Ingrid and Roger Hamlet
September 2024
Prayer Letter
Hello from Massy! The last few weeks have been quite different for us from the routine we had become used to here – it's been the school summer holidays for the kids, so we've been negotiating childcare alongside continuing language study. We have also been blessed with some family holiday time, but things will shift again on Monday as the schools and our formal language classes resume.
The end of the summer term at Les Cedres came with the formal written and aural assessments. There was quite a charged atmosphere at the school that day but we all came out of it relatively unscathed! There were also a lot of goodbyes said as many of the students and their families were moving on, some staying in France and others moving to francophone Africa. Roger helped one family move to the east of Paris, and then transported another family's 14 suitcases to the airport for their move to Niger.
The break from our formal language classes at Les Cedres has meant that we have been continuing language study in various forms over the summer. Amongst other things, Roger was able to have some one-to-one classes with one of the teachers at Les Cedres and Ingrid has been doing online classes with a woman based in the South of France. The internet really has changed how some resources can be accessed, Roger has been working through a set of French learning ebooks with written exercises, which has the author/teacher giving accompanying information and explanation via YouTube videos.
Early September will see us back in our formal language classes. With the change in student cohort will come a restructuring of the classes and teachers. Roger's class should be relatively unchanged but Ingrid's teacher and classmates will be almost completely different.
It was lovely to have some family time over the summer, taking 2 weeks of annual leave in August as well as a few days with Ingrid's parents when they came over to visit. One of the August weeks was spent in Brittany at a large campsite by the coast. The kids enjoyed building sandcastles on the beach and visits to the aquarium and an animal park too. We spent the second week in Massy and enjoyed some day trips including to the zoo and science museum.
The main change this term will be Joel starting school, he's still only 2 (turning 3 in October) but they start school younger here; he'll be one of the youngest in his class though. We're hoping he takes to it in his usual style: as long as there are toys and he's well fed he normally doesn't mind where or who he's with! Mark moves up to the elementary school this term and although it's in a new building many of his peers should be the same. The elementary school has a teacher specifically for teaching French as a foreign language, so we're hoping that will help with his language acquisition.
Praise God:
That we have been able to continue language study over the summer alongside happy family times.
The children dealt well with a first round of pre-travel vaccinations.
Prayer Requests:
For the arrangements for moving to Chad that will be happening over the coming months.
That the new term will start well with effective language learning for all 4 of us.
That Mark and Joel will settle in their new school environments and be able to connect socially with the other children.