Sunday, June 10, 2012

Room-Mates


We have sixteen kids in the dorm this year, plus our own two.  That makes eight rooms of kids to say good night to.  At 7:30 we say good-night to our own kids, Mikaylah and Jayson.

Mikaylah and Jayson
The seventh and eighth graders are next and their bed time is nine o'clock.  Sometimes we have group bed times as there are two boys, Daeyoen and Yeonhoo and one girl, Amelia.
Yeon Hoo and Dae Yoen are both South Korean




Amelia rooms with two girls in grade ten, Cora and Amy, who get to stay up until 9:30, so often they are next.


Amy is a Kiwi, Amelia is British and Cora is American

Chung Hyun is from South Korea and Zeb is American/Canadian


Joshua and Joshua share a room, a name and even initials, so we call the British one Gibbo and the New Zealander Griffi
































The Big girls get tucked in between ten and ten thirty
MiYoen and Marette are South Korean and American

Beth and Deborah are both American



The last group to tuck in is the big boys, or the "men" of the dorm, usually we turn off the lights by eleven.
Yunin, Asyncrite and John are the 'men' in the dorm

They love each other!

Aunt Ruth's birthday with Karaoke

Since Ruth's birthday is in two weeks and we will all be gone we decided to celebrate early.  We had BBQ chicken and Fries, Chinese green beans and corn.  For dessert Ruth made her special apple cake and we had coffee icecream to top it off!
the birthday hat!  (and Beth)

yummy apple cakes!

happy birthday Ruth!

two on one cake 7 on the other

Everyone singing together

Zeb singing Marry You
After dinner we played with the Karaoke machine until bedtime!  A very fun evening!

Friday, June 08, 2012

Elementary swim competition

 The children all listened to Miss Shengraw and did well in their races.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Starke Sandstorm Sisters

Marette and Cora
Yes, we had a sandstorm on Thursday, and no we didn't get any pictures of the sand rolling in, though many of our friends did, however we did capture a couple of sisters before they showered off the reddish sand...

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Quilts for Seniors

Our four seniors: Miyoen, Asyncrite, Deborah and Beth at the Indian Restaurant in Niamey, Niger
 No, not for senior citizens, but for the grade twelve students (seniors) who will graduate next week.  Last year I learned how to quilt and made a quilt using African fabrics for our two seniors, Spencer and Elisheva.  This year's seniors were hoping for a similar gift, so I asked them what design and colours they would like.  They all chose beautiful designs and I really enjoyed making their quilts, I kind of got busy during 3rd quarter and then had a lot of work to do to get the quilts finished before we gave them to the kids.  My friend Cathy blessed me by sewing on two of the bindings and I finished the fourth quilt one hour before we presented them to the kids.  Here are some photos of our four seniors and the quilts they chose and received:
Asyncrite and his log cabin quilt, he wanted a Blue and brown quilt with a "little bit of pink, please".

Our exuberant Deborah and her Gem Stone Quilt

Our Gentle Beth and her string quilt, I think it looks like a stained glass window.
MiYoen wanted green stars! So this is what she got!  It actually turned out better than I thought.

Miyoen chose this camouflage pagne for the back of her quilt.


Friday, June 01, 2012

Wii Just Dance

Amy and Deborah have a dance off!
The kids love playing on the wii. Lately they have been playing "JustDance".  It is great entertainment for them , and for all of the rest of us watching!  I tried to upload a video, but our internet is too slow.. so a photo will have to suffice

Wii Just Dance

Many of the kids love playing with the Wii.  One of their favourite group activities is the JUST DANCE game, even our little ones get into it, it is very entertaining to watch, too!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Baptism at Blisses

Ellie, Hannah, Chris and Andrew wait their turn

Pastor Dave baptized Alex and his big brother
This was the first time we had a baptismal service during the school day.  It was an excellent opportunity for many of our kids who have become followers of Christ this year, and a fantastic witness to the entire community.
The service so impressed our eight year old daughter, that she now wants to follow Jesus in Baptism.  We are treading lightly because of her tender age, but don't want to crush her either.  Pray for Mikaylah as she wrestles with this decision.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Clotheslined!

While running through the neighbour's back yard after the soccer game, Gibbo ran through a clothesline and burned his neck.  Here are before and after photos:
BEFORE: May 22

close up of the clotheslined neck BEfore pic May 22

AFTER:  May 30, it is just a pink line now!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

sixth grade graduation

Even though we don't have any sixth graders this year, Mikki asked me to make the cake, I was glad to do it, it turned out pretty cute!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

PAVLOVA

Griffi made a pavlova for his Bible study group.  He topped it off with imported kiwis since he is from New Zealand... YUM!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Happy UnBirthday Deborah and Zebadiah

Deborah's 18th is in July so we celebrated early... she wanted apple and chocolate pie!

Zebby just wanted ice-cream!  so we had to make cake of course to go with it!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Cora's Tea Pary

Upon watching the little girls play with their tea set, Cora wanted to do a real live Tea Party, with invitations, dress codes, scones and jam and TEA!  All the dorm girls and other invited guests dressed up for the occasion and had a wonderful afternoon tea time!
One of the invitations

Ruth held her pinky out while drinking her milky tea!


Friday, May 18, 2012

Sahel Coffee House a.k.a. the talent show

This year the Stu-co put on a really big show, with tables set up like a coffee shop and three judges like America's got talent...  Needless to say the three top people's choice awards went to... DORM KIDS!
John and Asyncrite
Dorm group


DaeYoen before the judges

Asyncrite doing improv

Uncle Tim, Cindy Sybesma and Leandra Shengraw were judges

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Packing

Yes, we have begun the daunting task of packing.  What better way to stuff plastic in a barrel than to tamp it down with an available five year old!
Jayson was eager to help !

Monday, May 14, 2012

PING PONG

Painted PING PONG BLUE
 Our ping pong table was really warped and since we have such talented table tennis players in the dorm, Tim wanted to make a new table before we leave in June.  It just happened to be finished in time for Mother's day ha ha!

Now Chung Hyun has no excuse !

Gibbo shows off while Miyoen and Yeon hoo play fusball

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day

Since most of our kids are far from their own mothers on mother's day we try to keep it low key... this year Tim took us all to a local restaurant so I wouldn't have to cook, we had nems and rice, and each of the kids wrote me a sweet note of encouragement.  I felt very loved, at the same time empathizing with all those moms across West Africa who are not with their kids on this day.


Vietnamese Nems--yum!
Deborah, Beth, Amy and Griffi were able to spend the weekend with their own mums!
Sunday night at NEWS the dorm led the worship.  They did an awesome job, we were very proud of them.

Yunin on keyboard

Chung hyun on drums

Deborah and Amy were vocals with Zeb, MiYoen and Ruth who also played guitar 
John did a rap 


and Asyncrite
and Zeb