Here are a couple more photos from the concert...a colleague had taken some photos & sent me these two. More soon!

20th December, French School Christmas Concert

It was my debut concert as a teacher...& I must confess I was STRESSED! I was really unsure how to coordinate two of my classes into a presentation for the school & families. My eldest class (under 11) chose to sing Jingle Bells & do a little play with it. The only reason I survived Jingle Bells is because it was the Boney M version!!!
My other class (aged 4-8) performed We Wish you a Merry Christmas with dancing..Kind of! The highlight was when they were allowed to throw confetti. Let's just say they forgot a few steps & became mesmerized by the glitter. It was fun- & that's all that matters.

Luckily enough I didn't have to coordinate the babies- that would have been disastrous! I thought I'd attach a few shots of the kids I teach, I am enjoying the challenge though I'm savouring my two week holiday*grin*.

Youth Basketball League Closing Tournament December 16th, 2006

My team (quite like the coach) HATE losing. Unfortunately, after a wonderful season- even winning the league with a record of 7 wins 3 losses- BSA was not on point for the tournament. We ended up losing both our games...but I LOVE some of these photos. Please join the train of emotion with these shots...

Pre-game excitement












Adrenaline action...Intensity...& defeat



I already miss these boys as we will be breaking up until 08 January, 2006. But I know we'll come back with a vengeance!!

MRS CLAUSE!! For our staff Christmas party Ba Miriam was the scariest Santa yet!!
BSA had an end-of-year awards night. Here are a few of the winners looking AWFULLY bored. I'm disappointed to report that most of my photos are blurry from these events. But here's a couple to keep you visually satisfied temporarily!!

More than you ever wanted to know about me

Of course I'm motivated to blog the most ridiculous stories. Right, let me lay out the setting. It appears that the rains have at last arrived in Lusaka. Which means we've had a couple of BRILLIANT storms, but the days still tend to be sunny & hot. With rains, come the onset of an incredible number of insects & arthropods. As you can imagine, my least favourite time of year...no matter how much therapy I tried at the Provinical Museum of Alberta (now ROYAL), I simply cannot handle bugs.

So today I arrived at the office (job #2), and had to visit the loo before attending to any pressing matters. I finish my business & reach for the toilet paper...with the roll come 3 massive grasshoppers. Okay okay okay, I'm not actually scared of grasshoppers, but I wasn't too sure what was jumping from the roll...so of course I jump. Yup, trousers around my ankles...toilet paper rolling along the floor. I giggle (I'm sure you can imagine)...let the buggers hop around & zing at me until they know they're safe. Then I clean myself up & carefully wash my hands before closing the door tightly behind me.

Ridiculous.

But at least no critters ended up in my pants!!!

A minor hitch...

Apologies, I can't believe it's been a whole week since my last posting. Last week was HECtic...life was basketball & work as we played in the National Championships on the weekend. (I know, I promised an update from the trip to Ndola regarding the quarter final match. The thing is, the trip was quite uneventful- & we clearly won. Seriously, the most exciting part of the whole trip was watching two blue-head lizards fighting to the death. Or...as I rather hoped, mating...I searched for a lizard corpse a bit later & didn't find one, so in my positivist state, I left believing that the lizard that may have been in its' death throes, was actually in a state of utter bliss after mating). Right, I told you it wasn't the most thrilling road trip.

Back to basketball, we played in the semi-final on Saturday & lost, but managed a convincing win on Sunday to take third place in the country. I had higher hopes for our team, but am quite happy coming away with third- no that's not true...I'm just relieved that I can start having a life again! My body is exhausted...so it's time for some r & r!

There's lots going on this week so I MUST put up some photos & let you know what's shaking! Random insight into my state of mind right now: I must be homesick because I'm listening to a cd my mother ALWAYS plays at Christmastime. That's right- nothing like a little Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers in the office!!!!!