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...