Snow, Cold and Other Challenges

Snow has been falling steadily all day.  Currently it is over a foot and is forecast to be 18 inches before it is complete.  David is over at the neighbors taking advantage of the snow while Noel, Winter, and I work on various tasks in our warm living room.  Luckily tomorrow is a holiday and so no school due to Mohammad’s Birthday.  As you can see from the pictures, roads aren’t usually cleared.  Noel had to do sound at our meeting this morning and drove.  Since we were going later, the kids and I enjoyed a brisk walk through his truck tracks while the kids threw snowballs at each other.  After the service all the kids and a few grown ups engaged in a snow ball fight.  David went for his teacher and soon found himself face first in the snow.  (Sorry no picture of that.)  As it snows and keeps on snowing, we are reminded of the Afghan proverb that Kabul can live without gold but it can not live without snow.   It has been a longer and colder winter this year so even though the snow is great for the water situation here, it is hard on some families who do not have adequate heat or have run out of fuel or wood.

We started our second semester this week.  All of the my classes stayed the same with one students switching sections.  Due to the cold, many pipes at the school where I work have been frozen.  By the end of the week, most were unthawed but many toilets still have buckets of water by them to help with flushing. All of the campus housing seems to have running water again.   School seems to go on in spite of no water and the snow.   One house of ladies on campus have been real troopers.  First of all, their house is very cold and not heating up very well.  It was so cold that they spent one night at a friend’s house off campus just to get a good nights sleep.  This same house was also dealing with a rat.  I am glad to say that it was finally caught this week.  I have not seen the picture but with each telling of the story the rat seems to be getting bigger and bigger.   One of the other challenges at school this week was the lack of internet.  It didn’t affect me too much but many of the staff were working extra hours trying to get report cards out inspite of the internet problems and the grading program that didn’t want to cooperate.   I am glad to say that they did it with a smile and maybe a few extra Dr. Peppers.

But God is good in spite of all the challenges.  I had my evaluation conference this week and all went well.  I even tried out a few of my principal’s suggestions on my students this week.  My students were attentive this past week and ended the week with good scores on their quizzes.   Winter and David brought home  good report cards for the first semester.  On the other end, as a teacher, I only had to fail two students which I think is pretty good.   So in spite of the cold weather, water and heating challenges, and internet problems, our school is doing what it does best ,investing in the lives of its students, many who will be the future of Afghanistan.    TJ