Shila Travels: Decorating tips and more

Internet friends!

I'm serious, Stepping Stones International (www.steppingstonesintl.org) has SO MUCH GOING ON! This week FLEW by, and there were tons of different things on the go. Every single week is a new adventure!

This week at work:

- On Monday, I did a yoga session with staff for a staff wellness activity! It went really well, and some of the women were interested in learning more, so we're now doing weekly yoga practice after work! DREAM COME TRUE! :D :D Photocred from the yoga session goes to Cate Gunn, a fantastic art psychotherapist from London. She was here for two weeks and sadly left this past week. Cate, it really was a pleasure, I enjoyed your company muchly! :)

Zennnnnn

Talking everyone through some poses

Checkin out the downward dogs of my new yogis/yoginis

Feeling happy in happy baby

Savasana

- I'm diving into the new literacy modules, and so far I'm LOVING it! I've already seeing progress, and it's honestly the most rewarding thing everrrrrr! I had a moment this week where I was on the verge of tears of happiness. One of my students was finally getting it, and had the biggest, most PROUD grin as she read, and she was flyyyyying through the activity and getting it all completely right. SO amazing! We're working a lot on expanding their English vocabulary. It can be pretty challenging. How do you describe an elevator, for example?

- WE GOT ETHICS APPROVAL!!! It took us aaaaages, but we got it, so I hope that by next week I'll have at least five interviews under my belt. We'll see about that, my fingers are definitely crossed!

Yipeeeee!!!

- We sadly had to say goodbye to Fred, a German volunteer who has been with Stepping Stones for an entire year. It was pretty touching to see the kids saying thank you to him! Below is a video of the kids singing him a thank you song. It's a song about god, but the message is to give praise. I giggled because we tried to decorate the hall as best we could, but the only balloons we had said "Happy 9th Birthday!" Kate and I were hoping no one would notice, but the kids are so sharp, they were like "ummm… Shila, who's turning 9?!" I also made the HUGE mistake of randomly asking four girls to blow up the four balloons I had. It caused CHAOS, everyone wanted a balloon and they were so not pleased with me. I should have known better! I felt so bad, and ended up promising them all a balloon before I leave in December. So uh, hey mom…. wanna bring me 70 balloons when you come?!?

Practicing their songs

Rookie mistakes- asking kids to blow up balloons when I didn't have enough for everyone

The goodbye ceremony

One of my precious readers doing a skit about Fred helping them with computers

Luckymore has a BEAUTIFUL voice

The attentive audience

Outside of work:

- It's almost the ONE MONTH countdown for my family's visit!!! I am SO so SO excited! Again, if you feel inspired to write me something, get at me for my parents' address! No need to mail something to Africa, just mail it to Halifax instead! I would love you forever and ever and ever!

- Guys, summer is coming! It was chilly here for a while, but now it's really starting to heat up. I can fully wear sandals and t shirts! I'm so excited to see what it's like to live in a +40C climate. I will be a puddle of sweat and I'm curious about whether I'll love it or hate it. Only time will tell!!

- I had a straaaaange moment early this week where I woke up super disoriented in the middle of the night because I thought my dog was crying at my door like he would in Halifax. Then I realized I was hearing a chicken, and that I'm not in Canada, but actually in Africa. It was the strangest feeling!

- I miss cheese graters

- This weekend was pretty low key. We went to Gabs on Saturday, got groceries, had a good meal, and got back late evening. It was good!

- On Sunday, Kate got her hair braided! Leanne, a lovely tutor at SSI, spent HOURS doing it. I suppose it wasn't technically braids, it was twists. I even learned how to do it, and helped do a few to speed things along. Final pictures to come

Kate's new hair dresser

Mad skillzzzzzz! Doing her hair took HOURS!

- We haven't had power outages in AGES, and I'm SO thankful! Today (Sunday) the power was out from the morning until 330pm, and I was so frustrated. I guess I've really gotten used to consistent power! When it used to happen all the time, I was barely phased by it. Thank god they are much less frequent! It was a rough start to things without power every few days. Elections are coming in January, so the president is doing extra to keep people with power.

- In case you were curious, the strawberries from last week have made the world's best smoothies, and the new handheld shower head has been the BEST THING ON THE PLANET! I am sooooooo muchhhhhh cleanerrrrrrrrrrrrr! Hygiene winnnnn!

My house, and "decorating" in Mochudi:

Sometimes, you just gotta make things work. Our house is a perfect example of this! I've attached some pictures of the place for your own enjoyment/curiosity. It isn't the nicest, but it's pretty fantastic compared to some other places we could be living! Like k, fine, I won't submit it to a decorating magazine, but it looks (and feels) a hell of a lot nicer than it did when we first got here! I'd show you the outside but I can't (because duh, safety) but it looks like a normal brick house. There are usually cows outside the gate. If I was here permanently I would probably put a little more effort, but this is working just fine. It's all about being resourceful. You don't have curtains for your bathroom? A random tablecloth will work just fine! Your couches are a filthy and hideous mint green? Some of them are unsafe to sit on? Toss the oldies, and get some sheets to cover the others! It isn't perfect, but I feel a lot better sitting on them without the fear of getting a rash/falling through. I also love the random mural someone painted in my bathroom. Seriously though, the place is coming along!