Yesterday was my turn with Class 8 and we literally worked on Science and Social Studies from 9:30AM to 3:45PM.

Allison in her full uniform


I only had the shirt


Break time

Steward and Dorcas


Joseph, who after all this time, we found out his name was Godfrey





Martin, Johnstone, and Justus are crazy with how much they love to learn. It got to be break time and I asked if they wanted to go outside and they refused at least 4 times, so we kept going with the lessons.




It was great though because time flew without even knowing it.
Its great to have such small classes because we can take our time and discuss everything in depth and the kids can ask questions.
We covered some great topics like animals and their different types of defense mechanisms, carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, the different types of teeth, how the different types move, evolution, and archeology. This all lead to discussion of other topics not in the book such as Aero Dynamics, the Amazon, Boa Constrictors, submarines...We are not teaching today so that we can take Freda's kids to the pool, since we didn't get to go last week.
In our place Geoffrey will be teaching Swahili, lessons will continue tomorrow...

In the Streets

Before Andrew left today he went in town to say goodbye to some of the street kids we see everyday in town. These are the kids who for some reason refuse to come to Oasis. They say they are starving and we tell them Oasis will feed them for free, but they still choose to not come.

So sometimes if we have to go to the supermarket we'll buy an extra bag or two of bread and give it to some of the boys we meet...







This is Joseph, he's one of the older boys who "looks after" and supplies glue for the younger boys...






Sometimes they show up at Oasis, but most times we only see them on the streets. Its crazy and heartbreaking to look at boys like Martin, Evans, Bram, and Moses and know that was once them.

Strike!

Oasis



The teachers of Kenya have gone on strike to demand more money form the government. This only affects public schools, not private, so there are some schools that are still in session, like Purpose Driven and Kitale Family, where we have quite a few students.
Of course this still affects Kitale Forest and Milimani Primary, where we also have a ton of students. So instead of letting the kids just sit home and do nothing or possibly get themselves into trouble we decided to have the kids report to Oasis and the lower classes would be taught by Manu and Allison and I would teach class 7 and 8. She took Maths, English, and Creative Arts. I took Science, Social Studies, and CRE

All the kids reporting for school this morning


Ajix, Rael, Janet, and Dorcas


David, Pato, Wiki


Moses and Steward


Martin


Evans


Johnstone and Moses


I love Dorcas


Paul


Martin and Joseph




Yes, we actually had class...

The younger classes


Some of the older classes


Class 7


Class 8


Today also happened to be Andrew's last day...



The whole group


Up next is Allison and I...I'm not sure what to do considering I've been crying the entire time Ive been writing this blog...Dear Lord, "Beer me strength."

What Made my Friday Night

Exactly...
This is how Simiyu is coming home with me...

Sunday

We went to church at Oasis this morning...photo shoot always to follow...

Charles, Esokon, Justus, and Morgan


Bram and Martin


Ajix and her sister Christine


Martin and Evans


Dorcas and Charlotte


Faith and her partners in crime


Martin


Kamau


Justus, Charles, and Johnstone


This is one of my favorite sequences that I like to call,
The many faces of Evans "Matrix," as he calls himself

Saturday

This afternoon we took a family from Oasis to the Coffee Shop to get chips and milkshakes, I know real healthy. It was actually 2 sisters and their brother. Elizabeth, David, and Teresa used to come to Oasis everyday, but just recently have been sponsored to go to school. They now attend Milimani Primary. Elizabeth is in class 5, David is class 3, and Teresa is in nursery class...They are such good kids and have worked so hard to go to school. I thought it would be a fun thing, especially since they never get to do anything like it.














The walk home, Teresa insisted on swinging..the whole way...Her poor mother probably thought I dragged her through the dirt.



Afterwards we went to House 2 to watch Arsenal vs. Hull City (soccer) with all of the house boys...Martin had called earlier to tell me that the game started at 3. I asked "are you sure? Because online it said the game was at 5:30, possibly as late as 7:30PM."
And he assured me it was at 3...So we got there around 345 only to find out that the game was actually at 815...Nice. Turns out that Chelsea was playing at 530, so we in the meantime I helped some of the boys revise and do homework...Apparently there was also a photo shoot, because these were found on my camera...






I had to leave before the game was over, but it was still really fun. Watching football in a room full of teenage Kenyan boys is hilarious. Theyre all shouting at the TV in swahili and making fun of the players and talking about how they could do everything better...F-U-N