Today was a really big day on our calendar, with two momentous events happening: the first one was the arrival of our 2008 Sonlight homeschool curriculum, and the second was the carnival, which the boys have been anticipating for weeks.
We couldn’t find our box at the docks on the first go, so had coffee with Elza and Sarel who were headed down that way. While there, the new surgeon joined us, who is completely German, and knows the town of Salzwedel. We had a brief exchange in German. He has only just arrived on the island, and will be here until May. He tried to escape from East Berlin, but was imprisoned for 1½ years before being released as a political prisoner – very interesting background! Also at the Coffee Shop, the ship’s doctor and her husband joined us for a while – they are South African and Afrikaans, and live in Cape Town. Very nice people. It was a great time of chatting! Our second try for the box was still unsuccessful, so we had lunch at the Mule Yard, and on our third visit to the customs hall, we found the expected box! Went straight home, to unpack the box…well, what an impressive collection of books! We are all very excited about next year’s school journey. We could only collect one of our boxes which came with the ship, because the other one is in a container, which were all still closed today, so we will likely get it on Monday or Tuesday. But the box we got today was the bulk of the books, so we could get a good feel for what we will be doing next year. We were so thoroughly engrossed, all four of us, with the new library, that I got a shock when I looked at my watch and it was 1.40. We had to be up at the hospital at 2 pm, and there was still a lot of organizing to be done with getting the car to the docks, us dressed, and to the hospital! Mad rush, got the necklaces and things into the car, which fortunately were all ready and waiting to go, got the boys into their costumes, meanwhile Nick drove the car to the docks and walked back up again, while I quickly got dressed and made up, and then the boys and I started up the road to the hospital, Nick catching us up on the way. We got there shortly after 2, and there were quite a number already assembled for the parade. The fire engine came shortly after, all dressed up with a live band. The parade eventually started at about 2.45, and it was certainly a crowd. It was no easy task trying to keep the boys with us, although they really would have been alright on their own. They had a lot of fun in their ghost costumes, and thoroughly loved the parade, although it was perhaps a bit overwhelming for Aaron and shame, he looked so small. We stayed with the parade until shortly before our house, and then broke away to go ahead and take some more pictures and video footage, and then we made our way quickly down town to the carnival area, to quickly get the stall ready. No sooner were we all ready and set when the first paraders came through! My stock sold fairly well – just over half the things were sold, earning a total of ₤92. I manned the stall from about 3.30 until nearly 5.30 – at that time we felt that the market was worn out and it was time to pack up. The intention was to have supper there as well, but after waiting in a non-moving queue for quite some time, we thought it best rather to go home! I made snackwiches for the boys after they’d had a bath, and we were all still looking at books by the time it was their bed-time. Caleb, entirely of his own accord, picked up one of the reader books, a Dr Suess one about a fly going by, and read the entire thing, out loud, just to himself. I was sooooo pleased that he did it! He is reading more and more without it actually being work, a chore, school, punishment, or forced. Yippee!! A love of reading is one of the most important things we want to foster in them, obviously aside from a close walk with God! Well, that ended the carnival day. We’ll have to wait to hear the news next week to find out how many people were actually in town, and how much money was raised towards cancer support and awareness.
We couldn’t find our box at the docks on the first go, so had coffee with Elza and Sarel who were headed down that way. While there, the new surgeon joined us, who is completely German, and knows the town of Salzwedel. We had a brief exchange in German. He has only just arrived on the island, and will be here until May. He tried to escape from East Berlin, but was imprisoned for 1½ years before being released as a political prisoner – very interesting background! Also at the Coffee Shop, the ship’s doctor and her husband joined us for a while – they are South African and Afrikaans, and live in Cape Town. Very nice people. It was a great time of chatting! Our second try for the box was still unsuccessful, so we had lunch at the Mule Yard, and on our third visit to the customs hall, we found the expected box! Went straight home, to unpack the box…well, what an impressive collection of books! We are all very excited about next year’s school journey. We could only collect one of our boxes which came with the ship, because the other one is in a container, which were all still closed today, so we will likely get it on Monday or Tuesday. But the box we got today was the bulk of the books, so we could get a good feel for what we will be doing next year. We were so thoroughly engrossed, all four of us, with the new library, that I got a shock when I looked at my watch and it was 1.40. We had to be up at the hospital at 2 pm, and there was still a lot of organizing to be done with getting the car to the docks, us dressed, and to the hospital! Mad rush, got the necklaces and things into the car, which fortunately were all ready and waiting to go, got the boys into their costumes, meanwhile Nick drove the car to the docks and walked back up again, while I quickly got dressed and made up, and then the boys and I started up the road to the hospital, Nick catching us up on the way. We got there shortly after 2, and there were quite a number already assembled for the parade. The fire engine came shortly after, all dressed up with a live band. The parade eventually started at about 2.45, and it was certainly a crowd. It was no easy task trying to keep the boys with us, although they really would have been alright on their own. They had a lot of fun in their ghost costumes, and thoroughly loved the parade, although it was perhaps a bit overwhelming for Aaron and shame, he looked so small. We stayed with the parade until shortly before our house, and then broke away to go ahead and take some more pictures and video footage, and then we made our way quickly down town to the carnival area, to quickly get the stall ready. No sooner were we all ready and set when the first paraders came through! My stock sold fairly well – just over half the things were sold, earning a total of ₤92. I manned the stall from about 3.30 until nearly 5.30 – at that time we felt that the market was worn out and it was time to pack up. The intention was to have supper there as well, but after waiting in a non-moving queue for quite some time, we thought it best rather to go home! I made snackwiches for the boys after they’d had a bath, and we were all still looking at books by the time it was their bed-time. Caleb, entirely of his own accord, picked up one of the reader books, a Dr Suess one about a fly going by, and read the entire thing, out loud, just to himself. I was sooooo pleased that he did it! He is reading more and more without it actually being work, a chore, school, punishment, or forced. Yippee!! A love of reading is one of the most important things we want to foster in them, obviously aside from a close walk with God! Well, that ended the carnival day. We’ll have to wait to hear the news next week to find out how many people were actually in town, and how much money was raised towards cancer support and awareness.
No comments:
Post a Comment