Class 3 Field Trip - Giraffe Centre and Mamba Village

Well I went on a little field trip last week with class 3 students. As you can see, I became pretty good friends with a giraffe :) We went to a giraffe centre and you got to feed them. And if you put it in your mouth, he'll give you a kiss. I had to do it 3 times to get a good picture of it. It was pretty sweet, I mean rough tongue, like took a layer of skin off of my chin, but thats okay. Have to do it once.

 After the giraffe centre, we went to Mamba Village, which is like full of crocodiles. They look mean and scary and move just like my lizard friends do. I didn't touch one. They also had a giraffe there and some ostriches. I didn't really care for the ostriches but this giraffe was really weird, like I was petting him, and then all of a sudden he would start waving his neck around. Anyways, it was a very pretty giraffe. Theres pictures of him at the end.

After, we went to a village that was filled with huts of different tribes.We had planned on having lunch there, but the parking lot was filled with baboons. Like about 5 baboons were just surrounding us. So we ate on the bus cause if we ate outside they would try to get us. Anyways, one of the kids threw his banana peel outside, not impressed. It was right by my window, and it was sneaking up, and I was like this thing isn't stopping its gonna break a window and grab me. It didnt, it just took the peel and ran away. Anyways, we went into the village after. It was pretty sweet to see like what they would've looked like. Like they were labelled first wife, second wife, etc. I'll upload some eventually. And yeah..then we watched some dancing for a bit before we headed back to Rafiki. I took some video of the dancing, cause it was pretty much like Folklorama and I figured mom would like it.

And we go two new kids today! Virginiah and Joseph, they are 3 ish I think. They are super cute, I haven't seen to much of them yet, they've been here for mybe 7 hours now. But ya :) its exciting.

Also, heres my shout out to my mommy, who had a birthday yesterday! And I wont say how old she is cause I don't think she'd appreciate it. But anyways, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY, I LOVE YOU. :) miss you, see you in 18 days!

Mommy and me after being on an airplane close to 20 hours.

Three Weeks Left - Pictures of the past 2 months of my life

Well my mom tells me its time to update again, so here we go. I have been switched to working in grade 1 because the teacher is very pregnant and needed my help. So it has been quite different then grade 5. But they are super cute, so it has been good, but I miss my grade 5s. Its funny, when I first heard I was being placed with the older grade I was kinda disappointed cause I wanted the younger ones. Now I'm sad about leaving it. But its okay, I still see them.

I am officially the only one left in Wageni, and so far its been good. I sleep a lot better, but its definitely lonelier. I went from 8 roommates to none within 5 days. But I went for pedicures with Julie and Kate, which was amazing (and super cheap). And I've been spending my evenings with Julie, and its been pretty good. I also have something super exciting! We are getting two new kids! A boy and a girl. So I'm very excited to see the process of new kdis coming in. I also am super excited, because I am going on a field trip this friday! We are going to the giraffe centre, crocodile center and some other place where they teach you how to dance like an African. So this could be interesting, but I'm so excited to go. I think it'll be more fun seeing these things with the kids, and Julie is coming with so it will be fun :)

I can't believe I'm leaving in 3 weeks, it really has gone so fast. I have mixed emotions about coming home, I miss people, but I love the kids and don't want to have to say good bye. So to fix this, people should just come to me in Africa :) I've got 11 empty beds in my house, and I've even learnt how to make coffee, so its probably pretty tempting. Anyways, enjoy the pictures, they are all mixed..it starts with the menu at Carnivore, then there are some pictures of safari, the monkeys, and then of the team that I have been with the past 2 months.  I couldn't really organize it , I tried, but I'm terrible with computers...so yeah, sorry about that. :) xoxoxo

Cappucinos at Java House

Spa Day

Little Maurice

Kibera

Kibera

Johnson

Millicent

Just over Half way update....

Well I am past the half way point, and it has gone pretty quickly. Its hard to believe that I will be home in under 5 weeks, and even harder to believe I haven't seen people in like almost 6 weeks. That is ridiculous.

Anyways. My roommates from Seattle leave on Wednesday. They have three full days left with me, I'm kinda sad. I have been with them since I got here, and they have been amazing. They all came together on a team, and kinda took me in. So they've been pretty great, and they have made my first 6 weeks here amazing. Then 2 others leave Friday, and the other 2 leave Tuesday, but are on a safari starting sunday. So within a week I lose all my roommates. I told Julie, one of the ROS people, that we are going to have sleepovers, cause I will go crazy not talking to anyone, and just being in this empty house. This house is great, like seriously, going back home will probably be rough. Janet is our housekeeper, and she is amazing! She's super sweet. And cleans and does laundry for whoevers living here. I can't imagine going back home and doing my own laundry.

Today we stayed at Rafiki, and watched the older boys do scouts! They were so cute! They had their uniforms on today, I'll post pictures and videos. And the Seattle teams friends who have been at Kibera for two months came to visit. So that was fun. And tomorrow we are going to the market, and it'll probably be my last time, cause ya, I don't really want to go alone. So if you'd like anything, you have about 10 hours to let me know.

School has been good but hard. I mark all the time. Which is good cause I like feeling useful, but it takes a while. The other night, I marked for like 3 hours straight. I've been teaching them science, probably just the unit on genetics. Which is fun cause I love genetics, but they ask so many questions. Like I used my hair color and stuff for examples, but they cant get over the idea that I could have changed my hair color. So they ask if I could change it to be purple and green. So it takes a while.

Anyways, thats my life right now. Miss and love you guys! xoxo

Kibera and Carnivore

This past weekend was full of one of a kind experiences. We started off by going to Kibera, the second biggest slum in the world and the biggest in Africa. There are about 900,000 people living there. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. It didn't smell good at all, like I thought I was going to throw up because it smelt so bad. The sewage runs down the street..there was a waterfall of urine and poo scented water. It was also blue. It was just gross. But we went to a church service there, and they sang for us and gave a little sermon and stuff, and it was pretty sweet cause they didn't act like we were the ones with everything, it was like we were all the same. It didn't matter that we were white or that we were from Canada/America. But it was really scary at the same time, a lady we were with, Mrs. Dickerson, had her gold chain ripped right off her neck while we were walking. And yeah, I didn't take my camera or anything cause I was to scared to, so I'm pretty happy I didn't take it in. But the kids were adorable, we would walk by and they would run out and yell 'how are you' over and over. That was probaby all the english any of them knew. We went into one of our guides homes, which he was pretty excited to show us. But it was shocking..like we walked in and I thought it was all his house, but it was ten houses. The 'house' was one room, split by a curtain. My bathroom is bigger. Not just by a bit, but quite a bit. I'd say it was the size of two bathtubs put together. There were also 6 kids that lived in there, and when we said do they all slept in there, he said yes like it was an obvious thing. They also said they don't like rain, which makes sense because its all muddy and ya..

Then on sunday, I got a very once in a lifetime visit to a restaurant called carnivore. It is a meat buffe.of exotic meats. So we had the typical chicken, ribs, pork and lamb. And then we had some more 'fun' foods. I ate ostrich, crocodile, camel and an ox ball. Yes ox ball. Just gross. Anyways, let me describe each meat. The ostrich was amazing, it was in a meatball thing, and it was super good. The crocodile was chewy and just blah, I wasn't a huge fan of it. Apparently it tasted like shrimp but mine was just blah. Anyways, camel was super muscley, not my favorite, but not the worst. The ox ball...well...it was the first one they put on my plate. It has the worst texture..and just the idea of eating an oxball... Ya, anyways, I can say I did it. We got french fries, soup, bread and dessert to. So it overall was delicious. Favorite meat is still chicken :)

One month- sorry its long

So I've been told I should update my blog, so here's an update :) I'm sorry , it'll probably be long and I understand if you don't read it all. And I'll probably repeat myself because I don't remember all that I've said. I'm a teaching assistant in class five, and they are great. Sometimes a little much, but always full of drama and entertainment. It makes sense though, like 14/18 live at Rafiki, the other 4 are community students. So they've grown up together, and know how to push each others buttons. And enjoy pushing them. I do a lot of marking, but I'm teaching science. We are learning about cells and genetics, which is my favorite so I'm liking it. I am still sick, which isn't good. I was getting better, then I got worse. So still taking meds, but I really don't think they are helping.
We've got a full house at Wageni, Matt and Amanda arrived last week and Megan and Abby got her monday. I had met Matt and Amanda at orientation in May down in Florida so it was exciting that not only did we overlap, but that we were both sent to Kenya. Megan and Abby were both here two years ago, and know all the people from Seattle. They leave at the same time, and Matt and Amanda leave the last week of August. So I have just under three weeks by myself. Which I'm kinda nervous about, and I think I'm going to ask one of the ROS if we can have a sleepover, cause I think I'm going to lose it living in this house by myself. Like what am I going to do from 6 - sleep all by myself? So thats my situation.
This past weekend we went to a mall!! ahhaa I love shopping (sorry Ryan, Africa hasn't changed that about me). I didn't buy anything, but walking around this mall was good, like it has a Nike store, and seriously it would cost like $60 for a pair of runners. So I might be considering some. This mall felt like the mall in Toronto, like bigger then Winnipeg malls. Inside it didn't even feel like I was in Kenya because its all tourists inside. Then we went to a coffee place where they had 'frappes'. So, the starbucks in me like made me get a strawberry one. It did not taste like a strawberries and creme frappucino, just like a mushed strawberry in some ice. So that was disappointing. Then we went to a cafe for lunch. I HAD A BACON CHEESEBURGER AND FRIES. Sorry, had to emphasize that I got to eat delicious food that I would eat in Canada. Honestly, I prefer a mcdonalds one. But thats okay :) Still yummy. And then sunday 3 of us girls (there names are Elle and Emily from Seattle, I'm not sure if I've ever actually said the names of the other people, but here they are) went to Julie's church. It felt like church at home, so it was pretty awesome. And the guy  preaching was Canadian, so he talked about things that happened in Canada, I was like Ya I'm Canadian. Anyways, then we went to a different mall for lunch, and I got food from the German place. I got there version of Chicken fingers. Which was seriously like french fry but chicken instead. And it came on a stick. But I was still so happy that I was getting chicken fingers.
I've started craving things like crazy. Like I was doing good for a long time, but now I just want to eat everything I look at. Well, not ugali, that I could live without. But Megan brought chocolate, and was like help yourself. I dont know why I didn't think of bringing mini chocolate bars. Because they are amazing. And I want everything greasy. When I get home, I hope at the airport someone brings me a cheeseburger with no onions, and a starbucks. HINT HINT.... Anyways, I'm hopefully learning how to make Chipatis, which is like a tortilla but way better. Ask my mom, she had them. They are fantastic.
The kids are amazing, they by far make the whole trip here worth it. As much as I loved safari, I would be okay without it, because looking back, its not what I think of first. But still super happy I got to go and see Simba and Nahla, like they were great. And the food was perfect. But the kids are so great. It was super cute, the other day I picked up a little girl named Hannah, and I said its because she was small enough and I love to hold them. And one of them went and grabbed a different girl named Ruth, who is 3, hands her to me and says "Here you can just take her home to Canada with you". It was so cute, and of course I said I'd take her if they'd let me. The boys are just crazy! So cute, and just run around like crazy. One of the Andrews (there are two Andrews from Seattle) started doing pull ups, and all the boys come up to me after dinner and tell me its time to do my pull ups. For the record, and I can do none, but if they ask I let them know I can do at least 100. I think/hope most of them know I'm kidding. They ask a million questions everyday, and the love hearing that my mom is safe in Canada. Still. When they ask where she is and I say she's in Canada, they say that they pray she's home safely :) And then they ask why she had to leave, and I just say to take care of the other kids. So they may have the idea that my siblings can't do much for themselves... oh well. They also tell me to bring my sister with (sorry Ryan, haven't asked you to stop in yet). So Stacey, the kids want you to come here.
Sooooooo if you've kept reading this long, thanks, so sweet of you. Not sure what else I've got to say about it, I've been here almost a month now. It has flown by. I can't believe I'm almost half way through my trip. I think like Monday it'll be halfway, which is crazy. But a good crazy. I am starting to miss things, like my little puppy, who recently learned to swim. I hope theres pictures, or you better redo it and takes pics, cause I would've for sure taken pictures of this first. And I hope his hair is cute and he's being dressed well - that also hasn't changed, I still want my dog dressed. But not doing hair or make up is pretty great, like I didn't think I'd like it so much, but getting ready is soooo much faster. Unfortunately, there has been a little gecko living in my bathroom, we make eye contact every morning. And stare each other down. Then I walk out, and when I come back in he's gone. Its been two days in a row now. Kinda creepy, I hope he leaves, but apparently he eats mosquitos. Which by the way have eaten me. I may take pictures of my legs/arms to show. LIke over 30 per leg. Shaving is like an obstacle course, like I cut all them open. (Sorry to anyone who didn't want to hear that, I just want to emphasize how inconvenient the bites are) But they are itchy.
Anyways, skype me or something. Miss everyone, xoxoxoxoxoxoox love youuuuu