Watchmen

We are living in an area slightly off of the main road meaning there is not much lighting at night.  We are careful not to walk on the road after dark for safety concerns, although there have been some poorly timed mini-bus trips that made it necessary to walk just after sunset.  I think the area is safe enough as long as you are walking in a group and don't draw too much attention to yourself.  The biggest concern is being noticed by drunks which Ewa and I found out walking to the Christmas Vigil mass early during twilight.  They aren't really dangerous people, but get a little enthusiastic about meeting the white people walking down the road, and well...they're drunk.  So far we've avoided any bad situations and I expect it to stay that way as long as we stay cautious.  Here at Bakhita, we are protected by a big perimeter wall, fearless watchmen, and a pack of watchdogs.  The watchmen are good family men and we are pretty good friends with them.  They have surprised me a few times walking to the school after dark.  Sitting in a doorway or next to a pillar, they are almost invisible, and they don't say "hello" until you are right next to them so I've jumped a few times.  A late night a few weeks ago, I was in my room almost asleep when I heard a voice outside my window whispering "Gary, Gary".  Considering the fact that it was so late, and me not asleep but approaching sleep, I did not overreact with an unreasonable amount of terror.  I feel the amount of terror was a perfectly reasonable level.  Realizing that the person outside the window was probably willing to speak to anyone inside of the window even if it wasn't actually Gary, I managed a very cautious "Yes?" after what felt like minutes to me but was probably just a few seconds.  I then heard another whisper in reply, "A bicycle is outside and the back door is open".  A long and shaky sigh of relief follow, after which, I put the bicycle away, said "Good Night" to the watchman, and very deliberatly locked shut and locked the door.  The whole incident ended up being very reassuring about the character of our watchmen...the next morning, anyways.

Ewa In the Village

Ewa In the Village, originally uploaded by aniemerg.

Here we see Ewa in her natural environment. In the village, surrounded by people, and of course, holding a baby. Notice the kids posing on the right. You can't pull out a camera without one or two kids going into a karate stance. This is on Ewa and Gary's weekly trip into the village bringing food.

Midnight Mass

Midnight Mass, originally uploaded by aniemerg.

This is a youth group at the parish as sheperds for midnight mass. You can see me in the background. It was really hot with all that extra stuff on.

Responsibilities

Since the new school year began, I have been relieved of some responsibilities and taken on a few more.  First, I am no longer a teacher in the college.  After the college of accounting ended last year with zero students, there was some restructuring which ended up restructuring me out of a teaching position.  I didn't mind so much because I am still running the drama club which is much less daily effort on my part and more fun despite the frequent crises and emotional outbursts common among dramatic people.  I think they've already threatened to quite twice this year.  In the secondary, I am still teaching computers, but I have Form 3 and Form 4 so I spend a lot of time opening the lab for the students evenings and weekends.  Instead of teaching Science this year, I am assigned to Form 1 Math.  I wasn't sure about the move, but so far I am enjoying Math a little more.  Science often required equipement that wasn't easily available so I spent a lot of time running around trying to get demonstrations set up only to have them not work.  This year, I am in charge of organizing the Bakhita Feast, and I'm not really sure how it happened.  I was in a meeting and blacked out for a little while, which I usually do in meetings, but this time I was apparently answering "yes" to all questions asked to me in my blackened state.  I woke up to find out that I was running the show.  I was watching/judging the rehersals and realized, as usually, I don't really know what I'm doing.  My thoughts about one dance performance were something like "Most of them were in sync, not all of them were out of time, and only one of them fell off the stage...it's good, next".  It wasn't that bad, but it is definitely a position for someone who is more descriminating in such matters (anyone other than me).  For secondary extra-curricular activities, I have landed the sweet gig of mini-soccer patron.  No, we do not have a Foosball table...we have two of them.  They are in the school hall along with the ping-pong table and the big screen TV  (What!?...I'll just leave you wondering if I'm serious or not).  Anyway, being the mini-soccer coach, I have to try and get 35 girls in some sort of order so that everyone gets to play.  I had them get in teams of 3 and come up with names.  The more interesting team names are the Pineapples, the Grapes, Liverpool, and The Danger Sisters (my favorite).