We are writing the following posts from home. We are finally home safe after a very stressful week, but here’s what we did before we knew we would be heading home.
We started to take the cats outside on little adventures so they could begin to get used to life other than a built environment. They were so nervous about the proportionally tall grass, but quickly learned to explore. They followed us as we went anywhere and always manage to be directly underfoot – too scared to be alone. If we ever did manage to get more than a few meters away from them they would panic and start squeaking incessantly. Eventually, they always found their way back to the safety of our room. We were exploring the classrooms together with the kittens when the headteacher saw us and laughed at the thought of putting so much time and effort into kittens. He was there helping work on the science lab- which is almost complete (that’s what we heard at the end of last quarter too)! Sasha was so excited to host class there beginning next quarter.
Ryan was tired of the large bucket of dirt with the mphalabungu (caterpillars) that Sasha was storing in the bathroom. especially since they wouldn’t emerge as moths for another 7 months. So Sasha had to dump them out and transfer the two insects to a far smaller container. They wiggled and squirmed around in the process, and a few of Sasha’s students were very excited about the unrecognizable mysterious forms of the pupa. She showed them where the wings would come in, where the antennae were growing, and how to tell if they are male or female. At first, most didn’t believe they would turn into moths, but slowly they have started to change their mind! The biology teacher now has the jar sitting in the library and promises to send photos when they do hatch one day.
We finally prepared an apple pie with few apples we had brought from Mzuzu, and even had enough mini pies to bring a few to Faith on her birthday! She thought it was a very curious dessert. We don’t think they liked it very much, but both of us enjoyed a slice of America even if it was not a la mode.
We started to sell the calculators, and students were very excited. One girl cut a hole in the box and left the plastic on so that she could use the calculator without it ever being exposed to air. Unfortunately, we ran out and many students are still without calculators.
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