We had a huge rain storm this afternoon, and another is heading this way.  No sense in letting a saturated playing field go to waste!  Our neighbor, Donald, set this up for the kids:

And of course… there are mud puddles, which are always popular!

It was great incentive to finish homework quickly!

 

As the end of the school year approaches (only 18 more school days!), we find ourselves to be busier than ever, both in school and out!  The Grade Two classes presented a Poetry Cafe on Wednesday morning.  Three classes of children, their teachers, and what seemed like most of the parents crowded into our Little Theatre for some poetry reading.  The children did a poem as a group, and then they each presented their individual poems which they had written themselves.  Laryssa’s was really cute:

I Don’t Know Why

Mom says, “Do your homework!”

I don’t know why…

Dad says, “Clean your room!”

I don’t know why…

Grandma says, “Eat your dinner!”

I don’t know why… I think I’ll cry.

 

 

Thursday afternoon was our Spanish Language Celebration, Cinco de Mayo.  There were a variety of performances from the different Spanish classes, from elementary through high school.  Laryssa’s after school activity, Zumba class, was also included in the performance.  They had cute little costumes and danced a number for us.

Friday night, the fun continued!  One of my colleagues, Annie, invited a bunch of us over for dinner.  Annie is Indian, so dinner promised to be real treat!  Laryssa was to spend the night at Chiara’s house for her first sleepover at someone else’s house.  Very exciting!  Chris hadn’t been feeling well all week, so he ended up not going to dinner, but Laryssa went to Chiara’s anyway.  She was quite anxious about the whole thing, and ended up coming home around 7:30pm.  Just not quite ready to spend the night away from mom and dad. I enjoyed a lovely evening out with friends, and had a lot of laughs.  Dinner was delicious, of course!

Susan and I headed to Lekki Market on Saturday morning to buy a few gifts to take home this summer.  We also did some grocery shopping and then stopped at the GQ for lunch on our way home.  Saturday evening, the board president and his wife invited the staff over for a Teacher Appreciation evening.  They have a lovely (and huge!) home just the other side of the bridge, with spacious grounds that are perfect for entertaining.  They had a DJ by the pool, a complete bar, lots of good food… a great evening.  Once most of the guests had arrived and a small speech was given by Mr. Troy, a Nigerian band called Ajo Wura played music for the rest of the evening.  They also had a lady doing henna for the women.  A lovely evening!

 

We had a huge storm during the night, as seems to happen regularly during the rainy season.  This morning, the kids were all out by the Big Toy (that’s what Nigerians call the playground) playing in the puddles and having a grand time.  The sound of screaming and laughter is a wonderful sound!

 

Happy Mother’s Day!

 

 

 

 

Thursday May 1 was a public holiday in Nigeria.  Our friends Susan and Jay invited us to go to the beach with them, along with our principal Bill and his wife Deana.  It took about an hour to drive to Eleko Beach, where AISL has a beach hut.  

The drive was fairly easy; we took the motorway for a bit and then turned off onto a smaller road, which was much more interesting!  It was a dirt road, lots of dips and twists… I’d hate to be there if it rained!

Susan called ahead to Yousef, the caretaker, so he was ready with the deck chairs and charcoal for the barbecue. He had the area around the hut all swept up too.  Laryssa and I spent our time collecting shells and walking a little on the beach.  The water is polluted and the current is strong, so we didn’t go in.  There were some local kids a little further down who were braver than we were… they seemed to be having a great time in the waves.  The sky was overcast, which was very nice as it wasn’t quite so hot.  We spent the day talking, eating and just having some fun.  I hadn’t realized how much I needed to leave campus until we got there- it was so relaxing!  Next school year we plan to have a car, so I’m sure we’ll take advantage of this place more often!  

 

Susan’s first time on a horse!

 

Laryssa was so confident that the guy let go and she rode herself!

 

 

 

Yousef (the caretaker) and his brother did the barbecuing.

 

 

The local wildlife…

 

A herd of cattle came in to graze on the bit of green next to the beach hut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shepherd wasn’t much older than Laryssa.

 

We stopped for ice cream on the way home!

 

 

The next morning, Laryssa sorted all of her shells and displayed them in a museum.  She gave us “Permanent Tickets” so that we could enjoy the shells whenever we like.

 

 

Laryssa said that these look like teeth and fingernails.  She is going to leave one for the tooth fairy the next time she loses a tooth!