Issue #83
February 28, 2001

Dear Family and Friends,
It has now the last day of February. Time is just keeps on going. Sometimes I wonder where it all has gone. We have four and a half weeks left of this trimester and many things to do in that time.
As usual I have to include some news about the weather. It is hot, as if I haven't said that before. We are studying temperatures in class, so I decided to do a project with it. We started keeping track of the temperature inside our classroom and outside the playground today.

Here are the results from today. (In Fahrenheit)
Time Inside Outside
7:45 a.m. 80 80
10:20 a.m. 84 90
11:25 a.m. 86 102
12:25 p.m. 88 104
1:00 p.m. 90 104
2:00 p.m. 92 106
3:00 p.m. 92 104

I realize that it gets this hot in Oklahoma in July, but I think the difference is that in Oklahoma I go from air conditioned house to air conditioned car to air conditioned building. Here if you want air conditioning the options are the teacher's lounge, the library and some offices. In teaching temperatures, the kids are supposed to learn that 68 is room temperature. I don't know when we would ever have that temperature, and if we did, the kids would be freezing. Tomorrow we are going to add the soccer field to see what the temperature is there. The PE teacher took a thermometer out there yesterday, and it went really high so we want to check it again. We are also trying to make sugar crystals in class. It says that it needs to cool. It had sat in my classroom for over an hour and was still hot. I finally ask if I could put it in the principal’s office where the air conditioner is on.

I have also mentioned the dust that we have around here because there hasn't been rain in a long time. All our roads on campus are dirt so when a car goes down them a dust cloud follows behind, so there has been a solution made. Some people water their gardens and their yards, we water our roads. The shop made this machine with a tank that sprays out water. It really has helped a lot.

My class is continuing to do well. It is the middle of the trimester and hot so it is a bit difficult to stay motivated, but they are trying to keep at it. This last weekend was Long Weekend so we all had a good break. We got out at noon on Friday. Some of the kids went home to be with their parents. The ones that were left here got to do special things since there were fewer of them. I got to spend some time relaxing and being with friends. It seems that we haven't had time to do that much lately. It was really nice.

On Sunday, Shane (another FWB), my roommate, Celeste, and I went to the FWB church in town. It was good to get to visit again. Since it was Long Weekend, we didn't have Sunday School so I could go. Pastor Georges was gone, but Jerome did a good job preaching. Well, the parts that I could understand anyway. My French needs a lot of work. Tonight our Bouake Team (Cousineaus, Shane, and myself) will meet to see how the progress is going on the Bouake Project for the church. Please pray that we will be able to find land and that the church will continue to grow. At the present time, the church almost fills up the room they are meeting in. On Sunday, only a few more people would have had places to sit.

While I am writing this I have two kindergartners and a pre-schooler in and out of my classroom. They keep trying to sneak up on me and scare me. They are all younger siblings to kids in my class. They are funny.

Please pray for my Sunday School class this Sunday. I am going to begin some new material with them that I hope will be good and that they will enjoy.

Hope you all are having a good week and enjoying some cool weather.
Thanks for your prayers and support.
In Christ,
Traci Epps

ADDITION
Just for fun I thought I would include what my class has come up with
on the temperature experiment. Notice the temperature from the soccer
field today. That is what it said! They were having P.E. out there at that
time. I'm sure glad it isn't me!!!

Temperatures in Fahrenheit

February 28, 2001

Inside (Class) Outside (Playground)
7:45 a.m. 80 80
10:20 a.m. 84 90
11:25 a.m. 86 102
12:25 p.m. 88 104
1:00 p.m. 90 104
2:00 p.m. 92 106
3:00 p.m. 92 104

My House
7:00 a.m. 82
11:30 a.m. 92

March 1, 2001

Inside Outside
7:45 a.m. 82 84
10:15 a.m. 85 94
12:20 p.m. 86 104
2:00 p.m. 90 96 (cloudy)
2:15 p.m. 92 100
3:00 p.m. 92 105

My House
7:00 a.m. 84
12:15 p.m. 94

Soccer Field/Tennis Court
2:10 p.m. 130 (off the thermometer) This was with the thermometer directly in the sun.