It is hard to believe that we have already been here for seven months. It is hard to believe that we have only been here for seven months. Isn't is funny that both of those statements can be true?
But the autumn lambs are nearly fully fledged sheep now.
The useless stand pipes have started running. (And have stopped again!)
The chickens have started laying for spring chicks... and have found a cozy corner of our toilet to do so. (Since this photo was taken, another 6 eggs have joined these ones... did you know they will remain viable for a couple of weeks at a steady temperature, until mama chicken is ready to start hatching them?)
Thus, autumn merged into winter, and winter is merging into spring. If you start slicing our lives into similar snapshot moments of seasonal progression, a similar picture of slow development appears.
We've taught many lessons... and learnt many lessons. Joanna has spent some time three hours down the road at Axium's other big project, working on timetables and getting to grips with more of the details of rural school operation.
We've flown and driven round the country for work and leisure - including a family heritage trip to the Karoo with Adam's mom and brother, where we walked with kudus and visited an old family farm which is now part of the Karoo National Park.
We're busy co-supervising three PGCE students from UCT who are doing their prac teaching at our most local school.
We've watched a lunar eclipse far away from city lights, and coasted from joy to frustration with rural school successes and limitations.
We've burnt the bottom out of a pot baking banana bread, and made successful carrot/butternut cake (plus another few consolatory rounds of banana bread, of course) in a new pot.
We've discovered numerous new games and assorted activities for teaching Maths, English and Physical Sciences. We've embraced the power of coloured chalk.
We've learned a lot of new Xhosa.
We've hosted friends, received much love and support from varous people and discovered the value of a really large, high-quality flask on long road trips.
We've cycled on our indoor bike converter, run up and down hills, and washed off the sweat in our new solar shower. In fact, one way and another we've gathered and used quite a few solar rays. When there was a three-day power outage, we were the happiest people in the office!
(But not as happy as those chickens! Can you spot all three?)
We've also been offline a lot more - reading and sleeping rather than catching up on emails and blog posts. We do have some post ideas in the pipeline though... Hopefully it won't be three months until the next one!
Until next time,
Joanna and Adam
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