AS PROMISED

OK so HERE IT IS. the promised post.
i figured i better write today as promised before i start a riot on the homefront.

Life is going wonderful. The kids are amazing. The teachers I work with at the school are amazing. Life is amazing.

Writing in here is semi- frusterating because there is so much I dont know what to write!
Ok lets try and back up a little.
I dont think I've mentioned yet the couple that moved into our house here. Terri and Mike, when I heard there was a couple moving into our house I admit at first i was a little skeptical. We had a good thing going. 3 of us living off cornflakes and bananas. AND even the first day i wasnt sure. I was hoping for the grandmother grandfather type, and they were certainly not that!
BUT when Terri informed us that her hubby likes a full meal every night and then asked if we minded if she cooked every night and if we would mind if she bought all the groceries, i knew she was a keeper. LOL but seriously we get along great, they have lived all around the world. Mike is more the .. tall .. string bean accounting guy who likes to talk about the news and Terri has a masters in leadership training so they are an interesting couple to say the least.
Anyways they have been here for a while, but I can't remember if i mentioned them.
Oh they also bought be frosted flakes for my birthday which was definetly appreciated. .

Hmmmm


I've been helping out mostly in nursery and standard 4 these days as you may know. It is going well. Starting tomorrow we have exams so things will slow down quite a bit.. well .. there will be a lot of marking..

We have been having to leave the school after we eat lunch these days because with the election coming up things have been getting a litttttttle sketchy around kibera.
Terri and I were talking about it. There are a lot of young guys just kinda standing around everywhere because they dont have jobs (they are hard to come by here) and politics seems like a good way to spend their time.

On friday we were not allowed to go to kibera at all because there was suppose to be these huge rallies from both sides the entire day which is ALWAYS bad news lol. Anyways things are very exciting here. Sometimes it gets frusterating
When we have to leave early or cant go places, I do not feel unsafe, I cant really explain it, i think the city here... you are.. more on your guard? but it is not necessarily MORE dangerous then any other big city. I think the amount of people who will yell something or make a comment as you walk by is about the same as home. One of the girls I live with and I were talking about this and she agreed. She said the first few people who yelled at her from a car when she got into the country were all white tourists so even though there are more things to be careful of, it sometimes gets frusterating.
We need to be back on the compound at 6pm which is when it gets dark. This one i would never argue with, after 6 is NOT a good time to be out in the city but some days i just wish i could walk more freely through kibera,
I am friends with a number of people down the short road from the bus to the school

There is a lady who makes chapati who i buy from most days to have with Chai,
also, the first few days we were at the school the headmistress was worried about a group of guys who hang out at a booth close to the school, she thought they might rob us, so clearly in my mind the next step was to make friends with them so we wouldnt have to worry about that. The first couple days they thought it was hilarious when i said "Hi" and "Bye" and "See you tommorrow!" BUT now most of them know me by name and come and greet me in the mornings

OK this is getting long already haha SEE this is the problem i have so much i can say yet. hmm

I visited St. Nicholas childrens home from saturday night to sunday. Annalie and Sarah Wassink (some of you may know her, she lives in our area, about an hour away from me, we know the same people, and we met here!!) work there. I had visited there right after i arrived here and was excited to visit again. The children there are so special. Their stories are like those unreal stories you read about or see in the movies. Sarah knew some of their stories and was telling me. There is one boy Mike, he just turned 17, and is now finished highschool (the school year ends here in december) He was found wandering around a bus station when he was a little kid and after a long series of events ended up at St Nicholas. He has absolutly no family or relatives, he has to leave the school soon because he is done highschool. I cant even imagine. His whole life has been at St Nicholas, leaving the grounds to go to his highschool but thats basically it. A lot of the kids have stories so much like this one.
They are like one giant family there, and for being hurt so badly all those kids are SO ready to give of themselves to you, running up to you asking your name, about your family, holding your hand they just love to talk.

Sarah and Annalie are amazing for them. Sarah is staying a year in Kenya and has been here for around 7 months already, annalie is staying for 6 i believe, or maybe 8 and has been here for a while too. Everynight they tuck all the kids into bed, the rooms are like, hotel room style (obviously not NEAR as nice) with two bunk beds in each with two rows of rooms, two halls on the outside edges the girls on one side the boys on the other.
We made the rounds and got to the last boys' room and they made us stay for i think over an hour just talking, they were the oldest ones (including mike) they have their own boy group called "Tempo" a little while ago someone came with a video camera (i think from the states) and made a music video for them. i PROMISED id spread the news of their band all over the world and they were pretty pumped so HERE IS THE LINK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtBGEXCUa9s
i think this one is part swahili part english. they have like 9 songs(someone brought them to a studio once to record)

we had church w them in the morning (you can see the church at the beginning of the video)
it was great to worship w the kids, it is an anglican church, and the pastor was wearing the robe thing.. which i cant say i was used to but we had tea w him after and he was an amazing down to earth guy. the kids have thier own chior (a bunch of the girls- they got choir robes from somewhere too) and the guys also performed a song (they are too cool to join the choir but want to sing still LOL) one of the boys had a drum so they were playing some pretty crazy beats with the music, and trust me these kids KNOW how to play . for one song a girl had a stick and was hitting one of the metal poles that is holding up the roof it sounded amazing! but the intstrument playing is all kind of spontaneous and the instruments switch hands alot.

Last week we were at joysprings church (the church from the school i teach at) and that was the first church ive danced at. no "frozen chozen" in this church let me tell you! but the worship was awesome, and all they had was an electric keyboard, their voices and their feet

if you ever come to kenya you will see that especially the kids will try and make everything into a song or dance.
just a couple days ago.. well.. on second thought i could keep typing FOREVER. ill save that story for another time!
haha!
God bless!

oh and
P.S. i didnt realize you could leave a comment unless you signed up? that SHOULD be fixed now! and thank you all for the messages and emails ive been getting! !