Their gardener, Mr. Robert Phiri, was the cook. He cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken kebabs. There were lots of side dishes: chips, potato salad, watermelon, cucumbers.
The evening was like being at a Junior United Nations meetings. Christopher's classmates from the international school were from America, Egypt (Coptic), India, Japan, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and some other countries. However, they were basically your typical 11 year-olds having fun together.
After supper, the kids played three rounds of Capture the Flag in the dark, supervised by big brother Clayton, out on the school quad. I was the flag referee for the red flag (notice the headbands in the pictures above, red team vs. green team).
After Capture the Flag (the green team won all three rounds, thanks in large part to Owen who wore a long black hooded Harry Potter type cape and was fast, fast, fast!), the kids took their swings at a homemade piñata and ate birthday cake.
It was most interesting to meet the kids' parents as they came to pick up their children. One dad from the States is here with a Mennonite mission. He and his family used to live on the campus of JMTUC, but have since moved. One mom works for the Zambian Educational Assessment Office. She told us about going to the villages to make assessments of the educational standards and progress, and how heartbreaking it is to see the poor conditions in the government schools.
The Ellingtons are so gracious to include us in their family activities. Here are pictures of the back of their house and their garden. Their house will be rented out to some other PCUSA mission co-workers for the year they are back in the States, then they will move in again in July 2014.
Tomorrow morning, Marty, Yuri, and I are going to the "Arcades," which is an outdoor mall with a large supermarket. Tomorrow afternoon I need to spend a lot of time grading quizzes and writing out a lesson plan about the subjunctive mood.
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