The heat is on

I must be slightly out of my rocker because hot season is starting here and I am looking at recipes for "Perfect Winter Stew" you know the kind of recipe that has to cook on your stove for and hour and a half doing the double duty of heating your kitchen as well as feeding your family. Those recipes work when you have been experiencing a long tough winter in Canada but aren't the best idea for welcoming Niger's hot season. Nevertheless that is exactly what I made for supper tonight, probably because I am really sick (no, really, I have a nasty head cold that I have been battling for the last few days) and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Thankfully the kitchen is at the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms, so everyone should be able to sleep tonight and the kids seemed to appreciate the meal even though I turned the kitchen into a sauna.

My reason for writing this (other than because I am sick and can't really think straight), is that we are drawing to the end of the third quarter this week for school. This is always the hardest time of year for teachers and students. The weather is getting hot. People are getting sick. Moral droops because the end isn't quite in sight yet and the work load is heavy, especially for the Grade 9's and 10's as they have to write their Cambridge International Exams (or IGCSEs)soon. In addition to all of this I have had the added responsibility of covering classes for another teacher/administrator that had to go home for the funeral of a parent. Please pray for me that I would be able to get rid of this cold quickly and that I would be able to finish well for the sake of both my class that is preparing for those exams and the other class that I am covering. Please pray for Cole who has taken on an extra heavy school schedule this year and will be writing 4 IGCSEs. Pray for Dave and Ben as they have to put up with me being sick (and doing crazy things like heating up the kitchen in hot season) and have to put up with the stress load that Cole and I are carrying.

Please also pray for the building project. We were so excited to see the roof going up only to find out this week there are a few problems with the ways the job was done. Pray that these would be fixed without too much difficulty or expense and that they would be done well.