Happiness is….

having running water in your house. After months of battling with water pressure, broken pipes and rusted plumming, Dries managed to get it all fixed amidst all the other pressing projects. My Christmas present is to have a hot shower. I can’t tell you how wonderful that feels! I am not the only one though, Dries who usually doesn’t complain, had to admit that the hot shower was just pure luxury.

School will close in two weeks time for the Christmas two week holiday. School exams start on Tuesday and two more Ranger meetings remain.

My lesson from the book of Ezra was about praying for government and our leaders. I asked my group of boys whether they think the president sits in his office and watches football all day. This was of course meant as a joke and to get them thinking about the responsibilities of those in government. Christian promptly replied, “Yes, … and he also increases the price of the rice everyday.” I think I know the discussions of the adults in that household.

I thought that this might be a good time to bring everyone up to date with where we are the school building project and how we spent the funds that we had received. We did well in some areas, but had to spend more in others, for example, the roof cost more in the end and was the most stressful assignment, but also the most satisfying as the rainy season is at hand. We never allocated any money for toilets when we did the original budget. Oops! Maybe we have lived too long in Madagascar where toilets are not exactly a priority.