Staff Retreat

Written Monday, August 28
Hillcrest Staff Retreat

The girls are attending Hillcrest Academy. On Wednesday, I will begin teaching there also. We were fortunate to be able to arrive in time for the school’s staff retreat at Miango. I believe that this is one of the first retreats in which I felt as if I truly retreated and rested. Dr. Danny McCain spoke during our three sessions, spread out over three days. He was very encouraging as he applied Biblical principles to teaching. How refreshing it is to be around those who are like-minded. I am so excited to get into the classroom.

Saturday morning, Jon and Naomi joined about a dozen others for a rigorous hike. At one point, Jon said that Naomi was completely out of view due to the high grasses. Lauren, Mattie Grace and I slept in. The younger kids spent the weekend playing very hard outside when it wasn’t raining. They found a huge beetle and quite a few furry creatures. The teens hung out together, watched videos, and talked a bit about ‘home’.

On the way home, we stopped at a grocery store called Tamarash that seemed to cater to ex-pats. Most “luxury” items (such as shampoo, koolaid, cereal) were very expensive (such as $20 for dandruff shampoo) since they were imports. However, we did manage to drop a few niara for juice, cheese (YEAH!), popcorn, ramen-style noodles, and ketchup! We have lots of potatoes to eat up, so we splurged for the ketchup. It was also nice to not have to barter for anything…the price set was the price paid. We are finally figuring out how to quickly convert niara into dollars to see the value of something. For example, when we saw a packet of Koolaid (which we usually pay 10-20 cents in the states) for N150, we realized that we would have to pay over $1 for it. Nah, not going to happen.