Letters to Winona...

Last week I finally received letters back from Winona that some students in my brothers' classes there had written to Tanzania to have pen pals in Africa! The letters take about two weeks to send both ways, so it is pretty slow communication, but it is also a lot of fun to receive a letter from halfway across the world. I wanted to send a class picture back with our second set of letters, so at the end of last week I took the whole class outside and we took the picture you see above. I never realized what a tough job photographers have. Can you imagine organizing 49 sixth graders for a pictures like this?

Here are some of the students with letters from Winona, MN! Thank you Cotter Jr. High and St. Stans! (and you cousins of course :)

I took this shot one day last week in class where I had the students measure the surface area of the walls of our room with some string and rulers. They had a lot of fun doing it, but my did that classroom get loud!
I don't think that I have mentioned on here how much of a blessing Anne and Lennart have been with their help putting together our new "library" at St. Laurent's. The past four Monday afternoons I let the kids come into the small room where we have the books and check out one book for the week by writing their name and the name of the book in a notebook we have. That was the only record that I had of the books, until Anne and Lennart started cataloguing them all! They have written down the names of all the books we have, organized them into categories, and have just begun labeling the individual books this week. Like I said, such a blessing to have them working as our librarians!

Here are some pictures from last week when Charlie came to play some songs on his guitar with the kids. We decided to take a picture with our new map of Tanzania that the Abbey woodshop helped us fix up, too.


Finally, I thought I would give you a taste of nightlife here in Hanga :) Almost every night after supper, we head over to the trade school to do work/check email/et. c. on the computer there.

I will describe my slightly funny look here:

The headlamp has become my best friend the last month or so because the power goes out around 10PM. I use it every night on my walk back to the hostel and while I get ready for bed (brushing my teeth, taking out contacts, and pulling the mosquito net down over my bed.

The MN Legion Boys State shirt reminds me of home :)

It must have been a Monday after a Vikings win, thus the shorts. I have been able to keep pretty close tabs on them this season via the internet and my podcasts.

The bag over my shoulder holds any school papers that I will work on in the computer lab...and perhaps a candy bar to satisfy my sweet tooth (no dessert at dinner usually).

The fanny pack holds my ipod.

The socks...it was laundry day, so give me a break.

and finally the RED crocs. I wear them everywhere here. Though I am in the market for a new pair now because I have worn all of the grip off the bottoms.

All for tonight. Thanks for reading!

Again, please let me know if there are specific things you would like to see pictures of...hear about...I am happy to share what you want to read.

We are off to Mbeya this weekend for a visit to the Monastic house there. Should be a fun trip. And we might even find some pizza! Look for pictures from Mbeya next time.