The Rainy Season Has Hit

Thought we'd post a few pictures from the rainy season in Orealla to give you a feel for what life during the monsoons is like. Enjoy! More pics are also available at flickr!

Doing laundry at the laundry mat (on a rare sunny day).

Our underhouse swamp....

Because it's wet and cloudy nearly all the time, it's impossible to keep mold from growing--even on clean, dry clothes that you put in the closet. It's not just us newbies, either, we notice many kids with mildew on their shirts, as well!

Hosting Ingrid's 25th b-day party at our house. The best part? Esther (on left) wanted to ensure that her daughter had good Guyanese cooking, so we didn't have to prepare any food!

Opening day of the new Orealla Library

Becky & Laurimel on a Saturday story hour

Unpacking the shipment of books from Valley Elementary (California) and Raven Correspondence (Alaska)

Our very able library assistants at work! (from left to right: Kristy, Valerie & Gail)

Grade 3 students enjoying the library

Our congregation at Church of the Nararene

Headed back to Orealla on Neal's boat. To get on, you have to literally carry your luggage on the plank shown in the middle of the picture. It's rather sketchy, especially when you consider that your groceries for the next 3 months are in your luggage!

Happy Easter!

We're finally near some relatively speedy internet so we thought we'd try to get some more pictures of Orealla up on the net. Sorry they're a little dark... they seem to be posting better on flicker, so here's the link to our more detailed album on that webpage: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54808715@N00

We just found out the school year has been extended (for various unexplainable reasons) two weeks. So our last day of school will likely be July 13. It looks like we'll probably be back in the states to visit in late July. We'll keep you posted on additional changes! Thanks for your continued support!

The first pictures show you some of the stages of our library-building project. We hope to open the school library in mid-April. Thanks to all of you who've donated books, bookmarks, library cards, and more!

Movie Night (at our house powered by a borrowed generator) for 8th graders who completed their regional projects on time

Popcorn provided courteousy of Grandma DeVries. It was a little tricky making it on a camping stove but the kids seemd to like the result.

S'mores & Movie Night w/Library Aides & IT Leaders (thanks for the chocolate, Ahlia!)

Valentine's Dinner.Flowers picked fresh from the savannah! Other decorations courteousy of Brand/VZ families (napkins, candy, candle holders, etc).

Thomas and our good friend, Mitchell (who also built the bookshelves for the library) during a trumpet lesson

Grade 8 students working on their Regional Project. The projects remind us of science fair type of work but occur in all four core subjects at the same time and samples have to be sent to the Region for evaluation.

Above and below our pics from our Mashramani Picnic Day (kinda like the 4th of July but the homeroom teacher is supposed to plan the activities). Carrie's class decided to go on a hike to a local creek. No surprise, huh?

No Iditarod Down Here and no internet to check on the status of mushers... but least red lanterns are abundant and well-used as one of the only sources of light at night in the village. (This will probably only make sense to last year's seventh graders... ask them to translate for you!)