Aelan Laef!

For your enjoyment, here is a greeting from our Naw Ruz celebration last week.  Singing together is a wonderful feature of aelan laef. One of my favorite moments of the day is when all the students arrive for their homeroom session first thing in the morning. In each class, the students will sing. It's truly amazing to hear all these beautiful melodies coming from all over the school grounds. Also, whenever we have assembly, we will have singing. I mentioned this on Facebook already, but for those of you who don't know me there, let me share another funny story from this week concerning music. I had a guitar in the library and one of my students would come in to play some songs. He has taught himself how to play and is actually very good with the instrument - definitely talented in music! Anyway - so here he is, playing and entertaining the rest of us and it's all incredibly nice - until I realized what song he was playing. It was "I Want It That ...

Kirjoitin teille sitten romaanin. Hups. Kaksi kuukautta pyörähtänyt Vanuatulla. Koulu on jo puolivälissä lukukautta. Aika mennä viipottaa ihan hirmuista vauhtia! Vaikka elo täällä onkin selvästi vähemmän hektistä kuin Suomessa, kyllä me täälläkin osataan olla kiireisiä. Jos luulet, että täällä vaan lojutaan riippumatoissa ja siemaillaan kookosmehua, niin ei se ihan niin mene! Itseasiassa, en oo juurikaan nähny riippumattoja, pitääkin etsiä jostain sellainen… Koulu pitää kiireisenä arkipäivisin. Täkäläiset lapset ja nuoret ovat onnistuneet kasvattamaan miun sydämestä yhä suuremman ja suuremman.. Nautin jokaisesta hetkestä, jonka saan viettää heidän kanssaan. Vaikkakin, myönnetään, välillä he ovat älyttömän meluisia, remuisia ja villejä. Mutta niinhän lapset ovat, eikö vaan? Heistä huokuu kuitenkin lumoavaa iloa ja se tarttuu. Alkaa kummasti tuntua siltä, että mun pitäis jatkossakin työskennellä lasten kanssa. Yksi viikkoni ehdottomista kohokohdista on aika, j...

Suomeksi alempana! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello there! I hope this blog post finds you well and happy, for that's how things are at this end! For the past few days Santo has really started to feel more like a home. Up until this point, it sort of felt like I was here on holiday. I'd walk the streets and think "Oooooh, I wonder what it would be like to live here" and then realizing how silly a thought it was. I DO live here! Life doesn't feel quite the same. I don't feel the same. And this is good. I've had many dreams of family and friends this week. I wouldn't say I'm homesick, but I do miss my dear ones at home - mainly, because I've now started to realize how little words can convey. There's so much I'd like to share with you, but words seem to fail me. I have some big thoughts that I need to chew on a little more before I can share ...