Does it get any cuter? No? I didn't think so.....

That's what I come to work to every day. I may have set that it up, however.
If you couldn't hear well, that was "Good Morning Teacher Morgan!"

Alright, so where do I start? I've been working at the Nursery school for what--? 2 weeks now? Dang, sorry it's been so long since I wrote last! Okay, well, the name of our school is Kiwanis Junior Academy, or KJA for short. Kenyans are very fond of their acronyms. And I mean very. I'll let you know if I come up with a really great example, but seriously every business and organization has acronymed themselves. KJA is an ECD school (See? There it goes again... ECD= Early Childhood Development), and we have 3 classes: Baby Class, beginning with kids at about 2.5 or 3; Middle Class, which is about 4-5-6 years; and Final Class who are up to about 7 at the oldest. ECD is basically preschool. It's tuition-based (the government doesn't pay for it like grade school and middle school), and we kind of just get kids ready for "real" school. ABC's, numbers, basic English, et cetera. I can't really talk to most of the kids since I know almost no swahili (or dhluo), but that language barrier is really the reason I've learned any at all so far. I can tell them to come here, sit down, eat their food and swallow it, but I think that's about it. Oh, and ask their names.... Some of the older ones speak enough English that they can translate for the others when the teachers aren't around, though. Imagine having yourself a 5 year old translator. Makes me feel pretty arrogant/dumb as an American who was never required to really learn another language. Most of these children speak 3 languages by the time they're like 10: their native tongue, kiswahili, and then English. Either way, though, it's still really fun hanging around them. They just ramble on in swahili at me, I speak english back, and even though none of us really understands one another, playing and tickling and and goofing around seems to be a universal language, because for some reason they all really love me. There's really no such thing as affection between Kenyan families. I guess I shouldn't say none at all, but I have literally seen one couple ever holding hands on the street, and that was last year when we were here, and the average physical contact most children have with their parents is a beating. My point is, these kids are pretty starved for affection, so a little hug or pat on the head goes a long way. Especially coming from such an affectionate family, I'm quite the squeezer of children. Okay, so what's my job, you ask? Great question. Our Head Teacher is more of the principal; she talks to parents and admits new students, on top of teaching. I do more of the book keeping and errand running. I'll get some pictures up of Kibuye Market at some point so you can see what my grocery shopping looks like. I order uniforms, buy school supplies... return school shoes that don't fit because they trusted the white girl without a receipt, but not my Kenyan teacher... Ooh, and I got a sweet 16-quire (column?) ledger to keep track of the money. Hear that, Daddy? Maybe it'll help me learn so I can keep track of my own money just as nicely. :) I get fed lunch at school, too, which is pretty rad. Chapatis (kind of like thick naan?), cabbages cooked with tomatoes & onions, rice & potato stew, or ugali & sukuma sometimes, but I usually pass on that. Okay, well I am getting tired of trying to describe my school days. I'm sure I'll have good stories here and there, so I won't waste it all on this first month.

How about some pictures, then??



This is Head Teacher Dorsila with the morning line-up.

Here's Teacher Faith and baby class, and on the right here is Middle Class (the ones from the video).

This is little Ms. Meshel with the class pointer. It's a metal rod with a nut and bolt sticking through the end. The picture on the right got a little messed up somehow, but you can see what tends to happen with that stick. Right in the eye.

Speaking of right-in-the-eye, here's Ginger's nice black one.

So this is Ginger, a friend of Kelsey's that's living with Elisabeth and I for a couple of months in our NEW APARTMENT!! She's here on a Fulbright (spelling?) Scholarship, studying how dance is used as an awareness tool for AIDS education. Anyway, she's a doll. So I guess you all want to know where the black eye came from?? Boda-boda accident. A boda is a bicycle-taxi. You know how a bike can have a little rack on the back? Well a boda a reinforced rack with a big 'ol cushion seat on the back that you sit on, and pay the driver 20 shillings to take you around town. 20ksh (Kenyan shillings) comes to like 30 cents. Anyway, poor Ginger was on one, when another boda-boda cut them off, and she went flying into the roundabout intersection. We took this picture in a matatu on our way into town. A matatu is the African version of a city bus. In town they have route numbers and everything, but they're independently operated, and there are millions of them speeding around. A matatu ride will run you 15-20ksh as well, but you can get all the way across town for that. Or you can hop on the back of a motorbike (a.k.a. piki-piki) for about 50ksh. There's a picture of Elisabeth and Zawa up top on their way home from school on a piki. It's pretty unusual to see a driver with a helmet, however. I think it's more of a fashion statement than anything. Like a "Hey, look how cool I am. I have a helmet to match my bike," thing. Don't think I've ever seen one actually buckled under the chin. Ooh! Or you can take a tuk-tuk. That's a 3-wheeled little go-karty thing that runs on a lawnmower engine. They actually have to pull a cord in the back to start it up. You can fit about 3 people in one, but they're more expensive. Like 100ksh for the same distance, but you can fit all your groceries in it with you, too. I'll get pictures of all this up eventually for reference. Alright so want to hear Elisabeth's motorbike story? She was on her way home from a mzungu (swahili for "white person"-- I get it yelled at me all day. ALL DAY.) dinner with a driver she uses regularly, and they were almost home when all of a sudden a fleet of motorbikes is coming the other way down the road, flashing their lights and honking their horns. So I would've thought I was about to be robbed, but these other bikes stopped Elisabeth's driver and told him not to go down the road that way, because the police had a roadblock up ahead, where they were beating up people and robbing them. Yep. The police. So needless to say, they turned around and went a different way home.

And on that note----- How about some more pictures??

Here're the roommates!!!
Ginger, Elisabeth and I.

We had a little impromptu housewarming party Friday night....
We sent one of our motorbike driver pals to pick us up some chicken. 4 chickens, in fact. I swear, this place called Wayside has the most delicious chicken ever. Not even just in Kenya.

.......and the aftermath of the chicken feast.








So you want a tour?


That was the living room we had the housewarming party in, which is attached to the dining room (here on the left).....


....which in turn connects to our lovely pink kitchen!! At first I really wanted to get it painted over, but it grew on me. It really is as pink as it looks. So girly!!


There's also a balcony off the kitchen. Heck yeah.





And if you head down the infinite hallway......... yes, that is a mirror that covers the entire wall at the end of the hall........


.......you come to the bathroom on the left, and my room on the right......

(Ginger's room is on the left after the bathroom, and Elisabeth's is on the right, after mine.)

Don't be deceived by the showerhead, though.... we don't have running water....

Those basins on the floor are our shower, when you combine them with a pitcher to pour over your head....

I'm standing on my bed there, facing the sweet vanity thing that's built in between my closets.

Yep. CLOSETS....

And here's the view out of our living room -- right over to Ted & Kelsey's place!!

We live on the second floor of our building, and they live on the second floor of theirs, so our living room windows look into each other's. Super cool. We're going to put in a tin-can phone and a bucket on a pulley so we can borrow sugar from one another.

Now that I've actually got a home, it's beginning to feel more like a real life I've got going here. I'm really encouraged and glad to be here at this point, and I'm pretty sure that feeling's going to last.

Okay, well that's it for the tour, but here's a few pictures that have no context in my rambling, but they're good nonetheless.

I know that looks like a big pile of fruit, but it was just a tiny bit that I snapped a quick picture of, so as not to take a picture of anyone without their permission. There are literally mountains of beautiful fruits, vegetables and beans within the market that is more infinite than my hallway. It's like Labyrinth, and you're Jennifer Connely.

Here's Kevin enjoying his dinner. Really enjoying it. That's not just a scrap piece of fish, either.... that's the most coveted part, as it contains the delicious succulent insides of the gills, which supposedly make you smarter the more you eat them. Just ask any Luo.

...and a kitty enjoying it's dinner! Pretty sure that's just a stomach it found.... see the tubey piece there?

We'll end on a cute one..... this one's for you, Mommy!!

These're some neighbor kids I gave Smartie's to the other day. They don't speak english either, but they are no longer afraid of me. I don't think it had much to do with the Smarties, though.

Alright, folks, that's all I've got in me!

It's 4:41 in the a.m., and this stupid program has exhausted me. Plus all the compressing/shrinking of pictures and all that... Hope it was worth it and you all enjoyed it. I'll try to be a little better about posting more often, but no guarantees.

I love you all.... keep in touch!!

Peace.

P.S: Jesus saves!! I got my lost bag back like 10 days ago. I guess you were right, Mommy, he did protect it....

Later Alligators!!