Festival of the Arts.

Our school hosted its first fundraiser for the arts and drama program last night. It was called (as you can see on the program) Festival of the Arts. There were a variety of acts ranging from singing, to a pantomime of a children's story.






Triple A and N is one of our favorite groups who do a mix of traditional and modern Indian dancing. They are great entertainers and get the crowd going every time they dance.

One of the other highlights was this singer. She's an American who sings beautifully in Arabic. She sang a song, written by an Arabic teacher at the school. She is so fantastic at performing that even those of us who don't understand Arabic enjoyed it.






To end the evening, a group of teachers sang a medley of old spirituals.

Eight of us got together and came up with some fun harmonies. The program lasted two and a half hours and raised money toward a beautiful new piano for the music department.

Bug or Boge?

My Catie bug cuddle up last week at our house church group. We were both sick after the track meet. She ran, I took pictures... When she was in my fourth grade classroom we were Kattie/Catie squared. Together, the most powerful force in the universe. Or at least we'd like to think so.

Thankful (pictures to follow)

How could I not be. I got to spend Thanksgiving with 15 great friends. It started a week ahead of time with turkey ordering (you can't just stop at the local market and get a whole turkey). Two days before the big day, I went to pick up our two 14 pounders and no huge shock, they weren't ready, but to my surprise, they delivered them the next day. After shopping at three different markets to get just the right ingredients, I was ready to start cooking. My friend Karine (she's French) hadn't done an American Thanksgiving so we decided to have it at her house. The night before I loaded up all the stuff for cooking and headed to her house for the night. The day of Thanksgiving I woke up early and began cooking. I cooked from 8 a.m. until we ate around 7 p.m., it was literally my perfect day. Over the past few years I've developed a real passion for cooking and this was a perfect excuse to spend an entire day doing what I love. Karine set a beautiful table and everyone arrived hungry. We had a great time of eating, talking, and laughing. It made me think of how thankful I really am for the countless blessings I've been given. I have amazing friends, who constantly entertain and encourage me, a loving family that sticks with me through everything, delightful students who challenge me and teach me that there's more to life that just school, and most of all I have a loving, compassionate, caring God who is so patient with me, and sees the depths of my heart, but loves me anyway.

It's raining, it's pouring.

Our school participated in the annual track meet today. One thing is for sure about track meets here, it will rain. There was a 70% chance of it, and I think it rained for 70% of the meet. The team came in 3rd, but the race was not an easy one. As I was watching these kids, with extreme dedication and perseverance run race after race in the pounding rain, I realized something; we all have this very difficult race that we run each day, add a torrential downpour, and the race becomes impossible to run on our own. You can't see, your muscles freeze up, and each step has the potential to send you slipping right into a broken ankle. And then it occurred to me that I've been in a race through the pouring rain for so long, I think I've forgotten what it's like to run in the sunshine. I turned to scripture for some wisdom and flipped to a familiar passage in I Corinthians
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the
prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the
games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not
last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do
not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the
air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached
to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."
I'm so glad that I'm not running this race alone, nor am I running it without help from the Almighty. By His grace alone, there is no slowing for the rain, no losing ground because of hail, and no taking a break because of snow. Just keep running!