Hospitals and Crocodiles

Wednesday

I got a taste of teaching when I was given a classroom of 33 seventh-graders, mostly boys, for 70 minutes. Though I was terrified, it went really well and I actually enjoyed myself. They were able to help me with my library project by writing about which books they like to read and why they’d like a library at the school. I was able to incorporate their responses into my grant proposals and also get a better idea of what books to purchase (they seemed to mostly want books about history, geography, and soccer).

Half of the 7th Grade Class

Thursday

Last Sunday we made chocolate cookies in my apartment, and I must’ve gotten a little carried away with eating the raw cookie dough, because I’ve been feeling queasy ever since. Knowing Paul and my parents would be on my case if I didn’t get it checked out, I went to the hospital on Tuesday and had quite an experience. After navigating through the doctor’s various pick-up lines, I finally realized that nothing was deathly wrong with me except a sensitive stomach. I still felt terrible, though, so I took two sick days, the second of which was spent with my sick roomies. It gave me a chance to get some homework done, spend some quality time at the pool, and soak in beautiful Kenya.

My wonderful roommate, Kath, in our oasis of a bedroom

Saturday

Felix, one of my friends from World Hope Academy, took me on an adventure to the Mamba Village outside of town, which had tons of crocodiles and even some ostriches, giraffes, and camels. It was the first time I’ve travelled with a Kenyan and not been in a big tourist group. I thought that meant I’d be treated more like a local, but in reality it just meant everyone treated him like an mzungu too. It was hilarious to see his expressions as people greeting him overzealously with “Jambo!” and tried to sell him their CDs, etc. All I could say was, welcome to my world. Mwahaha.

After we’d returned to town for lunch, I met up with James (another friend from WHA) and went to the Paa Ya Paa Cultural Arts Center, a long trek out of the city center but well worth it—the US Embassy was hosting an arts festival with sculptures, paintings, music, acrobatic dancing, and poetry readings. It was really fun to see a different side of Kenya and spend time with the guys outside of work. We had to learve early so I could make it home by dark- such a Cinderella feeling :)

 

I never get tired of the giraffes! This one was a big more snuggly!