Back to school!

We've been back from our wonderful trip for over a week now. And,yes, that is the sound of RAIN on the roof! Since our arrival in January, the only day on which we had had any rain was March 31, the day of the Student Council Brazil Night. We had less than 2 hours of rain. We have had dry weather with the resultant water shortage always on the horizon. We have been reminded over and over again to only take showers of 3 minutes duration and only 3 per week, also to make sure all taps are well turned off, and to only flush when necessary! The trials for the Swimming Gala had to be postponed as there was not enough water supply to allow for regular pool maintenance, cleaning and vacuuming, etc. Last week we had rain for nearly 1 hour most afternoons between 3 and 4, just as school was out for the day. Once there was sufficient water supply some of the events were held in the rain. It really didn't matter to the participants as they were wet anyway! There weren't many spectators however! Saturday dawned bright and warm and the Swimming Gala got underway at 9:30 A.M. There were teams from the Junior School as well as Inters, Seniors, and Super Seniors. We have some great swimmers at school. One of the Standard 13 boys, Daniel, won 8 Gold medals. He is a strong swimmer and will be missed next year. On Monday afternoon Gigi and I went to the market to poke around and to try again to locate Rex Aluminium store. We found the store and bought a new tray and a 2 l. water jug. As we were on our way out of the market we met JC from Union Church and he invited us to share a coffee with him in his material store. You can guess the rest. Gigi now has a new outfit at the tailors and I have a shirt being made, also! The coffee was delightful. The price for the material was right. My wallet is lighter! We were hoping to pick up our clothing on Saturday. As we are now entering the Tourist Season, the tailor is quite busy and it will take 2 weeks before we can have our articles of clothing. Pictures later in our new garb! There are many more police officers in town and much of the traffic is being routed over streets which have suddenly become "One Way". There are also many more street vendors setting up their stalls or just walking up and down the street trying to sell their merchandise. We have been warned that once May arrives it will be nearly impossible to get out of the gate of the school on the weekend. The side gate will become the point of entry of choice. More of that later. It is hard to believe that in just under 9 weeks we will have left all of this behind. We are still enjoying our Standard 12 boys. Today the new Prefects were appointed for next year and over the next few days 5 of our 15 boys will move out and 4 Standard 13's will come in to replace them. There will also be some movement with some of the other boys who will be taking on increased responsabilities. Well, that's about it for this week. Kind of short!