March 26, 2000

We're nearly done with our 3rd term of school here. I'm glad that I will have the two week break to continue my knee recooperation. I was able to go swimming this weekend with some friends. That is supposed to be good excercize for it. I can tell that it is improving, but it is slow. This last week I was able to do partial days of teaching without pain, but full days are still too much. Pray that I will know how much to try to do, especially when I should try walking up and down the steep hill that I live at the top of. Also that I will be consistent in doing the excercizes that the physical therapist gave to me.

I had my debut choir concert last night as conductor of the middle school choir. It went very well. I'm proud of the kids and the improvement in their singing. We did have a little scare before the concert, though. The power went out and the generator didn't kick in right away. We had one more piece to spotcheck, a song called "Waltzing Matilda". I decided to try it in the dark because they knew it quite well. They did it, and it was the first time they had done it by memory. Near the end, the lights started to come on. We had flourescent lights, so they were blinking like a strobe light as we were singing a section about a ghost. Quite funny. Thankfully we had power for the whole concert when it was time to start.

One other little cultural note. My pianist gave me a ride and as we were walking in, her daughter who was going to turn pages for her said, "Oh no, I forgot to wear shoes!" The kids are barefoot so much of the time that it takes a special effort to remember to wear them.