Football!

I had an old football: it had bulges and was coming apart but that did not matter of the students, they just wanted to play. 

Over the weekend I got a new football...

Oh my were the students excited :) 

Questions

I have one student that likes to ask a lot of questions.

Over the holiday he went shopping with his mom and he asked a lot of questions while they were out. At one point his mom asked why he asked so many questions.

He turned to mom and said, 'Tr. Maddy likes when I ask questions.'

His mom called me after the holiday to thank me for always answering all his questions :)

(It is true, I encourage students to ask questions because that is how they learn)

Bella and Technology

Bella decided she wanted to be more technologically inclined. 

So Brian is teaching her how to use the computer :) 

Valentines Flowers

Kwame came to my office door, when he should be in homeroom. 

I tell him to go back to class. 

He said, 'but teacher, I have something for you' with his hand behind his back. 

I walk to him.

He hands me flowers and says, 'Happy Valentine's Day!' and runs away. 

The day before. I was making Kwame do his science that he did not want to do and he looked at me and said, 'I hate you, Tr. Maddy.' 

I said, 'That's ok, we still have to finish.' 

Turns out he doesn't really hate me; 

deep down I am his favorite teacher :) 

So Cold

So it might not be snowing but it is really cold. 

I have a sweater, a zippy, a jacket and a scarf on. 

And who said Africa is hot....

White to Black

After spending lots of time at swim lessons I started to get tanner and tanner.

About a week into swimming one of my TAs said that if I keep this up I will turn black by the end of the school year.

I tried to tell him that this is as dark as I am going to get. He gets blacker in the sun.... He was convinced that the longer I stay in the sun, I will turn black.

After a long discussion to the fact that white people cannot turn black, he finally realized that I was just tan.

Swim Lessons

We are learning to swim! 

Shekina learned how to float and went to the deep end.

Manzi swam by himself for 3 seconds! 

New Staff Members

As the special education program grows we are in need of new TAs.

The current staff took it upon themselves to train the new TAs. 

They did a great job and I think the new TAs are ready for the job. 

Traditional Wedding

In Rwanda you have two big wedding ceremonies (among all the little ones). 

There is a traditional wedding called: Gusaba. 

That is Linda and her new husband. 

 At these weddings girls wear traditional outfits called: Mushanana.

It was a beautiful ceremony. 

Binoculars

Thank you to all who got together to give me my awesome binoculars! 

I can see all the birds now! 

Today I found one with a yellow butt :) 

George

This is George. 

George loves to have fun. He always makes you smile. 

(He is the one with his arms in the air) 

This weekend George's dad passed away. 

For those of you that have been following for a while, you might remember that George's mom past away March 2012. 

Please pray George stays strong and knows that God loves him and has a plan for his life. 

Back to School

One of my students came running down the hall so fast that he almost missed the door to my room and had to jump sideways through the opening.

He jumped in and did a little dance as he walked to my desk; jumping and skipping and swaying

He was so excited to be back at school.

Only moments after greeting me he had to run over and greet Bella.

We started back in a great mood :)

Tony

This is Tony and Manzi

Tony graduated from high school June 2012 and started work with me right away. 

He has really been wonderful to work with. 

Tony has been accepted to university and will be starting in January. 

It is sad to see him go but he is moving on to bigger and better things. 

I thank God I get a chance to see my TAs grow. 

Special Education

I was walking through the school today. I saw all these students with special needs in classes, in therapy, playing with friends, smiling, laughing, having fun...I saw teachers teaching them and including them into the lesson.

Then out of the corner of my eye, one student got away and ran up to me and gave me a big hug.

I stood there holding this little girl with down syndrome in my arms and thought to myself...

I love special education.

Bug Bite

Roy got a mosquito bite today and it was very itchy so we put a bandaid on it.

Just as I finished Roy turns to me and says, "Thank you very much Tr. Maddy."

He was very serious and very thankful. 

It made my day.

Twister

Most of my TAs did not know how to play Twister so I look all around town for the game and then taught them :)

It was so fun!

They had never played anything like it before :)

Sparfle

This is a Sparfle.

It is a cross between a chicken and a duck. 

He has orange legs, feet, eyes and beak. 

And he waddles when he runs. It is so funny. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Can you tell what was in here....?

My Australian housemates asked me what we have for Thanksgiving in American and I said a few things but not thinking it was possible to make any of it. 

When I came home from work they had figured out a way to make pumpkin pie. 

That's right....my Australian housemates made me pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

Among many other things, this year I am thankful for Liz and Joel. 

Nyungwe Forest

I needed a break from city life, so I went to the forest on the West side of Rwanda.

This is what I saw when I hiked up the to top of a hill

Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills

This was the view from the bottom

These trees were huge! 

It was a nice break and now back to busy life in the city. 

Lizard

Agama Lizard

We call this a push up lizard because to impress the ladies it looks like he does push ups.