Wild Africa

Well, I have some interesting things to tell you about.

Yesterday, Mylon and I went for a jog with another teacher here.  And we saw a few cool things :)

First, I almost stepped on a grasshopper which was about 4 inches long.  It was huge.

Then, when we were more in a hiking-type trail, we saw a huge lizard. Possibly a Monitor lizard.  I'd say it was about 3 feet long, but we didn't see the whole thing, so it's hard to say really.  They are pretty fast.  Here's what they look like:

Then, as we were jogging up a huge hill, Mylon saw a huge black snake in the ditch.  The other teacher with us said it was a Black mamba, but I'm not convinced.

Then, when we were walking home in the evening, after dark, about 5 minutes after I said I was glad i wasn't  a night watchman, we found out there was a lion in are area, within a few miles maybe.  Apparently it has been tracked from the Congo. It has been killing cattle and goats on it's way and it is currently being hunted. Crazyyy

Activities at Sakeji - Week 1

This past weekend, Mylon and I had the duty to teach crafts to the grade 3 and 4 boys. We had so much fun teaching them how to make “The World's Best Paper Airplane”. The boys were so excited. We had a contest of who's plane would go the farthest and the winner got this really complicated, cool-looking paper airplane that I made before the craft. Here's a picture of our little class. Now I'm stuck making all the boys the harder paper airplanes because they are all jealous. It's kind of fun though, so I don't mind.

We also have to play games with them on Thursday afternoons. We played Capture the Flag. Girls against boys with all the little Junior kids again. They really like it when the adults play with them, so we did. During the game, one little girl excitedly told me “Mr. Ollila is very fast, but the children are faster!” I love the random quotes you hear kids say. Today another girl told me that “yesterday I was wearing a dress as tall as a tree”. Anyway, here's a picture of some little guys racing:

In other news, to our amazement, someone here has a punching bag and gloves! WHATTT?!?!? We were so excited. We've worked out once on it so far. It felt so good to do a bit of boxing again. Me and the lady it belongs to (she's actually a kick-boxer) are going to set a specific time each week so we can work out together. I'm really looking forward to that. And to make the work out even better, Sakeji is located at a higher altitude than we are used to. I'm not sure how much exactly, but it is a little noticeable when you are running with kids etc.

Well I am going to go read my book and then go to bed. Breakfast is a 7am all week, so we have to be ready and out the door nice and early.

Goodnight.

Week 1

So it's been almost a week since we've been at Sakeji. We are both enjoying it here.

There are a few things I need to get used to. For example, there are always bugs in the house. Usually small flies, but they are still there and sort of annoying. Sometimes there are spiders. Gigantic spiders! Here is a picture of a spider called a Flatty.  At least that's what people here call them. They flatten themselves out to go hide behind picture frames on the wall. Then they walk they are very tall. And, they are so fast. I was shocked at how fast they are. Thing is, you aren't suppose to get rid of them, because they eat the mosquitoes. So I know there is a gigantic spider somewhere in my house now. I don't really like that. I try very hard to sleep with my mouth closed!

Here's a picture of the school dog named Sasha. She is part doberman, part rottweiler. Locals who walk by the school get very scared of her and climb up the trees when they see her. But she is one of the friendliest dogs. I think they just mostly aren't used to having pet dogs.

Today we experienced the very famous Sakeji ice cream! They make it every Sunday for dessert after lunch. Mylon and I both had banana-peanut butter. Other flavours they had out today were vanilla, neopolitan, and grape. It was so good.

Overall, the food here has been (to my surprise) quite good. For breakfast we often have a type of porridge (oats, cornmeal, hearty oats) with toast and rice cakes. I'm not a fan of the rice cakes. The kids love them though, and they put honey on them. And for lunch we'll have a lot of vegetables (squash, carrots, corn, green beans, broccoli, coleslaw, potatoes), sometimes we have beans, chicken, beef. Once a day for dessert there is the most delicious pineapple, and bananas. Then we often get baked goods. You really have to pick and choose your favourites because there is so much baked goods that if you ate them all the time, you would gain a few pounds. So My personal favourites and cinnamon buns, and brownies.

Well that's all for now. Thanks for checking in!

African Sunrise

Since we're still a little jetlagged, so we decided it was a good time to get up to see the African sunrise.  What a natural beauty!

Arrival at Sakeji

Sept 10-11

We've finally made it so Sakeji School! What a long day of travelling. Actually it doesn't even feel like a day. More like just a big blur. And after being in the air for a total of about 19 hours, you don't feel much better. We are both pretty jet-lagged and we want to take naps all the time.

So we arrived in Lusaka on September 10^th at about 12:30pm. We taxied over to a guest house for missionaries in Zambia, It was nice and relaxing there. We had showers, a delicious supper and a very comfortable bed. However we had to get up at 3:30am to go the airport.

So today (September 11^th) we flew to Sakeji School. It was in the smallest plane we've both ever been in. Our flight was very smooth and kind of nice because we were flying below the cloudy haze so we could see all the landscape. Africa is so different than anywhere else I've flown. Right now, because it's the dry season, everything is yellow and the dirt is red. So that was very neat.

When we landed at Sakeji on the grass landing strip, we were greeted with a big welcome. First we were shown our new house for the next eight months. Turns out it's even bigger than it looks in the picture. It has 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms, full kitchen, living room and dining room. We were invited for lunch at another teacher's house. And this afternoon we went to a tea/snack break to meet more people. We have supper later and another snack in the evening. But besides that we have all the time in between to relax.

School starts tomorrow with a pancake breakfast at 7:30am. So in our experience so far, I think we will both enjoy it here. So far all the food we've had has been delicious, everyone has been very kind, and the weather has been warm and lovely.

One last thing, we did see a blue-headed lizard today but unfortunately we weren't carrying our camera with us. Hopefully they are common and we will get one another day.

So that should be it for now.

Keep in touch :)