The end of an epic year of teaching

Today was officially the last day of school for this year.  It has really been an epic year!  Just ending this year and saying goodbyes has made me realise how hard it will be a year from now when I will be saying farewell to some people for more than just a few months.  Only three other people from our teacher group are returning after the holidays, so there will be some sad goodbyes tomorrow.  The transition between finishing and leaving has not been nearly long enough.  Tomorrow I set off on a rather epic adventure, starting with a 6 hour bus ride to Nairobi followed by a looooong 63 day journey to Cape Town.  

I was directing the drama production again this semester, so was busy with that up until yesterday when the kids had their final day.  They did a great job remembering their lines, and the play itself presented a really positive message.  It was called "Trouble at Sea" and followed the stories of Noah, Jonah and Paul, and how they overcame the "storms" through trusting in God.  I think I am done with directing drama productions though.  It's a lot of extra work so twice is enough methinks!

In amongst drama production, report writing and organising for my travel, we have also been frantically packing to move our school to a new campus.  It's really exciting that the school is growing and as a result has a big new property!   The new school is only partially built, but the rent on the current building is up soon so everything needed to be moved into a few rooms on the new campus.  Thankfully I had some willing helpers in my class who packed everything...including themselves!

As soon as the kids left on Thursday we began moving all the resources and furniture over to the new school.  It was a crazy amount of stuff but with lots of people it went really smoothly.  Today was more moving before finally I could start to think about packing my own stuff to leave tomorrow!

I have to say that one of the highlights of this year as been the absolutely amazing students I've been blessed with.  I'm so excited to have the same class again next year.  Last week was a full week of exams and they all put in so much effort.  After the last exam on Friday we went to Uhuru for samosas and soda, and took a great group pic.

Here are some final photos showing some highlights from this year.  Next stop Nairobi.  God's blessings on your week!

Dissecting a goat heart was a definite highlight....

These wooden blocks were super popular whenever there
was a moment of free time.  My camera is overloaded with
this gal's building creations because one can't wreck it
before having a photo taken!

The kids developed a tradition of making a pretend person
whenever anyone was away so they wouldn't be missed

Mr Francis trying Vegemite...haha!

Mr Francis was responsible for blowing
the whistle for the start of class.
It became a thing for me to play tricks.....
this was the most epic: frozen whistle!

The view from just outside the current campus.  I will never get tired of this mountain!