Merry Christmas

Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it!

Shout, you lower parts of the earth;

Break forth into singing, you mountains,

O forest, and every tree in it!

For the Lord has redeemed Jacob,

And glorified Himself in Israel

Isaiah 44:23

On their way!

My family is currently on a plane flying to AFRICA!!!

Still can't believe it.

It's here.

It's here. Wednesday. The last day of classes, and the beginning of Christmas vacation. Maybe I just have unreasonable expectations for my feelings, but this is not how I expected to feel on December 19. It's like it hasn't hit me yet. I'm still planning on doing a lot of work over the next two days, so I know that my break doesn't really start right away, but still. I should be at least a little more excited, right?

I am excited about all the things that I'm planning on accomplishing over break. Once I have the freshmen's health test graded and entered, I can focus my energies on making lesson plans, power points, and worksheets for next semesters classes. All this planning is exciting, but it is at least partly responsible for my lack of break inspired enthusiasm.

In addition to feeling like school is continuing on into break, I'm having a really hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that my family will be here in Kenya on FRIDAY! It's crazy! I'm so incredibly beyond excited, but at the same time, not completely believing it. I've been planning and waiting for this weekend for so long, it seems impossible that it's already arrived.

While it seems odd to see the kids all packing up and leaving, I know that it's time for a break. Regardless of what this break does or does not hold in store for me, I'm glad it's here. I'm grateful for the change of pace, and I'm looking forward to being able to fill my days to the brim with family and friends.

Stuck

Stuck, trapped, whatever you want to call it, that's exactly how I've been feeling lately. I think it's the end of the semester that's finally getting to me because recently I've realized just how incredibly confined I am. I don't have my own car here, and while I can walk out to the road and grab a Matatu (public van type transportation), there's only so far I can travel in one of those. Not the mention that I have to find someone to go with me, and with only seven possible candidates, my options are often scarce.

Christmas break is promising to provide just the change of pace I've been craving, and I'm so incredibly excited! While I may be buried underneath a pile of ungraded papers for a few days, the vast majority of my four weeks off will be spent traveling with family and friends. I can't wait to travel around Kenya, from the Masai Mara to coastal Mombasa. I love it here at Maxwell, but after teaching for 4 straight months, I'm definitely looking forward to the chance to getting off campus for more than just a few hours at a time.

Midterm Exams

I gave the freshmen a semester test for biology lab last week. On the back of the test, I offered them extra credit for giving me suggestions for what the SMs should do over Christmas break. This is what one student came up with:

1. Give all the students 100% on their tests
2. Give presents to (this student)
3. Go to Masai Mara and smuggle a baby lion to Maxwell
4. Eat
5. Throw toilet paper at people
6. Write Merry Christmas on Facebook and whoever liked or commented go to their wall and say "Dog cat human" on their friends wall
7. Drive a car out to the town and throw money not coins

I'm going to miss my students.

This is just a taste of what the same student is dreaming up for his own break! (Notice the mosquito killing)

Student Quotes

Rudy: Ms Emily, what color is your hair?
Me: Brown
Rudy: Are you sure?
Me: Yes. . . ?
Rudy: It looks gold

(In the middle of a biology test) "Ms Emily, who are you voting for in the election? Obama is my uncle!"

"You're so emotional!" 

 "Ms Emily, do you have kids?"

These kids say the craziest things and ask the craziest questions. Sometimes I really have to wonder what is going on in their heads! Most of the time, the freshmen are ridiculous, but every once in awhile they surprise me. Like when one of them asked me,

"Ms Emily, can a person change their character?" 

Discipline

These past couple weeks, I've been a terrible disciplinarian. Terrible. Not that my recorder class has ever been well behaved, but even my freshmen are walking all over me, and I've done nothing to stop it. This morning in biology, I don't think there was ever more than 2 seconds worth of quiet, and if those two seconds existed, I missed them. It was bad.

I'm sure that my lack of control of the classroom stems from several things, but one of them is the feeling of inadequacy. How am I supposed to stand up in front of a class of over 20 children and command their attention if I don't feel like I have anything worthwhile to say to them? Part of the problem is the planning. Finishing my powerpoint the night before I present it doesn't do much to inspire confidence. The other problem is in the word feel. I feel inadequate, and I don't feel like I have anything worthwhile to say. There's a stark contrast between what I feel, and what I know to be true. If I've learned anything in the past few years, it's that feelings come and go, but God remains constant. Isaiah (currently my favorite book of the Bible) gives me so much hope, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." (40:8)
Today, I may not know how to be a great disciplinarian, but I do know that I am God's, He has chosen me, and He will not cast me away. (41:9)

"For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, 'Fear not, I will help you.'" (41:13)

Gratitude Lately

November was a good month. Ushering in the holiday season here in Kenya is strange, yes, but oh so wonderful! Lately, there has been so much food, fun, and friends to be thankful for!

Yummy Indian food

Warm friends on cold nights

Santas in sandals

Awkward moments in Nakumatt

Chaco tan lines

Sundays spent wrapping Christmas presents 

Incredibly talented housemates

SmartShopping

Disney princesses

A sky that continues to take my breath away

Nakumatt Smart Shopper

On sunday, I finally traded my tattered temporary Nakumatt smart shopper card for a shiny, new, blue, permanent card! It was a beautiful day. I know, I already have a nice stamp in my passport saying that I'm an official Kenyan resident, but somehow, this little piece of plastic means a whole lot more!

The Holidays

Well, despite the fact that the weather hasn't changed since we arrived in Kenya, it is actually beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Well, "a lot" might be a bit of an exaggeration, but we have kicked off the holiday season in our own way!

On thanksgiving day, the cafe served up a wonderful meal, complete with stuffing and pumpkin pie! (the pumpkin pie was my favorite. And since it wasn't popular with the kids, there were LEFTOVERS! :D Day. Made. two days in a row!)

They decorated the cafe and everything! (Photo lifted from Katie's blog)

Thanksgiving dinner. (This picture is Katie's too...)

After finishing our thanksgiving feast, we went back to teaching classes and grading (since thanksgiving is an American holiday, we still had classes all week). All afternoon, facebook was teeming with thankful posts, and preparations for black Friday. Tanzi had the great idea of going black Friday shopping, despite our location, so after we got out of school, Macy, Melissa, Tanzi, and I walked the five  kilometers into Rongai and back to buy supplies for dinner. We might not be able to get as many crazy sales here in Kenya, but being able to walk to Tuskys for fresh fruits and veggies more than makes up for it! I'd say our black Friday was the best, because not only did we avoid the lines and traffic, but we got great grilled tomato sandwiches out of it too!

Avocados, tomatoes, and bread! Yum!

Now that it's after thanksgiving, I've started going through my itunes, spiffing up my holiday playlists. While it still seems strange to think that Christmas is just around the corner, holiday movie nights, Christmas music in the house, and the beginnings of Christmas decorations are slowly, but surely, bringing the Christmas season to our Kenyan home. 

Our SM mantle and Christmas tree

Language Barriers

The longer I'm at Maxwell, the more and more I notice my english skills deteriorating. It's part sad, part hilarious, and part down right depressing. Communication is kind of important in life, and since I have no other language to fall back on, being able to speak english effectively is kind of important!

My biggest problem has been verb tenses. Who knew that conjugating verbs could ever be this difficult! Some all too common examples:

"There is two packages floating out in Africa somewhere with my name on it!" - Katie 

"I do like another doughnut...." - Tanzi 

Not only are verbs a challenge, but words are made plural here without much of a second thought. In the cafe, you pick up your fruits juice after you grab your silverwares, and people will leave campus to get their hairs cut instead of their hair cut.

The top two phrases that I've picked up are "even me" which is used the say way "me too" is used, and then "Me, I...". Both of these are already bad english, but I have taken it an extra step and smashed them together into the oh-so-incredibly useful "Even me, I . . ." I'm ashamed to admit how often my sentences have started off this way.

Part of me is almost excited to come back to the States having picked up various sayings from my year abroad, however, an even bigger part of me knows that if I come back to the States talking about fruits juices and hairs cuts, people might give me strange looks.

Side note: Writing this blog post was incredibly difficult. Much more than it should have been! I'll try to work on my english skills and get back to you guys later....

Hells Gate Campout

This past weekend, I went on a fabulous camping trip. The entire school split up by classes, and on Friday we all piled into Tonkas and headed out for a weekend in nature. The juniors and seniors drove off to the Mara, while I joined the freshmen and sophomore classes going to Hells Gate national park. 

Since Hell's Gate is only a mere two hours from campus, we were able to take several side trips on our way over. After a brief pause overlooking the rift valley to take pictures, our first stop was for a hike in a forest up near the high road to Nakuru. Throughout the guided nature walk, I was struck with how incredibly different, yet similar, the forest was to everything I'm familiar with. There were times when I felt like I was back in the smokey mountains looking at wildflowers, but then I would find myself stepping around elephant excrement instead of deer droppings. From the waterfalls of North America, to tea fields in Asia, I definitely felt like I had seen a little part of several continents. 

The funniest thing happened while we were down at the waterfall. Tanzi and Jacqui had decided to go walking in the water, and when I looked over, their faces were priceless! Jacqui had fallen in, Tanzi had laughed, and the rest could be plainly seen plastered all over their faces. It was great! 

The rest of the weekend was full of volcanoes, game drives, hammocking, a little bit of rain, rock climbing fishers tower (the inspiration for pride rock), and hiking the gorge (The gorge hike was by far my favorite part of the whole trip!).

It was the first camping trip for a lot of these kids, and some of them took the showering situation kinda hard. One sophomore even said, "But Miss, I've never gone a day in my life without at least two showers!" They were so desperate, that some even took water bottles and went out into the trees to shower! Hilarious! It was definitely a bonding experience for everyone. 

the great rift valley

I love these girls... They're kinda crazy!

So perfect!

Some of these kids had never seen a waterfall before

Tea fields 

Hells Gate National Park

This is how most of the game drive went

Rock hyrax. Isn't he the cutest?!

Time

So, I'm pretty sure someone has been sneaking extensions into my hair at night. Only halfway joking. Since when has my ponytail consistently been hitting the back of my neck? I know it's been more than a few weeks since I've been able to even pretended to wear my bangs straight down, but this is ridiculous.

Time has a funny way of passing here in Kenya. I'm still getting over the shock of October arriving, and we're already halfway through November! Part of the problem is that I'm not experiencing the change of seasons like I do in the States. It's hard to imagine Christmas is just around the corner when the weather is just as perfect today as it was three weeks ago. Regardless of the weather, the reality of time passing is becoming more and more real everyday, and to be honest, it's really upsetting.

I want time to stop. To stand still, even if just for a moment. Last night, I got one of those moments. Tanzi and I had been talking about doing something exciting all day, and so after dinner, a fort was born. It was in the middle of the living room, and a sight to behold. Anyone else listening would have found the fort builders lamenting that they were not engineering majors hilarious, but I'm pretty sure any college education just makes fort building that much more epic!

Time is a funny thing. It passes quickly, and sometimes even slowly, but regardless of what it seems like time is doing, I want to fill it to the brim.

Photo shamelessly lifted from Tanzi's instagram 

Early Morning Beauty

Today, Tanzi, Melissa, and I woke up before 5:30am in order to watch the sunrise. Both Tanzi and Melissa saw a phenomenal sunrise yesterday morning while they were running, and we were hoping to catch a repeat performance. Unfortunately, the cloud cover was very thick, and we weren't able to see the sunrise we had hoped for. The incredible thing was, that even though the sunrise was veiled, the morning was still dripping with beauty. The plants in front of me, the foggy view below, the company of good friends, and even the multitude of birds were all working together to form a morning that was completely worth setting my alarm for.

An early morning at the ECD

Home sweet home

Birthday Blessings

Words cannot even begin to express how absolutely incredible my birthday was. The volume of love and happiness that was all stuffed into one day completely blew me away! (warning, this will be a long one!)

It's taken me awhile to be able to write about Tuesday. I had to let all the goodness settle, allow time to give it perspective, and take a few days to be certain that it was all real. 

Everything about Tuesday was wonderful. The morning started out normal enough, but by staff worship, the birthday festivities quickly began to pick up. A Skype date and birthday wish scavenger hunt kept me busy in the library all morning, and kept my mind successfully off the sex-ed health class that I would shortly have to teach. Surprisingly enough, teaching the oh-so-mature freshmen about the reproductive system ended up being one of the highlights of my day. I started out class by telling them that this was one of my favorite days, and one of my least favorite. My favorite because of my birthday, and my least favorite because of the section we were covering. Without another word, all the freshmen broke out into one of the most enthusiastic versions of the Happy Birthday Song I've ever heard! Before we started, I prayed for their maturity levels, and thanked God for giving me such a wonderful class that I love so much. They were understandably rowdy and ill-behaved throughout my PowerPoint, but the questions and the energy that came out of that class made the high level of awkwardness completely worth it! I love those 23 kids SO incredibly much. I love praying for them, I love helping them (most days), and I love their smiles, even when they're trying to use them to manipulate me. 

During lunch, I noticed something strange start happening. EVERYONE seemed to know that it was my birthday! Turns out, Tanzi had told the senior class that morning to wish me a happy birthday, and they took their assignment very seriously! Every time I turned around for the whole day, there was at least two students there to yell out "Happy birthday miss Emily!" regardless of whether they were my students or not. At lunch, I was sung to for the third time, but with no less enthusiasm than the first. 

I spent all afternoon in the library supervising study hall with Jacqui like any other Tuesday afternoon, but everything was different. Even though study hall was busting at the seams with noisy kids, I had so much fun just hanging out with everyone. For one day, I didn't feel like a super mean study hall enforcer. Saron and I took pictures, I successfully hushed people, and I even got papers graded and put into the grade book. 

Saron's a little crazy, but I love her

Polly brought me some pretty fabulous cupcakes after study hall, which I shared with the SMs who were left on campus. I was going to head over to the cafe to see what was for dinner, but the Raymond's not so subtly stopped me and told me to just skip the cafe and come over in about 20 minutes. Derek pointed out that we really didn't need to be speaking in code anymore, but I still appreciated the attempt at a surprise. :)

My scrumptious birthday cupcakes!

At the Raymond's, all of the SMs (that's right! ALL of us!) were able to eat together, at least for a few minutes. Yani had made possibly the best tortilla chili soup ever, guacamole, and a vegan chocolate cake that could knock your socks off! Definitely the best meal I've eaten in a while.

I left the Raymond's, full and wonderfully satisfied. I left because I was supposed to work in the library tutoring, but when I arrived, Jacqui took one look at me in my slightly soggy state (it had been raining) and ordered me to go home. I protested, but she even went so far as to push me out of the library, and lock the door behind me. She even asked the girls if they wanted me there, and the resounding NO came at me mixed with huge smiles and giggles. I finally surrendered and started heading for home. I hadn't gotten very far, before one of my students came running after me. I was sure it was about the biology homework that I had assigned, but instead, she pressed 200 KSH into my hand and told me that it was a present for my birthday. I tried to give it back, but she ran away and locked me out of the library (again!). I was flabbergasted. She is so incredibly sweet, and I love her so much. 

The love and support coming to me from every direction was, and still is, completely overwhelming! I half expected the clock to strike midnight, the spell to be broken, and my students to remember just how mean and strict they really think I am.  

Jacqui captured some pretty attractive pictures of me....

Kenyan sunsets take my breath away daily

People

People are what make life great. And these people make life the greatest.

Last night was wonderful. All the SMs (minus Taylor who had to stay in the girls dorm) took over the library for boys club banquet prep. Jacqui has been hard at work for weeks now on the banquet sign, and so we all brought our computers and started painting. We got a lot done, but the painting was only part of what made last night so memorable. The SMs from Southern stayed up to Skype the student missions expo. Seeing familiar faces, both from previous SMs and classmates, made me smile. In between painting and jamming out to music, I got to Skype my parents as well as Julia (who's in POLAND!). 

The SMs here at Maxwell are the best in the world! I can't think of anyone else on earth I'd rather prep with for a silly boys club banquet (sports themed of course...). These guys can make absolutely anything ten times more exciting!

We make the most epic faces. All the time!

He does too...

The Best Package in the History of Ever

Sabbath was a GOOD day! I knew that a package was being dropped off for me that day, but in my head, I was picturing a little medium-ish sized flat rate box limited to the few small things that could possibly fit inside. Boy, was I wrong! (again!) 

When Derek, and another man I didn't know, approached me in the lunch line, I knew it was about my package. When he opened up his car and pulled out something that was closer in resemblance to an apple crate than a shoebox, I was floored! I couldn't stop smiling, all the way back to the lunch line. Everyone was super impressed that I didn't rip into it right away, but I knew I couldn't open it. Not yet anyway. Such a beautiful package from home contained so much promise. All through lunch, I couldn't bear the thought of reducing the possibilities that the box could contain to the reality of what was actually there. I wanted to savor my one and only package from home for as long as possible!

After everyone had finished eating, I took my package back to the house to unwrap it. Tanzi, Katie, and Macy were all there to watch the magic unfold. Turns out, what was in the package was beyond anything and everything I had imagined! From fig newtons, a brand new sleeping bag (that's right! no more blanket camping for this girl!), down to pens and ziplock bags, absolutely everything in the package was perfect! As Tanzi said, "I think that's the best package I've ever seen in my life!"

Some of my favorite things inside the box were letters from my Sabbath school class. It's amazing how little slips of paper can make such a huge difference!

Tanzi took my camera and caught a few of my faces/reactions in both pictures and a video. 

FIG NEWTONS!

I definitely cried.

Jacqui's Blog

Being a missionary is more than feeding the hungry  Serving people is more than healing the sick. The hands and feet of Jesus are not reserved solely for the physically impoverished. It might not be the most glamorous, but this is the mission work we are doing here in Kenya.

This is one of Jacqui's experiences from last week:

Today,

the freshmen had their Unit 1 Math Test. I spent the morning and part of the afternoon grading it. When Josh came in for study hall, he asked me to grade his test so he could know his score. He told me he was scared that he failed. I graded it and found out that he got 40%. There’s something you need to know about Josh. He tries so hard to do well in school, but he doesn’t always understand everything. I’ve been helping him a lot with math and he knows how to do most things, but he’s very unsure. He told me last night that his mom told him to study for 4 hours for this test, and I told him that that should help him do well. When I showed him what he got, his face dropped. I could tell that he was feeling really down and unhappy with himself. I wasn’t sure what to say to him, so I just prayed that I would have the words to say, but I was putting it off. I continued grading and he moved to the computer. After a few minutes, he asked me to look at his screen and written in a word document was “Sorry God for I have sinned. Sorry miss jacque for I have sinned.” I was shocked. At first, I almost yelled out “WHAT,” but then I calmly asked him to come and sit by me so that we could have a talk. ”Oh no…” he said. I took a piece of paper and I wrote on top of it “Things that Josh is good at” and underlined it. I explained to him that school and grades are very important, but they are not the most important thing in life. We started thinking of what to put under the list and it looked something like this:

Things that Josh is good at:

- biology
- bible
- typing
- soccer
- basketball
- volleyball
- making new friends
- being positive
- helping people
- singings
- saxophone
- working hard
- trying his best

There was more on the list but I can’t remember everything. ”What a LONG list!” I said, “Now let’s make another one.” He then told me three things to put on this list.

Things that Josh is not so good at:

- Math
- English
- Health

And that is all he could think of. I showed him how big the first list was compared to the second one. At the bottom of the page I wrote: And God LOVES him (no matter what).

I told him to keep this piece of paper and look at it whenever he’s feeling down. I also told him that as long as he tries his best, I will be proud of him. Josh is such an incredible kid. It broke my heart to see him thinking he had sinned by failing a math test.

Lake Baringo - Long Weekend Camping Trip

This past weekend was team A's first long weekend off, and we were all excited! When we were trying to decide where to go, the Mara was an option, but the SMs weren't sure if we would have our residency before we left. Instead of taking a gamble on our passports being stamped, we decided to take a trip up to the northern hemisphere and camp at Lake Baringo.

We packed up friday morning, and a five-hour car ride later, we arrived to find a very flooded campsite. Turns out that the water hasn't been this high since the 1960s! Because of all the high water, the restaurant and pool we were planning on going to both ended up being partially submerged. It started raining when we tried to set up camp, and with only one hammock rain fly and four hammocks to set up, we got creative. About an hour later, we had a monument to the hammock that ended up working quite well! We definitely attracted a lot of attention for it. Turns out hammocks aren't as popular here as they are in the states.

Our campsite was just a few feet away from the water where we saw several hippos, monitor lizards, monkeys, a crocodile, and an abundance of birds! It was a fabulous weekend for watching wildlife. We took an early morning bird watching boat ride on sabbath where we fed both eagles and crocodiles.

The rest of the trip was spent relaxing at camp with dinner at the Thirsty Goat restaurant (dubbed the hairy goat shortly after arriving), walks down the main road, and lots of laughter had by all. It was definitely an absolutely wonderful weekend!

(all photos are from Keith's camera except the last one)

Team A SMs and the Raymonds

Our Shrine to hammocking 

The campsite

Our early morning birdwatching boat ride 

We stopped and took a picture at the equator. Awkward family photo material.

Sunrise