Eli did have a 1st day of school

It was just almost a month ago now.

Guess I’m a little behind.

He loves school.  I love his uniform.  Easy and simple, no struggles over what to wear in the morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I see there are spots, I think he spilled yogurt and I tried to salvage the “jumper” aka sweater so we didn’t have to go for the backup one.

He is doing great in school.  He has finally adjusted to the full days of school, although I am not adjusted to the fact that he has nightly homework.

He’s a leftie who seems to become a rightie when he’s been in school for some time (they assure me they are not trying to influence him).   As he comes into his own his creativity and perceptiveness are showing themselves.  I love this about him. 

He is friends with EVERYONE and is always asking for their number so I can call them for playdates.  Overall, it is great to see Eli blossom into such a social, delightfully humorous little boy.  Here are his friends Sinclair, Bernadette (twins), Maanov and Ishie at school, posing for my camera on the 1st day:

 

 

That’s just the British

Ok, so a while ago our friend Andy Stoughton started harassing us about spelling center, CENTRE.  He imformed us that he was going to start spelling dude (one of the words both our families use much to frequently) some crazy way as a means of payback for all of the words we are spelling oddly.

It’s interesting to be living in Kenya, but also to be adjusting to this whole British culture stuff that is left over from Colonial rule.

Tea time.  Yep.  That’s a serious thing here in Kenya.  Even in the supermarkets, you’ll see the employees hanging out all over  the meat case (that open topped case in the middle of the aisle holding sausage, or hamburger or whatever) at 4pm with their mugs in hand and a thermos of hot chai (black tea in hot milk) sitting on the case.  I’m getting pretty good at getting my tea game on for guests…but Ian is even better at it!

Or Eli and Lucy talking about wearing their swimming costumes.  Their what?  It took me forever to figure out that they meant swimsuits.  And what is happening to me?  Yesterday I called his p.e. outfit his “p.e. costume.”  I’m gonna come back to the States and everyone’s gonna think I’m permanently in love with Halloween or something.

The best is looking “smart”.  I used to say people looked cute, or pretty and received blank  stares.  I really don’t  even know how to tell someone they’re intelligent….just smartly dressed…which they all generally are.

Anyhow, so, I’m off now to make sure that Eli’s jumper is ready for the morning.  Right, you all think I’m putting him in a dress don’t you???   Nope, just his little brown v-neck pullover sweater that’s a part of his VERY british school uniform.

 Linds, I’ll feel so much more at home with your British neighbors when we return home!

 

Imani Bazaar, Weekend Exploring, and Back to Work

Eli trying to win a toy motorcycle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO luck...instead he won....Mastermind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not too excited about his "win" we were able to exchange it for the motorcycle after all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting his face painted, everyone else asked for a ball or butterfly...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eli asked for Spiderman and here's what he got. He was really happy about it even though this picture doesn't show it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile…..the girls were at the fingernail painting booth.

 

There were horses to ride...that scared Eli to death. He did pet one though.

Saw lots of countryside like this.

Saw lots of markets like this.

Wow and way out here in the country. Amazing.

 

Our rustic patio set.

They were serious about the “door – to – door” service. We thought they picked up at the gate.

 

 

First van ride to school..Eli is so excited, Lucy is a little nervous.

So we had what resembled a fairly “normal” weekend here in Kenya.  We went to the kids’ school bazaar, which was as typical as you can get.  Booths, games, wares for sale, exchanging money for “tickets” to turn in to participate in the activities at the booths etc.  It was nice to arrive and have people greet the kids by name. 

Although there was one mishap and one “Captain Obvious” moment at the bazaar.  The mishap occurred as I stood in line to buy some tickets for the family.  The woman behind the table greeted Eli by name, and, since Eli had only been in school 3 days, and it wasn’t his teacher, I assumed that the person greeting must have been either his swimming teacher or the horse trainer.  I said as much, to which the woman replied, “No, actually, I’m the headmistress!”  Not the first impression I was hoping to make.  Then I followed it up with my “Captain Obvious” statement.  

A sidebar on “Captain Obvious” statements.  If you can’t figure it out, it is when you say something that is completely obvious to everyone else, and should be to you as well.  We learned this coined phrase from my brother, who may have learned if from his now wife or perhaps some of her college friends?

Anyhow, my “Captain Obvious” statement was this to the headmistress:  “Oh, I’m Eli’s mom” to which she replied, “I figured.”  Duh!  Not only did I walk in with him….but in the hundred or so people at the bazaar, Ian and Lucy were the only other possibilities for family, and what do you know! 

I’m going to have to work a little harder to make a better impression with the headmistress.  Although, in my defense, and Kori take no offense, she DID so look like a p.e. teacher!  You all know what I am talking about.

After the bazaar we just drove out of town and kept going.  Without a map, we just headed towards Mt. Kenya, which is north of where we live.  We enjoyed simply taking in the sights and sounds of something other than Thika and Nairobi.  We drove through farm land and more mountainous areas…all very reminiscent of what it looks like on the island of Kauai.  We stopped at an “Out of Africa Curio Shop” and were greeted by the VERY tourist prices.  We made our way out of there with just our very favorite items.  The shop keeper made sure to let us know multiple times that he was giving us his “resident price”.  We are sure it was a Wazungu “resident price”.  On our way out, he showed me to his disabled 8 year old son.  He sends him into a special school here in Thika.  He said that the boy had severe meningitis as a baby.  He said he “wasn’t right in the head”.  I met the boy…he appeared to have expressive language difficulties (although I am not a speech and language pathologist to formally diagnosis him).   I asked his father if the boy followed directions ok, he replied yes.  Such a different world.  I imagine this child would be in a regular 2nd grade class in the states with some speech and language support from special education.

Anyhow, with that, we made our way home with my moaning and groaning about being horribly carsick until I took a motion sickness pill, that just didn’t seem to work.  I crashed when we got home while Ian brought the kids in a mixed up some dinner.

On Sunday, we ventured again into Nairobi in an attempt to further furnish the house with necessities andin hopes of scoping out possible churches to visit.  We didn’t find a church, but the mall is filled with nonstop Christian music all day on Sunday.  I’m not sure if this is an everyday kind of thing or just a Sunday thing.  We’ll see this Wednesday when we go in for work and for a town hall meeting held by the US Ambassador at his home.   We scored some fun chairs from a roadside dealer for our patio, and I learned that my motion sickness pills are chewables….so they worked much better this time around.

We were back to work today….meeting  much of the morning to figure out next steps and to divy up the tasks needed to get this place really hopping.  Besides all of the regular tasks that are involved in running a program there are processes unique to Kenya and a new organization to learn.  Anyone got a guess about what “Impress” is?   Rather than making a good impression??  Also, decisions to be made about whether to have a “cooker” or a “jiko”.  What do you all think?

  

 

Chicken Proof Doors Only Work When Closed.

Like so many other things in life, we only get out of things what we put into them.  I may have the most chicken proof door possible, but if I leave it wide open….it doesn’t do much good.   I’ll let the pictures do the talking. 

Eli screamed here use my water bottle daddy. Get it. Cook it, Cook it. How about we pet it and let it back out side instead?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out you go.

Nothing to be scared of here.

Everyone likes a friendly chicken right?

On a completely unrelated note….the kids finished their first few days of school and they seem to be really liking it so far.  As promised, here’s their sports day uniforms.  Looking smart, as everyone says around here.

Ready to rumble. On their first sports day they got to go swimming. Pretty good start, they had a great time. Ian, out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s some thoughts from Anne today:Somewhere along the line when Eli was a baby I found a great little journal book that helps you record the funny things kids say as they grow up. It’s a great little book with pockets and great suggestions on where to keep paper and a pen so you can avoid missing the best comments.It seems that Lucy has far fewer funny grammatical error comments than Eli did at this age. She is a very verbal kid who can already express things like, “I feel fus-tated” “E-yi hurt my feelings” “E-yi call me bay-bee. I not baybee!” “E-yi I don’ like you touching me!” All said in a very husky and LOUD voice. Generally followed by screams.The liitle journal book advises that some of the best comments from kids can be collected in the car. This is true. We’ve had most of our philosophical and deep conversations in the car.Yesterday Eli asked how God created the world. Followed by: “What are we made of?” I replied with a straight, “The dust of the earth which God blew in to” rather than snipes and snails and puppydog tails….In the car on the way to school today Ian told Eli he wanted him to learn the name of one kid at school so he could tell daddy it when he came home. True to the task, Eli learned a name.Pole. Pole? We finally figured out that he was trying to say “Paul”. Imagine his British teacher saying, “Paul” and you can see how it ends up “Pole”. Eli has already named him, “The naughtiest boy”. That is funny with a british accent too. I asked, “Why is he naughty” to which Eli matter of factly replied, “God just made him naughty”. I asked if he had to go sit in the naughty chair. Eli shrugged no…..which was followed by the following whispered comment, “I was a little naughty too.” He wouldn’t elaborate on what being “a little naughty” was.Guess that will give me something to chit chat with the teacher about this weekend at the school bazaar. I’m quite interested to see what a school bazaar looks like in Kenya. I’m hoping for cute crafty African type things…but we’ll see.  Anne

 

 

 

New favorite

We love reading books in the May house.  We brought a few of our favorites along with us with the thought that books were heavy and might be hard to come by here, or that they might be expensive.  They’re not too expensive, about what it would cost in the States.

When we were last in Nairobi, we went  to a good bookstore at the suggestion of Roy and Jackie and we found our “new favorite”.

It’s called Tricky Tortoise by Mwenye Hadithi and Adrienne Kennaway.

It has the best double spread watercolor pictures…it has animals, a moral lesson and great writing.  They have also written:

Handsome Hog, Lazy Lion, Greedy Zebra, Enormous Elephant and more.  We’ll slowly work to build these into our collection as well.

We had been enjoying reading Tricky Tortoise, and on our first day at school when I was looking at the classroom library, there it was!  Yea!

If you want to check it out, go to:  www.hodderchildrens.co.uk

 

Huge Breath of Fresh Air

Yes, some children's play equiptment.

So today we visited the Imani School which is here in our community and it was VERY encouraging.  We’re ready to send both kids for half days ASAP.  The School was beautiful by Kenyan standards and very welcoming.  Both kids could attend for 1/2 days and we even think they might be able to pick them up here at the compound gate.  They have so many wonderful activities for the kids who so need some kid oriented stuff.  They have a real playground, kiddie pool, large pool, horse back riding, so many great activities.  Did I already say that.  Eli jumped right in and spent 30 minutes with an older class and really liked it.  Now it’s not exactly a Mzungu school, looks more like an indian, asian, and local affluent kid school.  Eli and Lucy will be the only Americans but I doubt that will be a probem for our chatty kids.  We were very encourage by the visit, so hoping it can work out for us. 

A view of some classrooms.

Anne (with her big yellowbag) chatting with the Pre-Prep teacher.

Letting him climb something actually made for climbing.

Some childrens play equiptment…at last.

What's that....a kiddie pool. All children take swimming lessons at Imani School!