Bonjour!

So I have officially left Kenya, and I do not like it one bit. Our flight left at 11:30 last night, and everything was going smoothly at first. I managed to sleep for almost 7 out of the 8 hour flight which was super! But, as we got closer, we were informed that we were being rerouted from Paris to Amsterdam because of bad weather. After arriving in Amsterdam at 6:30, they kept us on the plane until 9 when we were finally let free. To make a long story short, we did get another flight to Paris, but it doesn't leave for another two hours so here I am writing my last blog post.

First of all, I was in a rush when I was writing my last blog post so I forgot to add this. All of you new englanders look at the picture of me and my African family, and try to find the logo for the team we all know and love on someone's shirt. During my time in Kenya I saw a Boston sweatshirt, a Boston hat, a red sox jersey, and this last logo. Such a small world we live in.
Second, here are some pictures from the safari! Because we were in the Massai Mara during the off season there weren't a lot of other tour vans which was really nice. In Kenya they have a group of animals called "The Big Five", which includes the African buffalo, lions, cheetahs, leopards and rhinos. We were lucky enough to see all of them except the rhino.

Two cheetahs killed a wildebeast, which unfortunately we missed but we got to watch them eat it! The wildebeest's stomach started to fill with air which is the big balloon looking part of it

Bijschrift toevoegen

One shy lion

At first this leopard was up in a tree sleeping which was exciting and all, but then a mama warthog and 4 babies trotted by, and Mr. Leopard decided he had found lunch, so he scurried down the tree and hurried after them to snatch up one of the babies. We didn't get to see the kill, but we heard a screech that we assumed was one of the poor little babies getting caught.

Poor guys :(

Me, Liz and our excellent guide Dennis at the Tanzania Kenya border

I just started making a list of everything that I'm going to miss in Kenya, but it got way too long so I figured I'll just post the list of things I will NOT miss.

1) My bicycle

2) The flies

As you can see, there isn't much.

Finally I want to give a big thank you to Deb and Greg for putting up with me for two whole months. We really had a great time together and I will miss you both dearly!

To all of you poor souls who have been reading this thing for two months, I want to thank you for all of the support and encouragement that has kept me going. According to the stats page which I'm not quite sure I believe, my blog has been viewed 1,829 times. Dad and Grandma I'm pretty sure about half of those are from you, but still that is just crazy. I'm glad I could entertain all of you but unfortunately my life will be pretty normal from now on so I won't have anything to write about. But if I come to Kenya again I'll be sure to write!

Lots of love,

Molly

tuanana

On Saturday, my aunt and I went to Kasarani to visit some of the houses of the people I have met here, which was one of the highlights of my trip here. The first house we went to was my friend Pendo's house. I had already met her whole family and this was absolutely my favorite visit. She has two little sisters, little Pendo and Mercy who are just the cutest. Mercy is very shy, but Pendo is incredibly outgoing and hysterical. I brought them some markers and paints and paper, and some stickers, which from the picture below you can tell were a big hit. Little Pendo took a whole sheet of stickers and went around and put stickers on everyone. We were served a huge breakfast here, including eggs, biscuits, chai, coffee and lots more. Pendo's parents, Margaret and David are very sweet people as well, and they have both told me I am now part of their family. David's direct words were "Molly remember, you will always have a family here." While we were there Margaret took off a gold (or gold plated we're not quite sure) chain from around her neck, and put it on me. I asked if she was sure she wanted me to have it, and she said "This necklace is not nearly as precious to me as you are, of course I want you to have it." Out of everyone I have met here, I will definitely miss this family more than anyone else. 

Me, little Pendo and big Pendo

Me and the fan

Our next stop was James, my motorcycle driver's house. It was really nice to meet his whole family, which includes his wife Caroline, his one year old son Kelvin, and his niece Cynthia, who is living with them while she goes to secondary school. Here, we were served a lunch of some sort of goat soup, potatoes and carrots, and chapatis, which are kind of like crepes but not really. His house has three rooms. There is a kitchen, a bed room and a living room/ dining room.

One of the rooms of James' house.

Our last stop was at Madame Mwangi's house. She is another one of my favorite people here who I will miss dearly. The hardest part is that when I am home, I will barely be able to communicate with them because internet and computers are so scarce. Here, we were served some fresh fruit which was delicious, but I was absolutely stuffed after all the food we had already been served.

Me, Madame Mwangi and her children Lillys and Kuria

Along the way we stopped very briefly at some other houses, and I saw many of my students along the way which was fun. Right now, we are at the Massai Mara for a safari. The camp we're staying at is VERY nice, and we have seen lots of animals. I will write one last post with pictures of animals, probably when I get to Paris. Tonight is my last night in Kenya, which seems crazy to me. 

Oh, and the title of this post means, see you later. At every house we went to, I was asked when I will come back. I told everyone I hoped I'd be back next summer, but who knows. Every time I said goodbye to someone, they would say "This isn't a goodbye, this is a see you later." So for this reason, I am going to create a Send Molly Back to Kenya Fund :) If anyone wants to contribute, just let me know! I'm not actually, but in all seriousness I really hope I will have the opportunity to come back sometime soon.

Harambee

Yesterday was the harambee, which turned out to be a really fun event. A harambee is a type of fundraiser here, where people bring money and present it publicly. It was supposed to go from 10 am to 1 pm, but of course, it ended around 5 instead.

The picture above was the set up for the harambee. There was one tent for the students and their parents, and another one for all of the important guests. Deb, liz and I were under the important guests tent, but I didn't stay for very long. I had much more fun hanging out and talking with the students instead of sitting with the important people. Once I escaped and then they started talking about me so I had to race back up (whoops.)

The choir performing a traditional song and dance

In this picture, the deputy mayor is dancing with one of the students. The mayor of the whole town of Naivasha was there as the guest of honor. He was a really sweet man, and he's the youngest mayor in all of east central africa!

So. This was one of the best parts of the day. Deb was giving a speech to everyone, and she called me up to give me a gift. I was given a St. Andrews school uniform including the sweater, the shirt, the tie, the skirt, and the socks.

Everyone there absolutely loved it, and of course the students wanted me to put it on right away, so I did.

NOW can you find me? :)

I wore it the whole afternoon, despite the dreadful heat in that sweater. I asked the students how on earth they deal with it, and they just said they got used to it. I'm pretty sure I made all of the students and teacher's day and of course, they all wanted to get a picture with their new student.

The next gift I got was just as exciting for me. Madame Mwangi has these two fleece shawl/ scarfs that she would let me wear when it was cold, or after I arrived on a rainy day. As a graduation gift from swahili, she made me one!

Madame Mwangi, Me, and her daughter Lillys.

The last picture is a photo of all of the important people who were at the harambee.

Front and center with the gigantic badge is the mayor

That's all for pictures, so now I'll tell you about the actual success of the harambee. Peter's goal was 5 million shillings, which is about $50,000. Unfortunately the turn out of the event wasn't nearly as high as he expected, and only 2 million shillings was raised. That is almost enough money to build either two classrooms, or a science lab. The problem is he needs both for the upcoming school year, starting in January. There are two form 1 classes coming in, and there isn't any space to put them. Also, the form 4 students need to complete a science lab course, and if they don't they can't graduate. Hopefully Peter will be able to find a way to build both of these. If there is anyone who did not contribute already, and wants to donate, please let me know! St. Andrews could really use help. BUT, for those who did contribute, I was able to donate 64,000 shillings, which is equal to $680. I was given a big round of applause, and I could not have done it without you. 

This week we are doing all sorts of outdoors adventure activities, like a hippo boat ride, and a picnic lunch among giraffes, zebras, etc. Next saturday I am going to Kasarani to visit all sorts of people, including James the motorcycle driver, Madame Mwangi, and several students. Sunday we leave for our safari, so unfortunately that will be the end of my blog! 

Ps. Don't forget to turn back your clocks! It's such a strange concept not doing that here. Anyways, I hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

Naishipai

Today was my last day at St. Andrews, and boy was it a sad day. Tomorrow is the big harambee, which is the term for a fundraiser here. Unfortunately I couldn't teach, because they were cleaning up the school, but I came for the last few hours of the day. When I got there the students were doing a bunch of different things, such as cleaning, moving dirt, putting up tents and making badges for people to wear. A group of girls were in one room singing traditional Kenyan songs and dancing which was so much fun to watch. I even jumped in and danced with them which they loved, despite my terrible dance skills. About an hour after I got there, Deb and my aunt Liz arrived for the goodbye ceremony that Peter had planned. Of course like everything else  in Kenya, it began an hour after he said it would. Good ol' Africa time, I'm going to miss it.
The whole goodbye process was easily the best and saddest part of my whole experience here. Peter said wonderful things about me, and he gave me a letter of recommendation which will be very helpful when I try to get credit for the teaching I have done here. After the letter, he gave me all sorts of presents from the school! He had me stand there, while one of my favorite students, Margaret came and dressed me up in my new presents. Included in the ensemble was a traditional Maasai (one of the tribes here) cloth, two necklaces, a bracelet, a pair of sandals and a three carved giraffe all together. Here is a picture of Margaret putting everything on.

I was also given posters by two of the students which will definitely go on my wall at college. After all of the wonderful gifts had been given, I had a chance to give a speech to all of the students which was incredibly hard to do without crying. Luckily I made it through and got a few laughs out of them with my swahili words. I don't think I realized how much I am going to miss St. Andrews and all of the students there until today. Two of the girls I have become very close with started crying which made it even harder for me. After some more speeches from several teachers and students, everything came to a close, but not before a lot of hugs and of course some pictures.

Me and Margaret with all of my lovely presents! 

If you are having trouble finding me, look for the only white person in bright red :)

Luckily, I didn't have to say any final goodbyes today because they will all be at the harambee tomorrow. But still, today was the first day that it has really hit me what I am leaving behind here. I don't know why I ever thought it would be easy to leave these students. Every time one of them came up to me today and told me how much they were going to miss me it broke my heart a little bit and it made me want to stay here forever. BUT, as Peter told the students, I am a student too, and as hard as it is for me to go, I have a duty to learn just like they do. One thing is for sure though, I need to come back here in the next few years.

OH I forgot to explain the title of the post! The students gave me a maasai name, Naishipai, meaning something along the lines of "Happy Woman" which I thought was very fitting :)

tatu zuri

So with my limited swahili, my title means three good. The word good is from a list of adjectives that I was supposed to learn. (Whoops) What I'm trying to get at, is I have three exciting things to write about. Hopefully you get the point!
1) My aunt has arrived!!!! For those of you who didn't know, my aunt Liz is going to be here for the last two weeks of my stay in Kenya, and then we are going to spend a week in Paris. It is so great to see someone from home and I'm so excited to share Kenya with her! Tomorrow, she will be coming to St. Andrews with me. In order to really show her what my life has been like, I have arranged for a second motorcycle to bring her to the school and back with me. Luckily, she doesn't have to do the biking part of the journey.
2) I finished grading all my tests on time!!! It only took like 7 hours total. And teachers, not a single one of you send me an email. I am just a tad disappointed, but what can you do. Anyways, out of the 160 tests, over 40 students got an A. Most teachers would say they made the test too easy if this happened, but I am just so excited that they actually studied and are actually understanding what I've been teaching them, so I could care less. On Wednesday I'm giving them an essay which will be the real test of their understanding. Friday is my last day teaching, so technically I need to have 160 essays graded in two days... I think it's time to tell Greg, Deb and Liz that we're going to have one big grading party Wednesday night.
3) Ok this one is the best. On friday, Deb, myself and Peter (the principal at St. Andrews) went into Nairobi and met with a woman named Mary Mugo. She is VERY high up in the education system in Kenya, and she is part of a team that is/ has created a peace and reconciliation curriculum for schools across Kenya. I got to meet with her, and I typed up my whole curriculum and gave it to her to read. When I was told we were going to be meeting with her, I figured they really didn't have much of a curriculum. From my experience here so far, it seems a lot of Kenyans lack the critical thinking skills. Not all of them, but a fair amount. Mary and her team are absolutely an exception to this generalization. She gave me the curriculum they have created and I was blown away. It was 10 times better than anything I have reached, and it would have been really helpful for me to have had when I started teaching! We got to listen to Mary, and her assistants Beatrice and Eunice describe the work they have done, including what they created to help Kenyans who were harmed in the post election violence following the presidential election in 2007. She was a really wonderful woman and it was fascinating for me to hear what she had to say, and incredibly satisfying to hand this very important woman the curriculum that a little 18 year old from America created. And guess what. This isn't the end of the good news. Peter and Deb started talking to her about St. Andrews, and the schools philosophy, and the problems they face, and she said she would love to come out and see the school. She also said that she could get Peter at least 3 government paid teachers which would be EXCELLENT for St. Andrews, because right now all of their teachers aren't even certified teachers and they are paid very poorly. I have never seen a man as happy as Peter was when we left this meeting. Her repeated over and over again, "I am such a happy man right now, I am just thrilled." So even though they probably won't even use most, or any of my curriculum, I was a gateway for St. Andrews to talk to the "big wigs" of education in Kenya.

Beatrice, Me, Mary and Peter
Don't worry I do have other skirts that I wear, this one is just my favorite

Alright so thats all of my "tatu zuri" section, now I just have some odds and ends that people might find interesting.
1) In the teacher's room at St. Andrews, there are wasp nets in every corner of the room except for one. One of them is RIGHT over my head, and I am absolutely terrified of bees and wasps. I always have one eye on the nest, and on Friday I finally asked the teachers why on EARTH the wasps are still there. I said in America these things would have been removed/ killed in an instant. One of the teachers responded that they are sacred. Now WHY would any culture make these stupid little things sacred. Being a curious person, I asked this question. Mr. Ondari, the teacher who answered me the first time, said he didn't know. And here, once again, is the lack of critical thinking. But at the same time, traditions were created for a reason, well hopefully, and I have learned to respect them and not question them. Even if it means I get stung. Except that won't happen because when they're flying around I quickly put my raincoat on, hood included so barely any of my skin is exposed. :)
2) At the nursery school on thursday, I put my new swahili sentences to use. For my lesson I turned them around, writing the swahili then the english. All the students loved my swahili speaking and it was fun for me to actually have something to say to them! Now they know how to say the cow is sleeping, the goat is running, the boy is reading, the mother is cooking. All of which are obviously VERY helpful sentences. It was pouring rain, so unfortunately they didn't have recess which is the best part of the day. Here's a picture of little lilly in her raincoat with a hood that could fit like two heads in it.

Silly Miriam held up her name the wrong direction!

grading.

So my whole life I have never understood what is so terrible about grading. To be honest, I thought grading tests sounded like fun. I'm pretty sure I offered to grade a teacher's papers for her once. My offer was obviously turned down, but as you can tell, it never seemed like a terrible activity to me. Well, this naive opinion of mine has been obliterated. Yes I know, strong word. Giving a test to 150 students and promising to return it by Wednesday was not so smart. So I have a question for all of you teachers reading this blog. HOW DO YOU DO IT?! Like seriously, are there any techniques on how to make grading less boring than it is? Reading the same thing over and over and over again gets old REALLY quickly. I have 60 graded so far, which has taken me 3 hours. If any teachers have any advice, send me an email I would love to hear from you! I'm also just curious about how many of you are actually reading this thing.
Ok none of this is actually very interesting, but the good news is a lot of my students are doing really well so far!!! I have at least 10 100%'s and I've gotten some really good answers. After 5 weeks of teaching, it's so exciting for me to see that at least some of my students are actually paying attention and understand what I've been saying. AND they studied! To be honest, I was a little skeptical.
I can't bear not attaching a picture, because I'm slightly convinced there are a couple people who just look at the pictures. (No harm there, I would probably do the same thing.)
So, here is a picture of me and little Greg, the little rascal who lost my watch, who is still one of my favorite people in the world. I spent Sunday morning with him rolling a tire back and forth and building rock structures, both of which are underrated pastimes.

N'gombe analala

So I apologize for the lack of Swahili titles in my previous posts. I am proud to say that on tuesday I learned over 40 swahili words! And the miracle is I still remember most of them! I also know some short sentences, such as n'gombe analala. Does anyone want to guess what this means? I bet you didn't guess the cow is sleeping. How about kondoo anatembea? Anyone guess the sheep is walking? If so swahili is the language for you! I was telling one of my friends some of the swahili i've learned, including these two sentences, and she sarcastically said to me well those are useful, and I replied by saying, you'd be surprised. And sure enough, I thoroughly impressed James the motorcycle driver with my new sentences. I see at least 50 cows, sheep and goats every trip to or from the school, so these little sentences seem to be proving to be just as useful as a sentence like "I am eating" would be. (Mimi ninakula in case you were wondering :) )
Alright that's enough about my new oh so useful swahili phrases. My 5th week here has come to a close and I have LOTS to share with you. After my successful lesson on Monday I was feeling pretty good about the week at that point. Tuesday, I went up to the nursery school which is always fun. To be honest I completely forget what I taught them, but whatever it was, it went well. Here is a picture of four of the kids who are in the "baby class", which I believe is for kids ages 1-3.

I used the reflective sun glasses trick again and they LOVED it. The little girl in the next picture is one of my favorites and she has the best smile. Unfortunately, I am barely in the picture, but you get the idea. She's much cuter than I am anyways.

On Wednesday I decided it was time to crack down and really learn some of my student's names at St. Andrews. During lunch, I went to my form 1 purple class (one of my favorites) and told them I was determined to learn all of their names in the next 40 minutes. I'd pick a group at a time, and memorize them, then move on. After I had been to every student, I told them all to sit in their seats and I would go around and say all their names. Little did I know, I had a tricky group on my hand. They decided to be tricky, and switched seats. What made it ever MORE hard, was the fact that a lot of them switched jackets, glasses, head wraps etc. This really messed with my brain but it was hilarious to see them covered in each other's clothes.

This is Hussein who just cracked me up with his new outfit.

The first time I went around I got about 10 names wrong. Then, I told them to all switch seats again and I would leave the classroom until they were done. When I came back in, they had all switched clothes once again, but this time I managed to get almost every person's name! (it may not have been on my first try but that's ok)

Yesterday at St. Andrews I decided to try something new. After giving them 10 minutes to review for the test I'm giving them on Monday (we'll see how that goes), I explained to them that I wanted to do some role playing/ skits. I broke them into groups of 4-6 and told them they had to think of a family conflict, assign every person a role, and then act it out, including the resolution. Only one or two groups got to present in each class, but I was SO impressed with what I saw. They were so creative and did a great job using props. 

One of the groups creating their skit

Kakeshi and her "baby"

Here we have a male student playing a pregnant mother, due to the lack of girls in his group.

One of the groups performing, including Mr. pregnant mama

They all did a great job acting and got quite a few laughs from their audiences. I was very impressed with some of the things they said in their skits. In one skit, there was a father, his sons, and their grandfather. The grandfather was talking, and he said "my grandchildren, don't you understand that you must respect your father, you have no say." And one of the grandchildren replied, "Grandfather, this is our time now." This is exactly the type of thinking I am trying to get them to use. Really thinking about why or how they would/ could improve their lives and their society in the future.

I only have 5 more days of teaching which seems so crazy to me. Luckily, I know almost exactly what I am going to do every day which has rarely happened. 

I hope everyone has an excellent weekend, and for those of you in New England I hope you are appreciating the beautiful foliage! And beautiful as Kenya is, I really do miss foliage. 

OH and I am going to attempt to set up a paypal account later today or tomorrow so people who want to donate to the school/ sponsor me in the 15 km walk that I did, can do so. I will write another post when I get it set up, so stay tuned!

Onions

After being terrified I would have nothing to teach today, I ended up having a great lesson plan. The topic this week is family conflicts, which is a tricky one like I said in the last post because of the issue of respect. Well anyways, while reading the Daily Nation, the Kenyan newspaper, yesterday, I came across a poll that asked, "In your opinion, what is the most serious problem facing Kenya today?" The options were tribalism, poor leadership, corruption, high cost of living and lack of employment. I redid the poll with my students, asking the question in two different ways. First I asked what they thought the most serious problem facing kenya as a country was, then I asked what was the most serious problem facing kenyan citizens. The answers were drastically different, which is what I wanted. For the first question, most of them said corruption and poor leadership, and for the second question most of them said high cost of living and lack of employment. Which made complete sense. Then, I compared it to the layers of an onion, talking about how the outer layer was the one that was right in front of everyone's eyes. Props to Deb for the onion idea by the way! I asked them what they thought the order of the layers should be, from outside to inside, and this is what they said:
1) High cost of living
2) Lack of employment
3) Corruption
4) Poor leadership
(We left tribalism out because it only got 1% of the votes)
Their answers were EXACTLY what I wanted them to say which was great to see.
In the nation the percents of the people they asked were as follows:
1) High cost of living 76%
2) Lack of employment 10%
3) Corruption 7%
4) Poor leadership 5%

As you can see the numbers lined up perfectly with our onion layers, which I used to explain what critical thinking is, and being able to understand the root cause of a problem. Critical thinking barely exists in the teaching here, it is all memorization which I might have already said, but this little activity was an excellent transition into root causes of family conflict, and critical thinking. Both of which I want to cover this week. So that went really well!
And in my favorite class, form 1 purple we had a blast today. When I said onion in english they all started saying the word for onion in swahili, which of course I forget already. But, when I finally said it right (it took me about 5 tries) They all started clapping for me and said we're so proud of you!!! We were all laughing and having a grand old time. The next fun moment in that class came about when I was talking about how it's hard to me to really understand what their family life is really like because I've never been in their house (what I meant was the same type of thing as walking in someones shoes) as a metaphor, and immediately they all started shouting out "you are welcome in my house!!! come to my house!!! No you can visit my house!!!" Which was absolutely hysterical and so sweet of them.

Lastly, Deb told me to always carry my rain coat with me these days because of these lovely short rains. After a beautiful weekend with not a drop of rain, I was hesitant to bring it with me this morning. Then I thought, knowing my luck, if I don't bring it it will rain. And MUCH to my dismay, as soon as I got on my bike to come home the rain began. Glad I had my raincoat! Now all I need is some sort of mud guard so I don't get mud in my mouth anymore. (Or all over myself for that matter.) Well, what's life without a little dirt and adventure!

"Short rains?"

So the short rain season has just begun and I'm starting to question the "short" part of it. Wednesday, it was basically raining all day, and then it rained Thursday night and this morning it was pouring when I got up. Perfect biking conditions. BUT this time I was prepared!

I put on a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, then a rain jacket, then my back pack, then another rain jacket. On my head, I had a baseball hat, my helmet and both hoods. I later changed into Deb's orange crocs to complete the rain outfit, which were much more suitable for the weather. I started off on my bike, but the soil on the driveway is a type of soil that basically turns into a slick oil during rain, so I couldn't even get on my bike, let alone walk at a normal pace without slipping all over the place. But I made it in one piece! Just a little muddy. When I was on the motorcycle I was waving at everyone like I always do, but I was getting some really weird looks. When I got to school, one of the teachers said, "Molly you have some dirt on your face!" I looked in a mirror and my face was COVERED in dirt. No wonder I was getting all of the weird looks. My legs were also completely covered, and one of the teachers was nice enough to go heat up some water in a bucket for me to clean them off with. 

My 4th week of teaching has come to a close! Next week the topic is conflict between family members, which is going to be a challenge. Their culture is so different here, especially when it comes to family dynamics. The level of respect children need to have for their parents is much much higher, and they aren't allowed to question a single thing their parents say. If they do, most students told me they would get beaten. Anyways, I will write about how that goes some time next week.

Enjoy your weekend!

Miracles do happen

So. After a rough start to the morning, a miracle happened. Let me begin with the morning. When I left on my bike, it was pretty cold and it looked cloudy, but I figured a simple fleece in my bag would be plenty. As I got onto my motorcycle it started to sprinkle a little, but I thought nothing of it. About 5 minutes into the ride it started DOWN POURING. In about 3 minutes I was literally soaked. There was not a single dry area on me, and my clothes had started dripping with water. I tried to huddle behind James to protect myself from the lovely rain, but that was kind of a fail. By the time I had arrived at school I was so miserably cold so I sprinted into the teachers room. I changed into my skirt and just my fleece hoping I would warm up a little, without much luck. Ok so to sum it up, I was very cold. After my first class I came back to the teachers room and guess. what. Madame Mwangi had my watch!!!!!

I gave her a HEEEEEUGE hug and thanked her profusely. I seriously never thought I would ever see that watch again, now it doesn't even matter that Superman isn't working! I'm definitely keeping that watch as a keepsake though.

Love this woman (That's her scarf I'm wearing, isn't it great?)

After getting my watch, my day started to pick up. At one point, Madame Mwangi, Madame Godana (a younger teacher), and myself all had a free class period and we were the only ones in the teachers room. Madame Godana was asking me about what type of music I like, and I listed off some American artists and then I said that I really liked Kenyan dance music. They got really excited and started dancing which was hysterical! They both had some great moves. Here's a picture of the two of them.

This post was supposed to just be about my watch, but apparently I had a lot more to talk about, whoops! Ok last story. On my way home today I came across 20 primary school kids walking home again and we had a ball! The trip home really goes a lot faster with them. I let them take turns using my bike and I walked along with the rest of them, chatting away. They were VERY impressed that I remember numbers 1-10 in swahili that they taught me last time :)

Whoops.

So I have no swahili words for anyone today. Except I'm supposed to learn about 30 nouns by tomorrow and I haven't learned a single one. Madam Mwangi is NOT going to be happy with me. But, "Hakuna matata, it means no worries, for the rest of your days!" Good ole Lion King.

Ok so THIS is where the whoops comes in. I have two pieces of advice for anyone who ever goes to a developing country
1) Never let a 5 year old, even if you know him, wear your watch around a slum without supervision at all times.

Even if he's this cute. (Note the watch on his wrist)

Apparently some big kid came and stole it right off his wrist. After asking everyone who was at the event if they had seen my watch, no one came forward. Alas, the watch is gone forever. At least some little kid in Kasarani is now a happy camper. But still. I do not recommend doing what I did. As they say, you learn from your mistakes.

2) Do NOT buy a $5 watch from an Indian man selling very cheap watches, sunglasses and clothing on the streets of downtown Nairobi, or any city for that matter. It may look like a super cool watch, and it may have an excellent price tag, but the chances of it working 3 hours later are pretty slim.

Even if it's a Superman watch.

When I got it, it was working wonderfully, ticking like any old working watch does. A couple hours later I realized it was 5 minutes slow. Then, if you can tell from the picture, I took a look and Superman was no longer straight up and down. After whacking my watch a couple of times I got him to be straight up and down. Then, I realized the time was wrong again, so I tried to fix it by turning the little dial and bam, the dial fell off. I finally got it back on, and then realized Superman was no longer ticking. Alas, I am once again watchless. Luckily Deb is letting me borrow hers for the time being. I really should have purchased the $15 brand new Toy Story watch in one of the real stores we went to. But once again, as they say, you learn from your mistakes.

I hope everyone is having an EXCELLENT Tuesday so far! And those of you with nice watches, I hope you are taking good care of them.

sema

So one of the most useful words I've learned so far is sema, meaning say. When I'm at the nursery school and I want my little children to say a word, all I have to say is sema then the word and bam out comes the word! Ok so that's off topic, I just have two things to write about.

1) The bike ride/ kasarani clean up day/ entertainment was a blast! Here are some pictures from the event.

I saw this guy in about 5 different places he managed to find me EVERYWHERE!

My little friend Sarah

Beginning of the bike race

The City Council brought this big truck to put trash in!

Streets of Kasarani 

Once again they LOVED my sunglasses

2) On friday, one of my students whose name is Pendo, meaning love in english came up to me and told me she was writing something she wanted me to edit. I said of course I would love to help, and today she came up to me with 6 pages of writing. I sat down at my desk and began. What I read was absolutely incredible. It's called move forward, and its basically a motivational speech. I asked her if she wrote it all and she said she wrote parts of it, and other parts were things she has heard people say. It would have been better even better if she had written the whole thing, but the fact that she had taken the time to do this and was interested in something like this really impressed me. Here are some excerpts from it, I hope you enjoy them!

Challenges are there to sharpen you and make you stronger, stronger than you were before than stronger than you know you could be. Learn from past mistakes and try to rectify them... forget failure and move forward toward success. Hope for a better and a shining tomorrow, even though your today was bad. Don’t expect the road to success to be smooth. I’ve learnt that the road to success is always hectic and never smooth. Remember, expecting the world to treat you fairly, just because you are a good person is little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are with a vegetarian.

Stay focused on what you are called to do. Seek fresh ways to use the gifts and talents that God has given you. Remember that you are not responsible for the happiness of everyone around or far from you, but you are responsible for keeping yourself happy. Be kind to all around or far from you, never agree to be manipulated.

Move forward to make wise decisions. The decisions you make in life affect you and the rest of your life. Decisions determine your future success and happiness. Wise decisions give you a sense of adulthood. When making vital decisions, consultations are very necessary, let people believe the best of you. Compliment each other with wise friends, as this is the glue that holds relationships together. Better decisions are the cement to a better and more comfortable life; well packed with good morals and responsibilities. Your words and decisions set direction in your life, don’t talk of how good you were today, talk of how good you want to be tomorrow. Let today’s good work be a good basis and foundation for a better tomorrow.

Move forward to being passionate about life. Look for tangible ways to stay passionate about life, develop a habit of smiling and keep singing songs of joy, despite the hardships on your way, have a grateful attitude and recognize each day as a gift. Exercise your faith positively to be able to prepare for success and accepting God’s best for your life. Tell someone what you are planning; living long, prosperity and God’s love. Take action... move forward to live from believing and live towards excepting. Look and reach for something beyond where you are presently. Pursue new goals by keeping them right in front of you. Expect to meet each goal you set.

St. Andrews, with teachers or without teachers, with problems or without. Let us believe that God is in the crisis. What God has planned for us is unstoppable. We are going to win, if Obama made it, we will also make it. We are no different from those who more to greater heights, if only because we have a burning determination.

Once all the villagers decided to pray for rain. In the meeting only one boy came with an umbrella, that’s faith.

Once you throw a one year old child in the air, he smiles broadly because he knows the you will catch him. That’s trust.

Once we go to sleep, we don’t know about tomorrow, whether we shall wake up or not, but we still have plans for tomorrow. That’s hope.

May be live good lives full of faith, trust and hope.

The whole thing is a little over 3 full typed pages, and if you would like me to send it to you, email me at mcs621@gmail.com and I will be happy to send it!

Here's a picture of Love!

ah ba cha da

Swahili lessons are going great! Whenever someone asks me how much I learned, I say ah ba cha da, which is the first 4 letters of their alphabet, and it always gets a laugh out of the person. Most of the letters are the same, but the pronunciations are different. They also stick in letters which are actually two letters, like ng and th. Our first lesson was held in a classroom at the primary school, and Deb and I were seated at this little wooden desk/ bench contraption, while Madame Mwangi was at the chalk board teaching. It would've made a great picture.
My work at St. Andrews continues to be fun and interesting. As I mentioned in my last post, last friday I decided to start with trust falls, and then go into discussion groups. The trust falls were kind of a failure, (a couple kids got dropped) but they all had a blast with them, and it lightened the mood before we began the discussions. For the group discussions I split them into groups of 6-10, and had them put their chairs in a circle, as pictured below.

I was so impressed with how quickly they began to share with each other. I started by creating a few ground rules, which I have learned is always important to do. My first rule was everyone needs to listen and pay attention to the speaker, and my second rule was anything that was shared in the group MUST stay in the group. I told them to begin, and immediately they all huddled together and the first person began. I circled around to all of the groups, trying to hear what some of them were sharing, which turned out to be a harder task that I thought it would be. In most cases, not in the picture above, they were huddled together so closely their heads were all touching, literally. I'd try to pop my head in there, and then I came across my second problem. They were all talking so quietly I could barely hear what they were saying. Sometimes I'd go over to a group talking in swahili, and they'd switch to english immediately and I'd tell them to speak in whatever language was most comfortable for them, so most of the time they'd switch back. With one of the groups, I pulled over a chair and made myself a part of the conversation and listened to what they had to say. One girl said she's living with her aunt and uncle because her father is dead and her mom is living somewhere else working as a farmer, and she said that they don't let her leave the house on weekends except to go to church. She was almost in tears as she shared this with the group, and she asked for their advice. (Which was another rule I created. After everyone talked, the group had to go around and give some advice.) One boy sweetly said, well you know, there are lots of things you can do inside. You can read books, watch movies and make yourself busy. Another girl said that last year she was at boarding school, and she was very sick one day, so she went to one of the teachers. She asked if she could go to the hospital, and the teacher said no. She then asked if she could just borrow her phone to call her parents, and the teacher slapped her. The girl said she had never felt that low and worthless in her life and she was questioning whether her life was worth living. When she had finished, the responses from her group were excellent. Many of them told her to never forget that there is always hope, and she is important to the world and to never forget that. 

So as you can probably tell, the discussions groups were a great success. On Monday, I went over an excellent worksheet given to me by a teacher from my high school, titled 6 Steps for Resolving Conflict. My goal was to do all 6 on monday, but of course I only got 1-3 done. I figured I would quickly finish the rest on Wednesday, then move on to a scenario I created, but once again, that didn't happen. It took me almost the entire class to finish the 6 steps, and then we began the scenario. The scenario I created was about two boys who had a biology test, and one cheated off the other. The other one realized, and threatened to tell the teacher. I had them all read it, and I told them I wanted them to solve it using steps 1-6 that we had just discussed. Unfortunately they didn't really understand what they were supposed to do, even after we did the first step as a class. I asked if they wanted to finish the scenario on Friday or have group discussions again, and almost every student said they wanted to do discussions. Oh well, I'll find another time to finish that scenario. Hopefully. 

The next picture is of me and the whole teaching staff at St. Andrews. The first picture we took was very professional, with everyone putting their hands behind their back. After we took that one, I told them to put their arms around each other and they were SO confused. I had to physically move all of their arms for them to understand the concept. They thought it was hysterical, and it ended up being a pretty good picture. 

For all of you who are curious as to what exactly I'm eating for lunch, I took a picture of my bowl on Monday. The colorful part you see is githeri, which was an added "bonus" for the day. It's beans, which is fine, and maize, which is literally hard corn. Not my favorite. Then we have the good ole ugali and cabbage. I've learned to serve myself and take just a small portion compared to the normal huge chunk that the teachers would give me. 

Yum Yum!

The nursery school is still going well, nothing too exciting happening up there. Except that I discovered that one of our favorite little boys from last year has a little sister who looks JUST like him.

Such a protective big brother

The transportation is still going well and is always full of surprises. Greg and Deb have been VERY generous and have given me several rides to either the gate or the nursery school which I appreciate more than they know. (I know you're reading this you two!) My piki piki ride is so much fun, and I wave at every single person I pass, which has become a habit here. Kenyans are so friendly and my waves are often returned with big smiles and a nice jambo. The best is when we pass a group of little kids who stop walking and start jumping up and down waving. Very cute. Another perk of the ride is passing a stretch where there is aaaalways animals. On Monday there was a group of zebras, or should I say punda milia, about 50 feet away from us and I attempted to take a picture but it was too blurry unfortunately :( I have one last transportation story. On Monday, after getting dropped off at the gate by James, I hopped on my bike and began the oh so lovely bike ride home. About three minutes into the ride, I came across a group of 7 or 8 primary school kids who were walking home from school. (This is an 8 km walk) I said jambo to them, and I ended up slowing down and biking along side them for the next 15 minutes, until we had to go our separate ways. We had such a fun time, and after I had waved to about 3 people, one of the girls asked, why do you wave to everyone you pass? And I told her because I liked to be friendly and it's fun! She said ohhh ok that makes sense. Then, I told them all that the next time we passed someone, we all had to wave and say hello. I'm pretty sure we made some people's day with our big greeting. They taught me the numbers 1-10 in swahili, needless to say I forget half of them already. Before I knew it, the uphill part was over and I hadn't even realized it! Now I just need a group of kids to bike/ walk with me every day and I'll be all set. 

Tomorrow St. Andrews is hosting a bike race and Kasarani clean up day, where students and members of the community will go around Kasarani with big trash bags to pick up the huge amount of trash scattered across the community. There will also be singing, dancing and games, so I'm sure it will be a fun day!

Lastly, I want to send a HUGE happy birthday to my sister who is turning 15 today. This is the first time I have ever missed her birthday, and I'm so sad I won't be there to celebrate with her. In order to try and make her birthday special, I have put together a video of some of my friends here wishing her a happy happy birthday. The first bit is the St. Andrews choir, and the rest is my little nursery school friends sending their warm smiles and sweet little voices. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVANNAH!!!!!!!!!!!