Working from home...

Hello everyone,

February seems to have gone past very quickly!  Schools opened on 1 February, 2021 and I haven't been to visit any of them yet but am in touch with the teachers in the three ECD centres in Southern Presbytery.  The first week was slow as parents were a bit reluctant to send their children but now it seems all is back to normal again!  I hope to visit before the end of the term.

These two pictures were sent from Livingstone ECD and its so lovely to see the kids playing with rubbish and having fun.

I am preparing for an ECD Board meeting which we will have on zoom for those who will be able to access it!  I wanted to find out what the children and parents think of our centres in Southern Presbytery so the teachers did an exercise where they asked the children and parents various questions!  They asked the children why they liked coming to the school and they got some great answers...

'I love playing', 'I learn about Jesus', 'School is big', 'I love dancing'!!

Parents were very encouraging saying things like, 'this school is so unique because children are allowed to play and learn by themselves', 'the school is convenient as its close to my house', 'the teachers are very caring'!

Sometimes it is easy to be frustrated (especially during this covid-19 time) when working from home because I am not visiting the schools, seeing the children enjoying their play and interacting with the teachers!  But when I hear these answers from children and parents it makes it all worthwhile!

We are in the middle of rainy season and there has been a lot of rain the past few weeks - I almost feel like I am in Ireland sometimes!! There are a lot of trees around us and one of them fell down in a storm - this resulted in a tree surgeon coming to trim the other trees of dead branches!  Now we have a lot of firewood for the cold season!! 

There are still load of mushrooms popping up all over the place after a shower of rain, its quite fascinating!

A few other pictures from the garden!!

Lots of butterflies around when the sun comes out!

And of course, the beautiful birds!

I love the African Paradise Flycatchers...very fast moving little birds and difficult to photograph.  They have beautiful colours - the one with the long tail is the male!

It is good to be able to witness God's creation in the midst of a pandemic.  I am hopeful that the vaccine will at least slow down the infections.  In Zambia, we are yet to hear if a vaccine will be rolled out here but I have heard that is being rolled out in small numbers in some neighbouring countries!

Wishing you all a good day!

Blessings,

Diane x