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....