Surprising supply of snakes!!

Yes, I had a scary surprise one starlit evening when Dave was out! (No he wasn't down the pub. He wishes!!!) The dogs alerted me to a snake slithering through the garden. Nellie sneakily attacked it and smashed it around a bit. When I thought it was sufficiently smashed (all one and a half metres of it) I sprung on it with the long handled garden rake, spearing it several times! (Hope you are not too squeamish or eating your supper because it gets worse!) Little did I suspect that this snake would come in so handy..

Dave with the fish and snake and Nicky screaming!

When I staggered in from Kidz klub on Saturday, I was to discover some of it in the freezer! (thankfully stored in a plastic bag!) Dave had secured its demise by chopping it up when he got home and found Id been such a superstar! His sermon on Sunday was from Luke 11 and apparently he needed bread, a snake, eggs, fish and a scorpion. Eggs and fish I can do but I wasn't about to supply a scorpion! There was nothing in my contract about that so he had to be satisfied with a picture. You should have heard the screams when he surreptitiously produced the rapidly thawing and smelly snake from his box of tricks.
On a more salutary note - Security here has become more of a concern of late. There have been one or two stabbings of people out jogging near us and once a year the President releases some prisoners from jail. So... there has been a severe rise in armed robberies and violent crimes. Even the locals feel unsafe and wont walk out at night. We are also aware of many scams going on at the moment and we have to be wise as serpents to avoid being stung!
There has been a great deal of publicity lately about the corruption that pervades society here. I know it is everywhere but here it is sickeningly common and quite accepted as the norm!



The children brought grass from home for
Gods blanket before we planted the seeds

This maize is amazing!



picking the cobs

The school has been a busy place this week as we admitted 20 more children and
snack time at school has been very super as we have snatched, stripped, steamed, served and swallowed the maize we grew in our ECD garden. 

serving up the cooked mealies.

The new children are so sweet... Most have never seen so many toys. The older children have been very caring and helpful towards them too.


Yum, Yum!

Everyone looks so smart in their new T shirts. (including the teachers). Smart and Smiley is the only way to describe them all! They have settled into the school routine surprisingly well...... so far so good.  So its so long from me and goodbye from him. (you know who I mean... The someone, snoring serenely in the room next door)                                                                                       

and the back view



The new class with Ma Phiri...