Laundry, Soccer, and a Birthday

If youre going to live in Africa I highly recommend not waiting a month to do your laundry...


We have to do it all by hand...
3 loads of color, 2 loads of whites, and 1 load of jeans later...Or should I say 3 1/2 hours later, my laundry was just about done when the water ran out.

This cow kept me company though so that was nice...


This is the tank I get my water from that ran out of water half way through so I had to run to the shower to refill...This is also the trough(?) i use to scrub my jeans...


And these are the tubs that I scrub all my clothes in...One of the women who works at our house, Mary, thinks we don't know how to do laundry...Obviously, were American...


After laundry we were meeting the house boys at a primary school down the street to play soccer and hang out...it turned out to be a pretty low-key and nice afternoon...



Justus and Johnstone


Once again, I gave my camera to some of the house boys and this is what I found on it once I got home...

Allison likes to call this a "Cornstache" or a "Mustalk". I know, I know...


David was a frog...


I'm not quite sure...








Please don't mind me and my sweaty face...We just got done playing soccer...On the other hand I love Moses' face...how is it that Africans don't sweat?


Cute Braum


Again, please don't mind the sweaty face...


Today was one of our housemates birthday's. Her name is Tanya and she is from Ukraine...She teaches English at one of the schools here in Kitale. She is so sweet and just a really great person...


Tanya


Chris wore this nifty sweater to dinner, (the one that one of the women here made for us) and Allison thought he looked like Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties...


What do you think? It's ok if you don't think he looks like a man anymore

House 3 Partay

Last night was our dinner with house 3. They're a bit younger than the other 2 houses but they were so much fun and they have a sweet house just down the street from us.

Notice Joseph taking a picture of himself while another picture is being taken of the group...


And here's the individual...

So while Allison and I were working hard in the kitchen again, we later found what Chris and the boys had been up to on our camera...



David & Joseph...


Seriously? What I find more hysterical is if you look closer the bills are only 50 and 100 shilling notes. 68 Shillings= $1...He's "ballin'"


Joseph




Chris thought the barbed wire made him look tough


Chris using Isaiah as an armrest


Joseph & Ovi


Ovi loves Beyonce


We finished dinner early so we found some time to play soccer...and of coarse time to take awesome pictures with Isaiah


The sky was amazing





They got 2 new puppies and they were really cute and no i didnt get ring worm from touching them...




We were playing hide and seek in the dark and the boys had climbed up to the top of their closet...like we wouldn't find them...


One of the boys had hid underneath the mosquito net...if you look closely you can see him under Ovi...


The electricity company hadn't turned on their power yet so we ate by candle and lantern light...it set the mood nicely to enjoy chipati and sprite...and Chris' creepy lantern picture...




He had also done "the robot" earlier and did it again for our friend and taxi driver Dan, but he wasn't amused


Chris had demonstrated "the elevator" move behind the couch and the boys loved it so they wanted to try...

BEST DAY EVER

So I just got home from one of my favorite, if not the favorite day I've had here so far...
Today was my first day teaching PE at Kitale Forest Primary school...I have to say I was a bit nervous going into it because I didnt know how the kids would receive me or if there would be work for me to do...I also am not a fan of being in front of a lot of people, I get nervous and don't want the attention. But I figured it's Africa and this is the place for me to stretch myself right? I need to get over it



It was sheer craziness, at one point I had class 5 with about 50 students AND class 7 with 70 all at once...






They lost a frisbee in one of the trees so Rodgers climbed up about 30 feet and brought it back down...


Turns out they had plenty for me to do...First, I did some grading for class 7. Then when I was done with all my PE classes they had me teach an impromptu HIV/AIDS class..
To be honest it was one of my favorite parts of the day. In Nashville, one of my jobs is for a non-profit called World Vision and a HUGE part of what they do deals with the HIV/AIDS crisis, esp. in Africa. It was great to talk about what it is, how you can or cannot get it, myths, what it does to your body, and most importantly how you can keep from getting it...Its a subject I feel very passionately about, so I actually didnt mind at all when she threw me up in front of the class without any prep.


The house 1 boys invited me to come to their house for lunch...it was only about a 10 minute walk


Braum and Jonah...


Paul


Evans...



Paul borrowed my camera when we got back to school and took some of these shots...No worries, it was still break time, class hadn't actually started yet..


Some of the students


At the end of the day the deputy had me sit in on Class 4 Swahili, which is great because I need to work on mine. But still the kids were really excited and very encouraging...I totally felt like Billy Madison, being the 26-year-old student in the class 4 primary school class, sitting in a tiny desk repeating sentences back to the teacher...




I love this picture of Joseph...


Today was so great. The teachers and the deputy, Martha, were so encouraging and supportive. The kids were so much fun and really participated, which made me sooo much more comfortable...I seriously cant wait for next week