Friday, March 30, 2012

A New Japanese Friend

Sugako Akiyama by Southworth Sailor
Sugako Akiyama, a photo by Southworth Sailor on Flickr.

This past week we had the delightful opportunity to host a Japanese teacher in our home. Sugako Akiyama is an English language teacher in Ibaraki, Japan. She brought 10 elementary students to the US for a cultural experience. The students were guests at Sidney Glen where they spent each morning in our classrooms and the afternoons touring the local community. Su spent the evenings with Esther and I in Southworth. We had such a great time interacting with her. She is very fluent in English and we were able find out a lot about life in Japan. A highlight was skyping Calvin while Su was with us. There is something a little awkward about listening to your son conversing with someone and having no idea what he is saying. Su was very complimentary of Calvin’s language skills. We are so thankful to have spent this week with Su and look forward to a life long friendship with her and her family.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Guess who visited Southworth?

'Papa and Farmor' got to take care of the girls for a couple of days. Bjorn was in Denver at a friends wedding, and Jenny took the opportunity to visit her brother and sister-in-law in Portland. That left Esther and I with the wonderful responsibility of taking care of two special girls! We read lots of books, walked to 'the candy store,' went to the beach and showed them off at church. The weekend went very well. Markus came over as well one night to enjoy his nieces. I was able to ignore my impending report card deadline and sermon prep for 48 hours. Ada is becoming very independent and Ruby is mellow and happy.