In one more week we will have been in Swaziland for an entire year…so hard to believe that that much time has passed!

For the past three weeks, the teachers in the schools have been striking to try and get a pay increase.  It has been interesting and slightly different than the last strike they had about a year ago.  For two weeks the teachers were in the classrooms, but striking from teaching.  So basically the kids were just sitting in the classroom and doing nothing.  This week the teachers chose to strike from going to school, but the kids still went.  So now the kids are just at school being supervised by the head teacher (principal) and maybe one or two other teachers.  It is so hard for me to fathom this because it is so different from anything that would happen in the US.  Two days last week Cabrini kept our kids home and didn’t send them to school and we put together some small learning activities for them to do throughout the day.  The third day, the children were instructed by our staff to stay home, but actually snuck to school because their feared punishment from the head teacher.  I am not sure what the next week will hold, but after talking to one of the teachers from the primary school it doesn’t sound promising for the teachers to be teaching in the next week.

On Tuesday Katie arrived.  She was a volunteer who was here when we arrived last year and she has come back for another two month volunteer visit.  We are so excited to have her back and have enjoyed spending time with her in the last week.  Mikayla is really excited and hasn’t’ fully grasped that Katie has to work and not play with her all the time!

On Friday night we hosted a pizza night.  Joe taught me a delicious trick that I thought I would share when making homemade pizza dough.  After you roll out the dough, before you place it on the pan layer the pan with some olive oil and then put the dough on top.  Seriously, try it!  It makes the pizza dough rich and buttery tasting, plus makes it perfectly crisp on the outside and moist and chewy on the inside.  Thanks Joe for the tip!  Since Katie has a wheat allergy we also tried out a cauliflower pizza crust too.  I never got around to trying it, but it smelled great and Katie said it was tasty.  We finished off our glutinous pizza dinner with Mikayla’s Upside down cake from her Letter U study this week.

Earlier in the week I was busy typing something up on the computer and Mikayla wanted to brush her teeth.  Instead of asking me like she usually does she took the initiative to brush her teeth herself.  Aunt Chelsea would be proud!

Sharon’s girls came in for a visit last week and stopped by our house for some play time with Mikayla.  Bayanza wasn’t too excited about having her picture taken though!

On Sunday we finished digging out our garden and then planted some seeds.  We still need to buy more to plant, but it is a good start! And if all goes according to plan we will be harvesting vegetables from our own garden very soon!