Continuing the Journey

Back to School

Jessica has begun her junior year at Eastern Mennonite University.
She is majoring in history and Spanish, and helping students in French. We still miss her.

Jordan has begun his junior year Rosslyn Academy.
He is starting in central defense on the soccer team. Back spasms have slowed him down a little, but when he plays, goals are hard to come by for the opposing teams. He is also playing guitar on a worship team for high school chapel.

Mike has begun his second year teaching at NIST.
I am teaching two classes this semester: Spiritual Formation and Nurture, and Research Skills and Academic Writing. I'm enjoying both classes very much. We washed each others' feet in the Spiritual Formation class, which seemed to be a very good experience for all of us. While the Research class certainly has boredom potential, the students seem to be truly interested in learning these skills. They must all write a 30+ page paper in order to graduate, so the class is important for their education.

And Alia has begun kindergarten (or Year One in the British system) at St. Christopher's Preparatory School.

Cindy is the only family member not involved in school at the moment. She keeps busy working at the MBEA office and working on the school board of Rosslyn Academy, as well as taking care of the rest of us.

Alia is attending a British system school, where most of the students are Kenyans. She wears a uniform to school. After a rough beginning, when she firmly and forcefully stated (perhaps shouted) her opposition to attending school, Alia is now enjoying it very much. Oddly enough, as the head mistress told us, Alia came around through the "joy of school work". Evidently, her teacher, Mrs Kamau, had asked a question that no one could answer, except Alia. So she slowly raised her hand and answered the question. And after that she was fine.

She has swimming 2 afternoons per week and PE two afternoons each week. She enjoys these activities very much, as well as lunch! She's also learning Kiswahili. Other subjects are literacy (reading and writing), numeracy (math), science, history, geography, art, music, religious education, computer, games and activities. She reads a book about Biff, Chip, Wilma and Wilf almost every day.

posted by Brislen Family @ 6:09 PM