happy thanksgiving!

Today we get to dress up as a holiday and celebrate with our international friends later on by having thanksgiving dinner together. We are thankful for so many things, especially our family and friends, both here and at home :-)

 Here are Grade 1 and Miss Estelle the easter bunny, Tom as Tommy!

 Some of the teachers, Amy as an Indian, Tommy sporting a pilgrim's bonnet

 The table runners at dinner had been made by the kids in art class - this one is Tom's

The tree of thankfulness - everyone could write things they were thankful for on the leaves, Tom wrote about half of them, he is thankful for a lot of people!

Tommy is wearing a bonnet as made by Amy, Tom dressed as Tommy for Father's day. Josh is sadly sick and we are missing the fun, but I am thankful for a morning of cuddling in bed with my little boy.

beauty in pictures

Auntie Amy from England starred on the pre-school wall of fame as one of the very first pictures Josh has ever drawn.

 Spitting image, just needed a hat!

Academy Camp

The high school students went to a leadership camp at the beautiful Shongweni Dam reserve, just a few minutes from Durban. They spent 48 hours fitting in an amazing array of activities including an assault course, abseiling, jumping into the reservoir from the dam wall, rock climbing, raft races and more...

Here are a few pictures of the kids at play and the stunning scenery:

Tommy.

the chameleon

The kids here keep finding a chameleon, they have marked his tail and so have now confirmed that it is the same one that we keep seeing. Tommy has taken some photos of him:

Student life programme

For a few weeks Tommy's Friday afternoons have involved watching kids light fires, put up tents, cook camp food and the like as part of the outdoor skills option of the student life programme. Some of the kids had their first camp out one weekend to put the skills to use. The idea of the Friday afternoons is to give them opportunity to do things they wouldn't otherwise get to do and a mixture of Academy staff and other crew are roped in to share their skills. Other students were able to learn dressmaking, vehicle mechanics and cheerleading.

Some pictures are on:
http://palmersabroad.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/student-life-program/ 
http://jacobsenjourneys.blogspot.com/2010/10/student-life-program.html

The next sessions being offered currently are cooking, photography, gardening and being a good neighbour (which is continuing to help paint a parsonage at the local church amongst other practical projects from what I understand).