It’s sort of like that first week of spring here; beautiful warm, sunny weather and cool breezes. A little time to waste. We wake up a bit late each morning and I make blueberry scones for breakfast with our Ugandan coffee. Naomi and I watch Gilmore Girls reruns until our house help arrives and giggle and cuddle.

Most of the staff and their children are gone; back to their ancestral areas or the city where they are on holiday university programs. This leaves us with just a few here, where we are among those who call this place our “real real” home. It’s a nice feeling, a feeling of belonging, of being established, of having some roots.

Naomi and Quinn get out into the sunshine early each day, running to find those friends who are at home. They dig in the sand for lizard eggs and play Native American Indian with sharpened stick spears. They garden using small plants donated from the the gardens of other moms here at school. They play house and baby, school and explorer; and they do all this despite their friends speaking few words of good English. I watch in wonder.

David spends full days at work but hours of the afternoon at home. He is trying to catch up. Our time so far at Christ School has been a digging ourselves out of a very deep hole. We are enough dug up to see out and see the sun now. So this week we continue to dig and make it farther up. Last night David called us all over to see his finally clear desk. For the first time in three years he has a functional, organized desk and an office that is almost clear of unused things. I love to see the peace that this gives him.

Down at the kitchen and elsewhere, break facilities projects are in full swing: a new volleball and two new netball courts, improvements to the food line, electricity for the DOS offices, gate improvements.

We put a few staff to work on helping us to clear out a decade of old computer and electronic parts that have been gathered and stored in bins and boxes at the school. Some will be sold, others donated in the city. It’s part of the process of making room for growth. And I think as Martha says, “it’s a good thing.”

Meanwhile I putter at home, doing spring cleaning with my house helpers and continuing to offload what we don’t need. We anticipate a shift to a smaller more indigenous living situation in December. And we hate holding on to and organizing things we don’t use. So more books go to staff at the school, more clothes to friends in the community, more papers to the trash heap for burning and we gain space, cleanliness and perspective.

This is the week here . . . . Plus some good team time with the other who are “left behind”, a scary bite that looked eerily snake-like, and some really decent food.

Next week we’re off to the city for break.