One week more.

Another week another destiny. This soon ending road in front of me.

One week more.

Bizarre. Emily (my lovely roommate) leaves tomorrow night. I thought two months would be a long time, but I feel like I haven't been here nearly long enough. I haven't really gotten a view of a public school system like I wanted to.

At the same time, though, I'm excited for home. I CANNOT wait for camp, and it'll be a joy to see Jon and Jenny again. It'll be nice to be home, to be with my family, to be back on the North Shore of Boston eventually.

But let's focus on the now.

On Monday I went on a field trip with my class 2 students. We went to Paradise Lost, a camp ground with caves, a waterfall, and a lake. We started the day by loading all 39 students onto 6 rowboats and handing them paddles. We didn't make it very far, but I got some fun pictures! On our boat, Ms. Elizabeth and I rowed, so we actually made it around a bit. One of the boats got stuck and the guide had to go back to shore, grab a canoe, and pull them back in.

Then we went on a hike. Half the time, us teachers were bent in half to avoid the trees that had knotted themselves over the path, but the kids walked upright. We made it to the waterfall, and went behind into stone-age caves. It was rather clay-y, but cool (in both ways). From there, we loaded the kids two by two onto the backs of horses and sent them on trail rides (the ride was really just about 50 feet down a path, then back).

We all loaded back up onto the bus and headed to Rock City Gardens, an amusement park. The kids got to ride on rides, go swimming, and just goof off. The teachers got to sit around, eat lunch, and enjoy each other's company away from the kids (Daisy and I also rode a ride or 2...) We dragged the kids off the rides onto the bus and made it back just in time to catch the school bus home.

Yesterday I was in Class 4 for the first time. This has long been  my "ideal age", so it was nice to sit in with them. They're incredible. I was blessed during snack time when they all pulled out their snacks and I was journaling in the corner. I saw one of the girls going around to all of the students, and then she came over and placed in front of me a tupper-ware lid full of pieces of all of their snacks. There were carrots, oranges, a few peanuts, some cake... They're really great kids. The girls and I all sat in the classroom all lunch time-- they decided to hang out and talk with me rather than go to recess. We had some really good conversations (and they all now know about my entire family and some of my friends. I even showed them pictures of you guys). They were a blessing to be with, and I'll go back with them tomorrow.

Today was staff meeting, and Emily saying goodbye to a lot of people. From there, we went to the police station for Emily to get an abstract of what she had stolen for insurance purposes, and then coffee so I could get internet for a bit.

4 more school days to be spent at Logos. I will spend my last one for sure with my class 2 kids I've spent the most time with.

See you guys soon. xoxo

(Finally) An Update!

So I haven't posted in... 2 weeks now?

My bad. Lemme fill you in real quick. (and I mean real quick. My laptop is about to die and I forgot the charger)

Week 1
I spent week 1 back at Logos, classroom-hopping. Monday I was in my regular Class 2. Tuesday I went to the Montessori kindergarten Logos also runs. Wednesday I was in the other class 2, but the teacher wasn't there. So I became the teacher for the day. Fortunately, a lot  of other teachers came in for subjects like Kiswahili, Music, etc. Thursday and Friday I was in the Special Ed classroom, which was a really interesting experience.

The way Logos does Special Ed is inclusion, so students are in the classroom most of the time. Depending on the severity of the disability, however, they spend a  certain amount of time one-on-one with the special ed teachers. There are 2, so they'll only ever have 2 students in the class at a time.

Week 2
Last week 9 of us from Nairobi Chapel went on a trip to Moyale, the northern-most part of the country. It was a 24hr bus ride each way, and we're not talking Greyhound. We got there, settled in to where we were staying, and then went to Ethiopia. Turns out Ethiopia and Kenya have a completely open border; you can walk across without being asked for a passport. The one catch is you have to be back by 6-- if you try to stay in a hotel or anything, they'll ask for your passport and it has to be stamped.

In Ethiopia we went shopping, I drank the best coffee I've ever had, and I got at least 8 marriage proposals or declarations of love. Yay. We would cross back over at 6 and go to dinner, play cards or pool, or just hang out until bedtime. The group I went with was awesome. Before we went I only really knew Emily and Kate, the 2 girls I live with, but the rest of the group was amazing.

Ok, it's really about to die. But today I went on a field trip with my class 2, so pictures and description coming soon!!

p.s. I'm doing really well and both excited and terribly sad that I'm leaving here in 9 days!

My Health!

Coming to Kenya, one of my greatest concerns was my health. I know some of you have probably been worrying about that as well. It hasn’t been stellar in the past couple of years, and incredible medical attention is not something I could get quickly here if I needed it. If I had an arthritis flare up, if I had a crippling migraine, if something went wrong, I would likely have to tough it out. There are, of course, hospitals here. If it was bad enough, I could see someone.

I could definitely get tested for malaria.

Anyways, my health has been a bit of a miracle. Despite many of the things trigger my arthritis being present (cold weather, rain, walking more than normal, stress, etc.), I haven’t had any problems with it. A couple of mornings I’ve woken up with my fingers a little swollen, but 10 minutes later that was gone. My knees, which gave me trouble even when I was in remission, haven’t hurt in the slightest. The last time I was at my rheumatologist, he suggested I try cutting back on the medicine—take a pill every other day if I could, rather than every day. I tried that while at school, but I pretty quickly had to go back to every day. For the past 3 weeks I have been taking my pills every other day, and it is still gone. I don’t know if the food makes a difference, or what it is, but it doesn’t even feel like it is lurking just under the surface, as I used to feel. I feel good.

Migraines are pretty much the same. I do get the occasional headache, but I attribute that to spending 3 hours a day on a school bus and the rest of it with second graders. I don’t think getting a headache after that is worrisome. I would actually be more concerned if I wasn’t getting headaches sometimes.

I really feel all around good.

There is one thing that I’ve discovered since coming to Kenya, and it’s that milk doesn’t settle very well with my stomach. I don’t have much dairy when at school besides lattes and ice cream, but here tea and coffee are both milk based, and they drink a lot of tea. When my stomach first began acting up, I assumed it was something I had eaten. I let a couple days pass, but it was getting worse. See, when I’m stressed or not feeling well, I tend to drink more tea. The more I drank, the worse I felt. The worse I felt, the more I drank. You see the problem. The day I realized it was the dairy I was both hugely relieved and super upset. Fortunately, now that I know, I can avoid dairy. OOPS, no, no I can’t. See, it’s winter here, and it’s kinda cold, so we drink tea ALL THE TIME. Most days I can get away with only drinking 1 or 2 mugs, which my stomach can usually handle. Some days it’s really hard to say no, but my body doesn’t really like when I drink 4 mugs of milk tea, so I pardon myself and hope I’m not being too rude. I also just really love tea, so having it limited for me makes me really sad. 

The food, other than that, really agrees with me. I enjoy having organic foods and not very much processed. I also have a Cadbury chocolate bar, which I usually enjoy a piece or two of after a day at school.

Really, I am amazed at my health here. God has been gracious to me, and has given me more than I could ask for. It might only last as long as I am here, but that’s ok. He is faithful in my sickness and faithful to give me health. He gives me breath each day, and that’s more than I have any right to ask for.