The new school year got underway without problems. I missed a lot of the first week, because I had to make sure that the teachers will have two month’s worth of lessons for Royal Rangers. There remains also a lot to do before I leave on Saturday morning.
Our champion cry baby for this new school year! A week later and he is still going strong.
Dries and Norbert are fitting a gutter to the school’s roof. There are lots of little projects to complete before the rainy season will start in December. Someone said that after you reach a certain age, you don’t simply fall anymore, but you then ‘take a fall’, as if you get given an opportunity to fall and then accept it. Well, I think there is some sense in that observation. Dries ‘took a fall’ or ‘fell’ off the ladder this week. Again! I know….I also cast my eyes up to heavens and asked to remain calm. In his defense; the bamboo ladder was completely eaten away by bugs and collapsed just as he reached the top. Faithful Norbert was at the bottom and Dries landed on top of him. Both were covered in dust, but unharmed. So PM made his ladder available which was a huge improvement on the safety side. But just to make sure, Norbert still stands guard at the bottom.
Euphrasie, Norbert and I will head out to Ampamata on Tuesday morning by speed boat. We want to meet the new children and help the teachers set up the learning areas. This trip was not in the budget, but God supplies in wonderful ways. Some of you may know that Dries never throws anything away, for when he would need it later. I am sometimes tempted to call it hoarding, but he has proved me wrong on many occasions. More than 20 years ago, he was given three outboard propellars. He dug them out and I made my way to Nazera, the owner of a fleet of boats. He has always been very kind to us and makes a bigger boat available to us to accommodate all the school stuff. Well, the three props were enough for a trip to Ampamata and extra.
“So madame, it looks as if you won’t be paying for your trip and I still need to pay you.” Nazera is a shrewd businessman and my reply was that it sure looked that way and that sounded like the perfect deal.
We were blessed with a Cobb bbq set from South Africa last week. Dries even built a counter for it and it sat there all shiny and ready for use. The lemurs who come for their bananas every afternoon, were not as in awe as we were. They jumped and made some grunting noise when they noticed the silver imposter for the first time. The one male was so intrigued that he had to inspect the Cobb to make sure it was not a threat.
Please pray for a safe journey to Ampamata and for strength and protection for Dries as he works hard. We should have some news about the declaration of Gabriel’s value this week.
Have a blessed week.
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