Gracelyn Sparks

Hi guys! Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you guys had an amazing Thanksgiving, and I hope that you had plenty to give thanks for! But first off, one of my friends has started a blog about a month ago. You guys should check it out  here .  Anyhoo, (which I now realized I've spelled wrong all along, oops 😂) the main two things that have happened since my last post are: (1) I graduated 6th grade and (2) Thanksgiving passed! Also, my dad had his birthday! Graduation came first, so I'll start with that. Ok, but honestly it feels like I've been in the 6th grade FOREVER! I had about a semester left of 5th grade when we first moved to Nacala, Mozambique, but I did 6th grade work (we homeschooled). Then, when we went to that private school (to learn Portuguese) I was in 6th grade, but we kind of did 7th grade work. After that, we moved here (to Pemba) and we went to an international school where I did the 6th grade (again). So I've pretty much been in the 6th grade for a year ...

Hey guys! Sorry for the late post, like usual.  😂😅 I need to clarify something though, in case you’re confused. At one point I was going to start posting weekly, but now things are so busy with school and everything that I just don’t have the time to do that. So, now I will be trying to post as often as possible, but hopefully at least once a month. This post is for September/October, so you can look for my November post sometime in the near future or early December, and maybe a post before then. Anywho, sorry for all of the inconsistency. We’ve just been really busy! Honestly, we just got back into a routine last week. But don’t worry, I’ll make up for it. :) To start it off, we finished the first half of the last term! Woohoo! I honestly can’t believe that next week is the last week of school! The last day of school is the 30th, and on the 30th   is my grade’s graduation. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but at our school we have primary (Kindergarten-6th) and Se...

Woohoo! I hope everyone had an awesome summer break! After finishing our end-terms we got a three-week break! Okay, I know three weeks isn't that much compared to about two to three months, but hey, I'll take what I can get. It's not really summer break though. Let me explain. The school year here goes by the English school year, which is from January to December. Yep, year-long school. But I guess it's not THAT bad. There are three terms, and within each term there are midterm and end-term exams. After every midterm exam we get one week of break. We just finished our second term end-terms and then had a three-week break. Anywho, I'm going to skip the boring statistics about how kids in year-long school benefit from it. Besides, this is break. I may only have until the 26th, but that's not stopping me from trying to avoid math and overall memorizing things at ALL costs! :) Anywho, during the first week of break, we pretty much just sat home and played Minec...

What’s up guys? Happy 4 th of July! 🎇 🥳 While we didn’t get to watch fireworks or have a family cookout, and we had to go to school, we still enjoyed it. I actually wrote a poem about it. It was originally in Portuguese, but I translated it: My Country Red, white, and blue The colors of my country Colors of love, of war, of victory Red, white, and blue The colors of my past There are no words that can describe the beauty of the flag Of union Of hope One minute of silence The people who gave their lives We honor Red, white, and blue The colors of bravery And for all time I will say That the colors Red, white, and blue Are the colors of me I hope you guys like it! We finished our Mid-Terms and break a few weeks ago. My tests went very well, so thanks for your prayers on that :) A couple weeks ago we had our first team from Quail Springs Baptist Church, so if you ever read this, thank you so much! We were overwhelmed with American ...

Have you ever gotten home from a long but fun day at the park, and you are  so  ready to eat that leftover spaghetti and get in bed? You eat your dinner and change into your pj's only to remember:  Darn it, I still need to take a shower . So then you have to get up, out of your VERY comfortable position, and spend the time that you would like to be in bed catching up on  Fixer Upper  or  Kid's Baking Championship  taking a shower. AND your siblings/spouse already used all of the hot water.  Just great  ... Well, that's how I feel. Not literally, but it's, um, a metaphor. Kind of. Okay, I'll admit, that's kind of over-dramatic. Why am I talking about showers? Let me get to the point: We spent a long time in South Africa hanging out with friends, enjoying Mexican food, and making memories with grandparents. It was so much fun! Cape Town (aka "The Cape") is so beautiful! The mountains and beaches are worth the plane ride, most definitely. Bu...

Ola guys! I know I  always apologize for taking a while to post. Let me apologize once more, only this time, I have a decent reason. We moved to Pemba about a month ago. We have most things, like our beds, table, chairs, couches, dishes, and other things. But there is one thing that we do not have: WiFi. I know you’re thinking, typical modern tween girl wanting WiFi. But honestly, I use WiFi to communicate with my friends and to give you all updates. So, it’s pretty annoying not having it. But that is not the point of this post, my good friends. This post is about Pemba! Okay, so like I said, we’ve been in Pemba for a little over a month, I think. It’s actually really cool watching how everything is coming together. The beds, then the couches, then the table, bookshelves, etc. We’ve had all of our wooden furniture made by carpenters. Our “hallelujah moment” was when we received our crate. Before we left, my mom and dad packed a large crate. It had our electric ...

You may be confused when about the title, so let me explain. But first, welcome back! Thank you to all of my readers who check on my blog every once in a while, or have even subscribed! I just recently added a subscription button, so make sure you click that to get an email notification every time I post! Wow, that sounds a lot like a youtube video intro... Anywho, about the title: so, as you may or may not know, my parents lived in Angoche, Mozambique back in 2004, before they had kids. When we went there, we were wondering just how much Angoche would have developed since they were last there. So we traveled about five hours to get there, and realized that, contrary to our thoughts, Angoche hadn't changed that much. Sure, it had some progress and changes going on, but just not like we were expecting. In fact, my parents said that most of it was pretty much the same as they remembered. We had lunch on a hilltop where you could see the city. It had a great view! And apparently, my ...

Last Tuesday we went to a place called the Ilea, which means Island in Portuguese. My parents had been there before, and it's like an hour and a half away. The bridge to get there is, well, confusing. There's only one lane, and there are certain parts on the bridge that you can pull to the side to let cars coming from the opposite direction pass by. It took a while to get there, but once you get out of the car, the sight is truly beautiful! I mean, it's an island, so there are lots of beaches. We didn't swim, but we did get to do some sight seeing. On the island, there is an old fort that was used back in the 1500s. We were able to go inside and look around. It's really cool! It looks out on the beach, and there are still cannons lined around the roof. It's huge! And Tabby, Ben, and I had a lot of fun exploring the inside. After we went saw the fort, we had lunch, then looked in some stores. We were told we could find a certain kind of pants at the Ilea, but we ...

Hey guys! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a happy New Year! I know I did. Even though I didn't get to go to mk camp, I still got to shop at this GIANT mall called The Mall Of Africa. Before we left for South Africa, we got to decorate Christmas cookies at our colleagues' house. It was really fun! They were playing Christmas music and everything! It reminded me of when we used to go to our neighbor's house in D.C. and decorate Christmas cookies. Even though it didn't really feel like Christmas because of the weather and whatnot, we still enjoyed telling the Christmas story and opening presents. We all enjoyed our presents! I had a fun time making cards for my siblings and parents. We also made a gingerbread house. Kind of... It fell down. But luckily, I got a picture before it fell. We all enjoyed the good old tradition of making a gingerbread house!  In South Africa, we went to the mall I told you about called The Mall Of Africa. There...