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!'