"I cannot live without books."

Wow! I think we just went an entire month without internet access! Our internet used to come from the server the school was using, but since we've been changing and upgrading it so we can support online learning, it's been down for a long time. Finally, Emmanuel and I broke down and bought a mobile modem. It works kind of like a cell phone with pay-as-you-go-minutes; once you've used up 2 gig downloading, you have to go refill it by buying more data. But to make a long story short, now we are reconnected to the world! I feel so grateful for internet, you really feel like you're in Africa when you can't Skype family, check email, download books...or look up how to make soy milk...it's funny the things you miss!

Let's do family updates! 
Emmanuel: has been working each day to try and make the school a little better, but still gets pretty frustrated with the slow pace of people and inefficiency of the systems around him. He's been working one getting this internet for the school for a month now and still! Can you imagine if you hired a company to provide you with internet, then had to spend every day checking up with them for progress, and after a month it still wasn't finished! Yeah, that company would not make it in America.  Emmanuel was also recently called as First Counselor in the Bishopric of our ward and has been learning a lot about the struggles of leaders in the church. Our ward in particular has a lot of new members (and it's growing, seems like there's a baptism every week!) so helping people come to know the gospel and trying to build and strengthen the ward, it's a big job. I wish I could be more help to him by being like Heather Plain or Janet Rigby or Adlina Memmot, they were so good at making new people feel welcome. I'm still struggling to learn names and faces...and remembering if I've met a person or not. With everything on Emmanuel's plate I think we'll be seeing Gray hair soon... Yet he's still so supportive and loving to me and the kids.


Natasha: is really enjoying the school break these last two weeks! This last month we (unofficially) moved our Head of Academics for the infant school and lower primary ( basically the principle over the students from 18 months - 3rd grade) to a different post in the school and I've been working feverishly to fill the vacancy. Really the job itself could be easy (a lot of management jobs in Ghana are giving orders and "supervising"), but I feel very under qualified and I'm trying quickly to learn all I can about learning and teaching. Next two weeks we get to have in depth training for my teachers on Montessori and I'm so fortunate I'm not doing all the training myself, my wonderful Mother in-law is helping with a lot of the teaching. But still, I feel keenly my responsibility. Emmanuel (and Heavenly Father) have put me in a position to be very influential and to help make the school just what it needs to be. I'm praying to be able to do it. And still trying hard to be a good wife and Mommy. One very nice thing about working is it requires I be careful and structured and effective with my time so that I get what I need to done and still be able to play with my babies. A very recent development is the possibility that I may have picked up a parasite here in Ghana...we're not really sure but I've had lots of headaches and nausea and been feeling tired. We're hoping it's the kind of parasite that only lasts nine months, but I really don't know yet. I'll keep you posted!  Just finished reading Kim by Rudyard Kipling and I'm amazed that a white person can go to a foreign place and know the place well enough to write a book like that. Really a beautiful picture of India. And gives me hope that maybe I can someday fit in here too.

Dante:  Is growing up so fast. He's outgrowing most of his clothes (good thing the bigger sizes are on the boat headed this way!), and has fallen in love with drawing and legos. He's always doing one or the other and getting good enough I can recognize what he makes. Usually he's drawing dinosaurs and building animals. The other day he showed a drawing to Grandma on Skype and told her a whole story about it! I loved it! He's been bit and bit and bit by mosquitoes poor little boy, even when I put him in footie pajamas, they seem to be able to eat right through them. We're trying to treat him for parasites too (not the nine month kind...that'd be weird). Lately he's still loving Just So Stories and we've also been reading The House at Pooh Corner. I'd never read it before and am enjoying it as much as he is! Oh and I should mention he passed his final exams well at the end of this term...not sure why we have final exams for pre-schoolers...
Iris: has been going through her verbal explosion and is saying several words together now, and is out of diapers!! She still needs help getting her pants up and down, but she tells me very consistently when she has to "wee-wee," as they say here. Her favorite phrase she's picked up is a local one: "I'll beat you!" I know, I know, I don't like it either. In fact every time she says it, Dante comes tattling. Everyone here says it to everyone, including her teachers and classmates (they don't follow through on the threat, just in case you're worried...at least the adults don't). She still loves nursing and reading stories with Mom and Dante, (her favorite she'll request by name, "Moose a Muffin.") and loves to be spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa! I love how happy she is to see them, and they love spoiling all of us too! We're very blessed to have such good family close by.

I've been writing about books partly because I feel so blessed that we have them. It's really abnormal to read to your children here and I really think people suffer for it. Reading is seen as an academic exercise, like learning to add and subtract, not a life skill that enhances your understanding of anything and everything. I'm hoping we'll be able to change that paradigm. If we can help one generation of children here to learn to love reading, maybe we can bring the country to the developed world.