Wow, I’m really getting behind aren’t I? Ok, time to catch you all up on what happened last week.
Monday was a crazy busy day with 6 classes. Caitlyn and I had 3 classes together and 3 on our own. I had been given a PE class (gasp from all those who know me) so freaked out a little about that but ended up just answering their many many questions about me and my life. The other classes were creative art and life skills as usual, in fact that is all we took for the rest of the week! It was ok though as the kiddies are cute and seem really excited when we come to their class; they almost don’t care what we teach them. I think they just want to be able to go home and tell their parents/caregivers “the mzungus taught us today!”
I took my video camera to school on Wednesday to capture some of the ‘moments’ with the kids and take a bit of a snapshot of the school. We took some books and bubbles to our baby class, which went down exceptionally well. I read them a Spot book and a Richard Scary Golden Book and left them there for the class. It was so much fun reading to them; they were all so attentive and excited. They even laughed when I tried to be funny! The bubbles were a total hit. Every time we blew some they screamed and yelled and tried to catch them. Super cute!
We had three PE classes outside on Wednesday and it was hot, very hot. What did bright spark Marcella NOT do…put on sunscreen or drink enough water. Consequently I was feeling pretty poorly by the time we walked home. My arms were really sunburnt and I felt like I had been hit by a truck! Might take an IQ test to make sure I actually register on the scale at all. I slept for most of the afternoon, played a very bad game of Catan with Caitlyn but didn’t indulge in our daily popcorn – clearly I wasn’t feeling well. I went to bed early after many applications of Aftersun kindly supplied by the non-sunburnt one of the two of us.
Thursday morning came and I felt a little better, just hit by a regular 4-door today. I didn’t end up going to school, I just wanted to sleep some more and keep out of the sun. Caitlyn still went though and I stayed chilling out at home with Ann. It was just what I needed and I was back to my ‘normal’ self that evening.
The boys (the Canadians we know who live around the corner and run the clinic I have told you about will henceforth be known only as ‘the boys’) agreed to dinner and drinks at our local – can you believe I have a local in Kenya?? We met Ken and another dude who work with the boys at their clinic. It was a rather civil evening of chatting and me being teased for drinking Fanta while everyone else was drinking beer. When the evening came to an end we decided to catch a boda home. A boda is a motorbike with a driver for hire. The boys take them all the time so we decided to give it a go. I went with Josh (one of the aforementioned ‘boys’) so I would feel safer and Caitlyn went with Bryce and Jordan sped off on his own. It started off fine although I did have the thought that if I came off, it would hurt quite considerably seeing as:
- no one had a helmet on (it simply wasn’t an option)
- I was wearing a skirt so no material to shield my legs
- the roads are quite awful so I would be landing on rocky ground
As the journey continued I started to enjoy it. Wind in my hair, racing around traffic, bumping all over the place – but it really was safe, honestly mum!
We arrived home only to discover I didn’t have my wallet on me! I had left it at Connections! Now losing something here almost guarantees it will be gone but as we know a couple of the staff now I crossed my fingers that one of them had picked it up and Caitlyn and I raced back to the hotel. No, it wasn’t an excuse to go on the boda again, it was honestly gone. I ran back to where we had been sitting, found Ken ‘our’ waiter and told him I had lost my wallet. He had it! Phew! I didn’t have a whole lot of money in there, I was more worried about my card but it was all there. Bless the boy, I gave him 500 ksh to say thank you. Feeling particularly lucky we headed back again. By this stage I was kind of loving the boda, think I’ll have to do that again soon.
Friday was effectively our last day at school as everyone has exams next week so we will just be supervising and marking. We caught a matatu as usual. I said to the conductor “20 shillings. For two,” and gave him 40 shillings. He turned to me and said “30”. “No” I said “20. It was 20 yesterday, it is 20 everyday, so it is 20 today!” and gave put the money in his hands. By this stage, the woman behind me and the one beside Caitlyn were laughing their heads off. There was no way he was going to charge us more just because we were white! 20 shillings and that is that! He had no choice but to accept really. 30 shillings my butt!
We had one PE class and Caitlyn had convinced Bryce (Canadian number 2) to come and take the class with her. The kiddies were excited to have 3 mzungus taking them! The rest of the classes that day were all creative art. Caitlyn and I had a piece of coloured card for each student and asked them to draw a picture they would like us to take back to Australia with us. We had felts (textas, markers, whatever you want to call them), crayons and pencils for them to use as well as stickers. It was all very exciting! A lot of the pictures were of Kenya; the flag, a map of the country, even drawings of the president! We got a lot of messages too which just made our day – Hello to Australia from Kenya; thank you Caitlyn and Marcella, we love you; thank you for coming to Kenya, we will miss you. Awww, so gorgeous. We had such a lovely time going through them all.
It was the last class of the day and so, according to Caitlyn, beer o’clock, off to Connections again! The boys were there as they were doing some interviewing and work for the clinic so joined us soon after we got there, after Caitlyn’s first beer and after my Amarula…mmm, African Baileys. It was a very relaxing afternoon by the pool especially considering I had a couple more Amarulas. Heh. We left about 5:30 and walked home with Canadian number 2 (the other boys took bodas). It was getting dark so Bryce suggested we all walk a little faster as it would be safer if we could get home before light. No pressure! Into the estate we walked as twilight hit. All good, we’re alive.
Bryce headed back to his place and Caitlyn and I played Catan and ate popcorn – what a surprise. It’s not like we do that everyday or anything. I was starting to get excited about safari the next day, packed (under supervision as I did very badly last time we went away. Forgot my PJs, bank card, contact lenses!) and headed to bed. Bring on the Maasi Mara Reserve!
Lala Salama
