Another night of fitful sleep as the body tries to reconcile the divergence between past experience and the new reality! But we awaken to the fact that I must go to the school today for the first and only day prior to student arrival on Monday. While I am there Marian will be taken around Nicosia by Donna Woresham (Principal’s wife) so that she knows where all the best buys are!
The principals’ office is the only A/C room in the whole school and so I am thankful for this small refuge from the heat of the Cyprus summer! Yes, as we walked the 15 minutes to the school this morning, shirt and tie for me! we found that even early in the day such exertion proved to be draining and I arrived hoping that m y deodorant was up to the task! Just think of meeting all the staff if it hadn’t!!!
It was another registration day and was good to see so many parents enrolling their children. I am anticipating that we will have about the same number of students as last year - about 300.
I am thankful for the staff who ease much of the detailed burden of the organization from my shoulders. I have a secretary (Nikki) who answers the phone and does general secretarial work; there is Katarina, an administrative assistant who looks after most of the monetary issues and seems to know everything and everyone - I well need to keep in her good books! Lastly there is Judy who is the Deputy Principal for the Secondary panel and who knows most everyone who comes to the school. In the Primary division there is Suzie P. who looks after the day to day running of that section. I cannot forget Mr. Dino who is the man who drives the school van to pick up students each morning and also does the many needed odd jobs around the school to make sure everything is in working order.
We had a faculty meeting for the secondary panel and I was introduced and given a few moments to speak. I did cram a lot into that short time and afterwards most of the staff came to me and told me their name and the discipline in which they work. There are only 6 men out of the staff of about 45. Many of the teachers are young and have little training for the job so I look forward to being able to provide some much needed instruction and encouragement.
I am told that Cypriots are not readers. I hope I can change that for the staff and students because I am convinced that reading is a requisite skill in our cultures particularly of we even hope to have people who are conversant with a Christian worldview.
Not all the staff are believers so would you pray with us that in our lives and work they would see the genuineness of Christ’s love and the reality of relationship with Him.
I am finding the stretch between breakfast prior to 7 am when I get to school and 3 pm when I can have lunch quite challenging! But, I will accommodate and perhaps find that it is beneficial to getting off some of the excess poundage!
About 7:30 this evening we sensed that the temperature had eased and so went for a walk into the old city. It was interesting to explore some of what is becoming familiar in the old Venetian era cluttered city within a city. We saw a restaurant which we will have to try sometime offering flame cooked chicken - Cyprus’ Swiss Chalet, perhaps! But tonight we opted for a small take out place where we had a chicken gyros with tadziki and onions on a Cyprian pita - now the question is how does it differ from a Greek pita? The Greek one is smaller and cooked with oil. It was a delicious shared supper and then a short stop at a bakery to pick up a few sweets to share completed the evening on our porch with the north breeze bringing another day to a close.
In some ways we are at home, even without so many of the familiar things and family, of course, but there is a deep and settled shalom which gives us confidence that this is the place where God has led. As we have our eyes opened to the task before us, join in prayer that our lives will reflect His love and the commitment to make Him known through the work we do here.
Tomorrow is almost here so I will say, Good night to all, friends!
posted by David & Marian Sloss @ 5:08 AM
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