Amani and Kwaheri

       So I'm back in the states, but I have one more post to write that I never got around to writing while in Kenya. I realized I never really talked about what I did while I was there. Before I left, I was told that Peter, the principal of St. Andrews wanted me to start at Peace and Reconciliation club. I was slightly worried I would have absolutely nothing to talk about, and no way to get this club started. but it ended up working out really well! I chose 12 students, a few from each grade level to be in the club. I chose most of them based on their performance in my class last year, and how outgoing they were. Trying to start a club with a bunch of people who won't talk is nearly impossible.

St. Andrews Peace and Reconciliation Club

         I figured a good way to start off would be to have the students create a list of problems at St. Andrews, and a list of problems in Kasarani, the slum where they live. During the time I was there we worked on each problem, and came up with events and other ways that the problems can be addressed and hopefully fixed. I really liked working with just 12 students instead of all 180 because I could get to know all of them better, and it was easier to get everyone involved. I also taught them games like Indian Chief, which everyone enjoyed. In one meeting, one of the students told me that they wanted to put on an event in Kasarani to show me that they will be able to make a difference in the community. I was amazed when they told me this, and of course thought it was a great idea. What developed from this simple idea, was Amani, or Peace Day. We planned an event to be held in the center of Kasarani with a theme of peace. I was a little worried at first that it wouldn't all come together, but it sure did! We had dancers, singers, poets, religious leaders, youth leaders, students all sharing the same message: peace. The focus was on preventing a repeat of the 2007 post election violence, where tribal violence erupted across Kenya, including areas close to Kasarani. The event was held on a Sunday, and we wrote a letter for every religious leader to read to his congregation, and also put signs all around Kasarani. Here are some pictures from the event.

Student's from St. Andrews performing a song they wrote

The drama club acting out a skit they created about peace

A muslim religious leader in Kasarani

Madame Wambui, a teacher from St. Andrews and head of the club

None of the adults would come inside the fence so I thought no one was there, but they were all around the outside!

Everyone was very pleased with the event, and all of the students did an exceptional job putting it together. Here is a video from the event of clips of all the speakers and performers! 

http://vimeo.com/47906803

Here is the video of Mwangi's wedding! I apologize for my unsteady hand and the noisy wind...

https://vimeo.com/47793758

One last thing. I told the students I worked with that I would try and raise at least $50 just to start them off. It would be used for publicity, events and other odds and ends related to the club. If anyone is interested in donating, please email me at mcs621@gmail.com. If I don't raise the money, I will pay it myself which is fine as well!

I hope everyone is doing well, and if I go back to Kenya again I will be sure to blog!

African Wedding

So my Friday got a little busy for blogging, my apologies. I started off the day by heading to St. Andrews for their closing ceremony. Everyone said it would be over by noon, and I told them I absolutely had to leave by 1 to get home to help prepare for the wedding. I think part of me knew this wouldn't happen. I've gotten way to used to African time. When I got to school, I went into the teacher's room to find them all busy grading and filling out report cards for all 200 and something students. By hand of course. They put me right to work and I helped one of the teachers, Musa, put together the student's overall grade, their class position and a final remark for each student. I hope they didn't look at each other's because some of the remarks started to sound very similar to one another. The ceremony finally started around 1:30 with every single student and teacher packed into one classroom.

The funniest part was for each class they had the announced the top 10 students and had them come to the front of the room. As you can see, there wasn't exactly any space between the chairs, and in many cases there were two people per chair. So every person that had to come up was climbing over everyone else to make their way up to the front. The closing ceremonies went well, and I said goodbye to all of the students and teachers then went on my way back home. At home I had 130 cupcakes, and 3 cakes awaiting my arrival for decorating. Any baking or creativity genes went right to my sister, but I figured I'd give it a try. She gave me her cake decorating kit (which of course she owns), and a frosting recipe and said good luck! I figured I could get everything done in about two hours, wrong. I started decorating at 3:15 and finished around 10, with a dinner break of course. Luckily I had Gina there to help me or else I don't think I would have ever finished. Here are some pictures of the final products:

The bride and groom were very excited, so that's all that matters. I'll call my cake and cupcake decorating a success. 

        The actual wedding was really special. The invitation said to be there at 10:30 for an 11 o'clock start, but once again, this is Africa. I'm pretty sure the ceremony started around 1 or 1:30, because we had to wait for Mwangi and Muthoni's families to come from Mt. Kenya. The ceremony went very well, and Greg did a great job preaching along side a Kenyan pastor. After the ceremony was over Mwangi and Muthoni cut the cake, and then there was a big feast of sheep stew, potatoes and some sort of vegetable dish. Here are some pictures from the wedding, I think pictures do a much better job capturing the event than words can do. 

Adorable children, including Mwangi and Muthoni's children in their wedding attire

Nicky and George, the Maid of Honor's sons

Little Greg dancing with his cousin

I'm off to Kasarani to meet with my club, but I'm trying to make a movie from the wedding and if it works, I'll post it later!

Schools, Weddings and More

Good Morning!
I can't believe that I only have a week left in Kenya, the time is flying by! A little too quickly for my liking. I have a few things to share, so here it goes.

Last Friday Deb and I made our way to Mt. Kenya to pick up the girls from boarding school. It was a LOONG drive. 4 and a half hours there and 5 hours back. The drive was gorgeous though (on the way there at least). Deb knew a short cut that avoids going through the always busy and slightly terrifying Nairobi, so we spent a good amout of our drive going through tea country, where there were rolling hills covered in tea plants. Tea used to be the biggest export for Kenya, and it is still going strong. The area we passed through is also known for having elephants! I was hoping we would see some, but they seemed to be hiding. I did see several elephant droppings on the road though! Luckily the drive there was uneventful, and we got to the school before 11.

The lovely sunrise that made waking up at 5:45 almost worth it

Can anyone guess why it's called Trains View Academy? Yep, you were right. It has a view of train tracks. The school was really nice, and as soon as we got out of the car hundreds of little african children came out to figure out why on earth two white people were at their school. We were searching around for Deb and Carol and suddenly we saw two little girls fly around the corner and come running at us. 

                                        

They said goodbye to their friends and teachers, and we were on our way. The way back was a little more eventful than the way there. Deb was worried that we would miss the turn for the short cut, but I was sure I had it. I knew it was the 3rd flyover, but when we got there it didn't feel quite right, so we stopped to ask someone. He said oh no no you have to take the next flyover. And don't take the first turn, take the second. So off we go again, pass the 1st turn and start looking for the 2nd turn. Well there was no second turn. So off we were, on our way into Nairobi at rush hour. As we got closer to Nairobi Deb said she wasn't exactly sure of the way to get through Nairobi, but we had to make sure we didn't go through down town Nairobi or we would be sitting in traffic for an hour. There were 3 turns that we completely guessed on, the wrong way for each of them would have brought us down town. Somehow we chose the right option for every turn! For those of you have experienced me as a passenger, I'm not very trusting of the driver and am often convinced we're going to crash. Poor Deb had to put up with me for 10 hours convinced that every maniac who tried to pass was going to crash into us. Let me tell you, Kenyan drivers make mass holes look like model drivers. Eventually I just decided to cover my eyes and pray we'd get home in one piece. So back to the school, the girls said they really loved it and are happy to go back in a month. Here's a picture of Deb, the younger one's report card! 

Mwangi, their father is incredibly grateful for all of you that contributed and is very happy that the girls are in a safe and academically challenging environment. 

Speaking of Mwangi, on Saturday he is getting married! His bride to be is a really sweet woman, who he has known since they were children. She has a daughter, Linet who is a great addition to Mwangi's three kids. The wedding is going to be held at Greg and Deb's house on their property below. At first, there were only supposed to be 30 people coming, now there are 100+. That's an African wedding for you! Deb, Gina (Greg's daughter), and myself are busy baking one hundred cupcakes, that lucky me gets to decorate tomorrow! The wedding should be a lot of fun and a very special day. I'll be sure to write a post about the wedding next week! 

My peace and reconciliation club is going well so far, but this post is getting a bit long so I'll write another post just about that tomorrow hopefully. 

I hope everyone is enjoying the end of their summer!

And once again, I apologize for any typos, I have never been one to proof read, especially if it's not getting graded :)

Back in Kenya

       For those of you who don't know, I am back in Kenya for 3 weeks! I don't think I have anything all that exciting to share so far, but I'll give it a shot!

      On Tuesday I went up to the nursery school where I was teaching english last fall. I recognized many of the kids, and they are still cute as ever! The class that I taught has moved onto primary school, and occasionally I see some of them walking home in their brand new primary school uniforms. Here is a video I made of the nursery school from my visit: https://vimeo.com/46688409

Irene

     Yesterday, I went to St. Andrews for the morning to see everyone and talk to Peter, the principal to figure out what I will be doing for the next two weeks. It was so great to be back at the school, meet the new students and teachers and see how much progress they have made! Last year they had a harambee, which is a big fundraiser to raise money to build two new classrooms. This is the first year they have a full school, with students from form 1 to form 4. The form 4 students are graduating in January, and they are the first class to ever graduate from St. Andrews! With the money that many of you contributed in my personal fundraising for the harambee last year they have completed the new classrooms! Here is a picture of the new classrooms, which are connected to two other classrooms.

      On the far side of the classrooms they are building a science laboratory which will make the school complete! The students are in the middle of their two and a half week exam period. They take 24 exams total. Can you imagine? I can't even comprehend how much knowledge they need to have stored in their brains in order to pass all of them. The Kenyan education system is very flawed in some ways. All learning is strictly lecture based, and the students are just expected to memorize. Ok so now time for what I will be doing for the next two weeks. My main project will be creating a peace and reconciliation club for St. Andrews, which will be based off of what they learned in my conflict resolution class. To be honest I have no idea how I am going to do this, but just as it did last year, I'm sure everything will fall into place. My second project will be to help the journalism club create a yearbook, so the form 4 students have something to remember St. Andrews after they graduate. Yesterday I took a picture of each of the 180 students and I'm praying all of the names are in the right order, or else all of the students names and pictures might not match up! My last project is going to be creating a short video of St. Andrews that can be used to promote the school, and hopefully draw more visitors to volunteer and donate. Hopefully all of this will keep me busy! 

     For those of you who live in Lincoln and heard about or stopped by the bakesale that myself, Jessica Nichols, Courtney Ingard and Henry Frost put on to raise money for school fees for two sweet girls here, I'm happy to announce that we raised a total of $1180! This is enough money to pay the school fees for the entire year, and to buy them extra clothing and school supplies that they do not have. Little Deb and Carol are just about to complete their first term at school, and Deb and I are driving to Mt. Kenya tomorrow to pick them up! It is 8 hours round trip, but luckily most of it is on paved roads which is a blessing in Kenya. I will make sure to take pictures of the school and report back! I'm really excited to see the area around Mt. Kenya, I've heard it is beautiful. 

     That's it for now!

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!