A couple weeks ago - October 20th - we had one of the coolest days at RVA yet. It was Multicultural Day so - as you can probably figure out by the name - we celebrated the many cultures of RVA students and staff. Since it's a national holiday for Kenya and we're not allowed to have school, we decide to have a little celebration of our own. Kids dress up in their country's colors and paint their faces and wear crazy get-ups to show their spirit; classes perform songs in foreign languages (Spanish classes sing in Spanish, French classes sing in French, Swahili classes sing in.. you guessed it - Swahili!... etc.); Korean elementary students do some traditional Korean singing and dancing; and best of all, we have a flag ceremony. Countries of origin are determined by a student's passport country. For each passport country present, we have a flag. The oldest students from each country have the priveledge to carry the flag into the chapel as we sing their national anthem and listen to the cheering from fellow countrymen. It's reeeeally cool. This year there were 24 flags (I think?) represented - which is pretty incredible! We spent the rest of the day playing games, enjoying a student v. staff American Football game (IT WAS SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH!! I miss football a LOT...), and shooting off fireworks at night!
haha, he's one of my students...
Then two Saturdays ago - the 24th? - we had Pinewood Derby. This is the day everyone's been waiting for all term. For weeks now, we've heard announcements at least 3 times a day and students and some staff have been spending practically every free moment trying to make the fastest or coolest looking car possible. Even though I had high expectations due to the major hype, I was still blown away by the entire setup we had. There was a track that spanned about 70% the length of the basketball court with a camera set up at the end to have frame-by-frame replays in case it was a photo finish (which we had plenty of). These were played out on a projector screen along with updated scores and times. Hi-tech stuff here! The cars were beyond amazing! Each grade level had one Fastest Car, one Most Creative (I think?) and one Best Workmanship (or something?) and maybe some other awards... I skipped the awards ceremony so I don't really know actually. Either way, I was absolutely amazed and SO proud of my 7th and 8th graders!!
This weekend we had Class Night on Friday night where I hung out with my 7th graders all night and was in charge of the "Twister" station - right foot blue, left hand green, etc. - for an 1 1/2 hrs. We ate donuts and let the kids be as loud as they wanted. It's good for them :)
Then yesterday (Saturday) RVA hosted a soccer tournament so I helped out with that and watched all of the games and, for the first time in my life, truly LOVED watching soccer. It was super intense, and our boys did REALLY well, going undefeated in pool play and losing in the semis. Then last night was Caring Community, so we teamed up with 2 other groups and challenged them (actually they challenged us) in a photo scavenger hunt, and our 8th grade girls had a BLAST.
Needless to say, it's been busy here lately, and that's just the weekends! We have 3 1/2 weeks of school left in this term and then we have a little over a month off, so it'll be a great time to relax and get psyched up for next term!
And now I'll leave you with a breathtaking sunset, and these pictures aren't edited at all... it was ridiculously incredible.
On the right side of the picture you see Mt. Longenaut (sp?), a dormant volcano. Coooool :)
Amanda - The pictures are fantastic of the school flags and especially the sunset! I wish you could box up some of those sunsets and send them over here! Love you - Mom
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