We really enjoyed celebrating International Book Giving Day, which happens to be the same day as Valentine’s Day. We started out by selecting a pile a gently used books from our shelf to donate to a school for orphans here in Malawi that is doing amazing things. One of their students recently flew to England to be honored by the Queen for his essay that won the 2012 Royal Commonwealth Essay Competition. He wrote a touching essay entitled, “The Day I Wore My Best Clothes.” In my original post about International Book Giving Day, I wrote about the scarcity of books here and the fact that reading for pleasure is a luxury that the majority of Malawians cannot afford so I was very excited to find out that the school [...] Read more »

I LOVE this holiday! When I taught at a primary school in rural Zambia from 1998 to 2000 books were hard to come by. Often there was one textbook per subject per grade – about 40 kids per book. The teacher held onto this copy and would write the entire lesson on the chalkboard before class. Class often consisted of the students copying the lesson into their notebooks and by the time they were finished writing there was little time left for any real discussion or teaching. Books for pleasure were almost unheard of, there were a few worn copies of donated Watch Tower magazines floating around but that was about it. I haven’t spent a lot of time in Malawian schools but I hear [...] Read more »

We spent three weeks in Botswana over Christmas and New Year and had a great time catching up with family but unfortunately I was pretty sick for most of the trip. Between that and our week of flu at the lake I’m beginning to think I should give up traveling and just stay at home. I’m finally starting to feel like myself again but I really wish I’d been in better health and able to enjoy all the fun things that are accessible in Botswana. There were so many highlights for the girls and seeing them so happy made it wonderful for me too. They got to meet Santa – despite the looks on their faces they loved this and kept begging to go back and [...] Read more »

It’s an African Christmas for us this year, we are off to Botswana tomorrow for three weeks with Granny and Gramps. We are so excited to have a break and to spend the holidays with family. Despite Kooks writing to Santa to tell him she’s been naughty, both my girls get Christmas this year and are expecting Santa Claus to visit and leave them a special surprise. This has caused a little bit of a dilemma because I purchased all of the girls Santa gifts here in Malawi and I don’t want to lug them all to Botswana and then back again – especially since I’ve got a plan to utilize that space to carry back homeschool supplies, lots and lots of books, a handheld [...] Read more »

This year my girls both get that Christmas is coming and they are so excited. I wanted to feed their enthusiasm and add to the anticipation with a countdown calendar. I’ve been searching online for DIY options and found a matchbox advent calendar from Martha Stewart. It is perfect for us because it is small enough to pack when we travel and I love that as you pull out a numbered box and turn it around a picture is slowly revealed. The trick (if you, like me, are not artistic) is to find a picture that you can replicate. I googled easy snowman coloring pages and copied (to the best of my ability) one of the designs at Kids’ Turn Central. I drew it in chalk [...] Read more »

In Malawi we can only buy eggs with brown shells and that is never a problem except at this time of year when I want to decorate eggs for Easter. I loved dyeing eggs when I was growing up and I want to continue the tradition with my children. There was something exciting about turning food into art and it was satisfying to watch the white canvas of an egg be transformed into brilliantly colored designs and patterns.     I attempted to recreate this for Boo’s first Easter with a traditional vinegar and food color dye. I was dismally disappointed. The colors came out really murky on the brown shell, the eggs were colored but there was nothing brilliant about them. Last year was [...] Read more »