Wednesday Challenge and other thoughts

Your Wednesday challenge this week is to sweep up after yourself. Here, people take pride in a clean house and compound. Since everyone is always walking around in the dirt, there is constantly a broom in motion either in the house or out around the yard. You'll even see people sweeping the dirt in front of their houses so that it is nice and neat.

The past couple of mornings, Edwin has been waking up at 4:30 am thinking it's time to play, so I've been awake a little earlier than normal. Around 5:00, I start hearing the swish, swish of the broom outside my bedroom door. The kids all have a designated area to sweep each morning. As soon as their eyes pop open, they are out and about sweeping up. When I come out with Edwin, all the rooms are swept and mopped, the front of the house is swept clean, trash is thrown in the trash pile to be burned, and shoes are all lined up in front of the step ready to be put on for the walk to school.

So, my challenge for you, grab a broom first thing in the morning. Do a quick sweep of the house. For those who have carpeting EVERYWHERE (which is practically non-existant here), grab a vaccuum and do a little "sweeping up" with the vaccuum. Or, even better, grab your broom and find some dirt that needs a little straightening out!

As for some other thoughts about life lately, it's been busy. Here are a few random notes about some of things that have been going on lately. I haven't been able to access my email or blog very regularly lately, so my posts are a little farther apart than usual. In any case, I'm hoping this one posts so you'll get to hear what's been going on with us lately!

We're getting ready for our final exams for the term next week. For me, that means getting tests ready for all the leveled students in my class and teaching the teachers how to use the new report card system and putting together standardized report cards as well. Ack!

We met with the chiefs of Doryum yesterday about an issue we are having with the land registration. It went well and John and Stacy will be meeting again with the chiefs tomorrow at 7:00 am. We are really praying that God comes through in a powerful way and brings the land registration forward so that the building permit can be processed.

As mentioned above, Edwin hasn't been sleeping that well. He's usually up at least once in the night and then up at 4:30 in the morning ready to go! So, I've been up early too. Tonight, I've turned on some worship music and we'll see if that keeps him asleep. He's a tosser and turner for sure and sometimes that even wakes me up because I think that he's gotten up, but he's just rolled another direction on the bed. Anyway, I'm hoping for a little more sleep tonight.

Some exciting news. . .My Aunt Peggy sent me this HUGE box right before Thanksgiving. It was AMAZING! All kinds of things for the school, and cake and brownies for us, as Velveeta cheese for us Americans who are missing it like CRAZY! The kids were so excited for the box to be opened (I kept them in suspense!). It was such a nice package and the kids have been excited to get their hands on some of the prizes that Aunt Peggy included in the box when they go to the treasure chest tomorrow with their Kind Cash (our money system). She sent those plastic rubber bands that are shaped like animals and all those different shapes. You know what I'm talking about? And all the kids trade them? Yeah, the kids are super excited for those.

In other news, I can't believe I'm leaving in just a little over a week. Today, Miracle and DK helped me empty out some suitcases and start filling them up with some of the gifts and items I'm bringing home with me to sell. Just can't believe that I've been here for almost 5 months. So crazy!

I've got to tuck myself into bed. The early mornings are getting to me about now! Goodnight!