Monday, February 27, 2012

Monday, February 27 (Pilanesburg Game Park)

 We visited Pilanesburg Game Park yesterday.  Lots of animals!  Daddy got to see his giraffe and elephants and I got to see monkeys.  We got to see a hippo yawn.  Two warthogs got in front of our car and then refused to get out of the center of the road.  Sheesh! They were acting as if we were intruders! :p Which, of course, we were.  Here are my top 15 favorite photos (out of about 100)




















Thursday, February 23, 2012

Thursday, February 23 (Valentines Ball)


     As previously mentioned, last night was the night of the Valentines Ball.  Teresa, as a grade 8, was required to attend, and I chose to go as well.  I think it's safe to say Teresa hated it, but that's because she hates dresses, dancing, loud music, and pretty much the idea of a high school dance in general.  It didn't help that she was required to waltz with a boyyyyyy.  :) oh the joys of being an older sister.  I enjoyed myself, although it wasn't as amazing as it could have been.  I had fun dressing up.  And dressing Teresa up.  First night wearing heels.... 3 inches and a bit wobbly, but I got used to them.
     The dance included a sit-down dinner of lasagna (pronounced lasana instead of lasanya) and a couple of the boys from school were DJing.  It would have been better if they had given us a larger space to mingle in, but they wouldn't allow us outside; it would be harder to keep track of us.


Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Wednesday, February 15 (Gg)

Grandparents: We miss our grandparents!  Our grandparents have always played a large role in our lives, and while we've Skyped with them, it's just not quite the same.  Thankfully, we get to see them this year!  Grandma Joan and Grandpa Jerry Oliver will be coming out to visit in August or September, and Grandma Joy and Grandpa Jack are hoping to come see us over Christmas.

GZP: Global Zambia Project.  We're part of a starting organization in Zambia which is meeting the needs of the community around the 11 acre plot of land.  To start, we're planting Moringa trees.  Moringa trees:A genus of trees of Southern India and Northern Africa. One species ( Moringa pterygosperma) is the horse-radish tree, and its seeds, as well as those of M. aptera, are known in commerce as ben or ben nuts, and yield the oil called oil of ben.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Saturday, February 11 (Ff)

Francina: Francina, our housekeeper, is from Limpopo.  She has a two-year-old son, Lotta, and an older son, Jonas, who attends college in Johannesburg.  Francina wants to be a teacher at some point in her life, or go into law enforcement.
Friday: Every Friday, after school, we do music lessons.  I've started voice lessons again, with Jonathon, who is also taking guitar, and then Esther, Becca, and Teresa do piano.  Every other Friday, Teresa and I go to Friday fun night with our youth group.

Frolic: Last night (Saturday), Teresa and I went to the Friday Fun Night.  As it is near Valentine's day, the day was switched from Friday to Saturday so that we could stay later.  There was finger food and board games, cards and a dance floor upstairs.  Fun!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Saturday, Feb 04 (Ee)

eggs, esther, extra mural activities
 When you have to feed 10 people per sitting (the 8 of us, plus Nathan and Adrianne, who are staying with us this week), you go through a lot of eggs.  Each of these trays holds 28 eggs, and we get three trays per week.  That's 7 dozen eggs!

 A couple of words from Esther: "I miss you. Hope to see you soon, next year. Life is good. My favorite fruit here is guava and my favorite restaurant is Pizza Del Forno ( I think that's how it's spelled).  I also like Papachinos cause we got to make our own pizzas.  My favorite class is history and science and english."




At school this term we're doing a lot of extra curricular activities.  I meant to actually put this under "Dd", but I forgot, and it fits better here anyways.  Ivan does cricket and swimming, Esther does chess and softball, and Becca also does chess and softball, as well as choir.  This last game that Becca participated in, she pitched half the game.  Go Becca!  Teresa does softball (she's on the Junior team) and her team is doing well.  Jonathon does cricket and choir, and then chess, and he's loving choir, being the natural singer he is.  I'm doing swimming and this year I started debating.  I'm really enjoying debating so far; I've debated communism and we're prepping for a debate opposing the statement "This house believes that individuality is more important than uniforms."  Along with all of these, five of the six of us do music.  I do vocal coaching with Jonathon, who also does guitar, and Becca, Esther, and Teresa are continuing with their piano studies.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Wednesday, February 1 (Dd)

     Dance invitation: Every year our school holds a Valentine Ball which is compulsory for Grade 8's to attend.  Which means Teresa has to go.  No one is required to go in couples, but yesterday she was asked to the dance by Brandon, a fellow eighth grader.  Teresa being Teresa, her answer was "ummmm, sure?".  My little sister is part of a couple! Ok... just for a night... but still!  They grow up so fast.... :)
     David: A few words from Dad: "It is so good to be back home after my 2 week trip to Zambia. I had a great trip working with the World Vision Zambia team in Kitwe (an area in northern Zambia also known as the Copperbelt because of the copper mines) as well as in the capital city of Lusaka. My work continues to go very well and I am learning a great deal about how our work here in Africa actually comes together in the communities we are serving. It was great to hear many inspiring stories this past week of lives being touched and yet there is so much additional need as well. We continue on day by day doing the best we can and trusting in the Lord to provide for our team and the people we are working with. I pray all is well with all our friends and family around the world. Thanks for supporting us in prayer from so many places. Blessings to all!"
     Defenses:  We had a not-so-nice wake up call at midnight last night to our security alarms going off.  The alarms did their job and scared the intruder off, but, needless to say, no one slept as well as they could have.  We still have security improvements needed to be made upon the property (curtains in the windows, razor wire on the back fence) and hopefully the breach in defenses will encourage some more rapid changes.  Thank God the intruder left before he could do any harm!