Weekend fun

For several weekends this semester, we'll be helping the juniors sell cold Cokes, water bottles, hot dogs, fried rice and other goodies during tournaments. This weekend, we were fortunate to be on site for Dalat's volleyball tourney, which meant quick access to many things we needed. The next two weekends, we are selling off site at other schools who don't want the fundraising opportunity. So I'm pretty sure that will mean lots of trips back to campus! It's a great way to make money, especially when you have a captive audience dying for something cold to drink.
This is the new "No Brainer" game I bought. This funny contraption straps to your head. It asks you 'yes' or 'no' questions and, by either shaking or nodding, you move on to other, more difficult questions. The questions come faster and faster so inevitably you shake when you should nod or vice versa. Kaleb tried it out for me - looks hilarious, hey? - and had to actually close his eyes and concentrate to get to the third level. I can't wait to introduce this to the other kids!!

The whole reason we bought this game (and a few other things as well) is that some of our students have little ability to come up with creative and fun things to do. They always, always default to the computer games...and this week we instituted new computer guidelines in our dorm, which means a lot less opportunity for gaming, surfing, facebooking, chatting, etc ... I know, I know, mean Aunt Shauna and Uncle Tim!! Anyway, we are practicing the 'equal time principle' during certain hours from Friday to Sunday, which is when these kids will sit for hours bug-eyed in front of the computers and even forget to eat. Basically, the equal time principle is this: for every hour in front of the computer, the students must spend an equal hour doing an non-computer, non-electronic activity (which means no PlayStation, X-Box, DS, Gameboy, etc either.)

So for example, on Friday night when they have computer access from 4-10 pm, they have three hours to be on the computer and three other hours must be spent doing something else. Each student logs in on a sign in sheet and must keep track themselves. If they go over and don't remove themselves, they lose the computer privileges, except for homework purposes, for the rest of the weekend.

We considered paying the kids to read (yes, believe it or not but most kids nowadays DO NOT read! Kaleb was all for it because he loves reading and would rack up the dough) and then having them pay us in return for computer time but that plan was complicated. So this one evolved through lots of conversations with students and parents. Posted on our dorm hallway is also a huge list of 'other things to do' because students were worried they wouldn't be able to think of anything when the time came.

All of this has come to pass because of our frustration at the amount of time on the computers and because of this book. Here's hoping our new schedule and new options for spending time create more memories, healthier kids and better students.
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Other things that happened lately were the arrival of Ben and his mom from Nepal. Ben was a Dalat student for 3 years and our dorm student for one. His family moved to Nepal this summer and they found spaces at the International School of Katmandu so he didn't come back here. But he returned for his box of belongings and for a chance to say good-bye. We honored him with a party, speeches, a gift, lots of hugs and many tears. I told him I would see him sometime next year when we come to visit Nepal and trek around in the Himalayas!!

Lana and I decided to check out the new Bulgarian restaurant yesterday for lunch. It was just opening to customers when we arrived. The ambience is wonderful - stone walls, a fireplace, lots of quaint windows. We ordered one set meal together as it was a bit pricey - soup or salad was our choice for the first course and since its been pouring rain and cold here, I chose the soup which was tripe. Ever heard of tripe? Only if you are Bulgarian maybe. It didn't taste good or bad, just strange and Lana thought the meat was caterpillar because of the funny texture. The main dish, chicken stew, was yummy and the baklava was to die for. When the hostess came to ask us how we enjoyed our meal, we said the soup wasn't that great. She replied that tripe is the lining of the pig's stomach.....won't be ordering that again. Anyway, we were the very first customers so we received two free meals and had our picture taken with the owner. And then we went to Starbucks for caramel maichiatto's!!!