A big hi from Emma who is about to put in some hard yards at school! She is a little 'dawnie' in the making!

Here is Aqua Frankie about to compete in the 100 meters freestyle! Yahoo go frankie! After a healthy breakfast (weekbix?) Frankie particiapted in the swim competition at Brent school with other schools. Doesn't she look great!

I feel we have to blow this up a gazillion times and put it on the wall here. During the hot sweltering days we can come home and lick it!
Wow, New Zealand is just beautiful! Not worth going into a mini depression over the rugby. We just loved our time hanging out with you guys and hitting all the national treasures of NZ. But best of all was seeing you all. Before we got there I begged to stay in a fancy pancy hotel and to pay it back I promised to work at Somerville Intermediate. But I just loved that as well. (what a fab. school!) Thanks to you all for making our comeback so enjoyable!

Here are the gorgeous ones! All getting older and 2 out of the 3 are pleased with that! Frankie is turning 10 this week and just got a great report! She is busily planning her birthday and I just hope and pray it will be a sleep over with all girls and nail polish and stuff like that with some high pitched screaming involved. It never makes me think about what it would be like to have a boy...
I got this really cool idea form Little House on the Prairie for a birthday that Laura Ingalls had. Its where Frankie will get to sleep unto 6am, gets up to to do morning chores and will get 2 apples for lunch; one for her and one to share with her friends. We will make her a dress out of some old curtain material and after school her friends can come over and draw pictures in the dirt outside, eat baked beans out of a rusty tin and do their homework together! (nice and cheap!)

Actually its been fun organising it! Should be a blast! (except the screaming bit...)

Rudi is doing great! Love going into her class, her kids love her and she has so much fun with them.

Old Emma is a constant surprise and I don't know if that is a good thing.... Her teacher is super cool and her husband called Max teaches next door to me. At our grade level meeting last week he started laughing and said that his wife was talking about adults having hair and such then all the little kids started telling stories about their parents. Emma apparently shot her hand in the air and told the class how I like to come out of the shower and do the 'naked haka' (not true, I don't even know the words!) Emma then got up and brought the house down with her rendition of this 'nz ritual'. I emailed Emma's teacher to tell her to hit her really hard if she did that again or lock her in closet and she said, "well, Mark Emma tells us alot of what you guys get up to.."(?) She would not elaborate.

This is where we head off to 5 days a week! Home away from home. It is such a cool looking school. This is the Upper school block and there is the middle school block behind that and then the Elementary block (primary ) which is us! Yep, a cool school. Such nice kids and to them, it is cool to want to learn and to be enthusiastic! We just had spirit week where the students dress up in themes and on the last day we all get togwether in the gym to complete, house against house! They all go wild, just like in high school musical! (not that any of you have watched that..) When I get real computer savvy I will video tape this school and walk you through it..

it takes a village

Someone once said that Australia was the land of contrasts but really, nothing compared to here. This is a picture of our old house that looked down onto the squatting village, home to about 200 Filippinos living in extreme poverty. )40% of the Philiipines live in some form of poverty). It is a land of extremes, beauty, wealth, pollution, ugliness, concern, apathy and poverty. In the shack of a house on the left lives a mother with 6 kids aged from 8 months to 9. The mother has been away, apparently trying to find food leaving the 6 kids alone for days to fend for themselves, without food. At night the children cry out for food. After 2 years of frustration, mainly at myself and lack of knowing how to effectively help, we have built a partnership with a local church. Amazing people who have estsblished a Saturday bible study for the kids and adults. On Sunday they drive them to church. They have begun to sign them up for health care at 75% discount. (can you beleive a place that has so much poverty has the highest prices for medicine?). Food is given out to those who don't have it and we are currently looking into ways to aleviate the flooding. Also, we are looking at a system of micro credit, to help them with creating business.