Saturday 6 June 2009

Digressions and a working breakfast

We’ve had wonderful weather here for the last couple of weeks. Brilliant blue skies, sunshine so clear you can almost touch it, sparkling seas… sometimes rustling and playing, white caps tossing tiny heads, or occasionally as still and calm as a translucent mirror.

But today is different.

Today, the skies are clouded and frowning. Sprinkles of rain-mist tap my face as I walk outside. The wind is chill.

So I’m here at school, trying to catch up. I have reports to write, an inbox which is bulging so much it is in real danger of physically splitting, a desk piled high with papers and files. And that’s after tidying and sorting out before I left on Friday… whoops, that was yesterday. Less than 24 hours ago.

What am I doing? None of that, obviously. Catching up on my blog. It’s important.

It’s important to stop and reflect. To take that deep breath and review where life has gone in the last couple of weeks and where it is heading off to next. I’m only talking the next 14 days or so.

It’s important.

My morning was a precious oasis of catch up time, too. Every month I love to host a breakfast for working ladies in our church – whose lives are too busy Monday to Friday to go to home groups or other socials but who crave more time with God and His people than they get on a Sunday. We feast together, chat together, laugh together and focus on God’s word together. I lead, we all share. A good friend has caught the vision and comes early with gifts of food, helps me prepare, welcomes everyone. The breakfast is open to all the church, but typically there are about 10 of us and we all fit comfortably around my big table. There are some old, some new faces; friendships are forged, renewed, deepened. We take time out to reflect on our working lives: on how God sustains us in and through our work, and on how we can return that favour – to our colleagues.

I talked this morning about prayer. And digression.

This is DIGRESSION. A breath of fresh air before I dive into work. And it is SO welcome!

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Africa Day reviewed

After all that hard work, I still had no idea how the day would go. But it was BRILLIANT. The activities ran like clockwork. A small army of mums occupied the kitchen and science lab, showing the children how to cook vegetable stew and chapatis. By 12.45pm, every child in the school had done some cooking. Elsewhere, children were busy compiling project files on a particular African country (we looked at 8 different countries altogether), making masks, learning Swahili, singing songs, or listening to traditional stories in the 'grandmother's hut' - a corner of the library bedecked with blankets and all kinds of baskets and other artefacts, including a huge drum made out of wood and goatskin.

The fire alarm went off mid-morning - twice. It was the fault of the chapatis, which were busy burning. We had to evacuate the buildings each time before we could all go back and carry on. It all added to the excitement of the day.

Later, we covered a map of Africa with coins and then held the teacher auction, raising money for the Tumaini Fund. Over £800 was raised to help AIDS orphans and widows in this remote part of Tanzania. The highlight of the day was seeing my friend Candy and I throw water balloons at each other - two boys had won this privilege and we generously let them join in. The screams of delight every time we scored a hit were heard several streets away!

The children are still talking about it. The newspaper wrote it up. Me? I can't wait for next year!