Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Seasons greetings to you all. It has been a while since the last blog but a lot has happened since then. we have been successful in posting photos this evening, apologies (sort of) for so many but they show events in the best way.
Leading up to Christmas we had fun with the boys having a 'shopping night' to select the clothes they wanted for Christmas. It was the best way to shop and didn't cost us, great! They had wrapped presents for each other and were awake at 6am on Christmas morning so by 6.20 we were opening presents so they could get dressed. They did look smart in their new clothes. In all of the photos I took of them we had Raghma looking down from the wall so it was almost like she was with us. We went up to the home for breakfast then prepared for the pageant. We presented it outside under the tent and, although it wasn't their best performance, it was received well and they did enjoy it. The weather was not nice, it was raining all around us but not on us until the service was over, then it teemed with rain. When we lit the advent wreath, the four candles on the wreath went out during the service but the Christ candle remained lit throughout which was quite symbolic. Marilyn and I managed to go home over lunchtime and sneaked a roast chicken sandwich for lunch and had a bit of a rest while the children watched a video, then at 4pm we had the giving of the presents for all children. Each child got five gifts, all wrapped, so you can imagine the noise and mess at the end. Some delighted children however. The rain had eased so we went outside to the tent for a barbeque dinner and a bottle of soda after which the primary aged children watched a Christmas DVD at Papa's side. We arrived home about 9.30 ready for bed.
On Boxing day (called 2nd Christmas here) we had a rest from Sunday School. Instead the children put on items they had prepared for. Then after lunch we had church in the tent again with a visiting Pastor from Canada doing the preaching. Again we had supper up at the home and were ready for bed much earlier.
During the week the children went back to doing 'chores' again which they seemed to enjoy, especially those who are 'guards' for the morning when they dress in the uniform. On the Monday the Canadians took the older kids for Lacrosse which was fun to watch.We had a real clash with Paul on that day which included his throwing stones, so he went up to Papa's side for two days to give us all some much needed respite. He did not enjoy sleeping in their laundry. He is back with us now but we need a lot of prayer for him that he can refrain from name-calling, lying, and throwing stones.....please!
Also on Wednesday and Thursday we were involved in a panel interviewing teachers for the school. All contracts finished on the 31st Dec so we needed to start afresh and we interviewed 41 applicants over the two days. It was a real eye-opener for us. The literacy and numeracy levels are really very poor which is quite a concern. We are going to re-interview about 15 of them on Monday in the hope we can appoint enough.
New Years Eve was a good night. We had Oli Bola (sp) a Dutch 'delicacy' for supper which the kids love, then a display of new year lights with lanterns the kids had made. It looked very effective as the kids walked around with their lanterns singing songs. After this the primary age children came to Papa's side to see the new year in. We had some games, then a DVD, then 'champagne' and 'fireworks', they all managed to last the distance and had a great time. We were buggered by the end!!!
Today we had a church service of praise, worship, and prayer for the new year and then some time to relax.
It is now just after midnight so it is time for me to finish, once again we wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
God Bless