Peace Centre

Bradley and I went to the Peace Centre yesterday. The Peace Centre houses many refuges from surrounding countries. One singing group that performed were from Rwanda. The children at the Centre also performed a puppet show of the Nativity story and sang Christmas carols. Our children performed the Nativity story also but acted it out. The two performances were great!

Remember that it is the middle of the summer over here so we were all packed into a room- 200 kids and a few adults, small room, all curtains closed for a better effect for the puppet show- It was about 100 degrees. So many kids complaining about the heat- I looked down at Bradley sitting on the ground with all his class- he was on the end so there were 3 kids from the Centre hanging on him. He did not complain once- what a sweet kid!

Erik and I were invited to a "Meet the President dinner and dance" Saturday night so we had to dust off our dancing shoes- ha!! The invitation stated that the event was to begin at 19 hours. We got to the Mulungshi Center on time, waited in line to go through the metal detector, ran into Susan and Dave from Bible Study(he works for the National Milling Company- they are from Kansas City). Soon after Jonathan and Rita(Erik's Zambian business parter) arrived, we were seated and the entertainment began- around 20:30 hours(8:30). We heard the Vice President speak, then the President, then there was some tribal dancing and Trina, the African Idol, sang a few songs. We queued(lined) up at about 21:30(9:30) to eat and then Erik and I left. It was a fundraiser for the MMD political party and they donate publically. They would call from the microphone, "Zesco (the electric company) is donating 10 million Kwacha". The donation form was a binding agreement so...we skipped out as the donating began.

Sound of Music

Saturday night was the big performance at the kid's school of The Sound of Music. Bradley's class sang the song that accompanied the puppet show. I took a picture of a few of the kids in his class before the performance. His buddy Somang Kim then some other friends Briyanca, Kaileigh, and Tara.

We also took a picture of the cast to show you how diverse the school is- there are 84 nationalities at the school. It was a great performance and I was very impressed with the talent. Some children were acting, some singing, some in the orchestra and some backstage helping. The drama teacher did a great job including all classes in some fashion.

Harold Keene and Chomba came over for lunch on Sunday as well as the Mutale family. We had turkey with stuffing, ham, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits, chocolate cake and pumpkin cheesecake- all from scratch. Erik and I spent much time preparing but it was nice sharing an American tradition with our Zambian friends. We also obtained a copy of the last Monday Night Football game- the Saints vs. the Packers. Erik, the kids and I all snuggled up to watch our first football game this season and did just what came natural...I slept during the first quarter, Erik during the 2nd and 3rd as the kids played Rummikub. Brought back some good memories...Who won the game? Who cares? Just the sound of Hank Williams Jr. talking about "all his rowdy friends" was enough:)