Is it "Bad" to be "Different"?

For those of you "mature" adults, the answer might be "Of course not!"; but how about if you are in grade 5 or 6?

Last week we had parent/teacher interviews, and we came away with the following impressions:
*Our girls are doing very well academically, in fact they know more than most of the other students.
*Our girls are very young for their grade (probably the youngest), and sometimes it shows.
*Our girls are not afraid to raise their hand if they know the answer to a question, and they are willing to "sing out" the national anthem when the rest of the class might just be mumbling.
*The fact that they are not "TV-ed" (we don't have a TV in our house - at least not one that we can watch TV programs on) is very obvious.

So what do we do with this information? Some of it we can't do much with (like their age), some of it we are happy about but didn't necessarily have a choice about (TV is not practical on solar power in Cameroon! But it IS our choice not to have it here), and some of it we have worked quite hard on (giving them a good education and trying to teach them to participate as much as they can). But the fact remains that they stick out a bit from the rest of the class. Is this bad?

You know, it kind of reminds me of myself. Funny thing... I was an MK. And I felt like I really stuck out when we came back to Canada. And it was really hard at times, and yet I really didn't want to be just like everybody else. After all, this world isn't our real home, you know; we're just strangers passing through. When we get to heaven, we'll all fit in, and we'll all be ok with that!

Dryers and Static Electricity

I'm not sure what the change in humidity is (in numbers) from rainforest to Canadian prairies, but it's pretty drastic. You can tell the difference in not-so-subtle ways like:

1) In Cameroon our clothes could take 3 days or more to dry, depending on how much room you had in the house to spread out your damp clothes while there was a tropical rainstorm thundering outside. Here in Canada, even jeans and sweaters dry relatively quickly. And when you add in the component of a clothes dryer, which was definitely not feasable with solar power, it is no contest! (note: in Canada you might have to worry about clothes becoming too small from shrinking in the dryer; in Cameroon, we worry about clothes getting too big from the elastic disintegrating!)

2) Celebrating birthdays can be done wherever you are in the world, but certain things don't "translate" into a different climate. One big example is the age-old tradition (for some) of rubbing a balloon on some unsuspecting child's head (hair is definitely needed for this!) and then sticking the static-electricity-charged balloon on a nearby wall. Try that in our tropical setting in Cameroon, and you will a) not get any noticeable static electricity, no matter how hard you rub the balloon, as there is too much humidity, and b) pop the balloon as you attempt to stick it to the wall because the bricks or painted walls are very rough. There goes another tradition!

Chinese Food on the Canadian Prairies

Well, I'm certainly not Asian, but after having gone without Asian food for many years in Cameroon, the Chinese food we ate tonight really hit the spot! Let's see... Mike had egg rolls and ginger beef with rice, and I had ginger beef and brocolli, and sweet and sour pork with rice. Mmmmm.... Is your mouth watering yet?

Our grey-haired angel dropped by again today, with bread, salad, fruit, more eggs (I think we'll have to freeze some - oops!), and lots of yummy dessert-type things. And people wonder why I don't bake very much here...!

We also have a long black-haired angel who babysits for us for free - a wonderful grade 12 MK! Thanks, Lord!

Short Grey-haired Angel

One of the "angels" in our lives right now is a short, slight, grey-haired man who drives up with his little red car every couple of weeks or so. He goes to stores and picks up things like day-old bread and muffins (all perfectly good), cracked or odd-shaped eggs that are unsaleable, and occasionally fruit; and then he stops at various houses like ours and we get to choose whatever we want (and however much we want), absolutely free of charge. Good weather or slippery roads, he does this service for free. Thank you, God, for these servants of Yours!

Frosted Flakes and Sesame Street

A neighbor calls up: she has some left-over Frosted Flakes from when her grandchildren came to visit and would we like them? Well, another new experience for our kids - a bit different from the stale Corn Flakes which were the kids' only "special" (as in, expensive) cold cereal treat in Cameroon. Yes, we really enjoy our Raisin Bran, Shreddies, Cheerios, and Rice Krispies while we can!

And good old Sesame Street games - now fully available on the internet, as long as your computer doesn't keep "freezing"! Elmo and Big Bird are regular visitors to our house....

Marshmallow cars and snow angels

Kenneth and Laura are having a snack - a very un-Cameroonian snack of marshmallows and chocolate chips, both of which are rare treats there. And, of course, every food object is a vehicle to 4-yr. old Kenneth, so they are having races on the table with their marshmallows!

And the snow! Kenneth didn't remember snow, being just a baby last time he was in North America, and Laura had never seen it, so they are having so much fun. Snowmen; snowballs; snow angels, sledding in in the snow. Endless hours of amusement!

If only we as adults would be so easily amused. Instead, we surf the internet (oh, how I love high-speed internet, a dream when we're in isolated Bekondo, Cameroon), play computer games, and misuse our time in other ways. Makes you think....

Scrapbooking - an encounter with American culture

So... we use these fancy papers, try to figure out how to cut the photo, decide which of these hundreds of stickers to use, and then try to figure out how to store these treasures so "moth and rust" don't corrupt (more like MOLD!) and "thieves" don't "break in and steal" in Cameroon.... I think I'm decisionally challenged! At least I can expose my older girls to this form of American art and see if they're interested - and if some rich relative has passed away and left a fortune to cover the expenses of this art form! Oh well, another day!

Getting started

How do you catch up on 4 years' worth of technology when you come "home" for furlough? And is it worth the time and effort when you have so many other things tugging at you....

Well, we'll give it a try, and see how it goes. Gotta try it once, right?

For all those of you who do your own blog, advice is gladly accepted :)