First day of school!!

We woke up bright and early at 6:00am to prepare for the first day of school!! The kids were not excited at all about the early school time. School starts at 7:05 for Chelsea...we pulled out of the driveway at 7:00, oops!! Erik drove like a "Zambian" and we arrived in the parking lot at 7:06.

It took us about 15 minutes to find Chelsea's class. All the kids were still standing in the courtyard waiting for the teacher- Whew!! She found out that her friend, Lenni, was in her class. Lenni introduced her to some other friends and she was off. She was not crazy about me taking her picture:)

We then walked Bradley to class. He was the 25th kid in Mrs. Lucas's class- she is from England. Bradley walked right in and was ready for his picture.

They both had good days- Chelsea was coughing all day in class and had a slight fever when I picked her up- that kind of tainted her day. As we were leaving, several girls were calling out, "goodbye, Chelsea". That made my heart feel good. Chelsea did mention that many kids asked her if she had ever been to Disney World.

Bradley was happy- His first story was of his new buddy Steven who said he would teach him French. They had their first French class, he learned "hello, what is your name and my name is.." Chelsea will also take French class. The second story was each kid had to sing one line from a song- Bradley chose "She's a heartbreaker, dream taker, love maker, don't you mess around with me" Thanks Guitar Hero!!! Chelsea asked him if any kids in his class knew she was his sister. The third story was about the chocolate cake that they all had- his favorite part of the day!!

No orientation, no new parent's reception, no Tuesday folders, no back to school breakfast hosted by the PTP, so I introduced myself to two new mothers who both moved to Lusaka last week. Alex is from Belgium, my first thought was "Chocolate connection", and Nubi is from Virginia, originally Nicaragua. Her husband works for World Bank. We are having "coffee" (diet coke, for me) tomorrow morning after drop off. It is good when God puts you in the right place at the right time. I feel like I've been around awhile and could show them the town.

The kid's schedule is pretty neat- They go to school at 7:05, they get a break at 10:00 where they can bring their own snack or buy from the snack bar. They get out of school at 13:00(1:00pm). They have one hour to eat lunch and play then they have after-school activities that are free to students and include sports as well as non-sporting activities such as drama, art, etc. They run on 10 week schedules so they get to move around throughout the year. The school has a swim team and the PE coaches really push all kids to participate. Good exercise!!

Since information from the school is so limited that is all I have for now. I will update you as I learn.