Amano's Revolving Door!

There isn't a revolving door anywhere on the site of Amano School, it just feels that way some times! Take this Sunday, 28th June. The Amano Family Service, held approximately monthly, was held in the Dormitory and we had a special guest speaker, David Foster. David and his wife Pauline arrived at Amano just a couple of days before for a visit but they were already well known to many people. They served in Zambia for twenty-nine years and David was the headmaster at Sakeji School. The links between Amano and Sakeji are very strong, with such luminaries as Philip Grove among the ex-Sakeji pupils and our Head Teacher Hilary Millard having taught there as well.

In the congregation on Sunday was another ex-Sakeji pupil, Jean-luc Hinaut, now serving the Lord in establishing a mission station up near the Congo border in the Luapula area. Jean-luc and his wife Rita have previously served in the Congo ministering to refugees and were made refugees themselves.

Our group photograph shows (from right to left) David Foster, Jean-luc, Pauline Foster and Matt MacDiarmid. How did Matt get in there, and a single shot of him with his trademark guitar as well? It's the revolving door again! Matt has been at Amano for almost a year and sadly his time is almost up. David is an elder at Matt's home church and during the Family Service he announced that part of the mission he and his wife had undertaken in coming to Zambia is to make sure Matt gets back home! The Fosters are booked on the same flight as Matt out of Lusaka on 16th July and David told us all that Matt is greatly missed by family and friends back home. We will be updating this blog in the near future with a feature on Matt; for now suffice it to say that while we cannot for a moment begrudge Matt's family the joy of his return, we too will greatly miss him.

Perhaps Matt's church and family could get a revolving door of their own so he could soon come back? Just the man to fit it would be Roger Berry who is pictured here. Roger returns to his home on Guernsey on Wednesday 1st July. Roger is apparently known as a very hard worker who deals with difficult situations and gets results. His few weeks at Amano this time have more than justified the reputation. The new dining room/hall floor has been laid under his expert supervision. Practically every day Roger was first on site at around 0630 and often last to leave. His 'hands-on' approach coupled with his gentle but firm control of the project encouraged the Zambian workforce to turn out a really high quality job.

Amano's 'revolving door' brings the joy of old and new friends and the sadness of parting. It reminds us of the Lord's goodness in sending people who enhance the life of Amano in many ways and makes us long for the day when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and the people of God will be together forever, never again to experience the sorrow of separation of any kind.

Examination time

Anyone who has taken a holiday knows the feeling of wanting to return to the routine of work slowly and steadily. No such opportunity at Amano, at least for the Secondary students! School recommenced after the half-term holiday on Tuesday 16th and the whole Secondary school was immediately plunged into examinations. Grade 12 were taking IGCSE papers in their various subjects in preparation for the finals later this year. Other classes do not have that pressure but examination time at Amano is taken very seriously. Most students commented that the holiday had been at least partly given over to study. Break times during the week were marked by students sitting in the sunshine looking very serious over last minute revision Teachers were very busy with invigilation and were soon accumulating papers for marking.
The 'examination atmosphere' spreads to Primary as well in that the younger students have to observe 'quiet times' when examinations are on. The present school hall is located in the Primary block and is used for examination purposes.

Inevitably Friday of examination week comes with an increased feeling of relief - not only the end of the first week back but the end of the 'trial by paper!' Friday morning Secondary assembly was in keeping with that 'end of week' joy when Head Teacher Hilary Millard presented Merit Certificates during the notices. Secondary students are awarded merits (or demerits!) as appropriate during school and each half term the merits attained are totalled and a presentation made, a certificate for six or more merits and a certificate and a chocolate bar for anyone achieving twelve or more. The previous half term totals revealed that students had done generally very well. Exceptional scores of twenty-three merits by Elisabeth Breuninger (Grade 9) and twenty-one by Chewe Chibwe (Grade 10) were recorded. Two grades (8 and 9) had achieved at least a certificate for every member. Grade 10 did very well in terms of the total merits awarded.

Students doing examinations (and teachers marking!) were not the only ones working hard. Roger Berry from Guernsey is at Amano with Brass Tacks and is doing a wonderful job of advancing the work on the new multi-purpose hall. Floors are being laid and other skilled jobs advanced by regular workers along with a number of temporary piece workers under Roger's supervision. Regular readers of the news from Amano will be aware of the steel structure and roof of the hall being put in place a few weeks ago. Our photograph shows Roger's men hard at work. Markus Breuninger's skills at of project management will be engaged to the full in completing the hall, plus the ongoing sixth-form and laboratory building as well as all the other Amano requirements and maintenance.

Other photographs show students in examination mode and Grade 10 leaping for joy, merit certificates in hand, as examination week draws to a close!

Primary Day Out

The Copperbelt Agricultural and Commercial Show Society holds an annual show in Kitwe, just 45km or so from Amano. This year the Society ran an Art Competition with categories for individual and group contributions using a wide variety of media. Amano Primary students entered and won prizes in eight categories with a further four 'highly commended' awards for individual students artwork.
The whole Primary school attended the show on Friday 29th May and enjoyed the displays and activities. Our photographs show some of the scenes from the show (the snake is perfectly harmless, by the way!) and also written contributions from Caitlin and Sunny in Grade 1 recalling the day.