to be done with waiting in lines and sitting all day long!

view out my hotel room in Addis

Summer Plans

Very shortly a new summer of travel will commence for me!  I am one lucky girl.  My next blog post will be from a place where internet speed will be fast enough for me to make my own post instead of having my father do the posting.  I am excited to be heading to San Francisco and look forward to spending time with my wonderful family.

Here in Chad we have had our rapid first week without school.  It is amazing to think how quickly the time passed.  We have been working on a variety of projects, went out to the base to see the happenings of the Service d'été, and even spent some time playing with local kids at the soccer field near our house.  It really has been fun just relaxing and working on projects that have been long dreamed of but not complete.  There are many projects to complete before I depart, but as long as sickness continues to stay away I have no fear that they will get completed.

Lunch!

Service d'été class



Now!  Crazy what a little rain does!

Remember when ... February?



Winds of change

The winds are blowing a new time for us here in Chad.  It is really amazing how the winds pick up (speeds that knock trees over) and with them come cool breezes and rain.  It will be perfectly sunny and then suddenly the dark clouds start rolling in and just before the rain hits the temperature drops around 10 degrees Fahrenheit.  It is sad to admit that when the temperatures are in the lower 80's we are all feeling a bit chilled.  Also the winds can't help but remind me, thanks to my mother, of Something Wicked This Way Comes all except for the creepy carnival that gives people their deepest desires…..Anyway, there is nothing quite like a good rain on a tin roof.


It is hard to believe that June is here and that school is ending for lots of people, including us.  This week's project was to choose a book we read and do something creative about it.  Josh created a game, similar to chess, based on a book called Justin Morgan Had a Horse.  This book was about the first Morgan horse (now a more common breed).  It was set during the time after the birth of the US.  So when there were all those revolutions going on in Europe, and France and England constantly warring with each other and the US., Josh's game burst forth with the idea of attacking the other player's army and collecting all their horses and turning them into dog food (complete with a can to put your food in).  Zachary on the other hand did his project on And Then What Happened Paul Revere? A book about, you guessed it, Paul Revere.  He built a model of Paul's fateful trip across the river where the horse, which would take him on his famous ride, would be waiting.  The model is complete with cannons on the Summerset and cloth wrapped on Paul's oars so they wouldn't make a sound in the water.  I on the other hand chose to do my project on The Candymakers.  I wrote letters and emails from the main characters to one another.  Simple, yet fun to think about what might happen after the end of the story.

Our school year is nearly complete, and so it is time for me to start making lists and checking them twice to make sure I get done all I hoped to do prior to my departure in 3 weeks.

Thinking of summer reunions!

It is hard to believe that June is here!  In just 1 month I will be arriving in California to celebrate with my family.  I am so excited for all of us to be together again.  I must admit, I have indeed started my packing lists for my return to the states.  It might seem a bit early but trying to coordinate things always takes more time.

Our school year is drawing to a close and thus it is project time.  The boys and I are trying to do a science experiment related to growing radishes.  We are testing different growing conditions and observing the way plants change to get what they need for survival.  The problem we are facing is that the experiment was clearly not created for Chad.  Our radishes will sprout really fast, but by the time we get to the activity they are dead.  Radishes prefer temperatures below 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  Believe it or not, we have had a few days below 90 (thanks to rainy season), but these days also had high humidity.  It is a little like summer in Ohio.  Our project for this week was writing poetry.  All year we have been studying different forms as well as some famous authors.  So I decided it was time that these kids tried out the different forms.  We tried our hands at nursery rhymes, nonsense verse, limerick, haiku, narrative verse, lyric verse, shape poems, epitaphs, riddles, acrostics, and free verse.  We also studied more specific forms of narrative (like ballad) and lyric (sonnet, villanelle).  It was pretty fun hearing what the kids came up with.  We still haven't had our poetry reading, but I think tomorrow will be the day.  I will let my publisher pick some of the best to be shared here on the blog, since there is a whole book full to choose from. 

Besides doing poetry we are busy with many other projects in these last 2 weeks of school.  It is an exciting time as we approach the end, and I think we are all looking forward to our break (although Marianna did say on our last day off, "Can I do school today?")  I think we will set up some supplies for the girls to play school this summer…..

I hope that spring finds you all well, and I hope that this poetry inspires you to try something new!

Nobody (by Katie)

I’m invisible so I am nobody,

But people see me when I am muddy.

It’s dangerous when people can’t see me.

They might hurt my knee!

Why Do Cows Say Moo (by Marianna)

Why do cows say moo?

Because they’re all named Sue.

Maybe the grass has glue!

And that’s all they do is mooooooo mooooooo mooooooooo!!!!!!

The Mighty Whale (by Zack)

Listen my children to this chilling tale,

About Herod the killer whale.

On every moon lit night,

Sailors see a flash of white.

It sent many into a fright.

 

When Herod rose from the water to his full height,

It made many sailors fear the fight.

Their ships are full of fish,

And this is what is Herod’s wish

He wanted the pile on his dish,

 
In order for Herod to eat,

He sank each ship he did meet.

He would take a bite from the bottom of the boat,

Until the structure would no longer float.

 
A mighty warship emerged from the fog.

So Herod picked up a giant walnut log.

The war ship planned to sink the mighty whale,

The captain shouted, ”Let down the sail.”

 
Herod the whale used his tail

He broke the ship to pieces and split the sail.

With no fish on board to fill a pan

Herod ate each and every man.

To this day

Herod the whale is a –okay.

Mars trucks (by Josh)

The aliens of mars,

Needed some trucks.

They had cars,

To carry their ducks.

But they needed things to carry their candy bars.

 
So they set off,

With a grim laugh.

They ran into a great piece of chaff,

On reaching the planet of calf.

 

The mother cows gave a bellow.

The aliens turned yellow,

Of great fright,

Summer Home (by Elin)

Sun turning all green

The smell of cut grass and mint

Water beckoning

Rainy Season

May 18, 2013
 


New Life

It is official, rainy season is making its debut, well for this year anyway.  It is amazing how life gets its first quenching drink and instantly seedlings are bursting out of the ground.  We have had a few garden plants growing throughout dry season but they require watering at morning and at night.  The trees are opening new leaves, little trees are popping up, and small amounts of grass are growing, particularly in our flowerbeds.  Plant life is not the only variety emerging.  Bugs are coming out in full force, something that the toads and lizards are happy about.  A few mosquitos and a few crickets have entered our lives.  Not yet in the extreme bulk which we had previously experienced, but present never the less. 




Our fun discovery is that the new puppy greatly enjoys gobbling up crickets.  She is not really coordinated enough, nor does she have enough focus, but she will consume the crickets when caught and placed before her.  Who needs dog treats when we have a plethora of crickets hiding around our pool!  Chui is looking much healthier now with 2 meals a day and 50+ ticks removed (not exaggerating).  She is also sporting a new flee collar and has consumed her worm medicine.  She is very playful and has a blast chasing the children around the compound.  Secretly I have special snuggle time (I know I shouldn't have her in my lap due to parasites and pests so I do it when the children aren't looking so as not to set a bad example J).


We are still accidentally ripping workbook pages out due to sweaty arms, because though the temperatures have dropped the humidity has increased.  The good news is that school is drawing to a close.  In fact the boys and I make it through the curriculum so rapidly that I have had to come up with some new projects for them.  All fun of course!  Perhaps I will join them in their writing.  So many fun things we can do!  I hope each and every one of you who reads this is also finding fun things to do!

Puppy!

Well folks…big news around these parts!  We got a puppy this week.  Little Chui is now a part of our lives.  Yes, it is true her name sounds like chewey which is what puppies like to do, but it is actually Swahili for leopard, just like Simba is Swahili for lion.  She is quite small but has settled in nicely and the kids certainly wear her out between her naps. 

Sunset prior to a storm

We also got our first long rainstorm this week.  the humidity has arrived but at least the temperatures have dropped slightly to accompany the increase of moisture.

Rather Routine

Well folks, it has been a while since my last update.  Life here in Chad has been rather routine.  About the only new thing around these parts is the heat rash on my arm (pretty good that it just appeared after living in temperatures over 100 degree Fahrenheit for 2 months).  Well - my rash, giant mangoes, and our kitchen experiments.  Basically we are trying new recipes, particularly those that don't heat up the kitchen too much.  We have tried soft pretzels (the kids liked them but I was unimpressed), sourdough (which got really sour quickly here in the heat), corn chips, puddings, and a variety of flavor of cereal.  Many of these experiments have taken place in our outdoor oven that we are currently heating with charcoal.  These have been creative outlet for us. It has been fun to discover things that work out well.  If anyone has suggestions, let me know!  Remember we have the basics in our kitchen and most things have to be made from scratch.

 

Sourdough

With April ending we have only about 6 weeks of school left which means trying to finish things up, planning a bit (thinking of fun activities, especially for that last week), and considering what next year will look like.  We are trying a new curriculum for language arts and spelling which is exciting.  With the close of the school year I will be preparing for my return to the U.S.  I am anticipating that this next month will go by quickly and we can only hope that the speeding of time will bring along some cool breezes!