As Seen On the Bridge

Oh my, I love the bridge.  That's where all the funny stuff happens.  Picture it with me, if you will.  Samantha and I pull up to the stop light where we notice a man and a boy on a moto and stuffed between the two of them is a full grown sheep.  So I say to Sam, "Too bad you don't have your camera out and you could take a picture."  She hurriedly proceeds to get it out and we chase them down for a picture on the straightaway towards the bridge.  We get to the corner and suddenly I see the sheep's tail lift up.  Uhoh, that's not good...that's a sure sign and yes indeed, here it comes - poop - basically right into the kid's hand.  Then the sheep decides that he is not happy to be sandwiched between two people on a moto...so now the kid has a pooping, bucking sheep and why don't we just throw a traffic jam in there for good measure.  Ahh yes, another unforgettable moment on the bridge!

What TCKs Do For Fun

Growing up in Nigeria, there was nothing that made me happier than the local garbage pile. It was a treasure trove of tin cans, boxes and other pieces of junk just waiting to be imagined into something new. Thirty something years later and that still seems to be a third culture kid's favorite toy chest.

It was three weekends ago that a town sprung to life on our campus made from cement blocks, junky pieces of wood, broken tile, cans, toilet paper rolls and all manner of other items. For the past three weeks, when the recess bell rings this "town" becomes a busy center of activity - buying and selling with bottle caps as money, sweeping and cleaning, building and fixing. This town has a bank, a mayor, a military camp, stores and even houses with generators (after all we do live in Niger)!

Here is the thriving metropolis!

A closer look inside a house.  Great care is spent each day in sweeping away the dirt from each yard.

A "No Trespassing" sign!



And why not?  As the sellers of the sweepers (a section of a tree branch),
their product is in high demand and must be protected.

These propietors are a tad bit more welcoming.

Next door is the bank.  Notice the flag out front.

The local farm.

Every town needs a military encampment ...

with soldiers keeping guard.

Here's the mayor's house.

I'm thinking he needs to upgrade because he doesn't even have a generator like these folks here!  (Pringle can on the left is the ever essential generator.)

There are several Tonka trucks and a bulldozer that industriously make the rounds through town each day picking up garbage and transporting stuff.  Somehow I missed taking their picture.  So there you have it - 50 or so TCKs using their imaginations and this is what you get.  Fun for everyone!

Construction Zone

We are in the middle of building an administrative wing on the end of our high school building.  This will be our first two story building on campus and today was the day chosen to pour cement for the second floor.  Here in Niger you don't call the cement truck to deliver you load after load of cement for your floor.  The entire amount of cement was hand mixed and poured by about 50 men today.

You can see that it took a lot of people to get the job done. In the foreground and to the right, the men are mixing the sand and rocks which was then added to the pile of cement on the left and mixed with water.

Once the cement was mixed on the ground, the men under the platform threw it up on to the platform.

From the platform the cement was thrown up to the second floor where it was placed in a wheelbarrow and poured out to make the floor.

The entire floor had to be hand mixed and hand poured in one day.

All in a day and night's work! Apparently, they won't be done until 3 or 4 in the morning!

Inspired By...

Inspired by one of our new math books - that's what my students have been!  I checked this one out and read it on the day that I introduced the concept of even and add numbers.  They loved it!  It has a great story line, illustrations that get children laughing and an ending that makes the reader want to put their hands on My Even Day as soon as possible.  What I especially loved is that without any encouragement at all, my children were inspired to write stories about an odd day.  Plenty a mother was growing multiple heads or arms, playgrounds were turning into chocolate and school buses were driving around on one wheel.  One thing that is for sure, when I get back to the land of bookstores this is one that I will be purchasing for my own personal teaching library.

Now I Know What All That Giggling Was About

This morning during writer's workshop there was a fair amount of giggling coming from the second graders and I could hear that they were playing around with words and poetry.  Working on report cards tonight, I have been reading their writing and coming across their silly creations like this one...

Once there was a woody
Who sat on a toody
And went to the Loody.

Very nonsensical!  Just the kind of stuff to make any second grader laugh.

Can't Keep from Praising

"Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits -
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
Psalm 103:1-5

I had a conversation with someone this week who couldn't keep the praise from coming out of his mouth if he had tried.  J cleans my classroom so we get to have frequent conversations in the afternoon as he cleans and I work.  He was marveling over all that God has done in his life this summer.  He lives in an area that has been flooded by the Niger River.  At times he has left his house in the morning to come to work and waded into water up to his thighs to get on his way.  The mud wall around his compound collapsed due to all the water and yet amazingly, the water has not flooded his home.  All of his neighbors have left the area but he and his wife have been one in heart and mind that they are to stay put.  They are trusting that God will protect their house, something that they have been very vocal about with their neighbors.  This has opened the door for them to openly testify to God's protection and provision in their lives.  Their neighbors are amazed that they are still there.  They were also amazed when a group of our students went out to help J with his wall...they stood around marveling at this group of white people helping.

J went on to share with me how he has four school age children and he wasn't quite sure where the money for school and school supplies was going to come from but they were also trusting the Lord for this need.  This past week the director of the school called them together and said that they wanted to help each one of the families with a set amount of money to be used expressly for schooling for their children.  It was just what he needed to pay for the tuition and the school supplies!  Now they are trusting God for the bicycle that his son needs to ride to school.  Near the end of our conversation, J summed it up by saying that this has been the first miracle that he has witnessed in his life - the miracle of God's provision for him in the midst of a very difficult circumstance.  It was such an encouragement to hear God's praise flowing off J's lips and to know that in the midst of darkness, the testimony of J and his family is illuminating his neighborhood.

It Takes a Village to Get a School Ready

Tomorrow is the first day of school. 

If you have ever taught before you know that it takes a lot of work to get a school ready and that's not even factoring in the Niger dust which probably doubles the amount of work at our school.  However, if you had been hanging around our school these last couple of weeks you would have noticed something interesting.  An amazing amount of people have been pitching in to help us get ready!  There are the regulars...the janitors, the teachers, the youth pastor, the dorm parents, the principal, the director, among others.  But its our job to get the school ready, after all.  The surprising and really awesome thing to see has been the students pitching in.  I have seen high school students right on down to second graders helping out.  There were even two dorm students who arrived today and instead of hanging out with their friends and settling into their rooms they were out mowing the lawn.  How cool is that?

We have even had alumni and parents of alumni and students helping us out.  Wow! What a blessing to be starting another school year in a community like this.