A Tuesday around New Day

This morning, Laurie is putting the final touches on her women's Bible study for this afternoon. I worked on closing out the receipts for August and then remembered that I needed to finish the sponsor board in the dining hall, so I made my way to that side of the orphanage campus. It's getting HOT! As I did, I stopped by the school to listen in on what was going on. I didn't take my camera because I didn't want to disrupt the learning. (Ok, actually, I forgot my camera :) In Hildah's classroom, the Stars Class (ages 4-5) were having play time on the rug. They each had lego trucks and were zooming them around. What surprised me was that Hildah was on the floor with them, and as they were playing and chattering away (especially Christina!), Hildah was making up a story about a doctor riding in his truck to visit sick kids. She explained how he gave them medicine that they had to take at certain times of the day. It was amazing to hear her constantly teaching, even during playtime! In the next classroom, Abby had the Sunshine Class (Kindergarten) working on some early cursive writing. She was leaned over Kelitah's desk helping her make an "e." The Moonlight and Rainbow groups (1st and 2nd) were outside in the shelter having Tutorials with Elizabeth. Ms. Carolyn was on a rare break so she was getting the mid-morning snack ready for the 17 kids. Kalenga was washing dishes in the kitchen, but he was in his church clothes because on Tuesdays he also teaches a 30 minute music class to the kids. I could see Noah in Martha the Cow's pen, doing something or other that you do with cows I guess. :) She is supposed to calve on Sept 17th! I also saw Mulenga working on roof trusses for the new school building at his house, so I decided to stop by the new school. I hadn't been in it since it's been completed and I was blown away by the huge size of the classrooms! I wandered over to the library and was also shocked at how much bigger it is once you are inside! The plasterers are almost finished there and we can start priming and painting! Blu was chiseling the last electrical wire to go into the wall. Blu decided I should continue my tour over to the agriculture side of New Day, which I hadn't seen since May! We stopped at the new chicken house, which now has a dividing wall. Apparently there really is such a thing as a "pecking order", and our old layers did NOT like the new ones! We were excited to see a few eggs in the chicken house! We then stopped at the rabbit hutches to visit "Mama Lala," "Papa Wes", and our other 6 rabbits. They are SOOOO cute, and I"m not really an animal person!! :) I was surprised at all that has been done to get these animals a nice play to stay, and the new rabbit feeders are nice! We found Debbie in her hut, on a quick break, as she also teaches two 30 minute blocks on Tuesday mornings. She walks the kids around the land, collecting eggs, feeding animals, and teaching them how to care for them. The kids love it! We then walked over to check on our 3 goats, 2 of which are pregnant! They were wandering about, but we found Wes in the goat pen, putting sliding wooden slat doors on each of the 3 stalls for the goats. Next door the turkeys were fighting in their pen, but I was shocked to see a cement "pond" for our ducks! A lot has happened with the animals in 3 months! Now it's back home for me - gotta get lunch ready for when the kids are out of school, and then review my own women's Bible study for this afternoon at Mapanza Baptist. Hope you enjoyed the trip around New Day! :)