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!