{weekly highlights june 18-22}

june 18-22

this week was another great week with the kids (photos to come once i can track down an internet connection good enough) with a lot of great afternoons as well.

i'm very excited to say that over a few afternoons a group of us started and completed laying the concrete floors for 2 classrooms at a local pre and primary school.  after this work, i have a serious appreciation for cement trucks and anyone who has made a career out of manual labor - it is tough work! we carried buckets of dirt, rocks, and water to a mixing machine, once mixed with the concrete powder, we shovelled the cement from the machine into buckets to carry to the floor area. very tough work and i'm almost embarrassed to admit how proud i felt admiring the finished product!  especially since (hopefully thanks to our help) this is actually the first time this school has ever completed a project ahead of schedule.  

after we finished the work each afternoon, as if we weren't tired enough, most of us ran the 2 miles home as it is always much faster to do that than to wait on a ride.      

there is a famous musical family living in bagamoyo called the zawose family, and one afternoon they invited us to their house for tea and to show us their instruments as well as some traditional african dancing.  later that night they actually put on a real performance for us at a bar closeby - full costumes and everything.  i have some amazing pictures and videos which i cannot wait to share.  i have never seen people move their bodies the way they dance here - it's very impressive!  i don't think i was blessed with hips that move the way theirs do...but i'm definitely trying!

and finally a few of us have gotten to know some of the local artists down at the market in town.  when they offered to teach us to paint, we could not turn that down! we spent an afternoon learning to paint the traditional masai warriors with knives and oil based paints.  very cool - and surprisingly pretty easy and quick to paint these!  photos of these to come as well.  

i often catch myself wondering what my co-workers are up to these days.  it's crazy to think of you guys working so hard on your computers every day and here i am laying concrete in africa...there are definitely some things i miss these days from home, but i am definitely VERY happy to have this chance to spend my time in such unique ways!