My African Hut

I wanted to give you a video tour of my house, but a 30 second video took an hour to download, so that tour is out. You'll have to come to Kenya to get the personal tour. Today you'll get the picture tour in no particular order...

My bathroom with a shower and bathtub separate. Our house has three bathrooms. I get this big one all to myself!

Our dining room with a swastika in the center of the tile.

Basement used mostly for hanging laundry and storage.

Kitchen filled with friends.

Living room with a view of three story mansions out the window.

More living room with furniture that needs to be recovered to match the walls. That will come soon we hope.

Outside of house with friends' cars in the drive.

Entry way - the first thing you see when you walk in our front door.

My bedroom - the wall is painted Masai red now.

There are two more bedrooms and two more bathrooms, but you'll have to come to Nairobi to see those. As you can see, I'm really roughing it in my African hut. There's lots of room here, so all are welcome any time.

Anyone Know?

Do colds last longer at 6,000 ft? It sure feels like this one is worse than my normal head cold. Hopefully, I won't get another one this year to come to a scientific conclusion. For those of you who have worked with me, you know how much I like science experiments. This is one experiment I don't want to experience. But I'll take answers from anyone who can speak from their own experience or who googled it. :)

I'm on the mend from severe sinus congestion. I suppose my body is still getting used to Kenyan germs ("pathogens" for my former fourth graders). Fifth grade, however, is going well. We're into our groove and learning much. I love that I get to teach for a living. There's no other job I'd rather do (even with a head cold).

School...

School has been in session for two weeks at Rosslyn. We're in the thick of it, and I've got the runny nose and head cold to prove it. My annual fall sick days are here, but they came a little earlier than they usual do in the states. I've got the weekend to recover, so no need to make that substitute teacher folder yet.

Fifth grade!... The year started a little strange for me: winter weather instead of fall heat, an empty classroom instead of bulletin boards and books, new curriculum, parents, and kids to figure out. Despite the changes from my comfortable five year tenure at Veritas School in Oregon, it is going very well. I'm getting to know my kids and their quirks. The parents are similar to those at Veritas - involved and caring. My classroom now looks like a classroom. It feels good to be here. I admit that there have been times I missed my old school, the kids and families, the routines and procedures, and the comfort of knowing how things work. I keep reminding myself that this will become comfortable too. Give it a few months.

The kids here are amazing! To give you an idea of the diversity, let me tell you about Grace. On the first day of school I asked the kids to put a pin on the map in the country they come from. Grace, a blond haired freckled American girl, came to me saying she didn't know where to put her pin. She was born in Japan and had lived there the last ten years, but her parents were from America, and now she lives in Kenya. I asked her where she felt like she was from. She decided to put her pin on Japan. So the blond American girl is from Japan. Grace is one of many students at my school who are sort of displaced like that. I'm excited to be a part of their lives, and it's confirmed again to me that this is exactly where I should be.

First Haircut in Kenya!

Here I am straight from the hair stylist - back to my old short-haired self. She did a great job.

Road Rage

Nairobi traffic is much like traffic in other countries I've visited - different. Most Americans would call it crazy. In Nairobi there are three kinds of driving I've experienced...
1. Suburban roads with potholes big enough for my entire body to fit in.
2. Urban areas where pedestrians, vendors, and cars meet in a maze of confusion, with lots of honking horns and car accidents.
3. Down town where the fastest way to get anywhere is by foot because the vehicle traffic is at a constant stand-still.
Here is a video of my roommate, Wendy, and I running some errands on Saturday in the Westlands, one of the urban areas of Nairobi with great shopping. The traffic that day was actually quite good, but you get to see a little bit of the round-about action we experience in Nairobi.