I've just realized that I haven't posted in over a week. I'm doing such an awful job of abiding by my mother's "two posts a week" rule. Please forgive me all.
So, as I mentioned last time, Class IV had their national exams Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday last week, which meant we could not be on the school grounds. Like, not at all; a soldier comes and administers the exams to the children. Only the head teacher and the secretary were there during the day, which led to our long weekend. Wednesday was a pretty calm day. I happily slept in, did school work during the day, and then went to prayer service. It was just a wonderfully relaxing day.
On Thursday, Christine and I went to town and had lunch with a missionary friend, and then went over to her house where she lives with two other missionaries and their kids. Their home is SO beautiful. They even have a pool so we got to go swimming. It was a really nice time, and while in town Christine and I got our weekly shopping done. When we got back that afternoon, we were both just kind of doing our own thing, I was doing schoolwork, etc., when we started hearing some shouts. There's a duka (shop) next door, and some ladies sell chapati, mandazi's and what not, and the shop actually sells chips mayai (french fries covered in eggs, it's actually really good) so people are eating, sometimes they get loud, it's just like the Alibi in Gary. Except this time, the shouting wasn't stopping. Eventually, I got really curious so I looked out the window and saw people running down the road and yelling, and they didn't stop coming. Christine joined me, and we were both kind of going "what in the world is going on?" The road has a turn off beside the church that contines along the East edge of the school yard, sort of far from the actual school building, and the crowd was turning that way. For some reason, they stopped midway, and we had no idea why. All we saw were a bunch of people, the Class IV kids running towards the huddle of people, and Pastor trying to round up all the kids. It was a lot more comical then because we didn't know why this was happening. We found out that night that there had been a theif. Someone caught him trying to go into a house, and they started chasing him. As did everyone else who figured out what was going on. Apparently, the acceptable response to a theif here is to chase, beat and possibly kill him/her, not calling the police. We've been extra vigilant since then about locking our door.
Friday was pretty calm again. Our house was very busy in the morning; Mama Vanessa came to clean in the morning, and two of Christine's piano students came over. I spent most of the morning working on stuff for my English class, which we had later that afternoon. I'm still getting used to time here. I stood outside the preschool classroom waiting for the ladies to come, thinking if none of them showed up by 4:20, I would just leave. I figured if they heard about the exams, they maybe thought they couldn't come on school grounds either. However, right at 4:20, they all came, so I went until 5:30. Otherwise, the day was pretty quiet.
Saturday morning, I did lots of laundry. It's funny to me; two years ago, when I was moving into college, it was this big deal to be doing laundry on your own. This is just a whole another dimension, actually hand scrubbing your clothes, rinsing them, and then line drying. I'm so glad I only do a little bit and Mama Vanessa does the rest. It's very time consuming! Later Saturday, Christine and I visited another orphanage, this one run by a German woman. This orphanage was way out of town. We took a dala dala for a little while, then walked two miles. I had thought we were getting a taxi after the dala dala, but there weren't any taxis. I was wearing flip flops. I have now permantently damaged or destoryed three pairs of shoes here. Anyway, back to the trip, it was kind of a bad choice of day to visit because it was so far. By the time we got there, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon, and we had to be back in Kihonda around 5:30. We never really had much of a chance of spending time with the kids. We did get to go to their youth service and then at least visit the orphanage, which was very nice. The orphanage is supported by a church in Germany, although the gal who runs it is a German who grew up here. There were two other girls there doing a "gap year," where they take a year off between high school and college. Most of the other missionaries around my age are doing this. Anyway, we talked to them for a little bit, and then headed back.
Sunday was busy, as expected. There was church and Sunday school in the morning, which went well. One of our missionary friends actually came to church which was fun! We all three went over to the pastor's for lunch, and then we hosted prayer service that evening. It was so nice having people come to our house! :)
This week thus far has been.... normal. This is so weird. Just back to school, working with the kids, and trying to figure out how the rest of the year is going to go. We have about four weeks left of school before the winter break which is a month. It's so strange, when we come back we start a new year meaning that all of the classes will change. All of my class IV kids will be class V, class V will be class VI, etc. They're already trying to change how we talk about the classes. Really, I feel like the year is centered around the class VII exams. Once those exams are done, they start focusing on the next class VII (which is still class VI at this point). They've already done practice exams with them! I hope their brains last until next September.
Our weekend looks quiet, as does next week. I'll be sure to update sooner this next time!
God bless,
Kjirstin
So, as I mentioned last time, Class IV had their national exams Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday last week, which meant we could not be on the school grounds. Like, not at all; a soldier comes and administers the exams to the children. Only the head teacher and the secretary were there during the day, which led to our long weekend. Wednesday was a pretty calm day. I happily slept in, did school work during the day, and then went to prayer service. It was just a wonderfully relaxing day.
On Thursday, Christine and I went to town and had lunch with a missionary friend, and then went over to her house where she lives with two other missionaries and their kids. Their home is SO beautiful. They even have a pool so we got to go swimming. It was a really nice time, and while in town Christine and I got our weekly shopping done. When we got back that afternoon, we were both just kind of doing our own thing, I was doing schoolwork, etc., when we started hearing some shouts. There's a duka (shop) next door, and some ladies sell chapati, mandazi's and what not, and the shop actually sells chips mayai (french fries covered in eggs, it's actually really good) so people are eating, sometimes they get loud, it's just like the Alibi in Gary. Except this time, the shouting wasn't stopping. Eventually, I got really curious so I looked out the window and saw people running down the road and yelling, and they didn't stop coming. Christine joined me, and we were both kind of going "what in the world is going on?" The road has a turn off beside the church that contines along the East edge of the school yard, sort of far from the actual school building, and the crowd was turning that way. For some reason, they stopped midway, and we had no idea why. All we saw were a bunch of people, the Class IV kids running towards the huddle of people, and Pastor trying to round up all the kids. It was a lot more comical then because we didn't know why this was happening. We found out that night that there had been a theif. Someone caught him trying to go into a house, and they started chasing him. As did everyone else who figured out what was going on. Apparently, the acceptable response to a theif here is to chase, beat and possibly kill him/her, not calling the police. We've been extra vigilant since then about locking our door.
Friday was pretty calm again. Our house was very busy in the morning; Mama Vanessa came to clean in the morning, and two of Christine's piano students came over. I spent most of the morning working on stuff for my English class, which we had later that afternoon. I'm still getting used to time here. I stood outside the preschool classroom waiting for the ladies to come, thinking if none of them showed up by 4:20, I would just leave. I figured if they heard about the exams, they maybe thought they couldn't come on school grounds either. However, right at 4:20, they all came, so I went until 5:30. Otherwise, the day was pretty quiet.
Saturday morning, I did lots of laundry. It's funny to me; two years ago, when I was moving into college, it was this big deal to be doing laundry on your own. This is just a whole another dimension, actually hand scrubbing your clothes, rinsing them, and then line drying. I'm so glad I only do a little bit and Mama Vanessa does the rest. It's very time consuming! Later Saturday, Christine and I visited another orphanage, this one run by a German woman. This orphanage was way out of town. We took a dala dala for a little while, then walked two miles. I had thought we were getting a taxi after the dala dala, but there weren't any taxis. I was wearing flip flops. I have now permantently damaged or destoryed three pairs of shoes here. Anyway, back to the trip, it was kind of a bad choice of day to visit because it was so far. By the time we got there, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon, and we had to be back in Kihonda around 5:30. We never really had much of a chance of spending time with the kids. We did get to go to their youth service and then at least visit the orphanage, which was very nice. The orphanage is supported by a church in Germany, although the gal who runs it is a German who grew up here. There were two other girls there doing a "gap year," where they take a year off between high school and college. Most of the other missionaries around my age are doing this. Anyway, we talked to them for a little bit, and then headed back.
Sunday was busy, as expected. There was church and Sunday school in the morning, which went well. One of our missionary friends actually came to church which was fun! We all three went over to the pastor's for lunch, and then we hosted prayer service that evening. It was so nice having people come to our house! :)
This week thus far has been.... normal. This is so weird. Just back to school, working with the kids, and trying to figure out how the rest of the year is going to go. We have about four weeks left of school before the winter break which is a month. It's so strange, when we come back we start a new year meaning that all of the classes will change. All of my class IV kids will be class V, class V will be class VI, etc. They're already trying to change how we talk about the classes. Really, I feel like the year is centered around the class VII exams. Once those exams are done, they start focusing on the next class VII (which is still class VI at this point). They've already done practice exams with them! I hope their brains last until next September.
Our weekend looks quiet, as does next week. I'll be sure to update sooner this next time!
God bless,
Kjirstin
Kjirstin - THANK YOU for posting!! I definitely would prefer the twice a week deal! Also, pictures of you and the kids would be great! Or, you and Christine, the pastor, his family, etc. Please lock your door. And your window. And anything else lockable. It sounds like this was in broad daylight - pretty gutsy! I love you - Mom
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