Teaching

I have been teaching now for three weeks. I really enjoy it, but find it very challenging. I have always admired teachers, but now have a much greater appreciation for what they do.

Rosslyn Academy has students from 38 countries attending (we just added a student from Trinidad & Tobago this Thursday!). It is a Christian school though there are students from several religious backgrounds that attend. A little over half of the students are Missionary Kids, several students have parents working at different embassies or for the UN.

It is fascinating to see the different cultures the students come from, and a challenge for me teaching kids who don't know English as their first language. This semester I am teaching New Testament, World Religions and Personal Conditioning (I know, crazy since I am so obviously not personally conditioned!)

The school has the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. It is simply unbelievable, and pictures probably wouldn't do it justice. Here is a link to the school's website where they have a new panoramic picture: http://www.rosslynacademy.com/facilities_hs.html

The picture is just of the High School, but the Elementary and Middle Schools are just as great! The school sits on what was formerly a coffee plantation and like everything else is surrounded by a high wall and gates for security.

We have fallen in love with the students, and really enjoy the extra time we get to interact with them. It is exciting to present Christ in a cross-cultural environment, and to simply show His love to this great group of people!

Happy Birthday, Lexi

Alexis turned four this month. We had a cake that Nicole made, and some presents that we had brought with us just for the celebration.

Missionary Kids call other missionaries "uncle" or "aunt". It helps them keep a sense of extended family. We had about 35 "uncles and aunts" and their families join us for the party. We all had a small piece of cake and ice cream.

We invited all the missionaries because we wanted the day to be extra-special since she misses her family in the States. We were pleasantly surprised when they all showed up.

Here are a few pictures of the birthday girl. Hope you enjoy!

A Roundabout Way to Travel

I thought we would give you an update on the driving. I am doing much better, and starting to enjoy it. We have slowly started to take new routes and experience new roads. I won't have mastered the city in a year, but I hope to be able to go where we want without having to rely on others sometime soon.
I have been through enough roundabouts to understand how they should work. But they don't really work here, the drivers are way to aggressive. On my way to the school I drive over 19 speed humps (as they are called here). This number is somewhat approximate as the road we live on is one continuous series of potholes it is sometimes hard to tell where the speed humps are on our road. I generally pass at least 5 men "using the bushes", 3 men selling newspapers on the side of the road, 1 roundabout, 2 security gates/road blocks (I am not one hundred percent sure of their purpose.), and at least 5 heavily armed military personnel (these are a new addition and may be the subject of a future post).
When an oncoming car "flashes" their lights at you, they mean for you to get out of their way. Very few drivers use their turn signals to indicate their intention to turn, instead it usually means they want you to pass them (or overtake them which is how they say it.).
I have a copy of the rules of the road (or the Highway Code), it is very funny reading, so many misspellings and the rules are worded so interesting I thought I would share some of it with you.
The Traffic Behind You
1. If you are a driver and you want to move off, or reverse or open your door, look round and make sure that no one is about to overtake you and that there are no children or obstructions in the behind area near your front or back.
2. If a driver, look in your driving mirror before you signal, change course, overtake, turn or stop.
Driving along
1. Do not drive nose to tail when on open road.
2. Do not kiss other vehicles. It is not necessary to annoy other motorists with this illegal driving style.
3. Do not accelerate when being overtaken. This is a common mistake. Avoid it.
When you qualify as a driver do not:
1. Overtake a long queue of vehicles outright annoying to the other motorists.
2. Repair a broken down vehicle on the road - Push it out of the road.
3. Insult other motorists with obscene gestures i.e. asking them to drive over your car.
8. As a matatu tout assist your driver to change lanes using your hand and leg.
9. Flash lights menacingly on to the oncoming vehicle.
16. Change lanes by using a warning finger outside the drivers window.
22. Knock down gates in estates, lamp posts on the road or other traffic signs.

Except the last one, I see these things happen every day. And to be honest I have overtaken a long queue of vehicles myself. (As well as flashed my lights once or twice). When in Rome....
Here are the rules of the road I have learned;
1. He who hesitates is stuck there a really long time. So get your nose out there and let the people behind you figure it out.
2. Do not make eye contact with someone trying get through a jammed intersection. Otherwise they will assume you are hesitating. Just look straight ahead and don't stop moving.
3. The person driving the biggest vehicle wins.

Here is a picture of "Uncle Kevin's Car" as Lexi and Nate call it. It is what we are driving. Nicole might start driving next Sunday. Sundays are good days to learn, very little traffic from vehicles or pedestrians. Also on top is a picture of some cows we had to stop for on our way home.

Lexi and Nate

We continue to adjust to life in Kenya. There are still days when we wake up and wish we were home in the States. There are other days when we are thrilled and excited to be here. Lexi and Nate go through the same things, but generally they are happy to be where Mom and Dad are.
This week, Winter stopped and Summer came. The Kenyan sun can be VERY warm.
Nate loves to be outside in the nice weather. He loves to attack the bushes/flowering shrubs in our front yard with sticks that he finds. He continues to carry his McQueen car almost everywhere, and likes to walk around the compound. After a couple of run-ins with safari ants, he is quick to shout when any kind of bugs are walking on him. He is taking no more chances with those! He wears his rain boots outside much of the time (like the Kenyans on the compound).
Lexi had a picnic outside under one of the trees in our yard. She used some of the big leaves as plates. She has a friend on the compound, and asks every day if she can go to Melia's house. They play very well together. She likes to go to market and loves to look at clothes (no surprise there). She loves the flowers everywhere and picks them at every opportunity (though she misses dandelions!).
They still help with little chores, enjoy having their own rooms, and watching movies - when the power is on. Both of them have started to enjoy chai (tea break) with some of the Kenyans on the compound. Lexi and Nate eat bananas while the others drink tea. They LOVE eating cheese-puff like things that are very cheap here and taste like styrofoam.
They miss all of you and pray for you.

Trees

I think all of you got the email regarding our Avocado tree. Thank you for all of the recipes we received from you. Hopefully we will be able to try all of them out before we turn green. The tree (we will post a picture of it here) continues to produce Avocados like crazy, unfortunately they are all coming at once so we will have to give most of them away (good news for Nicole, Lexi and Nate since they don't really like them. Jason on the other hand enjoys them plain.)

In addition we also have a few banana plants that have a few bananas on them right now and a pomegranate tree that is almost ready for us to eat off of. There are also several mango trees on the compound.

Lexi and Jason are in love with Passion fruit juice and drink it all the time. But as far as we know there isn't a passion fruit plant anywhere near us. But we haven't given up hope! Enjoy the pictures of the plants and trees in our yard! We also have a picture of our Siamese-banana

In The Dark

Well, we experienced our first somewhat long (for us) power outage. It was about four and a half hours. It really wasn't bad until 5:00 when I wanted to cook dinner. Luckily we have a gas stove (we are the only people on the compound with a gas stove). So I made tacos in the dark because our kitchen does not have a window to the outside. Jason lit a candle for me and when i thought the meat was done I had to take it to our dining room (where we had very big windows) to check if all the meat really was cooked. Then we invited some of our neighbors over to eat (because they couldn't cook.) So we had an impromptu party.

It is very cold here (50-60 degrees). I am always cold so yesterday I decided to make a fire which helped and I will probably make another fire today.

The kids are doing well. Lexi and I started school. While Nate is taking his nap and after Lexi rests for a while we have our own small room and we work on some preschool workbooks I brought. The kids both got to run errands separately with Jason yesterday. Lexi went to the school and to the Massai Market and Nate went to the grocery store (at the busy time).