Glamdring the FlyHammer

Week 3 in Choma is complete. This past week went by quite quickly for me. Some things are settling into routines, while others are still waiting to happen. We have set up language lessons for the next few weeks, for two hour sessions in our home. (We will keep the kids busy during lessons with the ipads, but I'm not sure they will last for two hours so there may be a few interruptions.) We also went back to our church today as a family--last week it was just Malachi and myself, as Kate was not feeling well. It is a very small church that meets in an L-shaped classroom in town. It is almost more like a Bible Study--but it works for us because it's in English, and shorter so the kids have a better chance of sitting through it. There doesn't seem to be 'sunday school' here for the kids--it's all together before church services begin.

There continue to be a few challenges with our house, which we are slowly trying to meet. We have some friends in the attic who like to make noise at night sometimes. Sometimes the noise is quite considerate, so we call them ROUSes (see Princess Bride). Probably it is just a mouse or two. I made a homemade trap for now instead of searching in the local stores for a mousetrap. It is a bucket with a wire stretched across it and a jar suspended on the wire. I spread peanut butter on the jar and put some water in the bottom. Then I put it in the attic with a ramp leading up to the edge. (My uncle and aunt in Brackendale have used this in their basement with good results). The mouse climbs on the jar to eat the peanut butter, but the jar turns and sploosh! the mouse drowns. I've had this trap in the attic all week and most of the peanut butter is gone, but no mouse. So I've modified it so the jar turns easier, and hopefully this week we'll meet our furry friend.

The flies have also been a challenge, and again, I have not found a flyswatter or flypaper in the stores yet, so I made a homemade swatter one out of some electrical wire attached to heavy cardboard. It works okay but I only have about a 10% success rate. Still, it's therapeutic, and there are many less flies bothering us as we prepare supper, etc. I call the swatter 'Glamdring.' I think that's Bilbo Baggins' sword?

On the work front, I have been asked by the carpentry instructor at Chodort to teach a session on cabinetry. So last week I made a model of a cabinet out of 8mm plywood, and on Tuesday I will attempt to teach the class about kitchen cabinets and countertops. The students will have the opportunity to make their own model for future reference. It is not high quality joinery like they are used to, but I feel it will be very practical for their future occupations. Plus it's good practice for me, as part of the rental agreement with our landlord is to install new cabinets in the kitchen!