Basketball and other news

Have I mentioned that I'm loving it here?  Probably not.  Or Maybe.  But I am.

Take today for instance.  Just a regular day for me ....  Helping one of the volunteers get her return flights problems sorted out; another volunteer who is leaving had to complete the "hand painting ceremony"; then over to the Upper Primary to speak with the Teacher Mentor Supervisor; on hand to photograph the kids and Canadian (Vancouver) visitors testing out the parachute; photographing the Lower Primary sports equipment for the marketing department; sneaking in some photos of the basketball game in progress; then the Staff Development meeting.  In between was downloading images and uploading them onto the database now that I am connected.  Really though, it wasn't a normal day for me because I wasn't helping out and photographing a class of either reading for Preps, or a Maths or English or Swahili class, or any Staff Portraits.  Yesterday I had to photograph the stacked up plates, bowls and mugs in the kitchen area as well as the preprations going on in there.

I usually have lunch in the Lower Primary dining area.  This is an open sided but covered dining hall area where hundreds of the lower primary kids file in and are seated in class order.  Their dinners are already waiting for them.  We (ie, the staff, any visitors, assorted admin departments etc so mixed nationalities and colours) help ourselves from huge pots that are lined up on tables between the kids and the stage.  One day I should probably photograph this, as its a daily occurence!

At the moment there are two families visiting from Vancouver - parents and 5 kids from each family.  As I was finishing my own lunch, I noticed that they had finished theirs and some of the kids had headed out to one of the playgrounds.  It wasn't long before they were playing a game of basketball with the kids.

Now you are probably thinking that a game of basketball means that there are equal numbers of players on each team, there is only one ball, and its usually fairly even play between the teams.  Well, this wasn't.  There were 6 Canadians versus more than 6 school kids.  I would say that it ended up more like about 60 kids at least versus the 6 Canadians.  And it was enormous fun on both sides.  I ended up running up and down as much as they were, except that I had a camera and I was trying to keep clicking as well as keeping an eye out so I wouldn't be run over.  After about 20 minutes, we were all saved by the bell.

 All these school kids were playing basketball, so you can see that the teams weren't exactly 'even'

I thought that some of you may also enjoy a few other mixed photos, although judging from the comments I'm getting, this may not really be the case.

Still, I'll add some anyway.  In one of the classes I was in recently, this book was on one of the shelves, and the note on the book was as interesting as the book itself.  Let me know if you can't read the notice:

In another class, this notice was interesting because in Australia they probably wouldn't have carrying things as a function of the head:

This is one of Cindy's PE classes.  She has recently also recently been allocated an assistant, Ellie, who is the lady on the right with the blue top.

At the Upper Primary assembly last Friday, I couldn't help notice the boy on the right.  Firstly because he kept fidgeting, and then he had such a sense of humour.  You probably wouldn't think so from this photo but ...

it's amazing the difference a smile makes ...

In the Maths class last Friday, you may not be smiling if you were trying to answer these quesitions:

and this list of names has two that we would consider different

I took this shot this afternoon.  Cindy and one of her students. 

This was taken  during the storm we had last Friday afternoon.  I was over at Upper Primary and this was taken from the 2nd level

Also taken over at Upper Primary ....

And this is the last shot I can add this time

This is taken outside our office.  When I am sitting at my desk, if I turn my head left, and look outside, this is the view.  How good is this for a view from my desk?