February

From February 7 to 14 we had school at Kumbya, a Missionary owned piece of land near Lake Kivu. We decided to have a sort of outdoor school where students learned skills such as fire building, bird identification, sailing, shelter building, map reading, self-defense and more. Luckily I didn't have to teach all of the lessons. Various parents volunteered to teach different lessons in which they had expertise. Dave Thomas was a boy scout in his youth so he helped with survival skills, Barb Bennett has a black belt in Tai Kwon Do and helped with self-defense and Corline Pomeroy has been a sailing instructor and helped teach the children some basics about sailing.

Students were split into two teams: girls vs. boys and we invited two boys who live near Kumbya (their dad is a doctor at the Kibogora Free Methodist hospital) to join us in order to make the teams even. We had various competitions throughout the week including treading water, building shelters, sighting birds, skits, and more.

We went to Kumbya because several of the parents are involved in a project to transform Kumbya into an Eco Tourist destination and a group from EMI (Engineering Ministries International) had come to survey the land and draw up blue prints for the proposed buildings. This meant that students also got to learn how to survey land and test water, and they were able to interview the engineers and graphic designer about their jobs and see them at work.

Toward the end of February we also had our annual Valentine's Dinner for parents. During the dinner students entertained with singing, instruments and poetry reading. Afterwards we had a round of "The Newlywed Game" and Michael and Melissa Chapman emerged as the winners.