Getting ready to say goodbye...

Where did a year go? How do I only have three days remaining in Kenya? With my children? How does one possibly begin to say goodbye?

For me, I started saying goodbye more than a week ago when I got back from an unplanned break to Western Kenya. That break is a different story to do with some drama, cultural miscommunication and misunderstanding and how I got temporarily suspended... A story I don't really feel like writing about, but from which I learned a lot about myself, about Kenyan culture and about grace. Grace because at the end of the day, that is where I turn despite any hurt or confusion, for in grace, offered and received, I can move forward. Grace is the cornerstone of my belief and life. Grace can bind us despite the brokenness of our humanity.

Perhaps I will write a little about my break, as while under unfortunate circumstances, it was rather a lovely blessing in disguise. I was exhausted from a rich and full and unrelenting pace of life here at Hope, so when I was told to take a break, some MCCers offered to let me come and stay with them. I rested, I reflected, and I remembered what it meant not to be tired, which now has been allowing myself to pour my all into my last two weeks here. I also got to see a glimpse of a larger Kenya as my friends shared their lives with me, taking me to the government school where she taught as a reading specialist, to the district hospital where he worked, to the market, the nearby town, the local eatery, the waterfalls, the hill with a spectacular view that rises over their town. They have been here for several years, and it was fun to see the level of relationships and familiarity they had in their community, helped by their somewhat fluent Kiswahili. It was good to get to reflect on my year and experiences with people familiar with the context and culture. It was a good place to recover from the drama I was getting away from. Like I said, while under unfortunate circumstances, it ended up being a rather lovely week.

Truly, I have been very blessed by the support of MCC Kenya. Prior to going to Western Kenya, we had our team meeting, and while we only have these quarterly, I am always so impressed by the people working for MCC, both Westerners and Kenyan. Also, when I am struggling here at school, or stumble into trouble, I have always felt so supported and am helped to understand the greater picture of what I am encountering. It is also a community to share the joys with of this past year. Moreover, and apparently this is not a given, we all enjoy each other and we have fun meetings. While we cover business, we also laugh a lot, and there is a definite feeling of another layer of community. This time, it was also a going away for the other SALT and myself. The first of many goodbyes.

Which brings me back to what I meant to write about... how does one say goodbye? For me, I started early, wanting to have two weeks to prepare everybody for my leaving. After eleven months, one can't just say, 'oh by the way, I go tomorrow'. I started by telling my students in class, for I leave just before exams, and so it was easy to segway from exams, to my leaving... and to tell them what an honor it has been to teach them this year. We have had fun, and I am sure they will remember their somewhat crazy American English teacher who loved them a lot. Even, because I am going before exams, they lightened my teaching load, having me only teach the Class fours this past week, so I had to say goodbye to my other classes in my teaching roll early, and almost cried doing so. I didn't mind the lighter load as it gave me more time to spend with the babies, and because I don't love revising for exams(and the other teachers know more what to do in this regards). I miss that time with the children though as they have been the best of students and friends.

I don't know how to say goodbye to babies, who won't understand. The little six won't remember me, they are too small, but I remember them and how tiny they were when they came six months ago, and I still hold them and sing to make them laugh(my singing is laughable and I only know three songs...) for even if they won't remember me, I will miss them terribly. Then there are the crazy crew of toddlers who were barely walking when I came and were all being potty trained and who now go to school and talk all the time and are so big I still can't get over it. They know me and will miss me but still are too young to really understand what it means to say goodbye.

Mostly then I have been saying goodbye to the primary, telling them I will miss them too much, will pray for them always and even if I never come again, will always love them. I tell them to always remember that, that I love them, and more importantly, that God loves them. They know God loves them though, so then I remind them again to remember that I love them and am happy to have spent this past year with them. I will miss them too much, and I know they will miss me. It is hard to believe the end of my year has come. I think they find my leaving hard to believe too... When Tuesday comes, I really don't know how I will say the final goodbye...

It has truly been an amazing challenging year. I am so thankful for the children, for the sweet relationships I have made with them, for the hours of playing together, waiting together, learning together and living together. There were things that were really hard, like my recent drama, but even that seems to be mending itself a little in my relationship with the Madam, who I admire and respect incredibly. Her life, her commitment to these children, is a witness to God's faithfulness. I am sorry for the drama that hurt our relationship, but refuse to let regret taint the richness of this year. Rather, I can hope and pray for a full reconciliation and spend my last few days sharing in the love of this community.

In these last days, I have been reflecting a lot; on this year, on what brought me here to Kenya, and on the future... If life is a journey, I am glad I could sojourn here for awhile. In all my reflections, I keep coming back to grace, God's grace, in leading me here. It was a step of faith, but as they told us back at orientation, we cannot go where God is not. Now, as I look ahead to the future, an unplanned future for the first time in years, that too is a step of faith, and I wonder where next this journey of life will lead. One thing I know though, I have been so blessed, and grown so much, during this year in Kenya, and as we say here at Hope, 'God is faithful!'

One last set of exams...

Ok, so they were only midterm exams, and the students all did quite well, but for me, it is my last set of exams as MCC bought my ticket home two weeks before we close the school for the term... (my ticket is purchased for a month from tomorrow!!!) I have warned the teachers, telling them all how much I have appreciated teaching with them this year and how much I admire their commitment to the children. They told me it was clear I really tried, that I had done a good job, and that it was clear I really cared about the students and had good relationships with them. This conversation was one of those that tells me if I was sitting for an exam of life, I seem to be passing... and I really have loved teaching here, getting to be part of this great venture of education.

Exams meanwhile are always a bit of a break for me, as I spend most of the day sitting and watching to make sure my students don't try and cheat, or steal as they call it. Also, my children are brilliant... We are always short on rubbers, so they are always borrowing from each other, and they were totally utilizing a balloon left over from our last celebration as an eraser. They really try, and keep on working towards their dreams.

In other news, it is getting colder, heading towards July as the coldest month. I used to think it was supposed to be raining a lot now, and while it does some, this is the cold season, not the rainy cold season... so after learning this, I was less alarmed by our lack of rain even though I do think our short rains were shorter and on a funny schedule this year. Still, it is getting cold, so when we aren't in school or playing sports, the children spend a lot of time just leaning up against the old dorm across from the kitchen because that wall is the best place to attract the afternoon sun and to pass the afternoon away cracking jokes and chatting. I have had some pretty hilarious times there this week, for if I walk by, the children are quick to invite me to come hangout, and always even if I was headed somewhere else, I have to say yes... for those are the times where you stop and wonder if life can get any better than this... While I love teaching, I always look  forward to the afternoon hangout times...

Meanwhile, in other news, visitors arrived last night. There are a group of six or seven women from Canada who will be here for ten days. While people have been here throughout most of my year, I do not know if this sort of a group has come before with such an element of being a group. However, they have come with our big partner who I have met as she has already visited twice since I have been here, and coming with her, I know that while I can still play host, they will be quite well taken care of and I can keep about my daily life. They took the fact htat we have mice in residence quite well(and hung all their food which looks pretty funny) so I have decided so far, they are okay... They are just the first of a string of visitors who will come between now and when I leave.

And leaving... I still can't believe I have been here ten months and my time is racing to an end... In Devotions the other day one of the girls shared Ecclesiastes 4:1, there is a time for everything under heaven. I have decided that will be my lens for leaving. There was a time to be here, and there will be a time to come home... and I have the tune to some American folk song in my head... Still, random tunes aside, I have found that a helpful context to keep my flood of emotions in, and as much as I can, I have begun to prepare myself and my children for a time of saying goodbye, wanting them to know just how much they all mean to me...

Life is beautiful

Life here is busy but in a good, full and rich kind of way... Life here is beautiful!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to do some traveling with our Madam as she needed to take her soldier to his barracks in Mombasa. It was a great weekend. I really enjoyed getting to see the coast again, but mostly getting to know the Madam more on a person to person level and to share some family life with her. Life here is always family life. If you are under the misconception that that is something very much different than family life in America, you are wrong... it is mostly just love and grace and sharing life despite our humanity together, and it is beautiful, just like it is in America... sometimes hard, but beautiful...

Another thing which is beautiful is Kenyan countryside, which I have had the opportunity to see a lot of. While I had been to Mombasa before back in December, I had made the trip their on a night bus and had no idea what lay between Nairobi and Mombasa. While on Friday we drove through the night to get there, coming back was Monday during the day, and it was stunning from the coastal farmland through the hours of African grassland, to foothills and farmland back to the outskirts of industrial Nairobi at dusk. I would have taken pictures, but I tried once and if you take pictures out of a moving vehicle, they are blurred... so you will have to simply believe, that Kenya is insanely beautiful.

Coming back to Hope is always beautiful too, even after being gone a few days; the greetings of my fellow teachers, the smiles that light up the children's faces when they see I return, and the feeling of coming home. The day to day is beautiful... the teaching which still terrifies me slightly with the gravity of my job; it is the children's future!... the babies who are getting so big but are always ready for some quality cuddling and reward you with big eyes and bright smiles... the teasing of friends as we go about our day to day... the feeling of home...

With just over a month remaining in Kenya, I feel torn between two homes; the home I have made for myself here with the children and the home which calls me back to America. It is completely natural and logical for me in the same breath to be excited to see my family and to lament how I will ever say goodbye... to count the days both in anticipation and in terror... Often, I simply begin to reflect on this past year and on the richness of it and on how much I have grown as a person, on how much these children have taught me. Often, I am simply overwhelmed by the grace in it all, by God's grace in my life in somehow bringing me here... Sometimes I simply reflect on how life is beautiful...

Time is racing...

Every morning I start my classes by writing the date on the blackboard. Sometimes I get confused because here I would say 2/6/2011 and back home I would write 6/2/2011... Still, normally I get it correct, or my students, ever helpful, correct me. Each morning I am confronted with the passage of time, and this morning I was struck by the realization, how is it June already? Then, when one of my little friends was asking when I was leaving, saying July sounds suddenly near. I remember when  a friend from Canada was leaving in January, and July seemed ages away and was easy to dismiss to the children... 'I am here for a long time yet.' Only, now I am not... I have less than fifty days remaining in Kenya, and the time is racing! I don't know how I will ever say goodbye... I told my little friend though I would be so sad and cry to say goodbye, "nitalia kusema kwaheri" but then told her I would say 'tutaonana' instead, which means we will see each other... as I hope somehow to not have it be goodbye forever, but to find a way to come back and visit all my sisters and brothers here in Kenya...

Meanwhile, when I am not moping, panicked or even excited about my quickly coming departure, life here is good, full of celebration and holiday. On Sunday  we had a sweet celebration for our soldier brother, with songs, dances, recited poems and comedies and a feast of rice, beans, chicken, bananas, buns and even soda and cake. We recently had a chapter on celebrations in my Standard four  class, and according to these kids, it is the food that makes a celebration, so Sundays affair was as good as it gets, even if with delays and how long things really take we didn't eat lunch until 5pm...

Then yesterday was Kenya's 48th Madaraka Day, or Independence Day. Kenya became independent from Britain in 1963. Here at Hope we watched the parade on TV and the singing and then the Prime Ministers speech in Kiswahili but turned the TV off during the President's speech because lunch was ready... this made me laugh although I was probably the only one actually listening by that point. He talked about how far Kenya has come in the last 48 years to achieve social services like education, and reemphasized the goals for the country to keep moving forward... Also, it meant we didn't have school which was a nice to have a midweek chance to sleep in...

Now our soldier brother leaves tomorrow to report to his unit, and I have been invited for the trip to drop him off in Mombassa. I am excited. It should be fun. I was in Mombassa briefly in December when I was on vacation, and the best thing about it is, it is on the ocean, so I  should have a chance to hopefully wave at the Indian Ocean again... And travelling with the Madam is always fun!

Anyways, in other news, I still love getting emails... and one of the babies burped on me earlier, so I smell like sour milk!

As time keeps on passing...

Greetings from Kenya,

I fear this update is rather overdue as life here has been keeping me quite busy, but in a good way. My classes are going well and I teach most mornings from 8 until 1 with a serious amount of marking on breaktimes. Then, after lunch and a cup or two or three of tea, I head to the nursery for a few hours before the kids get done with school at four when I try and go hangout with them. Sometimes I need another cup of tea between the nursery and hanging out. Then, after evenings devotions, I eat my dinner quickly before going to the nursery to help again for an hour or two before heading back to my room around nine. We are a bit short handed in the nursery which has led me to volunteer and be assigned to extra time there, mostly with the little babies as the toddlers have started nursery school and have their own schedule now. It is a full, rich if at times exhausting life, and I am very thankful for tea and coffee. Back when I was getting ready to come to Kenya and people would ask what I was most worried about, my somewhat joking but truly honest answer was that there would be no tea or coffee... Thankfully, that fear was unfounded, and so even life is busy and full, I am happy so long as I can retreat for tea or start my morning with coffee...

This past weekend I was offered a break from the norm when the Madam invited me and the other volunteer here to come to one of the older boys military training graduation on Friday. It seems like only the other day we were throwing a going away party for this young man, but now his seven months of training are over and it was time for him to graduate. Here in Kenya, the recruits are not allowed to go home at all during the training period, so he had not seen any of his family since October. Our dear Madam was very anxious to see her baby boy...

It was rather a large group of us, seventeen in all, who headed for the graduation, leaving late Thursday evening to arrive Friday morning at the Moi Barracks in Eldoret, some six hour drive away. By the time we arrived, the place was already packed, and we had to park some 2km(1mi?) away from where we wanted to be and walk the rest of the way. Once we got closer, everybody was waiting and being told to move away from one area, and in Kiswahili the soldiers who were moving the crowds announced whoever was with the mzungus to please tell them where to go... it was amusing...

We had hoped to see our recruit before the parade, but then that wasn't possible, so our day of waiting commenced. We opted out of the parade if we even might have been allowed in as there were so many people, and as the President as Commander-in-Chief was attending, it really was no small affair. I can say I was in the general area of the Kenyan president even if I did not see him. Incidentally, he was late making the whole day run late, but I enjoyed waiting. I don't get out much, and this was prime people watching as there were so very many of us waiting for our recruits. Eventually they began to trickle out and it was fun to watch the young soldiers reunited with their families. Celebration here in Kenya is often accompanied with song, so you would see the young recruit surrounded by a throng of happy, singing people and it was a beautiful site.

Our poor recruit meanwhile had the hardest time finding his party as the cellphone lines were clogged, but after three hours with storm clouds threatening to let loose, he found us. It was a moving moment with the Madam, the recruit, and most of the others in our party in tears at the reunion. It was a big day not only for this young man, but for all of Hope because that is the vision here... That children who would have had no opportunity and been nobody in the eyes of Kenya can have both a hope and a future, and so when the children grow and achieve their dreams, it is a testimony to the possibility for each and every one...

We got poured on during these touching moments of reunion and had to race to our vehicles, and after dropping the recruit off to finish his last two days before we could pick him on Sunday, we encountered my worst traffic jam in Kenya, waiting five hours to get all of 10km back to Eldoret. That is what happens when everybody is leaving together... It was a little ridiculous though as we would move a few feet and then the drivers would all cut their engines, take naps and the passengers would get out of the car and walk around unless you were me and packed four tight in the backseat... Eventually we made it to Eldoret and had chicken and chips around midnight at a 24hr restaurant... yum!

Now, because Eldoret is near the border with Uganda and rather far from Kinangop and because we had to be back in Eldoret on Sunday and the Madam wanted to check on the girl in Uganda, she decided to go to Uganda between Friday night and Sunday morning, taking some of the party with her, including me and the other volunteer... So from our 24hr restaurant we headed to the border, passing immigration around 6:30am. I am getting good at crossing the border in to Uganda as this is my third time; once over Christmas, in March by myself and now this past weekend...

We were in Uganda for all of 22 hours, most of which we drove. First we drove to Iganga where the girl used to go to school to get the address for the school she was transferred to(around 100km...) and then we turned around and drove north to Soroti where she now goes to school(another four or five hours...). The new school seems like a good place though and is run by Catholic nuns who seem very committed. The girl seemed happy although I don't know if she remembered me from Christmas. It was good we went because Madam was able to straighten out her affairs, and show the school that she had somebody to stand by her as the girls family was playing rather absentee.

From Soroti it was back to the border where we arrived around 2am... I wish I knew how many kilometres we travelled... but it was definitely a lot. After crossing, we stopped over at a guesthouse in the border town and it was lovely to be able to bathe and sleep in a bed instead of the backseat after two days... Also, it came with a really good breakfast the next morning.

Then, the two hours back to Eldoret to pick up our recruit, but there were some delays so we spent most of Sunday afternoon waiting at a local restaurant where thankfully there was a playground for our three small traveling companions, Madam's three four year olds who do remarkably well traveling in cars, but loved the chance to run and play and swing and slide... Madam wants to get a playground here for the nursery school, and it would be lovely if she is able.

Around five we were able to pick up our recruit and start our journey home, arriving around midnight. On Friday, all the soldiers had been in uniform, but on Sunday they were in their street clothes and looked much younger. Most were catching buses home, so our recruit got to bask in the glory of being picked up by our beautiful Madam in her friends posh car as he leaned out the window calling fond farewells. Now he gets to spend two weeks with the greater family here at Hope before heading to his assignment. I think we are going to have a celebration one of these days...

It really was a fun weekend for me. I enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with Madam, the elements of roadtripping, getting to see the girl in Uganda again. The best part though was the celebration and reunion with our soldier that I was very honored to get to be a part of. Truly, the work of Hope is amazing. It is not to meet the basic needs of these children, but to give they a home, a family, a hope and a future and to help them by God's grace and faithfulness achieve their dreams.

Back to school in the rainy season

School opened on Tuesday and I am enjoying being back, and I think even the students, after their nice long break, are ready to be back to studying. I had forgotten how busy a school day can be though, with the break times morning bell of 8 o'clock a mere memory replaced by the rather cold early hour of 6:30. Busy and full as I continue to teach a solid load of classes and try to also be present in the nursery when I am able.

Meanwhile, while last term was teaching in the dry season, this term is teaching in the rainy season which poses some challenges. Namely, it rains pretty consistently in the afternoon which means our afternoon periods are somewhat lost. For me, most days I only have morning classes and am unaffected, but Thursday and Friday I do have some English periods in the afternoon and yesterday got to experience my first attempt at teaching during a torrential downpour. Remember, our schoolhouse is tin, and torrential downpours on tin makes for a deafening roar. Also, one wonders over the logistics of lightning and said metal walls... During my downpour I gave the students an assignment on the blackboard, but it is much better if we can go over it together as a class before they complete. However, yesterday at least, the assignment was thankfully self explanatory. The headteacher referred to afternoon lessons during the rainy season as lost periods though, and while of all the schools in the district we ranked quite high, the goal is to have our school rank number one. I think they can do it, but the rain does bring challenges.

They did get the district scores yesterday, ranking our primary against almost thirty others in the district, and like I said, we really did quite well, even with English ranking quite well. Our lagging grades are class seven and eight, which with the grade eight secondary entry exam, the KCPE, looming in the future is worrisome. Yesterday afternoon the teachers met, and me too as I was stranded by the rain and do teach class seven English, to discuss strategies. I really admire the teachers here. They are very committed to both the school but more importantly to the students as individuals. The headteacher emphasized the responsibility we have, I was honored to be included in his conference, as teachers and counselors but also reminded the rest of us that we also often stand in the role of parents for these children, as the teachers are the adults the children know best. He also reminded us that for the class sevens and eights, while we might think we are teaching them, their thoughts might be anywhere else; essentially, he reminded us that they are going through adolescence. The teachers here are quality!

Meanwhile, with the new term, our toddlers have started nursery school which is really good. They had outgrown their playroom and were in danger of growing quite unruly, but I think they are at the perfect age to learn. They even got uniforms and look super smart. Currently, they don't have a classroom because this weekend even the secondary students are supposed to move into the almost completed secondary building to clear out their rooms for the nursery school. They have been having class in the dining hall though, and truly are enjoying their new atmosphere of learning.

In other news, in the world of westerners, my friend from England left this week and will be greatly missed. She was a lot of fun always teasing the children and really standing in the gap of the nursery over the holidays. I will miss having tea with her back in our rooms and talking about the crazy adventures of a day. However, fortunately for my sake as I rather like having tea and talking about the crazy happenings of life here, the week before she left, another young woman from Canada came and will be here for two months, so I have my evening company still. She will be here up until two weeks before I leave, and while she has only been here a week, I am convinced will do quite well and we have had fun together with the kids.

Meanwhile, this week back at school has rather raced by, and I know my last two and a half months will do the same because the weeks do fly during the busyness of school... I am constantly reminded of how blessed I am to be here, and as I don't think they will have more such long-term visitors here at least in the immediate future, I feel very blessed to be the person who had the opportunity to stay here with these children, in this family, the longest.

April holidays continue...

Greetings from Kenya and a late happy Easter! Here we continue on with our April holidays as we are breaking the school for the month of April like everyone else... while still thankful for my holiday to Uganda when I was told we were on break, I remain and will remain confused as to why I was told to go when I was... At the same time, I have enjoyed life on holiday here...

For me this has meant spending a lot of time with the toddlers, especially as we have had some nanny turnover and are currently down a few... The toddlers are at a great age for playing, games, singing silly Western nursery songs to the nannies great amusement, and my latest favorite thing... dance parties! Those babies know how to dance and I have been learning a lot of new moves although recently the older boys have been borrowing our radio to my dismay...

 Last Wednesday I even got to go into Nairobi as a proxy nanny with Madam. Two of the little babies needed to go in for injections, so I got to visit the rather impressive Jomo Kenyatta Hospital, and be utterly embarrassed when her three three year olds decided to make a great escape and I proceeded to chase them, or follow them as I was holding one of the babies, all around the hospital compound to try and get them back to our waiting room... While I love the babies and toddlers, I don't know if I could really be a nanny... It is hard work!

These past weeks have also held some lovely opportunities for cross-cultural exchange and for sharing life together outside of the routine. I got to help with my mzungu friend in the kitchen on two different occasions; the first sorting rocks out of the next days beans(no small feat when those beans feed two hundred people... we did a good job, but often you do find rocks in your food...), and then another day washing up the lunch dishes and amusing everyone by my attempts to mop the kitchen floor like a Kenyan(at that particular moment in addition to the kitchen boys, several of the nannies were in getting hot water, so the amusement was widespread...). Helping in the kitchen was fun too just for the sake of laughter, as the kitchen boys liked to teach, and test, our knowledge of Kiswahili and tease us for not understanding... and teach us Kenyan sheng(slang). Even if so often the joke really is on me, I love laughter and laughing at myself with those around me and how laughter can unite.

On another occasion, I 'helped' fix the driveway, or more accurately watched the kids fix the driveway while hanging out with some of the teachers and talking about how things are the same, and different... In Kenya, time is told based on the sun, and as the sun rises and sets pretty much the same time the whole year round, this works. So seven in the morning is saa moja, one o'clock, and you count from there with seven in the evening being saa moja again. It works... but I was explaining to two of the teachers how we don't tell time like that in America because the days change... getting long in the summer months and short in the winter months. I even gave the example of Alaska where in the summer it is daylight and the winter it is night. They were baffled and said if a Kenyan went to Alaska without knowing that, they would think the world was ending!

Then, for the Good Friday/Easter weekend, we celebrated Good Friday here and it was lovely fun and good feasting. I also got to witness a massive butchering operation of the twelve chickens which served as the highlight of our feast, and yes, twelve chickens can serve 200 people... as an addition to rice and beans. With the chickens, at least twenty of the primary boys were helping; plucking the chickens by placing them in boiling water, removing their organs and even the food the chickens had eaten that morning, and then cutting them into smaller pieces using a machete... Apparently we eat everything... the heads, the feet, and a good part of the organs... I told them that I had never seen a chicken be butchered before because generally if you are buying a chicken to eat in America, you buy it dead, but here, even if you are going to eat a chicken that you bought, you buy it live in the marketplace, butcher it yourself and eat it fresh...

Anyways, that is the news from my life in Kenya... I have been here in Kenya eight months this past week with three remaining... the days seems to be racing now, and I feel very blessed for how with time, the relationships get better and better and there are more and more opportunities to share life together in more and more ways. With both the good and the challenging, so much of life here feels like family life with its ups and downs. Like so much of the world these days, our budget is not all what might be hoped and the secondary school which should have been completed months ago creeps on towards completion... If you pray, pray for that, as when it is finally done, I think everyone will sigh a sigh of relief and most especially our Madam.

School opens again on May 3 and hopefully that all starts up smoothly and I am allowed to continue on with my classes. The children really have been having a lovely break and after a few days of just sitting in their classrooms they were rescued by the pastor into the sunshine for Bible study and even the other day had a singing lesson from a visiting teacher and for just general times of playing and relaxation. On several occasions when we had brought the toddlers outside, the children were free and played with them and that is always so fun to watch and oversee. It truly is family life here.

And everyone takes a breath and rests...

Breaks here are relaxing... a combination between work and rest... but the children spend more time playing and resting than working. Last week felt like a break although we did not close the school until Friday, but the primary children were only in class Monday and not even for real lessons(I kept busy taking the children out for impromptu PE to play), then Tuesday they were given their marks, but most of the week spent mornings working on the farm and cleaning their dorms and afternoons playing. This coming week is the proper break though with both secondary and primary free and most of the teachers gone home to see their families. I'm not sure if after this week it is back to classes or what, and am still not sure how I took a break when nobody else did(although they were supposed to... maybe) but am honestly happy to be here for the break, and to have had my break, so will not ask too many questions.

This past week I even helped on the farm a little bit. There are never enough tools, so the children take it in shifts, which keeps anyone from getting too tired so is a good plan anyways. They use jembes to break the ground, tools rather like a short handled hoe although the head is bigger. I tried to describe a pitchfork and they found that amusing, as they did my attempts at using the jembe. They told me I did a good job though, and I told them I was a farmer in America, which while a true fact, I am not sure they believed... They are convinced all farms in America are completely run by machines...

The other top activity of this past week was mancala. The children here go through game fashions. The first month I was here it was a stone game that I have not seen since, but all the little girls played it everyday. Then over December it was a dodging game played with a sock ball and then for a week the games all had to do with rolling four old tires. In the beginning of march they created a village out of building stones left over from the school, and now it is mancala on the sewer grates by the kitchen. They use the grates because in mancala, a game I think that comes from Africa but I play with my sisters, you have two rows of pockets(in our case four pockets for each player) and two banks for each persons stones. Then you move the stones in each pocket around, and if you land where there are already rocks, you pick up that pile and keep moving, depositing in your bank as you circle the board. Whoever has the most rocks in their bank at the end when all the rocks are taken wins. It is a simple game, but very fun and easy to join. I have had to explain it to some of the workers though and to two of the secondary teachers who always seem a little amused that the white women(myself and the young woman from England) are happy to play for ages on the grates with the little children... The children meanwhile were amused to hear I play the same game in America...

Meanwhile, the big event recently was this past Saturday's celebration for our Pastor's graduation. He graduated a few weeks ago from his seminary school(after finishing classes and being here since November) but this was the family celebration. It was lovely. He was Madam's first child, and has grown up in this ministry, achieved his dreams, and now returned, so all the children can look to him as a sign of the possibility for their own futures. We had a nice commisioning service with my MCC reps as special guests, and then a feast of chicken, bananas, rice and beans, maandazi buns... Apparently the boys had started cooking at 4am to finish all the food in time.

 So all in all, life continues on in its fullness and challenges. It all feels a little unreal sometimes, but at others I realize this is also as real as it gets. Still, as I read headlines from around the world of chaos and absurdity and how the US government almost shut down over the budget, the fact that my life is a smattering of playing with rocks on grates and holding little babies(who now smile and laugh) and doing my best to live my days here on purpose and for the children, it can all feel a little unreal... My country reps asked if I had a countdown yet, and I confess I do, but it is more to make the most of each day than because I am homesick. What if we lived like each day really mattered? What if we lived on purpose? What if we lived without taking the people around us for granted? Those are the reasons I have a countdown, so I remember how precious each day is and that even when a day is hard, life is beautiful and I will not be here forever and to get up, go out, and live!

The rains are incredible... I never appreciated them when I arrived back in September, but after several dry and dusty months, I see that they are glorious. With each rain, one can see the world turning green again, the shamba growing... One knows that soon there will be cabbage and kale with the beans and maize, that the cows will have enough to eat, and everything will be grow as it should...

I have also changed since the rains were a common day experience. As I stood on my balcony overlooking the rains yesterday, waiting for them to let up a little so I could walk to the nursery, I realized that I had learned to wait... to be... things I struggled with a lot when I arrived. I could just wait, enjoying the beauty of the rain, the smell of rain that always reminds me a little of home(although yesterday it was mixed with the smell of cow...). I have grown into the rhythm of life here, the waiting and the living...

Speaking of cows, a highlight of this past week was learning how to milk a cow. We have quite a herd, and two cows that currently are milking(the smallest baby cow truly reminds me of a puppy in how playful it is...) So one morning before class I got a lesson in milking from one of the men who keeps the animals. He is a newer worker and truly one of the nicest people... with kids of his own back home, so having a fatherly air about him with the children. Milking a cow was both easier and harder than I thought... I could get the milk to flow, but nowhere near quickly or as efficiently as my teacher...

In other news, we had our end term exams this week, and for the most part my children performed very well. My standard sevens, however, truly struggled, but according to the other teachers, the exams become much harder when they enter grade seven, and so if we all work hard, they should be passing by the end of next term. Apparently, I leave right before exams for term two which is unfortunate. While waiting two hours for exams to start on Thursday(we were waiting for them to be picked up from the district) I had a very nice time just hanging out in the staff office with the teachers, chatting for part, and when they switched to Kiswahili, following as best I could but feeling welcome to wait with them...

Now it is the weekend which is always lovely. Yesterday was Saturday and after the children cleaned their clothes and dorms they just lounged on the grass and played until lunch. Then after lunch we had a hilarious time of games. Here in addition to the teachers, nannies and workers there are three boys who returned to work after finishing secondary this past November, and they are my favorites because they are hilarious... They are a big help around the place, but also big personalities in the adolescent way... One is really into dancing and sometimes on a weekend afternoon will have all the children dancing to music in the dining hall... and even the babies know how to dance here... another is teaching primary(and always has his own personal soundtrack coming from his phone and is always on facebook on his cellphone which I find amusing)... and the third is mostly in the kitchen, but likes to walk around and show of his authority always a little louder than he needs be, but he is awfully nice. Anyways, yesterday they had all the primary come play and it was a lot of fun and a good laugh in the way big brothers are... I even played football with them until we all had to run and bring our laundry in when the rains came...

I have high hopes for a pleasant Sunday, as life continues on...

p.s. I still really love emails... so if you feel inspired...

Uganda concluded and the journey back to home...

I promised to write more about my time in Uganda, having ended my last post upon reaching Kampala. I arrived at Kampala during a slightly rainy midday that Saturday without really a plan or even a place to stay. Naturally, I did the most sensible thing upon arriving, which was to find a place to eat lunch, find my bearings, and flip through my guidebook to find somewhere to stay. The cheapest option was a tourist backpacking hostel, so I decided to opt for that and anonymity for the day. After all, if you want to be anonymous, go where all the other young, slightly dirty mzungus will be, and you can be pretty sure that you can relax, read your book and be left alone... even by the other dirty mzungus.

Then, I decided to go and get a good lesson in Ugandan history, visiting the Kasubi Tombs of the last four Buganda kings, or kabakas as they are called. The Buganda kingdom is the oldest in Uganda, dating back to the thirteenth century, and to this day they have a king, but his role is more ceremonial than political. The first president of Uganda was also a Buganda king, and apparently that was not a great combination.

These four kings, however, dated back to the beginning of colonial contact with Europe, and I could see in the summaries of their lives that my guide gave me, the struggles that that contact posed. The first kabaka invited European missionaries, but under the mistaken assumption that they would come and teach the Buganda how to make guns. Of course, even if they may have agreed to such a thing, the Europeans were not in the habit of giving out guns... They did give one ceremonial cannon, and in the drum house there was a wood cannon... Apparently, the kabaka would shoot off the little one, and then tell his guests that he would not shoot this other one because it was too terrifying. A clever strategy.

Anyway, after this first kabaka's experience, his son was not so willing to embrace the westerners, and even massacred some missionaries outside of town. It really is unfortunate that Christianity had to come to Africa so closely bound to colonialism... in many ways you see the church here still trying to work out that relationship, not that the church in the West doesn't have its own copious amounts of baggage to work out. Because of his antagonism though, this king was exiled to the Seychille islands(I remember when I was in Ghana learning about how the British exiled the Ashante and Fante royalty as well... anyone who sought to oppose, so also rebel leaders here in Kenya...), and his infant son suceeded him, somebody who could be handled more closely by the colonialists.

This third king then had quite a different experience than his father, having a more western education, serving for the British in the First World War, and becoming a Christian, having only one wife while his father or grandfather had had, if I recall correctly, somewhere like 800...

His son also was much more westernized, serving for the British during the Second World War, and then going on to lead Uganda to independence and become the first president. This experience of independence leaders  and movements in Africa was not uncommon. During the World Wars, the colonial powers would have their colonial subjects come fight on foreign fronts, often for such notions as freedom, but this freedom was never meant to extend to them... Thus, the soldiers would come home, horrified by the slaughter they had seen, disillusioned yet also empowered. In the 1950s and 60s, the world and Africa were ripe for independence.

I did not really have any knowledge of Uganda's history, so found my lesson quite interesting. These Kabaka's had ruled out of Kampala, and even around the compound of the tombs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, descendents of the Kabaka's wives still live. Unfortunately, I could not see the tombs themselves as they had been burned down by an arsonist a year ago... They are in the proccess of rebuilding the traditional house to enclose the tombs. Thankfully, the kabakas were buried far enough down that during the fire, they were undamaged.

Kampala is a beautiful city. Originally it was built centered around seven hilltops(the kabakas would build their palaces on the hills for securities sake) and while it has grown from that original number, it is still very much a city of many hills, which also means a city of spectacular views. It is smaller than Nairobi, the city center has less modern skyscrapers and while a thriving business district, not quite the level one finds in Nairobi. However, as one of the primary modes of transportation is motorcycles instead of only mtatus, the traffic seemed better than Nairobi, if terrifying with all the motorbikes darting in and out around the cars. I thoroughly enjoyed my time though, and once I had my bearings(easy enough to get with all the hills and landmark buildings on them) I enjoyed walking all over.

Sunday I went to church at the Narimembe Cathedral, a big Anglican church on top of one of the major hills(incredible view!). It was nice, and one can always count on the Anglicans and Catholics to only last an hour in service... then from there I went to the Uganda Museum which I had been warned was rather underwhelming. It really was although it had some nice display cases with musical instruments... It had ethnographic exhibits about how the different tribes used to live, hunt, farm, play, etc, with a brief mention of the British and Germans striking a deal after the Berlin Conference allowing the British to take Uganda(they wanted Uganda because the Nile river runs through it and Egypt was at the time a strategic interest of the British). From the museum though you would not barely know Uganda was colonized, or how colonialism was in Uganda, or about the independence movement or subsequent almost fifty years of independence with its share of coups, awful leaders(think Idi Amin...) and current political strongman who just won another term last month...

That afternoon I just walked around downtown, making my route by the Parliament building, past the high end hotels and then back down into the CBD. Monday morning I headed my journey homewards to Kenya, catching a taxi mini-bus to the border.

Taxis as they are called in Uganda or mtatus as we call them here in Kenya are an experience in themselves, as are taxi yards. Nairobi has stages that are less congested, and so not the full taxi yard experience. Being in Kampala reminded me of my time in Ghana though. In Kampala, the city on hills, the taxi parks are down, and as you descend into them you feel like you will drown in the crowd of people. They are really just a big yard with hundreds of minibuses, and you have to find the sign with your destination, or ask directions and be pointed in the very rough right direction... as it had been raining, in Kampala they were very muddy, and as a quite muddy mzungu I raised a few eyebrows. I caught a few people quite openly laughing at the amount of mud I had collected around my sandals. Then truly, you find one, and before you know it there are twenty people on this little bus... you think small thoughts... as you wait for the taxi to fill, vendors ply you with an array of wares, mostly water, soda and biscuits, but sometimes and odd assortment of junk(plastic cars? sunglasses? calenders...)... then when it fills, the taxi somehow manages to get out of the park despite the fact that there seems to be no proper roads and the minibuses seem pressed bumper to bumper even parked... still, you think small thoughts and settle back to enjoy the ride...

I do enjoy the rides as it is a great way to see the countryside, the beautiful hills of Uganda, the sugar cane fields, and then crossing the border on foot(this time at the Busia crossing) fitting twenty more into a mtatu now, and then the beautiful hills of Western Kenya coming down into Kisumu and Lake Victoria. I had wanted to see more of Kisumu and even had an acquaintance from the states who was studying there, so Monday night I met up with her, and then Tuesday I walked around town and down to the lake, which looked like a field. Lake Victoria is the biggest lake in Africa and divided between Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, although Kenya, with only 6%, probably has the smallest part. Currently, all the lake weed has blown into shore though and it really looked like you were looking out over a great, green field, with a passing fishing boat where a canal had opened up reminding you it was in fact the lake. I really liked Kisumu, but by Tuesday afternoon, was ready to head back to Nairobi.

This time, I took a direct shuttle, which means I even had a seat to myself, and got to see more stunning crountyside; the tea fields of Kericho, the sloping hills with farms that seemed to want to roll off, the Rift Valley with its lakes... it was a good six hour drive...

Then a few days in Nairobi, my MCC team meeting which is always lovely to see the other MCC'ers, and Saturday back to Hope.

It was a lovely break, I had some good adventures, got to see a lot of friends, but now I am so glad to be back here. I missed the children, teaching, the crazy life that I live here... I'm not convinced the school did break while I was away, but apparently they had some American visitors for a week, and I am quite happy to have been away because groups make me feel awkward in my own home(and the child who told me about them seemed underwhelmed himself)... Now we are preparing for exams which start Thursday, and with the rains came the common cold(the poor children are so miserably sick!) so I am hoping they are feeling a little better before the exams. In other news, we got three more little infants last Friday, so the family keeps on growing...

Greetings from Uganda!

Greetings from Uganda! My school is on break, and all the teachers were told to leave, so I decided I would leave to visit my neighbor country of Uganda. And yes, I still don't understand how we break these two weeks while the rest of Kenya breaks in April... And yes, I am still apprehensive that the students have to take exams the moment we resume on the 28th... And yes, despite my concerns, real or imagined, I was thankfully able to leave those behind when the time came to go... And yes, I thought I was leaving on Sunday but then my ride to Nairobi switched to Saturday so I packed and left without saying goodbye which is never a good feeling... surely they know I am coming back because they ask at least once a week when I am leaving(not because they are trying to get rid of me, just because they know that everyone is always leaving...)

Meanwhile, while missing my children, I am having an amazing time. I was able to get a ride into Nairobi Saturday, stayed that night with my MCC country reps who just happened to be having a potluck that evening so I was able to catch up with some other MCC friends as well. Then I went to church Sunday with two of the MCC service workers, and joined them and some retired MCC people(legends was how they were described to me) for lunch after. We had the most amazing Indian food! Meanwhile, the conversation was an amazing combination of history and Kenya and peace... and I mostly just listened because the MCC legends are legendary for a reason. They have lived in Kenya or East Africa since the seventies(and she grew up in Tanzania even before then) and are very wise.

Then Sunday evening I got the night bus to Kampala, befriending most of the other bus riders as my means of security... or Ugandans are more open than Kenyans... or something. Anyways, I was glad to have chatted with some of them when we hit the border at five in the morning, still dark, and had to walk through this wide expanse of no mans land between the Kenyan and Ugandan immigration offices.

I arrived in Kampala around ten, met up with my friend Amanda who is doing SALT in Uganda, and we got lunch. I had an amazing calzone! Monday Kampala was electing a mayor, so we opted to lay low that day because elections can often mean conflict. There was no conflict on Monday, but I think the police did fire tear gas on people celebrating their candidates victory a day or two later... It was great to catch up with Amanda though and to hear how her SALT experience compared to mine.

Then, Tuesday I followed her back to Kamuli where she is living and working and got to see first hand how her SALT year was going which was lovely. I got to meet and stay with her host family who were incredible: while my position has me with the biggest host family ever, who I love, sometimes I wish I had a more traditional host family. I enjoyed borrowing hers for a few days. Then I got to see her work, where she works split between some teaching and some social work.

I really enjoyed visiting the schools and seeing how they compared to my experience. My school is not typical. Our class sizes are a dream, and education is such a priority that I don't have to worry about convincing my kids to study. Not so at the primary where Amanda teaches. Class sizes averaged around 100, and with so many children, the teachers had a daunting task. The teachers were very welcoming of me as their visitor, and I had a good conversation with one of them when Amanda was off doing some home visits. He says education is a real struggle in Uganda because people have so many children and there is free primary education(which is good) but with so many children that can make 100 children in a class. It does seem here like there is an abundance of primary schools, probably in Kenya too. I got to help with one of his classes, reviewing a social studies exam with p. 7, and then the next day another school had asked Amanda if I could visit so I taught their P. 7's English. The second school was much smaller, not in a permanent building but a subdivided hall, but the class sizes were much more reasonable. It was great to have an insight into education in Uganda.

As I showed up midweek I really just tagged along for daily life, but another fun experience was getting to sit in on Amanda's churches school outreach practices. The church youth had a trip planned for this weekend where they would go and visit secondary schools doing outreach and encouraging youth to be smart about AIDS. They had songs, dances, skits and plays that they were practicing, and it was fun to meet them and also to watch them practice. At a certain point, their leader had to confiscate all their cellphones because they kept talking during practice... some things are the same the world over... cellphones are taking over the world.

Truly, it was a rich couple of days, and then Friday morning I headed out for some solo traveling adventures, starting in Jinja a few hours away from Kamuli. Jinja is famous as the source of the Nile, and I went to the site where Lake Victoria becomes the Nile river. It was a beautiful sunny day(despite the rains starting this week, which while a blessing has left me often enough quite damp) and I rented a boat to take me out to see the source better and then to go out onto Lake Victoria. I had a great and knowledgeable guide, and while I feel I might have paid more than I should(I am a poor bargainer) it was well worth the $10 I paid... I takes a drop of water 3 months to make it from the source of the Nile to the Mediterranean. There were many beautiful birds along the source, and I even saw a monitor lizard. Then, after my tour, I had fried Tillapia and chips.

That afternoon I just walked around Jinja as I had decided to stay the night before heading onto Kampala. It is a medium sized town, but as it was also the first port in Uganda along Lake Victoria and connecting as a trade route to Tanzania and Kenya,  it has some beautiful colonial architecture and just a friendly feel. I like walking, finding it the best way to get a sense of a place. I also had a cup of really good coffee.

Then, this morning I headed upriver to look at the Bujangali Falls, falls made famous mostly by the rafting industry which runs the Nile. I decided to save my money, remembering how scared I was rafting the Spokane river one summer in college with its non-existant rapids. Still, it was a beautiful falls to look at. I have a deep love of waterfalls, probably stemming from my time in Ghana where we would go chasing waterfalls for weekend adventures. They also are very majestic, but this waterfall will soon disappear as a dam is going in nearby. It will be good for the electricity it will provide, but I also can't help feel a little sad for the waterfall. When I left Jinja, it was starting to rain, and by the time I reached the Bujangali falls it was raining quite properly. I think I amused the people working there, having trekked through the rain to just look at the falls...

Then I headed to Kampala, but will leave my time here(still ongoing) for another post. Random Uganda observations... people here are very welcoming(a stereotype my Kenyan friends had told me about Ugandans, but it is true)... a primary means of transportation is riding boda-bodas, motorcycle taxis, and in rural communities the proper way to ride for women in skirts is sideways which was a slightly terrifying, if completely safe on rural backroads, experience... also on transportation I was in a 14 person minibus taxi yesterday that easily was holding twenty people(as I ride more popular routes in Kenya... i.e. police checks... this was a new experience)...

Anyways, that is all for now... I will blog again about my adventures in Kampala and beyond. We have MCC team meeting Friday and then I head back to Hope next Saturday. It feels strange to be away for so long, and I hope things are going well on this break that I never felt anybody knew anything about...

More on school

Greetings friends,

Another week... they seem to be racing by these days! How is it already March?

Last weekend was a lovely break, and allowed me to plunge fully into this past week, and the week was full and good. This term really keeps on getting better and better as I feel more fully integrated into the school and more accepted as part of ordinary life here and less and less as some distinguished visitor(although I do still here myself often referred to as mzungu, which is a little frustrating as people are quick to tell you if asked, that this in fact is not a respectful reference... I told my PE class to at least call me mwalimu mzungu, meaning teacher white person...)

What does a regular school day look like here? Well, for the children it means getting up at the crack of dawn or before to clean their dorms before the 6:30 devotion bell(for me it means getting out of bed hopefully a few minutes before the bell so I can be ready and not late). After devotions, around seven, we take our uji(hot maize porridge). As it is bitingly cold that early in the morning, steam rises from our cups and warms us up. Honestly, it is quite good.

Then, after breakfast, the children go to their classrooms to wait for parade at 8 where the teachers instruct them in discipline and encourage them in their studies. At 8:20, classes begin. Periods last 35 minutes(there are nine in a day... I normally teach between five and six between English and PE), and there is a twenty minute break at 9:30 and a half hour break at 11. At 12:40, we break for devotions and lunch(beans and maize, truly quite delicious) with classes resuming from 2-3:45. At 3:45 the students have parade again and are either sent for chores or games. Games are a lot of fun, especially lately as the teachers are really into it, and breaking into girls and boys, they play volleyball or football with much laughter. Then at 6 the bell summons us for devotions and dinner, with the younger children being sent to bed after dinner(and me going to my room) while the older primary and secondary stay and study until 9.These children are committed to their studies, but as the primary means of learning is memorization, they probably need all that time... It was the same when I was in University in Ghana... to perform well we needed to memorize(at times verbatim) what we had been taught; at least in Ghana, critical thinking was not taught or encouraged, and thankfully it was pass/fail for me, because I did not get good marks...

Classes are 35 minutes. For English, this means going over our material and hopefully having time for the students to complete an in class exercise. If they do not finish, the exercise becomes homework, and if they do finish, I try to assign some review material as homework because they like homework... crazy children, but these children are pretty serious about their educations and have dreams of university and careers even in the lower grades. I was asked recently what my career was, and had to confess I wasn't sure. Different cultural expectations between here and home, where my generation seems to be moving away from the idea of careers in the pursuit of happiness, meaning, or some other vague ideal... For many of the children, they dream of becoming lawyers, doctors, and pilots, although one of my grade fours wants to be a baker so he can make cakes and chapatis(he told me this with the biggest smile, clearly he intends to eat a good amount of his wares!)

Thinking over why this term is so good, it is teaching properly in the school and being in the timetable as a real teacher. Also, it is the level of acceptance the other teachers have granted me, both primary and even secondary. While before I felt there was a level of wariness, this past week I have had good conversations with many of the teachers, and I think they are seeing I am not such a distinguished visitor anymore but perhaps a slightly eccentric peer. They can see I am trying, and I feel very blessed to get to work alongside such committed men and women(well, to be honest, there is only one other woman teacher, but she is incredible!) 

Another reason perhaps why this term is so good, is that I understand how things work here so much better. Last term I was perpetually confused and afraid I was doing something wrong, and now while I may never know what is going on, I realize that that is alright and as long as I do my part well, I am okay. 

As for my language ability, I now understand what people are saying most of the time, but haven't practiced speaking enough to be able to participate. This leaves me a little silent often, but entertained by the conversations around me.

Overall, things are good, and I have hopes that things will just continue to get better and better. This is why I wanted to come for a year, because relationships take time, and integrating cross-culturally takes time... To come for less time would have left me leaving before I had begun to belong... Coming for a year will make leaving quite hard, as already this feels like one home of many, and while I will also be so happy to see family and friends in America, I will be leaving so many friends and this family behind... That is life though, and life is real. Praise God!

Life continues on...

I feel like these updates are getting much more irregular. I remember in the first few months I was a very regularly weekly blogger, and now I make by and give excuses. My latest excuse is that there was a power outage this past week in the line which my room in the visitor wing of the boys dorm is on, so from Tuesday to Friday I not only had no internet, but no power or water as well. The line to the dining hall was irregular, but thankfully had power each evening so the children could study for their exams, and the girls dorm was out Tuesday until Thursday. Honestly, the boys dorm might still be out, but I have run away to Nairobi for the weekend. I needed to pick up my mail, and if I have to pay as much as I do... I might as well make it worthwhile.

Life at Hope continues on... We had midterms this week and most of my students performed nicely although there are a few who really struggle with school generally which is hard to see. I am sure they have learning disabilities, but we don't really have the capacity to meet those, or probably a proper awareness. Still, even when a student performs poorly, the teachers are often quite encouraging. The week before midterms we had practice exams and they were harder than our midterms(my students did not perform so well) and the teachers encouraged the students and even me:)

One low point of the week was catching one of my students, a girl who is one of my better friends, cheating on her science exam. While she tried to deny it, she did have the science text book open on the bench beside her. I reported her to her class and subject teacher and then ran away. Otherwise, I think my students were good and didn't 'steal' as they call cheating here.

I am still enjoying teaching, feeling more competent as time goes by. On the thought of school, the new secondary building is almost finished. The roof has been going on before our eyes this week despite the horrendous winds that we have been having. I can't imagine putting the sheet roofing on in those fierce gales. Still, it should be finished in March for sure which will be incredible. It is big enough I think some of the primary classes will be moved in there as well.

Also thinking of school, we have a school break for two weeks come March 14, which is a little puzzling. All of Kenya has school holidays over April, so why are we breaking in March? Everyone needs a break on the staff end, and probably the kids too, but I hope none of the teachers have children away at boarding schools or they won't even see them... Still, whatever the Madam says is law, so we are breaking in March. Personally, I haven't a clue what I will do on my break, but I have two weeks to think of something.

Meanwhile, I have run away to Nairobi, coming in yesterday to get my mail from MCC and then deciding to make a weekend of it. I needed the break. Today I have just been walking around downtown for hours because I can. Everyone asks if I have plans, and I am like no... I don't want plans, I want to wander... be anonymous... Life confined to a 13 acre compound for several weeks at a go has its challenges, so I am walking for all the days I can't go anywhere.

I am staying at my country reps house although they are out of town, so last night and this morning I just enjoyed reading outside because it was actually warm enough to be outside, and eating food like cheese and tomato sandwiches and mangoes... Then this morning I came downtown, caught up on my email in the cyber cafe, walked around, found the Railway Museum and visited there, wandered longer, had fries and a milkshake for lunch(I always eat junk food when I come in... because I can...) walked through the parks and around some more and then decided to hide from the heat and update my blog... Altogether a lovely relaxing day.

The Railway Museum was a fun place to go although I was the only one there. The man at the desk said the museum is quite popular with school groups, but being a Saturday, it was quite empty. Empty but interesting, and I learned some parts of Kenyan history I did not know. For example, in Kenya you find a lot of Indian people, and these families mostly came here to build the railways at the turn of the last century. The British colonists first tried to get the Africans to work, but they were quite hostile to the idea of a railroad through their land, so instead the British transported workers from India, India already having built a railway so these included people with some expertise.  Then, after the railway was finished, the Indians stayed, being quite succesful in business. For example, they owned most of the supermarkets and continue to own several of the major ones.

The railway project in itself was highly ambitious and very expensive. The British parliament dubbed it the 'lunatic line' because of how much it ended up costing, and in addition to monetary cost, it was quite dangerous, claiming nearly 2500 lives of the people building it. Also, there was one part, where there was quite a bit of trouble to do with man eating lions...

The museum inside had all these old old photographs, of the railways but also of places like Nairobi and Mombassa. These cities have grown ALOT in the last 100 years. Then outside were a lot of old train cars that you could climb in. I was sorry to have not brought my camera, and was very glad I decided to go.

Meanwhile, wandering Nairobi has been lovely. This was the first place I was in Kenya, spending my first two weeks here, and it is where I always come for a break, so walking the now familiar streets gave good opportunity to reflect on the past six months. It is also great for people watching as most of the people out on a Saturday afternoon are out for leisure, and look quite smart, smart being the word people in Kenya use for when you look good.

I will head back to Hope tomorrow afternoon, so have some time left to wander and relax and, always important, stock up on books from the Mennonite Guest House library.

Meanwhile, the rains have not returned, and talk of drought continues even in the highlands while Northern Kenya and regions of Ethiopia and Somalia are facing very dire conditions and starvation. Pray for that region. Pray for rain. Even in the highlands I think people are feeling it if they do not have generous financial backing as we do... The shamba does not grow, and the grass is much too dry for the cattle to be satisfied. They say the rains should come in March or April, so hopefully soon...

In other news, I received an email with my return ticket this week. I leave Kenya on July 19, have reentry retreat in PA, and then fly home to Seattle on my birthday, July 26. Seeing my family will be a pretty lovely birthday, but it feels weird to have a document saying I am leaving, even if I still have five months time... When asked recently how it was going, the best answer I can give is life here is good and hard, but I am glad I am here...

Finally, I still love getting emails...

Life has been busy...

At one point I was going to be good and blog every week, regardless of whether anybody actually wanted weekly updates of my life here in Kenya... Needless to say, since the holidays, that has not happened. However, life has been busy, so before it gets overwhelmingly much, an update is due...

I think I mentioned our newborns. Two weeks ago we got four new babies, and I even got to play nanny for the weekend until the nursery was ready. They are doing very well. There is a picture on facebook but uploading to here is painfully slow on my connection, so I have given up trying. I think all the nannies have rather fallen in love with them.

Meanwhile, teaching continues to be a full-time job. I am in the system, and finally, through some trial and error, have learned more of what that means. It means in part that if my students don't perform well, I answer to the board... yikes! I have faith in my students though. Also, it meant I got included in the teacher meeting yesterday with the Madam. She called them all, and me, for tea. It was pretty funny. Everyone is pretty shy, especially around the Madam, and I don't think the primary and secondary teachers know each other at all(I really don't besides one or two secondary) so the bulk of the meeting was going around the circle saying names and then going over a few issues. It was really nice to be included.

Other highlights include my skipping school and going to look at animals. Two weeks ago our two Canadian visitors invited me to go to Lake Naivasha with them, expense covered. While Naivasha is our biggest nearby town and my general transit point when going to Nairobi, I had not been to the lake. It is the second largest in Kenya, has a very large bird and hippopotamus population, and in the middle is an island/peninsula that we took a boat to to see giraffes, zebras, wildabeasts and other 'prey' animals. There are no real predators there, so they have a pretty good deal and it was incredibly beautiful. We saw two baby giraffes less than a month old which were very cute. Then, as is one of the woman's custom, on her way back she picked up icecream for all the children. It is a great treat, and they were thrilled.

The other woman, who was here for the first time, meanwhile wanted to go on a full safari and Madam worked her charm and got really good rates, and somehow I got thrown into the deal. She has been great working with the babies and teaching everyone, myself and the nannies, how to take care of newborns... None of us are mothers, so we really don't know, but she has grown children and knew the ropes... Anyways, this past week she and I went on safari to Masai Mara, the big game park here in Kenya.

Masai Mara was incredible. We left here Monday morning early, and the drive to Narok and the game park took some five hours but was stunningly beautiful as it took us through the Great Rift Valley. Even as you drive, you pass a stray zebra, giraffe or ostrich along the way. It is very dry, and would be very hard to farm, which is probably why the Masai who live in that part of Kenya are traditionally herders, with their special humped cows who need less water.

We arrived at our rather nice tented camp(everything around the park is overpriced and luxury...) in time for lunch, and then once the afternoon started to cool, our driver took us to the park. Shout out to Kenya. Because I am here for a year and have my residence card, I can pay resident rates to get into parks and museums, so instead of paying $120 as a foreigner, I paid 2000ksh, or the equivalent of $25. Not only is this nice for me, it makes most of the parks and museums accessible not only to wealthy foreign tourists but to locals as well. Our driver was saying even the accomodations have resident rates, but we already had a really good deal.

Safari vans are cool. It is a pretty good industry here. They look like white minibuses used for mtatus, but have a really big gas tank so you don't run out of fuel in the parks, and once you get to the parks, the drivers can raise the roof, so you can stand and look out over the top of the bus but still have the shade from the raised roof. You bounce along these dirt roads, and are so close to the animals! It was like being in a National Geographic video, and we saw practically everything.

Our first afternoon we and around 10-20 other vans were circling a pride of sleeping lions, and at the very end as the evening began, they began to wake up. It was incredible to be so close to such an incredible animal. We took a lot of pictures... okay, I didn't as my cameras zoom is not ideal for animals, but my friend did and I stole all her pictures once we got back and they are incredible! Again, I can't put any here because I am not patient enough... We took some funny pictures of the other tourists too...

The next morning we were blessed by lions again, finding some finishing off their breakfast of bufallo near a tree where a whole bunch of babies were lounging. Baby lions really are just big kittens. It was incredible.

While the lions were probably my highlight, we also saw and chased a rather shy leopard, saw several lazy cheetahs, saw ostriches in their element(which was a nice contrast to the ostrich farms I stayed on in South Africa... they are such an old bird), saw hippos and crocodiles lounging in their muddy river, all sorts of gazelles and zebras and wildabeasts and water bufalloes grazing peacefully, as well as giraffes, elephants and an assortment of rather remarkable birds whose names I don't remember. It was very much like being in  a National Geographic video...

Unfortunately, my stomach was on the rocks for part of my time, but even with that, it was an incredible experience and totally worth going. The teachers did a great job of covering my classes and were really sweet about it. I wished I could have taken all the children with me. On top of their resident rates, the parks also have student rates, but we don't have a school van yet so school trips are hard. One day...

I had the thought though, once back here and watching my students play football for PE... the lions were incredible, but this, right now, is the real deal! I'm not sure how I will be able to say goodbye to these children come July...

So life continues in its fullness here, always rich, at times hard, and I am excited to see what the next five months have in store. At the same time, I miss friends and family back home, and seek to live in a tension of place and time. As my mother said the other day, rather summing up my emotions and some of my struggles here... 'life is real. Praise God!'

A long time coming...

So first let me apologize and make excuses for my blog delay... my internet went down again, so it truly is not my fault... This doesn't change the fact that it has been weeks and so writing a blog to cover all that has happened since cabbages remains a daunting task. I will do my best...

One definite highlight was the children coming home from their holidays... for many, they had been away for four months, and while we had had a lovely time here without them, we definitely missed them.

 Here is an excerpt from my journal on January 9, the day after they came home...

' Homecomings were beautiful yesterday and we still have some to go. The day was full of an air of eager expectation and each time a child came in the gate it was like something missing was being returned. The day was full of the sweetness of smiles as dear friends reunited and the glorious spontaneous play as if all the days apart must be made up for in that one moment.

Devotions and dinner the hall felt alive again with a festive air of reunion, and I know we are all eager to see our last dear ones returned.

Even the babies shared the joy. I was there in the morning and when two of the girls came in, the two babies they are close to streaked towards them with the biggest smiles'.

It really was so good to see everyone, and I think after being away, everybody appreciates each other more.

The children returned and then school began... and they were ready. As for me, I was ready too, and was happy to see my position as a teacher more fully integrated into the school. This term I am teaching grade 4, 5, 6 and 7 English as well as assorted PE, and instead of taking part of the class like last term, I am teaching the whole grade(each between 14-20 students) in their normal classrooms of tin. I keep my books in the staff office, and can enter and exit without feeling like I need to explain my presence. Even sometimes I do my marking in their although if the weather is nice, I try and mark outside. I feel like I am making progress with the teachers too as they more fully accept my presence. It has been really good, and over the last two weeks I have developed some good strategies and I like to think my students like me, if at times are amused by my antics... I will dedicate another blog entry more fully to school soon...

Another event of the past few weeks was going to Nairobi to see my fellow mzungu off to the airport as after eight months she is returned to Canada. She is missed by the children and myself, and I was glad to be able to go and see her off. I was supposed to have found my own lodging, but last minute realized I didn't have any viable options, and begged my way along anyways. Friday night, after good-byes at the airport, I slept on the Madam's sisters coach, and spent most of the next morning following her sister around to the bank and phone store as she sorted out matters as her phone had been stolen the day before. Her sister lives in one of the suburbs and it was fun to just be in the part of town that people live in and to people watch. Then that afternoon we met up with the Madam, ran some errands with her, were supposed to return to Hope that evening, but because the driver wasn't feeling well ended up staying another night, this time in a guest house near the Madam's house. Life is always an adventure, and the weekend had its share of absurd moments, but it is good to have those to look back and laugh on when things are business as usual here...

Other funny occasions include the next weekend getting locked in the Madam's sitting room for several hours when she forgot that myself and two of the girls were organizing the storage when she left to Naivasha to pick up some chickens... and locked her gate... it was really quite funny and they found a way to lift our lunch onto the balcony so we did not go hungry. It is good to finally have the chickens too, and to think that in six months eggs can be added again to the children's diet.

In other news, the mzungu quarters didn't stay quiet for long as two women from Canada are currently here. One is the big partner and the other came along with her. They have been doing  a lot to prepare for some more little babies(four is the number I heard) who are coming tomorrow(somehow I find it hard to believe anything until it happens, but they probably will in fact come tomorrow...which is kind of exciting). It is nice having them here, but it is funny too because I can see how everything changes(and probably adjusted when I came too) when visitors come. Nothing major but just little adjustments to make them feel more welcome, and being somewhere in the middle, it can be funny, and a little painful at times, to see. I have crossed the line to familiar, but still am foreign... it is hard to try and explain...

This month has been overall really good though. I feel like my life here is full of potential. With relationships with the children and with teaching, there is a lot of promise. My days are full and busy and I feel part of what is going on around me. With six months in Kenya remaining, I am ready to make the most of each day, and feel so very blessed to have the opportunity to be here, in true SALT fashion, serving and learning...

As always, I love emails, to hear how things are going back home in your lives... assuming anyone actually reads this thing beyond my parents and grandparents:)

New Year Reflections...

Happy New Years from Kenya! Maybe I am a bit on the late end of wishing that as we are already a week into 2011, but the year still feels pretty new to me. Probably because while school was allegedly supposed to start this past week, it got pushed to this coming Monday because of some dorm repairs and the children are not all returned(as the girls do not have their full dorm to sleep in). Currently, the twelve girls who would be sleeping in the dorm are sleeping in the room next to mine, and they honestly make pretty fun neighbors... I will be sorry to see them go, and as the other volunteer leaves on the 14th, things are going to feel pretty quiet in my wing of the dorm. I think we are all very excited for the rest of the children to return tomorrow and Sunday though. It feels much too quiet around here, and I think the students are very much ready to start school again. Me too, although I am hoping somebody tells me what I am teaching before the day of... I might ask, but I figure if they haven't told me, they haven't actually written the timetable yet...

This past Tuesday I hit my four month mark of being here at Hope. Things definitely get easier with time, which is why I wanted to come for a year. Relationships take time... I have even seen that with the children and the two Kenyan teachers who started the same term I did. Seeing their progress with the children parallel to mine has been rather encouraging as it is pretty similar... I think we all are feeling a better sense of belonging these days.

Life has been a pretty lazy routine of break; work, play, watch tv, meals... There are several projects going on around the compound these days. They are trying to finish the boundary wall, putting cement outside the girls dorm, refinishing the bathrooms in the girls dorm, and then always, looming but rather untouched, the highschool which still is not roofed(I am not sure where exactly the delay lies, but probably finances...) For the students and teachers and myself, that means periodically moving sand or water to mix the cement with, blocks for the wall, or even as the rains really did stop, yesterday we hauled water for the shamba(farm). Play is pretty mellow feeling with so many of the children gone, but a favorite game of this past week has been racing three car tires that showed up from somewhere. It is pretty fun to watch although not a game I feel like actively participating in. Watching TV is probably the children's favorite pastime, and while we watch a lot, they won't once school starts again and their world can be pretty small here. We watch a lot of kung fu bootleg movies which is pretty funny as that is another favorite item of play, kung fu fighting... Meals and mealtime devotions meanwhile take up a good chunk of time too, and put it altogether and it makes a typical day during school break.

Monday I even had the opportunity to go out and see part of the Madam's ministry to IDPs. IDP stands for Internally Displaced Peoples, and here in Kenya even now, three years after the 2007-2008 election violence, a lot of IDPs have yet to be resettled. The work Madam does is community development type and she has a similar vision for microenterprise to what she is doing in Uganda. For Monday, myself and some of the secondary students came along to take part in a brief worship service and then food and blanket distribution to the families. It was pretty interesting although as it was local, the whole thing was in the local language of Kikuyu which I only understand a handful of words in. Still, it is always pretty amazing to see the vision in action.

For me though, probably the best part of the outing was the cabbages...

We took two cars to Kjabini where the IDP work is; Madam going in one with some friends who came for the day, and the students and myself going in the other. On the way there we had passed mounds of cabbages piled along the road, harvests ready for pickup. Our cabbages had a sickness awhile back so for a week all we had eaten was cabbage, but it has been scarce in the diet of late. So on our return, the Madam's car stopped abruptly before us along one such pile and cabbage field where a man was working, and after a minutes negotiation Madam's car left while everyone piled out of the van to help carry cabbages as the farmer, machete in hand, began to harvest afresh for us. Deftly he would cut the heads and then toss them to the waiting hands as they were carried, two by two, nearly a hundred in all, the the back of our van.

I probably wasn't expected to help or even supposed to, but as the nanny, teacher and pastor all were working I had not good excuse not to. My whiteness is not a good excuse, but sometimes if my peers of teachers or nannies are waiting in a situation, I will chose to wait with them, because then it is my pretend authority, not skin color, that excuses me. Helping is always fun though if only for the amusement it brings. I am sure my friends and passer-bys alike were amused to see me emerge from the van and carry my share of cabbages two by two.

On the drive back, 20 km or so, the van smelled like cabbages and as we had left Hope just before breakfast was served, they smelled very good. The drive back should have been uneventful, but twice our back door flew open, spilling stray cabbages behind us and people would have to pile out to chase them(as it was never too many cabbages, this time I stayed in the van). The first time it happened we were on a dirt road, but the second was in the rather bustling town of Engineer and we must have looked a site. It always happened right after somebody had entered or exited the van, so I think the driver had simply forgotten to secure the locks.

Kinangop, which I have learned is a district, not a town or village as I first imagined, always amazes me with its beauty and fertility. It seem whatever is planted grows and grows big at that; corn taller than a man waving in the wind, waist high kale, or sukuma wiki as it is called here, or these cabbages bigger than our head.

Anyways, that is the news from here. As always, I love emails and word from home, for while a year is a good length of time to get to know a place, people and community, it is also a long time to be away from home:) Happy New Years!