Jambo! (Hello in Kiswahili)
The last few days have been very quite eventful. I taught my first music class to the seventh graders in the primary school, and I liked it a lot. It made me realize just how much preparation actually goes into a lecture. I started by teaching them the parts of the guitar...body, neck, strings, etc. I then proceeded to tell them the names of the strings, when I realized that I had not yet explained the musical alphabet. I stopped and wrote the seven letters of the musical alphabet on the board, and proceeded to teach them about sharps and flats, and how there aren't any between B and C and between E and F. They picked that up quickly and so I moved on to teach them how the notes in the musical alphabet correspond to the frets on the guitar. It was quite interesting. Up to that point, they had picked up on everything very quickly, but transitioning from the drawing of the neck of the guitar on the board (complete with labels of notes and corresponding frets) to the actual neck of the guitar, and applying the musical alphabet to it was hard for them to do. It's very understandable, as it was also hard for me when I was learning. However, I had fun trying to explain it to them, and a few students were very intrigued.
I taught another Physical Education class as well. Continued the kickball game. A few of them really love it. However, the head teacher informed us that we will actually have to teach them skills that are applicable to sports. I did not know this until a few days ago, but I will actually have to give out grades to the students in the classes I teach. I honestly though that I was simply rotating out for a professor during a few classes, but I guess I actually AM the professor for a a few of these classes, which is awesome.
I only teach one or two classes a day, usually in the afternoon, and so the rest of the day is filled with other tasks. Laundry here is done by hand, with a bar of soap, in a basin, and then hung out to dry. You have to do a little each day, otherwise it will take you forever to catch up. It feels good to wear clothes that I washed by hand. The only exception is when you are wearing it and you notice a spot that you missed. That stinks.
There are other jobs that were mentioned in passing and need to be completed as well. I have to find out more about them and see if they are possible. For instance, the school's motto, vision, and mission need to be painted on the outside of the school. I'm going to find out if I can do that. Also, the school has an area when you walk in that has it's motto (Sow a Character, Reap a Destiny) painted on it. It could use a good washing and perhaps a new coat of paint, so I am going to ask about that as well. Furthermore, the building of a ping pong table was brought up, so this week, I am going to go down to the shop to see if they have a decent size piece of plywood and some timber to see if I might be able to assemble one.
On another note, Jeff, the school social worker, and Maria, the administrator for Fr. Tom's Kids, took us out into Kisumu today. We went to the Kiboko Bay Resort for lunch. Kiboko is Kiswahili for Hippo, so Hippo Bay. It was on lake Victoria, which looks like an ocean. It's up in the mountains and the scenery is just beautiful. The only thing is that all of the waste from the area is pumped into the lake, so it's rather dirty. Back to lunch. I had steak, chips, and a coke. I needed some American food, and it hit the spot. We usually eat breakfast and lunch at the school, and those meals are very Kenyan, which is not to say that they aren't good. Usually noodles or rice with some sort of steamed vegetable, or sometimes meat. We have eaten an egg dish with vegetables in it over noodles a few times, and it is very good. Dinner is cooked by the chef in the Dominican house, and it is also tasty. Usually a meat dish with either rice or noodles, and ugali. Ugali is flour made from corn, mixed with water. It is interesting. I lucked out today. I went to pick up dinner from the Dominican kitchen (we pick it up there and eat together here in the Postulant house) and one of the priests was scooping ice cream into a blender. He first asked me if I wanted some ice cream.
Now if anyone knows the Brawley Family, they know that we love our ice cream. I haven't had any since I left home, and so I was very happy. And it only got better. He put blueberries, vanilla ice cream, bananas, hot chocolate mix and milk into a blender and mixed it as I was eating my strawberry ice cream, and then proceeded to pour out six glasses of it. When I realized that there were only five dominicans in the kitchen I was smiling again. It was delicious. A dark purple concoction from heaven. To top it off, they offered me a piece of what tasted like peanut butter cinnamon bread. Needless to say, I was full before dinner began. I think I am going to volunteer to pick up dinner more often.
Back to our outing. After lunch, we went to the Kisumu Impala Sanctuary. It was amazing. There were impalas grazing just ten feet away from us, and there were a lot of them. We walked further into the sanctuary and saw a leopard, monkeys, baboons, a cheetah, lionesses, water buffalo, and a lion. Some of the monkeys were roaming free in the sanctuary, and teasing the caged leopard, who appeared to be hungry. One of the monkeys jumped onto the top of the leopards cage. The cage was a tall fence with a lip on the top to prevent the leopard from getting out. The leopard climbed the fence all the way up to the lip, trying to get a at the monkey, and then deduced that it was out of reach, and came back down. The money sat on a tree branch that hung over the fence and appeared to be taunting the leopard. It was quite a show.
I am getting to know more and more of the students, which is nice. Hanging out after breakfast, lunch, and after school. I will write more about that as more occurs. They have an interesting view of America. They think that we are all fabulously wealthy, and don't have to work for anything. They envision a place like heaven, and while I consider myself very blessed to have been born in such a great country, it certainly isn't heaven.
I think I am going to get going now, but I will upload photos to my computer tonight, and post them up here tomorrow.
Thank you very much for reading!
God Bless,
Kevin
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