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 ...

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...

First of all, I want to apologize. I haven't written in a while, and I feel really bad!! But anywho, from October 9 to October 23 (for about 2 weeks) we had a meeting in Kenya. It was really fun because we got to see our friends from our meeting back in Zambia, which we missed a lot, and still miss! I didn't really write a lot about that meeting, so I think I should write about this one. We arrived at the first meeting place about a day early, so we got a whole day to go shopping and explore Kenya! One of the things I love about Kenya is that they speak English, so it's easier to communicate. We went to a mall called Two Rivers and started shopping! We ate at a Mexican restaurant called Sabor á Mexico, which is special because in Mozambique you don't really get Mexican restaurants, so our parents practically let us get anything on the menu. Call me fat, greedy, or a foodie but my burrito was GOOD! 🌯 My plate before... 😋🤤 And my plate after...  That Sun...

As we have been in Africa for about 2 months, we've had a lot of culture shock. Some bad, but for a foodie like me, some good! We have a house worker named Silva and he makes coconut rice with a sauce. It tastes like heaven. LITERALLY! We have also tried a substance similar to rice called xima. It is like gooey, melted rice. I prefer real rice, but it actually isn't that bad. I feel bad for all those many, many posts I have done without pictures. I hope you enjoy the roll in this post, because I may not do another post like this again. Sorry. Things have been so busy, but I thank those people that have kept my blog in their bookmarks and are following my story, post by post. And now, for the moment you've been waiting for, the PICTURES!!!!! 😌😌😂😂 Us and our friends from church: Sandra (in green) and Tunia (beside Tabitha) Xima, it's not rice, but it's not bad either Our first candle lit dinner, only the special occasion was the power was out. Funny...