Going to school with Dawson

The day after we arrived Dawson had a Christmas party at his school so Zachary and I thought we would join in on the fun and cultural experience. Dawson attends a Christian French school in town since he is not old enough to join the home schoolers at the mission yet.

All the kids at the school wear the same shirt. Zachary got to wear one too.

When we arrive, the to pre-K classes were outside getting ready for morning singing. Zachary was a little unsure as we arrived and didn't want to participate or even come in. It took him about 30 minutes or so but the he finally jumped in with a little guidance and direction from mommy. Here you can see him sitting way far away from everyone else.

After a lot of singing together, we headed inside to his classroom. There are about 24 kids in his 4 year old class. Dawson is the only white kid. The teacher was decorating the classroom for the party so the kids got to practice drawing circles and squares on their chalkboards.

It was soon time for a bathroom break and snack time. The bathrooms were far away in a another building- ok they were little rooms with a hole in the ground. For the little guys, peeing on the bushes next to the wall worked just as well. We came back and got to wash our hands. One bucket with soapy water and one for rinse water.

At snack/recess time, the kids could buy a little juice. It was unfiltered water in a plastic bag that had some flavoring in it and was frozen. You just sucked on the bag to drink the juice.

On a normal day, the kids would get to play in the play corners. From left to right- kitchen corner, doll corner, and reading corner.

Kitchen corner with mortar and pestal

Doll corner

The kids in Dawson's class enjoyed us being there. They loved getting their picture taken. The little girl in pink is Hannah- her mom is from England but her dad is from Mali. The closest kid to another foreigner at the school. Her dad works at the school.

It was finally time to party! We went back outside and we sang some more songs. The teachers then passed out candy, cake and juice and the party was over. Quite different from the expectations of an American party with games and crafts. The kids had fun though.

Zachary and I enjoyed going to see where Dawson goes to school each day. It is very different from what we are used to but serves the same purpose. It was fun to celebrate Christmas in another culture realizing that we are all celebrating the birth of the same Jesus Christ no matter what language.

Christmas in Korea

Since we were traveling to Mali for Christmas and didn't want to lug all of our gifts to Mali, we had a Pinho family Christmas before we left. Zachary's big gift this year was a Nintendo DS (bought used from cousin). We had him open some Mario and Luigi stylus pens first to see if he could figure out what he was getting.

These pens don't write on paper! What's up with that?

A DS with Mario Kart!!!

Thank you smile :)

Shelby Grace woke up a little later. We had set out her toys instead of having her unwrap them. She saw them as Patrick brought her out of her room. Ooohhh!

A baby crib and swing

Gotta love that little grin :)

Don't forget Mr. Potato Head and his bucket of parts- buckets of fun for everyone!

I guess Shelby Grace really wanted a DS.

24 hours later...Mali here we come!

TCIS Staff Christmas Party

This year our staff Christmas party was at a new location. I had to take a picture of the place mat just to prove to you that the name of the restaurant was "Spongy." Despite the odd name, the food was pretty good. Patrick was in heaven with all the seafood and sushi.

Our headmaster is very kind to the staff and the school provides a gift for all staff children that attend, foreign kids as well as Korean staff kids. Below is a picture of our headmaster, Dr. Penland (left), and assistant headmaster, Mr. Roberts (right), handing out the gifts.

Zachary waited so patiently for his name to be called. Shelby Grace was first to be called and then his buddy Seth got his gift so he couldn't wait to get his too. Check out the smile on his face when they finally called his name. When we were in the car headed home, Zachary told us that he wanted to go back to that restaurant again- not for the food but because that is where you get presents!

How did they know that Shelby Grace loved shape sorters? She loves putting objects into buckets, bowls, boxes or anything with a hole in it.

What a fun night celebrating Christmas with our co-workers. Merry Christmas TCIS friends!

Chats with Zach and the Christmas tree

What do you do with an old candy cane? Zachary has a great idea!

It's beginning to look at like Christmas

We took advantage of our long Thanksgiving weekend (2 1/2 days! Ha! Gotta love living in a country where Thanksgiving doesn't really exist :) ) to decorate for Christmas. I have a love hate relationship with our artificial Christmas tree. I miss the smell of a real tree but I do love how perfect it looks each time we put it up. This year, I brought an evergreen candle back from the states so at times our house actually smells like Christmas.

Shelby Grace has enjoyed exploring the tree for the first time. Last year she was too little. She takes a few ornaments off but does pretty well with it. Zachary did a great job making sure that the ornaments down low were Shelby Grace safe.

I am so glad that we took the space in our luggage to bring Christmas ornaments from home. It was so much fun explaining to Zachary where all the ornaments came from. This was the first year that he could really understand and was interested in that. I have ornaments on my tree that hung on my grandmother's tree when I was little. We ornaments from past students, ones I made as a kid, and many made by so many of our friends back home. Somehow these ornaments bring us a little closer to the ones we love that we have left behind.

Merry Christmas from the Pinhos!

We meet Silas!

When we traveled the states for my Uncle John's funeral, we had the pleasure of meeting my sister's youngest boy for the first time. He is 1 month older than Shelby Grace. We had a lot of fun with Silas, just wish the rest of the boys were there as well. Just 6 more weeks and we will see all of them in Mali!

Bath time!

Zachary and Silas fought with their swords- boys will be boys!

Lunch time!

Cute cousins
See you again Silas!

Uncle John

On November 7, 2009 my uncle, John Woodward, went to be with his Lord and Savior.
John was a man whom everyone wanted to be around. I don't think I have ever met someone who was so full of joy and life as much as he was. John loved life and was going to enjoy every minute God gave him. He loved everyone around him and wanted all to know the source of his happiness, Jesus Christ. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend.

Our family loved Uncle John. If there was anyone we had to get stuck on a desert island with, it would be John. Why? Because we know we would never be bored. Some of my fondest memories of John are playing board games, wii, or volleyball and bocce at the beach. John was always up for a game of any kind and would play his heart out to beat you no matter how old you were. Even when we were kids, John made us earn our wins.

John's laugh was infectious. So many of my memories of Uncle John involve laughter and singing. I will pass on John's legacy by teaching "We're going to the lake" and "We're going to the beach" songs to my kids. Songs that John made up but for the longest time I thought they were real songs! I will miss John's laughter and hope that I can still hear it in my mind many years from now.

As I have grown older, I have appreciated John's love not just for me but for my family as well. He and Patricia would travel down to Raleigh to make sure they said goodbye to us before we left for Korea or come see us when we got back and would even write about us on his blog. He was genuinely interested in our lives. We don't get a lot of calls in Korea but he would always make sure he called to see how we were doing. John was like another grandfather to my kids. Zachary loves Uncle John. He shared John's passion with the wii and I think gained a lot of his skills. Even Zachary knew from a young age that Uncle John was the fun one.

Life will be very different with John gone. I know he is in heaven rejoicing and singing praises to his King at the top of his lungs. He is not looking back. He is in a much better place. Life is always harder for those left behind. John can never be replaced but we will keep his memory alive. Zachary reminds me so much of John with his thirst for knowledge, wii fanaticism, silliness, and competitiveness. John's legacy will live on through his family.
We love you Uncle John!

You're future is so bright...

...you gotta wear shades!

Halloween 2009

Halloween morning began with spooky spider pancakes!

Yum!

Luigi and our toddler turtle

Trick-or-treating at school with buddy Seth

Chim chiminey, Chim chiminey....

Chim chim chiree..a sweep is a lucky, as lucky can be!