Lights Out

Hello All!

We hope everyone is having a bunch of fun getting into the holiday spirit!  Things are beginning to feel a bit like Christmas here.  Well ...maybe that’s a bit of a stretch.  That’s one of the strangest things here.  There just really aren’t any seasons.  It still feels like a beautiful spring day.  I took this picture yesterday, just because I wanted a little documentation what a mid-December day looks like in Africa.  It feels just the same as it did when we arrived here in August.  And since we are right on the equator, the sun still rises and sets at the exact same times as it did when we first got here.  However, as much as we love and miss seasonal changes, we are not about to complain about weather like this.  Whatever country we are in, it is obvious the world is a very beautiful place in so many different ways.  Luckily we sang a little Christmas music at church this morning, and I’m starting to get that familiar uneasy feeling that I should go do a little more Christmas shopping for my wife.  So it’s beginning to dawn on me it is getting to be that time of year. 

Christmas break is coming up for us both.  After this week, Erin gets off 3 weeks from school, and the eMi office shuts down for 2 weeks as well.  So we are pretty excited.  I may have to talk to POH (my employer in Atlanta) about this ‘shutting down the office for two weeks at Christmas’ policy for when I get back.  I think I could get used to that.  …Of course we’ll see how we feel three days into it, and we get antsy and ready to get back at it.  Though…we both love our work, but for no particular reason, I don’t know if I’ve ever been as ready for a break as this one coming up.  At eMi, there is no end to the backlog of work.  I’ve worked longer hours back home, but there always seemed to be an end in sight.  Here, not so much.  So, it is nice to just shut things down for a while and hit it hard after a break.  I’m looking forward to just enjoying being in Africa with my wife.

We are sorry we’ve been so remiss getting out an update.  We’ve been hoping to give some reports to what all we have been working on here.  But I haven’t done a good job of getting it wrapped up.  But we do want you to know we miss you all.  Below is a piece Erin wrote a little while ago that we were holding in our back pocket.  As I sit in the dark, it seems appropriate to go ahead and post it. 

As your holiday family plans get finalized, decorations are all up, and the smell of Christmas baking fills the air, we so hope every one of you is feeling excited about the Christmas Season this year.  As I write this in shorts, about to take off my shirt to cool off a little more, while rolling my eyes as Erin is playing ‘It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ on her computer, know that even though we miss you all, we are so amazingly glad to be here in Uganda this Christmas serving a nation of some of the nicest people you will meet.  ...and are so, so thankful for all your encouragement, kind words, and support to make it possible!

Much Love!

Erin and Gary

Like many of the things we do around here, I find myself writing this blog by lantern-light.  Perhaps you have heard us mention the intermittent power here. Today we would like to describe a little bit more about that, including the many benefits and a challenge that we hope you'll try.

If you ask a Ugandan about the power load-shedding, you will get many explanations ranging from something about Kenya and the hydroelectric dams to people stealing power to, inevitably, something to do with the government. All we know is that we will be without power at some point every 2 days (or every day... maybe we shouldn't make predictions).  Sometimes we get lucky and it's only off for a few hours in the evening, but other times it is off for a whole day. Fortunately for us, our jobs have generators and/or inverters, so our work is not affected.  Our neighbors are not so lucky, but they do the best they can to adapt to the situation.  At first we were a little annoyed by the frequent dark evenings, but we, too, have learned to adapt.  In fact, we have come to appreciate the many benefits brought by the lack of electricity.  These include:

• It is much easier to do the dishes when you can't see just how dirty they are.
• Similarly, it is much easier to rinse laundry when you can't see how soapy it is.
• Your cooking skills are greatly enhanced when they depend entirely on the senses of taste, smell, and touch. Forget 'presentation' when you can't see your food!
• Everything stays very organized quite naturally when you know you'll have to hunt for things in the dark.
• It is delightfully quiet with just the hum of generators across the street and no stereos blaring.
• Any 'homework' only lasts as long as your computer battery - then you're off the hook.
• We get to do fun things like snuggle up under the mosquito net and read together or play cut-throat games of Uno or Skip-Bo.
• Romantic candlelit dinners are a regular occurrence.
• All bugs and geckos 'disappear.'
• We get to do a whole lot more talking and listening to each other - it's amazing what you can learn about your spouse when distractions are removed.
• You can walk around with no makeup (for the ladies!) and in your pj's and nobody knows the difference.

So you see, not having electricity all the time is not only okay, it's actually a wonderful thing!  In fact, we've already decided that when we're back in the States, we're going to have "Africa nights" where we don't utilize our electricity.  Who knows, maybe we'll have you over for a power-less dinner!  (This is very common - we have attended many a dinner party in the dark...)

So here is your challenge - after seeing all of the benefits of a power-less night, don't you have an irresistible urge to give it a try??  Go for it!  See what kinds of fun things you can do when you don't have electricity. You could even make it interesting and have your spouse/friend/neighbor spontaneously choose an evening for you so that you also have the joy of having no warning that it's coming.  Have some friends over - eat dinner by candlelight, play some games - we promise you'll have a blast.  Or just snuggle up on the couch with your family and talk about some of your favorite silly memories.  If nothing else, think of the money you'll save with these power-less evenings!  We hope you'll give it a try - and when you do, drop us a line to let us know how it goes and maybe share some ideas for other benefits we can enjoy in the land of electricity load-shedding.

With thanks...

In Uganda, today is just another day. We woke up to the sound of rain falling and the hum of the generator across the street (the power has been out since yesterday evening). We chased a gecko out of the bathroom, squashed a roach, and managed to get ourselves out the door headed to work on time. This evening we'll enjoy traditional Ugandan food with our eMi family (please note: turkey and dressing with green bean casserole is not traditional Ugandan food!). Not exactly our typical Thanksgiving, but the beauty of living here is that we are constantly reminded of what we have to be thankful for. Yes, things are different - in fact, there are some parts of being here that are "not ideal" - but that magnifies the blessings that surround us more and more each day.

We realize this is said so many times this time of year that we almost start to tune it out, but we really want you to understand just how thankful we are for you.  Our family and friends have helped to encourage and sustain us here more than we ever believed was possible.  Each prayer that is said on our behalf, every kind word you share gives us the strength to keep pursuing our purpose here - to strive to keep honoring God in each part of our lives here.  Really and truly, we could not do this without the support we receive from those we love back at home.  And so as you gather around the table - perhaps with your family, with your spouse, with your friends - we just want to remind you that there is a couple in Africa who is thinking about you today and praising God for the blessing you are to us.  And on that note, if you really love us, you'll be sure to help yourselves to seconds in our honor...!  

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Border Run

One of the beautiful things about the schools here is that they take a break in between quarters.  All the teachers out there know that there comes a point when students and teachers just need to get away from each other every once in awhile, so periodic breaks are a great way to preserve the tranquility and productivity of schools.  The fortunate thing for us is that Fall Break, between the first and second quarters of school, happened to fall just a few weeks before our 90 day entry visas expired.  We have both applied for work visas, but until those arrive, we have to be lawful citizens and keep our entry visas up-to-date.  Fall break afforded us the opportunity to make a border run and get another entry visa, and we welcomed the opportunity to see more of what this beautiful part of the world has to offer.

First things first, we rolled out of bed in time to catch the van we were sharing with an eMi family (travel is lots cheaper split two ways!).  This was 5:30am.  Not the most ideal time to start a road trip, but this also gave us the opportunity to marvel at how little traffic there is in Kampala in the wee hours of the morning.  After a few hours of driving, we stopped at the Equator to be all touristy and take care of our photo op.  Then we were off on the next stretch of driving towards Kigali, Rwanda.

The roads are slightly less than ideal, well, anywhere here in Uganda, and that made for slow, bouncy driving at times.  We like to think it gave us a better opportunity to absorb the beautiful scenery.  The fun thing about road trips in Africa is that when you see animals grazing by the road, it’s not just cows – there are zebras mixed in – and no, those aren’t deer, they are impalas.  How cool is that?!

Upon crossing the border into Rwanda, there were several fun things we noticed.  First, the cops like to pull over mzungus.  We got pulled over several times to check to make sure lights, wipers, horn, etc. were working properly; another time we got pulled over, the cop made us nervous at first when he walked around and demanded that the van door be open and that we hand over our passports – he then proceeded to practice pronouncing our names, pass back our passports, and send us on our way – we breathed a sigh of relief and then had a good laugh.  Second and most markedly, Rwanda is BEAUTIFUL.  I mean, it’s the kind of beautiful where you wonder if it’s even real.  It was so green and lush.  The hills were sectioned off into perfect terraced stretches of farmland and dotted with simple, rustic brick homes.  It's called the land of a thousand hills and a million smiles, and we found that to be absolutely true.  It is also very clean.  You see no trash on the sides of the road, which is a very big problem in Kampala.  When crossing the border entering into Rwanda, they even confiscate any plastic bags you may have.  Plastic bags apparently was one of the biggest causes of litter, so now they won't even allow them into the country.  It was also interesting getting used to being on the right side of the road again - although at this point in our stay in Africa, we aren't really sure which side of the road is correct!

We arrived in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, around 8:30pm, which was 15 hours after we started (to go roughly 325 miles...).  We could blame the ‘dynamic’ roads for this as well as the fun of crossing the border at the same time as 2 full buses of other people and that stopping for African fast food takes at least one and a half hours (but it sure is tasty stuff!).  After we arrived, we amused ourselves as we watched Caleb, our 6-year-old travel companion, literally fall asleep in his dinner plate, and then we had a restful night sleep in a modest apartment.

The following morning we headed to one of many genocide memorials found around Rwanda.  The Kigali Memorial Centre wrought so many emotions, it’s hard to describe.  There is the sadness of knowing this happened recently enough that victims’ families are still dealing with the daily struggle of mourning loved ones and healing from their own wounds.  There is the anger from knowing the indoctrination that was perpetuated by people who came to Rwanda in the name of Christ to help them.  There is the shock of seeing the evil that humanity is capable of.  There is the profound disappointment of knowing people that were respected and held great influence chose to do nothing, either to preserve their own self-interest or because there was nothing of perceived value to protect.  There is a sense of regret knowing that this and other horrible things have happened – continue to happen – and all we do is say a quick prayer that things get better and thank God we’re not there.  There is the shock of knowing you are taking this all in while standing on the unmarked grave of a quarter million people.

The upper floor of the center detailed other genocides throughout history, and there have been more than we would like to admit. One thing that surprised us is that there was actually one that the United States does not formally recognize for "military strategic reasons."  How we do not recognize the murder of 1.5 million people is hard to understand.  Just to make sure we were sufficiently shaken to the core, the final exhibit was the children’s room.  At first, we thought this was meant to try to explain this incredibly deep, heavy stuff to kids, but we were wrong.  The whole thing consisted of huge portraits of children who had lost their lives in the Rwandan genocide – complete with biographical information such as what they wanted to be when they grew up, who their best friend was, what their favorite food was, and the method by which they were murdered.  That was too much to handle and the beautiful gardens surrounding the facility provided a welcome refuge from the vivid documentation of the horrors of the genocide.

It may be easy to look at the chronicles of the genocide in Rwanda and other places and think, “Surely we have learned from this.  Surely we will never allow this to happen again.”  And it is true that Rwanda offers much reason to hope that this is true – it is a vibrant and peaceful place that has made astounding strides forward.  But one of the quotes towards the end of the exhibits stated, “When they said ‘never again’ after the Holocaust, was it meant for some people and not for others?”  This was said by a Rwandan, but how many Sudanese may be saying this today?  How many others down the road will wonder why they had to endure hardships at the hands of their fellow men?  After this experience, we firmly believe we have a collective responsibility to make sure nobody else is ever forgotten in the midst of such trials ever again.

After a sufficient dose of harsh reality, we took off back towards Uganda – the long way, through the mountains and volcanoes – to get a healing dose of the reality of God’s creation.  We hope the pictures capture the beauty we were able to experience – no description necessary, just to say that doubling our travel time in order to see this was so worth it.

 We spent the next day on a small island in Lake Bunyonyi in Uganda.  It was a refreshing oasis away from the noise and crowds of the city.  We rested, we read, we walked our stunning little island, and we ate (a lot).  We have decided that someday we’ll have a house with plenty of avocado trees and a lake stocked with plenty of tilapia.  We are so thankful for the opportunity to serve in this part of the world and just amazed by the experiences we are having, but it can be pretty tough too.  Getting out and getting away - to enjoy the wonder of creation and have some time to reconnect with each other – was just what we needed.  Well, actually, we really just needed valid entry visas, but the refreshment was an added bonus!

We go, we go, Uganda Cranes we go!

Perhaps you are aware, but football is a pretty big deal here (as in most parts of the world).  Soccer is a bit of a religion, and the majority of Ugandans are very passionate about it.  One thing we have learned, if you are not sure what to say to a Ugandan, you can always just ask about soccer.  This year, the Ugandan national team is pretty good and has stirred a bit of extra excitement.  They have a good chance to go to the World Cup.  And African teams are currently qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations, made up of 16 teams – which Uganda has not been to in 34 years.  The final round of qualification matches was this past weekend.  Uganda against Kenya  ...at home  …and it’s all anybody can think about here.  The Ugandan national stadium is actually just outside of Kampala, not too far away.  Only a couple of national matches are played there a year…and when they are, it is a pretty big deal.  So when we learned more about it and a few people started throwing around the idea of trying to get some tickets, we decided it was an experience we didn’t want to miss and that it would be fun to go mingle with 70,000 of our closest, very passionate Ugandan friends and watch the Uganda Cranes take on Kenya in a game they hoped would welcome them into the Africa Cup of Nations.

We knew it was game-day when we woke up on Saturday morning.  If you’ve ever been to or watched an international soccer game, you’ve noticed the continuous hum of horns blowing at the game.  If you are like us, the first time you heard it, you thought there was something horribly wrong with the TV.  But no, the spectators in the stands are blowing massive kazoo-like horns.  And when we opened our eyes Saturday morning, there was no mistaking this for just an ordinary Saturday.  The horn blowing started early and our neighbors were persistent in their preparation to make sure the horns and their lungs were ready.  While the sound was a little disruptive and a bit annoying, it was quaint and really cool to be in the midst of an exciting time for the people around us.  As we were getting ready to go, putting on our new Uganda Cranes jerseys (bought the day before by the side of the road), we had no idea that we would be hearing those horns, literally, non-stop until late that evening.  We also had no idea what ‘disruptive and a bit annoying’ really meant at this point. 

Erin made a big breakfast, because we were not sure what the day would bring in terms of being able to get ahold of food.  To subdue our craving for a Chick-fil-a biscuit, Erin tried her hand at breading some chicken and making biscuits from scratch, and we sat down to a huge platter of delicious chicken biscuits.  With our bellies full, we met up with our group at the eMi office.  We had a group of 16 going - made up of eMi interns and LTVs (Long Term Volunteers), some of the local eMi staff, some Heritage teachers, and other friends.  We hired our own matatu taxi for the day to get us there and back.  And split 16 ways, it was pretty cheap.  We met at the office at 10am.  The game started at 5pm and the stadium was not that far away. But this was a get-there-EARLY-or-don’t-get-in-at-all type of thing.  All the tickets are general admission, and far more tickets are sold than there are seats.  So we were actually hoping that leaving at 10 would be early enough. 

Mandela National Stadium sits up on a hill, and when it first came into view, our hearts sank, because there literally was a line of people at least a mile long making the trek to the stadium.  But eventually we lost sight of it, were dropped off on the side of the road, slipped our way up a muddy ravine, and when we got to the top, we were pleasantly surprised to see the stadium right in front of us.  Our Ugandan friends knew right where to go and who to talk to, and they talked our way into a well-guarded side entrance.  We went through security checkpoints, and soon we were climbing the dirt-caked steps leading up into the stadium.  After the main security checkpoints, there were several other points where they were checking bags – many of which were men pretending to check bags mingled with security who actually were checking bags. Theft is a huge problem at events like this, so we decided to play it safe and not bring a backpack or anything. We shoved a bit of cash in our pockets and a few Cliff bars as well as the camera, and that was it. One person in our party did have her cell phone pick-pocketed.

When we entered into the stadium, it was an impressive sight, but not much what we were expecting.  The stadium was imposing, but the field showed signs of wear, and the track around the field reminded us of a nice high school field.  Since we cut through most of the line waiting to get in the stadium, the stands were maybe only half full at this point.  We muscled our way, literally, through about 4 sections of stadium, climbing over the division walls separating the sections - something that would typically get you in a lot of trouble in the States but was the only way to navigate the stadium here.  There weren’t really any actual seats; everything just consisted of concrete steps.  We got pretty good "steps" about half way up on a corner of the field.

So we made it!  – everything had gone very smoothly.  We made pretty good time and got pretty decent seats.  We felt good… Erin and Gary together in Uganda on game day, horns being blown all around, excited people pouring into the stadium, a slightly overcast day to protect us from the direct sun.  We sat down, looked at each other and thought, ‘life is good.’  It was 11:40am… now just 5½ hours until game time, piece of cake.

I’m not sure how to describe the next 5½ hours.  It was a slow process, and over the course of that time, the horn volume gradually increased as our personal space around us gradually decreased - until both were at pretty extreme levels.  The general seating of the stadium was full by around 1pm.  However they kept letting people in.  At some point they stopped allowing entry, and we have no idea how many people were left waiting outside.  The visitor section (Kenya section) and VIP section were much slower to fill up, but were probably full by 3:30.  

It was a long, loud 5½ hours.  We had plenty of entertainment though.  The lead up to the game consisted of one big, loud dance party for the fans - so there was no shortage of people-watching opportunities.  There was constant loud music playing through the loud speakers.  Chants of ‘We Go, We Go, Uganda Cranes We Go,’ was repeated over and over by the crowd.  People paraded through the stands, some as make-shift bands, some displaying political propaganda, and some just dressed up in costumes of lions, bears, a Viking, a skeleton, and assorted monsters.  People were doing tricks with soccer balls on the field.  Over in the Kenyan seating area, since that section was slow to fill up, Ugandans were constantly spilling over in droves to take over their seats.  All the Kenyan fans would get up and push them back.  The police would try to keep a line in between them to keep the peace.  But then the security would relax and it would all happen all over again.  It was always entertaining to watch.  While there was maneuvering space around us to get around, vendors came by to paint Ugandan flags on your face, or to sell nuts or other food, or to sell you a bigger horn or whistle.  We were a bit of a novelty as there were not that many white people there at all.  People came to take our picture.  A news crew even came and taped us cheering.  Of the thousands and thousands of people we saw there, other than people in our group, we probably only saw a half a dozen white people.  Another distraction was watching a pick-pocket get caught.  Pick-pockets who are apprehended are dealt with mob-style.  A guy was caught just a couple rows behind us.  Without missing a beat, the surrounding crowd grabbed him, smacked him around a little, stripped him completely naked, sent him running across the stadium, and then resumed with their cheering.   It was weird!  Never a dull moment…

As the day wore on, Erin began desperately praying that her bladder would miraculously double in size, because we really did not want to leave our seats to try to find a toilet.  As the stadium filled and filled, we realized we did not really want to abandon our seats.  It was a combination of fear that we would never be able to get our seats back, coupled with the trouble of getting down to a toilet and making our way back through the crowd.  People were EVERYWHERE.  There weren’t any aisles left and the mouths of the tunnels leading into sections of the stadium were also all full of people.  You could get down, but it would require walking on people.  We’re not good at walking on people.  So we decided we’d rather not pee or eat for 10 hours than fight that and opted for dehydration and prayers for bladder miracles. Thankfully, that actually worked out, and we both managed to hold it until we got home!

Around 4pm, it was still loud.  VERY loud.  We could only yell in each other’s ears to communicate.  Having someone yell in your ear is pretty painful, and it usually took a couple tries to actually get across what was being said.  So we soon even stopped doing that.  The cloud cover that was providing us relief from the African sun had dispersed, and we were beginning to roast.  Our heads were pounding as our excitement was wavering.  We knew we still had another hour to go – and that was if the game started on time….and very little happens when it is supposed to in Africa.  So around that time we just sat and smiled at each other knowing that we were glad we were together, but ready to get this show going. 

Intently watching the game

As game time approached, we were both getting a little nervous of what to expect next.  If this is the lead-up to the game, how crazy was it was going to be when play begins??  But 5pm came, the teams lined up, greeted one another, and then play began.  …and to our amazement, the crowd got…quiet.  …And stayed quiet.  It seemed so strange.  The energy directed into getting so excited before the game was now singularly focused on intently watching the game.  Horns still blew, but it was nothing like what it was an hour before.  Everyone just sat down and watched.  When something exciting would happen and we would stand, and we remained standing for too long, the same guy behind us who had been jumping up and down for 5 hours straight, blowing his horn as loud as he could in our ears, politely tapped me and asked me to sit down.  We were so confused.


The game was good.  It was very lopsided with Uganda taking control of the ball for most of the match and forcing almost all of the game to be played on the Kenyan side of the field.  The athleticism of the players was just astounding, and it was such a fast-paced dynamic game to watch.  Kenya could not get much going and their trips onto the Ugandan side were short-lived.  But Kenya played very good defense and despite all the shots on goal Uganda took, neither team was able to score.  We were confident Uganda would score and were anxious to see what the crowd would do when they did.  But eventually time expired and the game ended in a 0-0 tie.  The tie meant Uganda did not qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations.  Fans were pretty upset and started throwing their horns and other paraphernalia onto the field as time ran out.  But for the most part, despite how emotional the fans were before the game, everyone was pretty well-behaved in spite of the loss.  Everyone was solemn and mellow as we filed out of the stadium and we made our way out even easier than we came in.  Our group slid down the same ravine we came in through, and a little bit down the road, our taxi was waiting for us. We piled in and quickly sped off.  As we said, our Ugandan friends took good care of us – thank goodness, we would have been in trouble without them!

It was quite an experience.  We are both so glad we got the opportunity to do it and that we had people who knew what they were doing to go with.  However, we’ve talked it over and neither one  of us is quite ready to go do it again just yet.  Maybe we'll listen to the next one on the radio...

How beautifully leaves grow old...

As you are all enjoying the refreshment of peaceful, mild autumn days, we've been having lots of fun with the rainy season over here. However we have discovered that there is definitely one wonderful taste of autumn that we get to enjoy despite the lack of autumn weather - the great pumpkin! So we thought that instead of just carving the life out of your beautiful pumpkins, perhaps you would consider trying a few recipes that we have added to our food rotation over here. No, they are most certainly not Ugandan, but they are Hightower favorites, so hopefully that's close enough! 



First things first - you have to roast your pumpkin so you can scoop out the goodness inside. Now don't be cheatin' and go buy that canned junk! You're doing this Hightower-style! Go grab yourself a pumpkin, a cookie sheet lined with foil, and a super awesome big ole knife. Cut your pumpkin in half, and scoop out the seedy stringy stuff. Put your pumpkin face-down on the cookie sheet and bake around 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour - I truly have no clue what the specifics are here as our oven has no temperature guide. I stick it in for about an hour and hope for the best! Let it cool for a bit, until you can touch it without hurting yourself. Then scoop out the yummy pumpkin goodness and store in tupperware container for fresh pumpkin puree whenever your heart desires! I hear it freezes well, but we're freezer-less over here, so we can't vouch for that.

Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar (we use cane sugar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup pumpkin puree 
1/2 cup olive oil (nothin' but the best!)
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or you can omit if your current country does not have these!)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda (I don't sift, and it turns out fine).
Mix together the pumpkin, oil, eggs, water, and spices. Combine with the dry ingredients - but don't mix too much! You can also be lazy and just throw it all in at the same time like I do! Stir in the nuts.
Pour into well buttered loaf pan (or muffin tins as we typically do here for an easy-to-grab breakfast) - we just smear some olive oil in the pan, and that does the trick. Bake 50-60 minutes (about half that for the muffins, just keep an eye on them). Turn loaf out of pan and cool on rack. When we do muffins, we have to let them cool in the pan, or the muffins become a crumbly mess. This makes at least 12 muffins, or if you're cool and have more than one muffin pan, you could probably make a few more.


Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar (cane sugar works too)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, vegetable oil, and vinegar. In a separate bowl, combine all of the other ingredients - the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just enough to combine.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle. Brown on both sides, and then eat 'em up! This makes plenty for 4-5 people.

A Week in the Life...

Hello all!!
For this entry we figured we’d just give a quick recap of what our typical week looks like here. We’ve had several people ask us about that, so we thought that would make a good topic for a blog!  And I bet you’re thinking, “Wow, I can’t wait to read about what Gary and Erin do each week! They’re the most exciting people I know, I better sit down before I read on!” While that may be true, one of the things we’ve had to get used to here is that basic things like grocery shopping take way more time than they used to.  So we’ve had to tone down our excitement in favor of just being able to get all of the necessary things done in order to wear clean clothes and eat dinner.  Life just seems to take a little longer here. 

So starting with Sunday, we head off to church just before 9 or 11, depending on the rest of the day’s plans.  Often on Sundays after church we do much of our weekly shopping.  Traffic is usually lightest on Sundays, so after church is a good time to catch a boda or taxi downtown to go shopping if we need.  There are shops closer to where we live, but there is much more variety and options when we go downtown to shop.  But we don’t have to do that all the time.  More often than not, we find our favorite Sunday afternoon activity is just heading to Ciao Ciao - which is pretty close.  Ciao Ciao is an Italian market where we can get groceries, lunch, and yes, even ice cream. This is about a 40 minute walk, one-way, depending on how motivated we are to get that ice cream. We like this walk, because it tends to be a bit quieter and offers a little more shoulder-space along the road, making it feel a little more pedestrian-friendly.  From there we head home.  We’ll do a little work to get ready for the week, clean house from all the dust that is here in Africa that continually likes to cover everything, and do some laundry. 

Our laundry is all hand washed - however, we personally only have to wash our ‘undies’.  We actually have ‘house help’ that comes for a few hours twice a week to do the bulk of our laundry.  We weren’t sure what to think about having house help when we first arrived, but it is a life saver!  Just hand washing our ‘small clothes’ takes a bit of effort, and we fumble around with it a bit.  Doing laundry is a bit of a story just in itself that one day we'll have to do a blog on.  ...But I will give you a bit of a teaser until then – this is the first time we’ve ever ironed our underwear before.  We have to iron everything 2 days after we wash them to make sure the mango fly eggs are dead (they like to lay eggs on wet fabric), or else their eggs will hatch and burrow into our skin.  Just hearing that (without the other colorful stories concerning examples of this) have made us very diligent with our ironing – especially of the underwear. 

the making of a Rolex

Anyway, for dinner, Sundays have become our rolex nights.  Rolexes are one of the ‘fast food’ options here in Kampala.  Gary runs around the corner to pick them up at a stand that makes them up in front of you.  Rolexes are basically fat, greasy tortillas filled with a fried egg, tomatoes, and onions - and are awesome!  Hopefully we will be able to recreate something similar when we get back to the States, but our health providers probably won’t be too disappointed if we don’t.  Afterwards dinner, hopefully we are all finished up with everything related to the preperation for the week and can top off our weekend with a pot of popcorn and snuggling up with a movie on the laptop or a cut-throat game of cards.  As we said, we’re very exciting folks.

a ready to be consumed Rolex

Mondays are a lot less exciting.  School at Heritage starts at 8:00 and goes until 3:00.  Erin walks and gets there around 7:30 or earlier.  She teaches 5 classes a day – so it works out that she has each of the 6 grades (7th-12th grades), 4 times a week.  Gary leaves around 7:30 to get to the eMi office around 7:45.  Devotionals and morning meetings at his office are at 8:30.  Usually we both work a little late during the week.  Erin is still getting used to all the extra lesson planning that goes into her schedule, and Gary will work as long as his wife will let him.  There is plenty of curriculum to be developed and projects regularly stream into the eMi office, so we both feel very useful and needed here.  Strangely enough, one of the things that surprised us the most being here was that we were both anticipating a lot more down-time when we moved to Africa.  But both of us feel like we are leaving plenty of work to be done when we turn off the light at night (or turn off the lantern depending on if we have power or not).  There is plenty to do and everything just seems to take longer.  So both being very efficient with our time and making sure we stay balanced and leave time for each other, are issues that have to be dealt with in whatever continent we are on.  We are still definitely working on both of those. 

Tuesdays after school, Erin goes to go to a great Bible study with many other EMI wives – a Beth Moore study on Daniel. It has been very good and a great time of fellowship and has helped a lot in reminding her of why we are here – to serve. From there, Erin will either catch a ride or will walk home, often times stopping by one of the side-of-the-road produce stands and pick up eggs and other goodies. Usually she stops by Christine’s stand - a little hole-in-the-wall place (literally), and there’s no doubt Christine wonders what we do with all of the eggs – we’d probably save money if we just bought a chicken. (Erin eats several eggs for breakfast every morning.  Gary’s cholesterol has him pass on that.)  And then Gary comes home and one of us will cook dinner, depending on who has more stuff to do.  We’ve been splitting the cooking duties, which has worked well and made us both happy. 

Wednesdays are pretty good.  We are in the full swing of the week and are hopefully feeling pretty good about how it is shaping up at this point.  This past week, Gary has been helping out with a project trip and has been spending many days out on site, and coming home and drawing things up in the evenings.  But it is progressing well.  Recently on Wednesdays, Erin has started going for walks with some friends after school for exercise.  This has been very good, both for the exercise and for growing and getting closer with friends.  

It gets pretty dark just a little after 7pm and it gets light about 6:45am – and it’s that way all year round since we are right at the equator. We brought little cheap battery powered lanterns that have worked pretty well for us when the power goes out. We didn’t imagine we would be using them as much as we are though. We never know about the power here.  It is usually off at least every other night, and how long it is off is anyone’s guess.  It could be off for 24 hours, or maybe it will come back on around midnight or so. That’s the important part...we’re ok with it going out in the evenings, just so the power comes back on before it’s time to take a shower in the morning.  We have a little instantaneous water heater which is just for the shower.  This is the only place we have hot water, but it sure is a nice place to have it.  Making dinner is a little more challenging in the dark, but it’s ok since we have a gas stove.  It is also ok, because washing the dishes is a lot easier in the dark when you can’t see anything!  Both of our work places have generators, so power outages don’t affect us much during the day.  But it does make it extremely hard for most people to make a living when what they are doing requires electricity, because you never know when it is going out and how long it will be out.

Thursdays are a little more of the same.  Everyone is very social here and there is definitely a big sense of community.  So, at the very least, and often times more, two nights during the week, we have either been invited over for dinner or we are having someone over – which is quite a change for us.  But it is very nice having a close network.  This usually determines how many stops to a roadside market we need to make during the week.  We have a mini refrigerator, so we can’t stock much food in there.  And with the power going out all the time, we wouldn’t want to keep too much in there anyway.  But it is fun stopping to get fresh tomatoes, onions, peppers, eggplant, eggs, etc. at the roadside markets regularly anyway.  And speaking of shopping, Erin also usually ends up doing an emergency lab supply run about now.  She tries to make it to the weekend, but usually frantically realizes by the end of the week that it’s not possible and finds a critical need for some liver, or hydrogen peroxide, or who knows what for another lab.  So she gives Robert a call, our favorite boda driver, and he comes to pick her up and runs her around to wherever she needs to go.  He’s also helpful, because usually we have no clue where to go to get what she needs, so he is able to enlighten this silly Western girl. Running quick errands here usually takes at least an hour (and that’s with wheels – 2 hours if on foot).  We’re thinking of going to a Bible study with many of Erin’s co-teachers on Thursdays after dinner that meet at a home right down the street.  We may have another volunteer activity with a medical facility that occurs on Thursday nights which will conflict with this - but if that falls through, we will definitely keep going to this Bible study.

Date Night at Cafe Roma

FRIDAY! We made it! Erin especially loves Fridays, because school starts off with Chapel for the high schoolers first thing, and then for the remainder of the day, other grades of the school meet at different times for their Chapels. So for the whole day, Erin has the sound of little kids singing praise songs floating into her classroom from across the courtyard.  It would be nice if every day was like that.  Fridays also include an extra mid-day planning period for Erin, which is a nice treat!  She usually works at the school until Gary gets off to try to not have to work so much on the weekends.  And then Gary picks her up, and we’re to the best part – date night!  We’ve been trying to be very good and treat ourselves to a dinner out to just sit, relax, and enjoy some good end-of-week debriefing.  There are several affordable places not too far away.  One of our favorites is Café Roma – they have pretty good pizza, yummy desserts, and quite potent African tea (very heavy on the ginger).  

And then comes Saturday which includes sleeping in.  Things are pretty active around here, so it usually doesn’t take long for all sorts of sounds to fill the air – horns honking, roosters crowing, goats crying (the kids are pretty whiney), music playing, and the sound of children screaming their heads off…all before 7.  But it is nice just to sit in bed and listen and know we are in Africa.  If the power is off, things calm down a lot, and you just get to listen to the hum of the generator across the street which is nice too.  On Saturdays, Erin usually makes a big ole breakfast – which has included pancakes, eggs, biscuits, corn cakes, or whatever strikes her fancy.  She has been very resourceful since you have to make everything from scratch – nothing premade here, so making a big meal always feels like a bit of an accomplishment. And big breakfasts feel like the appropriate way to celebrate the weekend.

Like for you at home, if we want to try and go see something new, Saturday is the day to do it – whether it is going to a local craft markets, or going to Jinja, or running around Kampala with the eMi interns.  Our list of places nearby we want to go sight-see is growing fast, and we are falling behind.  Or you can spend most of a Saturday just running around doing some pretty random errands – like hunting down propane to cook with all over Kampala because everyone is sold out, or going down to ‘furniture road’ to find a little table to use for a desk.  ‘Furniture road’ is a road where there’s just a huge amount of people packed solid for a mile or two with all of their handmade furniture out along the side of the road to sell.  Or we’ve spent more than one Saturday going for a marathon walk through Kampala. 

In any extra time on Saturdays, we'll usually fit in a little work, spend some time communicating with family, work on the blog, and, if we are all lucky, Erin will sometimes do some extra baking; which is always a hit with her husband and the neighbors.

So that’s about it at this point.  We still feel like we are figuring out our weeks, and we both want to take advantage of being here and get involved with some other things.  So I’m sure our typical week will be changing soon – but that is a week in the life of us here at this point! 

We miss you much.  We definitely have our moments of home-sickness.  But we are very happy we are here.  As always, we are grateful for your support and how you have been loving us from so very far away. We love and miss you all so much, and as you have a moment, we would love to hear what’s keeping you busy these days. And yes, you can even write to us and brag about your awesome fall weather, and we will try not to think badly of you. Much love, and many hugs!

The Swing of Things

Hello All,

I hope everyone is well.  Greetings from Uganda.  We want to first off thank those that have already sent us a picture for our bulletin board!  We have gotten several in, and it has been quite a treat.  When Erin first suggested it, I thought it was a pretty good idea.  But now that we are actually getting some pictures in, it is really great.  My wife is actually quite brilliant.  Thank you all very much.  If you did not make it to the end of our last blog, we asked if you could send us a picture of you and the family for us to put up on our wall in our apartment – we would love to have a visual reminder of all the people we love back home!  We can accept mail at:   eMi, Attn: Gary Hightower, P.O.Box 3251, Kampala, Uganda.

Erin had a good week of school last week.  She is getting a system down for taking care of all the class planning, and she is making good relationships with her students.  The kids all seem to like her class.  Like a good science teacher, Erin has lots of activities and labs - which tends to make it hard for kids not to like her class.  …..And the labs will only get better.  There are a few laboratories in the area that we’ve been able to get some lab supplies from.  Erin was very excited when these were delivered on Monday.  It was a bit like Christmas …and I didn’t really have to do anything!!  So it was great, and now Erin is ready with fresh flasks, scales, pipettes, and test tubes to have kids blow some things up. 

View out of Erin's Classroom

This past Friday the school had an open house for students and their families.  I stopped by and took a few pictures and met a couple of her students and was impressed again with my wife.   

P&W Library

I’ve taken a few site visits to several eMi projects in the last few weeks.  One of which was to collect some existing conditions data for a project for a local university.  This project was right next to a library that was under construction and was designed by Perkins & Will, an architecture firm with an Atlanta office that my firm back home competes against quite often.  So my coworkers at POH will be amused, as I was, to know that over in Uganda, I still have to watch out for Perkins & Will. 

The Nile River

I also went to see a few eMi projects under construction in Jinja.  Jinja is a city 50 miles east of Kampala and may best be known for being the source of the Nile.  Maybe I’ll be able to convince Erin to do a rafting trip down some of the Nile while we are here.  Mainly these site visits in Jinja were to see some projects in various stages of construction to allow me to become more familiar with building practices.
 

In the office, I have been helping out with a variety of projects.  Most of my time this past week has been developing the design and construction drawings for the Western Ugandan Baptist Technical College. Their classrooms need a new roof system installed, and they also want to build a guesthouse to serve as a gateway for visiting supporters and guest professors. So I have been working away on that. 

Amazing Grace Christian Assembly

Erin and I have attended a couple different churches now since we have been here.  The church we have visited the past two weeks is a local church called Amazing Grace Christian Assembly.  Attending Amazing Grace does a good job of reminding us that we are really in Africa!  It has really been good experience.  …Though it is a little difficult for us to blend in.  Everyone is pretty active there, and we have to be ready to jump a lot and wave our hands.  I’ll let you imagine that for a while…Erin and me, the only two white people there, jumping and dancing around, moving our lips to words pretending we know what we are doing.  They spend a lot of time singing, and we have sung everything from old hymns to modern praise choruses to African tunes where we have no idea what we’re saying.  Everything is translated between English and Lugandan (a common local tribal language used heavily in the area).  Most songs, they will sing for 5 minutes in Lugandan, then sing for 5 minutes in English, then another 5 minutes again in Lugandan.  Announcements and the sermon are told often times switching back and forth between Lugandan and English, where one series of statements is said in one language and the next series is said in the other.  But a translator is there ready to translate either way.  Everyone has been very kind to us and eager to tell us how we can become more involved.  So potentially there will be some opportunities to help with the children’s ministry or with more vocational type mentoring.  We will try out some other churches, but we will probably continue to go to this church while we are here.  I tried to subtly take this picture before the building got too full.

We have definitely put some mileage (err, kilometerage) on our sandals since we have been here.  We’ve felt pretty good about our decision to just walk or use public transportation.  We have always enjoyed walking, and quite often our best conversations are had when we are walking together.  So it seemed appropriate, especially since most everything we need is fairly close-by, and catching a ride on a boda is never hard if we need it.  But walking around Uganda does make for some excitement!  Sidewalks aren’t exactly a common occurrence, and no matter where you are going, there is a pretty big hill between here and there, and traffic is seemingly always heavy.  We decided to walk to a grocery store and a market on Saturday.  It took half the day and we got home burnt to a crisp and worn out.  And on the way home from church on Sunday, we got caught in a downpour.  So it was a fun weekend for walking.  People think we’re a little odd for as much walking as we do – we are definitely in the minority of eMi staff or other local expats who don’t have a car or boda. The boy in me wouldn’t mind knowing that I can drive and navigate ourselves around here; but for the most part, we are happy with putting our sandals and backpacks to good use. Erin says we make great urban hikers.

Downtown Kampala

We are off to play a lively game of Uno since we actually have power tonight to see the playing cards.  Stay tuned for some Google Earth fun in our next update.  Take care!

Back to School

Hopefully you all have survived the first of school.  The year is officially is underway here in Kampala and week One is in the books!  In the last few years now, Erin has had a few first days of school, but this one may have contained the most uncertainty concerning what in the world to expect.  As you can imagine, there were all sorts of questions swirling around in her head concerning how effective of a teacher she'd be here and what her kids will be ready for, what the kids will be like, what she will actually need to teach, how will they feel about her, will there be any way at all to cram in all the things she wa worried she may have to teach them this year, will she be able to effectively communicate and relate to kids of all sorts of backgrounds, can she teach middle schoolers, can she teach senior physics, and I’m sure much more she didn’t tell me about.  It was a nervous night Sunday night.  She was calm, but just had a ton of questions.  But the morning came, and she hurried off to school.  …And I anxiously waited through the day for the phone call telling me what she thought and how she felt.  This was a bit of a critical point in how this year is going to go, so I admit, I was a little nervous myself.  3:00p rolled around and I received the call.  She said she couldn’t really talk now, but ‘the kids are GREAT!’  So we hung up, and I just smiled.  And even now after 4 more days, she says the same – now there are plenty of different questions swirling around, and she is still very unsure about many things concerning the direction of the science department for this school year.  But her kids are ‘awesome.’  They are respectful, cooperative, and fun.  She teaches kids from approx. 15 different nationalities.  Her largest class is 17 kids - 7^th grade.  And her smallest class is 11^th grade, with 2 kids (soon to grow to 4 or 5).  The students in each class are all on different levels, so she will be teaching different things to kids in the same class.  But the kids seem to be ready for everything, and that makes all the difference.  ...And they are a little further along than she thought they might be – except in biology…the subject she knows the best and enjoys teaching the most.  So it is great.  And so it seemed appropriate to celebrate the first day with a walk to get some ice cream!  Many of you will want to know more about the start of school experience.  Erin has broken it down in more detail for those of you who are interested at the end of the blog.  So read on below!

At eMi, I’m developing standards in the office as we gear up for the new year and am working on a design for a guest house for a developing school in the heart of rural Africa.  Most of the staff has returned to Kampala now, back from Colorado Springs for the companywide conference eMi has every 5 or so years.  Our East Africa field office staff here in Kampala consists of John - the office director, Pat - a project team leader who is a civil engineer, Phil - a project team leader who is a structural engineer, and Brittany - an office administrator who is a mechanical engineer.  We also have an architect joining the staff in about a month.  Staff members have a commitment of at least 3 years.  I am a ‘Long Term Volunteer,’ and my commitment is for a year.  Robert Donahue, who I’ve mentioned previously and has been doing a fabulous job of showing us around and holding down the fort while everyone was gone, is also a long term volunteer - and also an architect.  We have another long term volunteer, a structural engineer, joining us at the end of the month.  So we have a pretty well-rounded little office here.  And then for each semester during the year to liven up the place, we also have 5 to 6 interns come in to help with production for the project trips.  The eMi family here is really quite amazing and work together very well.  I’m glad to be a part of it. 

We’ve had a good week otherwise.  We are feeling at home.  Erin even made her first batch of chocolate chip cookies.  As more of the eMi staff and interns get into town, we will want to move into more of a hosting role to greet them instead of being the ones being hosted all the time.  ...well….…we’ll just say that’s Erin’s ‘great’ idea.  ...Though if it means more chocolate chip cookies, who am I to complain.

We are gradually figuring out a repertoire of dinner recipes.  Erin is feeding me well as always.  She might be making a lot of it up as she goes along, but you can’t really go to wrong with just sautéing something with the fruits and vegetables here.  I got a quick shot of her at one of the market stands by our house buying produce.  At this stop, we spent about $3 – and got a dozen eggs, a bunch of bananas, 2 bags of onions, 2 (large) avocados, 5 lemons, a head of cabbage, and a pineapple.  And every bit of it is great.  Ugandan bananas are the best I’ve ever had, pineapples here are to die for, and I don’t know what it is, but the onions are amazing.  We didn’t get any tomatoes this time, but they also seem to just make everything good. 

Well, we have pictures this week of Erin making cookies and eating ice cream, so you know we must be doing alright.  It feels good getting to work as well.  It is so good to see Erin filling a need and enjoying her kids.  And it makes me proud to see the school being so grateful that they have her.  And it’s good to make friends with people we are beginning to regularly see every day.  I think we’ve said this before, but it is not hard to make friends with Ugandans. 

We hope the start of the school year is going well for all of you.  We miss you all.  We’ve been gone for over 3 weeks, and it is starting to sink in that we’re not on some sort of vacation.  We should have thought of this before we left, but we ought to have brought some actual physical pictures of you all with us.  We could make a bulletin board here to put up in our room of American friends and family to help us feel closer to you.  ……So we have yet another request.  If you are reading this, would you consider sending us a picture of you (and family) for us to pin up at our place?  Nothing fancy – just a fun picture, any size.  No need to write a letter with sappy stuff - that will only make my wife cry.  An international letter costs 98 cents and you can just add that to the list of things we owe you.  We can accept mail at: eMi, Attn: Gary Hightower, P.O.Box 3251, Kampala, Uganda.  Thanks so much!  We would love it. 

Take good care of yourselves.  Talk to you soon.  And now, read on for more detail of Erin’s first impressions of school…

It’s about this time of year that I hear Nemo chanting “First day of school! First day of school!” over and over in my mind, and I tell myself that I should be that excited…

I’m just going to share my school summary as of right now, because it’s been pretty up and down – each day brings new knowledge and realizations that either (a)makes me want to quit teaching forever or (b)makes me feel slightly relieved and that I am at least somewhat capable of doing what I need to do.

So a little background on my kids: From a cultural perspective, they are a very diverse bunch. I think there are over 20 countries represented among the student body from the US to the UK to Sweden to India to Korea to Uganda – you name it, we’ve got it. Most students speak pretty good English, but there are a few new students that we’ll be working with very closely. I have one from Liberia that is just one of those students that you instantly grow attached to – he is very sweet and soft-spoken, but also very intentional about his studies which is cool to see. This group is also just as diverse when it comes to academics – this has been the source of my somewhat weakened mental state these days: How to get 62ish students with such different background knowledge to learn what they need to learn in the amount of time given. To be more specific, here’s the breakdown of my classes:

7th Grade – Dear Jesus, I didn’t sign up for 7th grade – you have a funny sense of humor! They are a squirrely, awkward and also tender-hearted, curious, and enthusiastic bunch of kids. They are also my biggest class – 16 students, just the right size for this fuddy duddy teacher! There aren’t too many gaps here. As far as resources go, I should be receiving teacher materials soon – soon means about a month here, so I’m winging it for now. They are going to be fun to work with as things are still very exciting for them.

8th Grade – A more subdued version of the 7th grade – 12 students strong. The boys are quiet and respectful, but I caught them having what they thought was a private conversation, and they’re a fun, goofy, innocently funny group of kiddos that I am going to have fun getting to know. The girls are highly motivated and studious – it’s amazing to watch them go. They care very much about doing things well, and it is absolutely refreshing to see. The boys are highly motivated too, but the girls are pretty serious about it - very cute to watch! Just like the 7th graders, I am waiting for teacher materials and making it up as I go until they arrive J Also, I have the 8th graders for morning devotions – they are very reserved, so I’m going to need to work on getting them to speak up. And if you have any devo ideas for 8th graders, send them along please!

9th Grade – I really like this class (but I’ll probably say this about all of them!). They are an interesting mix of old students who have been at the school for a long time and new students from all over. There are 7 of them. 9th grade is where the academics start to get interesting. Since I work at an international school, the curriculum is a little different – they are trying to revamp things such that bio/chem/physics are covered over 9th and 10th grades (done in the UK – those crazy Brits!), and I’m the lucky one that will be getting the students where they need to be in order for that to happen. So 9th grade will get an entire biology course, about 25% of a chem course, and about 15% of a physics course. Don’t ask me how that will happen in the 166 school days to come, but that is the goal. I should also specify that when I say “curriculum”, all I really have is a student textbook and IGCSE learning objectives – no teacher materials, pacing guides, frameworks, etc. to speak of – I’m literally making it up as I go for 4 out of 6 classes. And to boot, one of the students is only here for 1 year, and in order to get credit for biology when she returns to Iowa, she needs to have covered the US bio standards – fortunately she is very self-motivated (wants to be a medical scientist), so I’ll just need to make sure she gets any additional content she might miss in the regular bio course.

10th Grade – This is going to be a fun group to work with too. Just some really classy kids from so many different backgrounds – I have a lot to learn from them. But again with the diverse academic backgrounds, holy cow, this class is a winner. I will be finishing up IGCSE (that funny UK curriculum) biology, chemistry, and physics with the 3 returning students, doing strictly US biology with one student and strictly US chemistry with 2 students. How I will be teaching 3 things at once is beyond me – I’m thinking of setting up contracts for them to work independently, but I’ll need to gauge just how self-directed they can be first.

11th Grade – This class cracks me up. There are 3 students currently – another should be returning when he gets back from wherever his home country is sometime next week which will bring it up to 4. Again, a great couple of students – very neat kiddos. All of them are thankfully returning and on the same page, so the plan is to spend 1/3 of the year on random topics in biology, chem, and physics, and then they should be squared away with their science requirements.

12th Grade – And, I have to say it again, I really like this class. There are 14 of them, and they are a pretty tight-knit group – and ultra-sweet and respectful. But academically, I’m just making it up as I go. They’re basically done with chemistry and physics, but in all of their past science teacher rotations, biology got lost in the shuffle. However some students transferred in to the school after having already finished biology. So here’s my brilliant plan (actually stolen from one of my students). For the first semester, half of the students will work through concepts they missed in biology – the other half will work together to come up with fabulous labs and learning activities that they will share with the other half of students each week. They were actually pretty enthusiastic about this plan and looking forward to learning biology and getting to help teach their peers. But of course, it can’t be perfect – as I was talking to them today, one of the new students said, “Oh, Ms. Hightower – I’ve already had chemistry and biology – I’ll need to take physics.” ::sigh:: Oh course she would need something completely different than her peers… The second half of the semester is still up in the air, but it will most likely include (pending approval from the higher ups) a fabulous science room makeover with all manner of science-related murals to be painted – they don’t know this yet, but I think they’ll be pretty excited about it!

So in short, the kids are awesome. Figuring out what to teach them is slightly less than awesome. Six different classes, and two of them have 3 different content groups within them. So it’s kinda like teaching 10 classes really – that was depressing, forget I said that. But I’m feeling better now that I at least have a plan for what they need to learn – it’s just the implementation that has my head spinning. Doing a lot of praying for wisdom and trying to not lose focus on just loving these amazing kids – too easy to get bogged down in the details of work.

As I go along, I’ll share more of the specifics of how the school works – there are interesting differences between how things work here versus in the US. For example, we get to do all kinds of fun stuff I would have been afraid would lead to a lawsuit in the States – how liberating!

By the way, as I was writing this, a gecko ran across our bedroom floor and is now making his way into our dresser. Gary has the lower drawers, so I should be okay J Oops, spoke too soon – he just ran into one of my shirts on the top of the dresser. Note to self – I need to pay very close attention to my clothes before I put them on…

And I wish to state for the record that I am totally fine with not having a dishwasher… but if I had hot water in the kitchen, that would be heavenly…!