I understand that the days are nice in Regina these days, a little wintery in Yellowkinfe. It is a little on the cool side here. I am not complaining, it is still very warm through out the day until about 4:30PM. At that time it starts to get dark and cool, since we have no heating in the house. So we close all the windows and put on a sweater, socks and shoes and have a cup of tea! The people here find it really cold so they put on turtlenecks, jackets scarves and tougues, and sometimes even a blanket. We don't find it that cold. We have added blankets to the bed and Ray says he is thinking it might be a little cool to be showering at 6:00 AM. The children don't seem to notice it very much. The sun comes up early so it isn't long till it warms up outside.
The last week had several exciting happenings. The first was on Monday when I taught my first class in this school. This was in Autumn's classroom because her teacher is off having a baby. It was a fun English class and I will do that for the next couple of weeks. The teachers are just covering for her since the course work is all finished now and it is all review. They would like to have me teach more but so far I have hesitated. I will consider doing more in January when the new term begins.
On Tuesday the excitement was about the new baby on campus. We hesitated going too soon and then missed the visiting hours so waited until the next day to see her. Ray did see her that day and most of the staff were up with Supreme (the father) when the announcement came that it was a baby girl. Fathers are not permitted in the delivery room, so it was a long wait for him. None of his or Mary's family live here. The baby is beautiful and the parents are very happy. They have said we are to be grandparents to the little girl and we are happy to be that. We are just not sure what all that means yet!! The baby doesn't have a name yet. They arrived home this afternoon and treated us to a special dessert as soon as they got home. Autumn and Andrew are quite fascinated and Mary is happy to have them visit often.
On Wed. night Ray showed some pictures that we had taken of the school, students, and staff to the students after evening devotion. It was very fun to hear them laughing at themselves. Not much studying tht night as plans were being made for the school picnic. I walked out to the dining hall and they were painting a big sign for the front of the bus, and just out in the yard they were in the process of skinning the little goat that had that afternoon been enjoying the grass in the yard! Andrew was sitting on the bench with other little boys thoroughly enjoying the proceedings!! One boy showed me proudly that he had the eyeball!! and Andrew was delighted to show me that he had been given the horn and ears! Of course there were many details that he had to share. An unforgetable experience for this little city kid!!
Thursday morning two buses came to load everything up, children, food, pots, water, everything one needs to cook for 100 people. We went on a very windy and bumpy road for over an hour to a nice place in the hills. It had a swimming pool which the boys patrticularly enjoyed, Andrew was interested in the fact that the little boys just took off their shorts and went naked. He couldn't quite figure that! and even more interesting was that the little girls went in their panties!! The girls here are very shy but Autumn and a few others did enjoy the pool after the boys tired of it.
I enjoyed the cooking or rather watching the cooking. Several of us joined in peeling onions and slicing them-a very large pail of them. There were several cooks. The onions and piles of garlic and ginger went into the pot with lots of masala (spices for meat) tumeric and coriander, as well as the goat and lots of oil. There were about 8 special dishes cooked that afternoon and when it came time to eat the students and staff had a wonderful feast. Andrew just smelled it and gave his plate to Grandpa. Autumn is more adventuresome and is loving hot and spicy these days so enjoyed it. I tried most of them and enjoyed some of them!! The goat was quite tasty actually.
We arrived home at about 6:30 PM. It was a fun day. The next morning all of the children were gone home when Ray went down at 8:00 AM to see them home for the long weekend!!
On Friday two of the staff here, Cathy, a teacher, and Muani, a warden for the small boys, and I went up to the orphanage. It is actually a home for children from troubled and split homes. They have about 220 children. They also train some of the girls to do weaving and that is why we went. I was interested in some Mizo cloth for a skirt. They have two weavers fro Myanmar who do the weaving and instructors that come out from Aizawl to train some of the girls. Cathy and Muani also wanted to look around at the home which is really quite impressive. I did buy some cloth and am having a piece made for me. We then went to the hopital to see Mary. I enjoyed the outing with these young ladies.
Saturday, Muani (who calls me "Mom") and I went out again and this time it was for a hair cut! It was right here in Durtlang and it was a lady. She didn't take long to cut my hair and charged me Rupees 40 which is just over $1:00!! On arriving home I did notice that one side was longer than the other!! So, Muani had to repair the damage. I was just happy to be able to get it trimmed here.
On Sunday we travelled into Aizawl for service. I am teaching the children and am quite pleased with how well they are learning. We have learned all of the books of the Bible and can find almost any scipture I ask them to look up. After we do that then we have a Bible story and I usually have an activity fro them. After church yesterday we came home because we had invited the staff that were still here (the others had taken advantage of the holiday to go elsewhere) for tea. That included Bojen, Ali, Muani (the only lady), Jeremy and Muana. We enjoyed having them. I served, egg sandwiches, carrot sticks, cookies, carrot cake, and apple crisp and tea. In the evening we enjoyed a slide show of our family at home, our trip over and the Regina church and lots of other fun times. The kids loved it.
So begins another week. God has been very good to us. We are healthy and being well cared for in every way. We look forward to what God has in store for us in the next few weeks. We are headed to shillong on November 30 to meet up with Laura and Wilf. Love and Blessings to each of you. Ellen
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