My first Home Visit
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I can't believe it was just one week ago that I left home. It feels like an eternity. So much is different. Yet still no word on my luggage. So today I had several lessons at school. First was math in standard 7. It did not go as well as I had hoped. There are so many children--52! Not to mention that I'm a little rusty in Math myself. It will be really good to get back into it. I hope to be better prepared tomorrow. Next I had english with class 6 which I think went quite well especially since I didn't have any preparation time. It's a smaller class and I was able to work individually more. I graded their books too and I think they did quite well. That gave me a little more confidence. Lunch was good today. There were only a few of us so the conversation included more english. After lunch I was planning on doing arts and crafts with Mumbi and Mukami but most of the teachers had left to go to a meeting in Kathenjuri so we each had to cover a class. I was assigned to class 7. And I was supposed to teach math but I had just done that earlier today so we did a little review and then played some games. I also introduced rhyming to them which was a new topic. I was surprised that they had never learned about it with all the talk talk of poetry. And songs! Reggae is full of rhyme.

Then I met with the environmental group and none of them had their topic papers so I taught them the 3 parts in an essay. Then I had promised a standard 7 girl names Scholastica that I would visit her home today after school. So I went with her the other way on the road by the school. I had never gone that way (opposite of the way home). It was a fairly long walk but a very beautiful one. And my brother Lawrence was going the same way to a friend's house so we walked with him for a bit too. I like him a lot, he's very mellow but also very friendly. He tries to make sure the family speaks english so I can understand and he is curious about life in the US without being critical or focusing on money which is not my favorite topic. I think he is very smart too. His favorite subject is PHYSICS! And he hopes to go into engineering. When we arrived at Scholastica's grandmother's house we were met very warmly. Her grandmother was very happy to see us. We ate the same cow peas and corn mashed up (but no rabbit!) and I had my first cup of hot fresh cow milk. It tasted quite good. Almost like buttered corn on the cob. Then I looked at some family photos and met all the assorted children who were around. Everyone was so happy there. We sat around and talked for a while . One of the boys who was a little older was asking a lot of good questions about America. He spoke very good english as well so it was good to talk to him. He along with several other kids (and the dog) accompanied me back to my house. They also gave me a huge bag of fruits and vegetables. It was so nice! Soon after Mumbi and Mukami met me at my house and we went up to Mrs. Njiru's house. Its up a very steep hill but not very far. She has a large house with solar electricity. It was very nice. We had a very big dinner there of rabbit stew, chapatti and avocados. And I had eaten earlier so I was already very full! We also watched some TV which was nice. I met her sons who were very friendly. All the young people here are very friendly. The older crowd is nice but don't seem very interested in getting to know me. We stayed quite late--9:30. And it was 10pm before I returned home. Thank goodness a 3rd dinner was not waiting for me. The boys had already gone and Mama was the only one still up. She's so nice!

I tried texting Thogo again but still no answer yet. I hope my luggage is here because then I can go with the girls from Holland and come back with Mrs. Njiru so I won't have to travel alone.