dog and kitty playing

Our 5 year old dog Teddy and our new kitten are getting along great now and I enjoy watching them play together.

 The kitty, Scout, will help Teddy play with his toys by attacking them from the other side....

Ha, ha! In this picture the cat decided to attack and play with Teddy's face! 
It's all in fun, the only time Teddy ever gets upset and growls at the kitten is if food is involved.

our house project - the foundation

We own a piece of land and we're getting it built on little by little as funds become available.  So far we've had a wall built around it and a garage and outside toilet built.  There is a well dug, too.

Today we went to take a look at the progress on the foundation.  I am told that it will look better in another week!  For now it seems like a big mess!  But progress is good.  :)

African fabric

One of the joys of living in Africa is African fabric.  I have friends with bins full of fabric waiting to be sewn into something.  When you see a print you love it's hard to leave the shop without buying it.  Some prints are easy to find everywhere, but other seem to be one of a kind.  I've seen fabric I really liked and thought about buying but decided not to only to regret it later because I never found that print again.  Going into a fabric shop is a feast for the eyes and an exercise for the imagination.  What would these colors and this design look like on me as a shirt and skirt?  Or maybe it would make the cutest curtains or table cloth?

 The colors and patterns are interesting and often beautiful to look at, but I must admit that occasionally I'll see a fabric and think, "What in the world?!"  Here is a case in point:

It's like roller skates meets pizza cutters.  Very strange.  I don't think I want to wear this fabric!

But here is my latest outfit.  I found the cloth in a shop and I hadn't see the print before.  For whatever reason I just had to have the lantern fabric!  I took it to my tailor with a drawn picture of what sort of skirt and top I wanted.  He sent me next door to choose a matching piece of velvet to use for the trim. I was measured and I gave a down payment for the work.  About a week later I went back to the tailor shop and ta-da! here is what I got.  It fits well and I'm happy to wear my new lantern clothes.

new kitty and other critters

 We got a new kitty!  It's been over 2 years since the cat we used to have ran away.  All of our chickens with their food and eggs are mouse and rat (and shrew) magnets, so it seems like we could use some help with that.  We got this cute little boy kitten and I am calling him "Scout" but I'm not sure if the name is going to stick yet because JP keeps saying "Scoot."

Here is my boy, Teddy, my trusty dog.  He is pretty nice with the kitten so far unless the kitten comes near Teddy's food and then he growls.  He was good buddies with our last cat, so I hope they can develop a friendship.

 

We have a whole bunch of chickens.  There are 2 boxes for chicks and the bigger chickens are all over the yard during the day and in their coops at night.

 

 

teaching 7th grade English

I've completed (or managed to live through!) the first 4 weeks of the school year.  Last year I taught 9th grade English, so it is a bit of a change to teach 7th graders this year.  Last year there were 40 students in my class, this year there are 57.  Yikes!  So it is definately a challenge to try to learn their names.  My friend offered to print out a photo of each student.  You can see a sample of those here:

So now I have a little card of each student, and I had them hold their names in the pictures. These are kind of like mug shots!  The names are supposed to be put on their desk each time for English class.  I said that in December if they still have their name paper they can give it back to me in exchange for a piece of candy.  I hope I can learn the names by then!  At the end of the school year I will give each student their picture to keep.
Even though there are a lot more students in one class, so far I like 7th grade teaching better than 9th grade.  I enjoy teaching beginners the most.  Also, the 7th graders are more enthusiastic and responsive to some of my ideas, like singing or being dramatic in reading or acting out dialogues.  Sometimes it seemed like the 9th graders were just rolling their eyes and making fun of me behind my back.
So far they've learned a bit of beginning English, and they've learned not to all get up and run shouting and pushing to the door at the end of class to go out to their snack/recreation time. (Imagine 57 13 year olds doing that!)  They sit quietly in their desks and then I let one row go calmly at a time.
So I do see some progress already!  I hope it will be a good year.

duckies

Here is our duck family (and my favorite rooster behind them.)  We've had the mama and papa duck for over a year, but only had 3 babies hatch so far.  The duck that is standing in the picture is the one baby that survived.  I'm hoping that the mama duck will start laying eggs again soon. When I did some research online about ducks I learned that the kind of ducks we have, the kind that is mostly found here, is Muscovy ducks.

the car we bought

Here it is!  Our new car!  Our dog is still checking it out, but we're very happy with it. :)
It's a 2012 Toyota Highlander Limited, V6, 4WD, dark grey color, with good air conditioning and one of those cameras for backing up. Pretty great.