Hey Hey Hey J
I feel like a lot
has happened since I last blogged but my memory is pretty awful and so I’m
gonna give you the highlights in no particular order J
As
some of you probably know, I recently had 2 wonderful visitors in Sipili, my
sister Sarah and cousin Clarissa! It was amazing and I’m so thankful they were
both able to come to Kenya and explore things with me as well as see what my
life is like here. When the 3 of us were in Kenya we traveled a good bit and got
to see some more of Central/Rift Valley Kenya.
During
the last week of school when all of my kiddos were taking their exams Sarah and
I wanted to make it a little bit more fun. One morning she cooked for 3+ hours
making 2 mandaazi for every child and some for the staff members as well.
Mandaazi are pastries that you fry and are kinda sweet and super delicious!
They are often served as a breakfast food or snack at restaurants. The kids
loooooved them! They were very impressed with her mad cooking skills. The other
day before they left we painted all of the girls toenails with a bright pink.
It was a lot of fun but Sarah and I both agreed afterwards we’re glad we don’t
work at nail salons. They were happy to look so fancy and smart before going
home to see their families. The only strange part was when a few of the male
teachers came up to us afterwards and asked if he had painted the boys toes. We
replied no and thought they were joking. They said it wasn’t fair to the boys
if we didn’t paint their nails and we couldn’t get the point across to them
that we didn’t think their families would like if they came home with pink
nails along with the fact that life isn’t always fair. The boys got to play
futbol with Sarah a few different days and only some of the girls played
because it’s mostly seen as a boys sport at our school. The girls play netball
and the boys futbol. It was an interesting conversation and I don’t think any
of the boys really minded-they watched the whole time and kept laughing as they’d
try to pose as a girl and fake us out. An entertaining afternoon for sure.
A
few days after school ended Clarissa flew in after getting delayed for 2 days
because of the fire at the airport. We met her in Nakuru with the whoopie pies
I’d made in hand. I had to substitute a few things and I grilled them like I
make my cookies instead of baking them. Now I may be a bit bias and it has been
a long time since I’ve had one of my Aunt Millies wonderful whoopie pies but I
think they tasted pretty good! Flatter and more moist but very chocolately and
sweet! J It was
sooo good to see C and have 3 Lindes all in Kenya together! Made me so happy!
That weekend we saw the Menegai Crater-pretty neat-and Hyrax Hill. Both were
pretty cool with amazing views!!
A
few days after Clarissa had gotten here we decided to go visit the Maasi Mara,
which if you’ve ever looked up any touristy-park-trip-great hot air balloon
site in Kenya then you’ve probably heard about the Maasi Mara. It’s a very
large park chock full of wildlife and mizungus! Clarissa and Sarah had been in
Nakuru that weekend (4ish hours from Sipili where I was) when the decision was
made. They called with the suggestion and 2 hours later I was on the matatu
moving slowly out of town to Nakuru to meet up with them. They had made an arrangement
with a taxi driver they’d met to leave at 3am the following morning. Oy. Sarah
of course, bursting with energy didn’t go to sleep until 1am unlike Clarissa
and I who passed out around 10:30 or 11 and then once in the car at 3 we passed
out again while Sarah was in and out talking to the driver a little bit. We
arrived at the park around 8 after seeing giraffes & gazelles before even
entering the gate. I tell you-seeing a few giraffes with the sun rising is a
beautiful way to start a day. At the gate we got bombarded with vendors trying
to sell us any sort of trinket or jewelry while we waited to pay what ended up
being more than we’d anticipated but we made it in by 8:30! He drove us around
until 12:30ish and we saw so many awesome animals-most of which I’d only ever
seen at a zoo. We saw hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of wildebeest, a
fair amount of zebras, gazelles and antelopes. My top 3 favorite animal
sightings of the day were all ones that I had not ever seen in Kenya. In 3rd
place was seeing 2 warthogs cause I instantly thought of Pumbaa and it made me
smile J Thank you
Disney. In 2nd place was seeing the ears and eyes of 2 lions laying
the tall golden grass. Incredible! I did not think we’d be seeing any lions but
lo and behold, there they were chilling in the sun. Now they were easier to see
since there were at least 7-8 safari vans on the surrounding paths full of
cameras, fanny packs and safari hats and so we knew something good was around.
In 1st place was the lone elephant!!! My first elephant! It was also
Clarissa’s first elephant! Hahaha but not Sarahs…the one who’d been here for 6
weeks and not 10 months like me or 8 like Clarissa. We also got to see a lone
ostrich, kudu, baboons, impalas, water buffalo, a cougar and a few waterbuck! A
very solid morning! We left the park and got to the first major town of Narok
and were in desperate need of gas. But after driving to at least 6-7 of the gas
stations we still didn’t have any. They all kept telling us they were out….though
our driver said they probably were just telling people that so they’d get more
desperate and then the prices could be jacked. Our driver had to stay the night
and he put us on a matatu headed to Nairobi so we could get to Machakos since I
had my VAC meeting the next day. We finally arrived at my host family’s house
and it was so so good to see them! She served us a wonderful super tasty dinner
of chapatti and green grams with cabbage before we headed to bed. We calculated
a total of 17 hours in some form of transportation that day. Now that’s a PR I
think and not one I’d like to beat anytime soon.
We
left Sarah in Machakos on the morning of the 15th so she could hang
out there for a while before heading to Nairobi to catch her flight and we
headed back so we’d make it before dark in Sipili. The next 3 days with
Clarissa in Sipili, we did a lot of relaxing which was awesome. We’d been
traveling so much before that it was nice to rest a little especially for her
since she had to travel back to Zambia on the 19th/20th. We
saw Thompson Falls, visited MC and saw his garden and she helped me with my
Africa painting! I started on the 2nd coat of the countries doing
purple and red and she painted the title on top ‘Africa’. It looks a lot better
now and hopefully I can finish the 2nd coat of everything within the
next 2 weeks before the kids return for Term 3.
The
other thing I wanted to blog briefly about was the exams every child in Kenya
must take at the end of every term. The big one at the end of Term 3 for the 8th
graders and the 12th graders is the one that everything comes down
to but that’s a whole other blog post. I just wanted you to see a handful of
the questions that all Class 5 students had on their English exam this past
term. I am the class teacher for Class 5 and so I give them all of their exams
and therefore miss seeing the exams for other classes but this is Standard 5
stuff. See how you would do on the exam J
Standard 5: Term
2: Year 2013: English Exam
Fill in the black
spaces using the best choices given. (I’m putting the first half of the story
only)
The idea of __1__
food made the dog salivate. He pleaded __2___ sheep to ___3__ him to the party.
The sheep said he was not __4___ position to help ___5___. The dog begged and
begged and sheep was __6___ to take to the party.
1. a. dericious b.
delicious c.
delicios d.
delicious
2. a. to b.
at c.
with d.
in
3. a. take b.
took c.
taken d.
taking
4. a. with b.
in c.
at d.
to
5. a. her b.
himself c.
herself d.
themselves
6. a. interested b.
discouraged
c. commanded d. forced à
these answers make sense but the last sentence is missing a word so it still
might be confusing.
Fill in the gaps
using the best choice: (these were my favorite 3 from this section)
16. The boy
jumped ____ the river
a. into b.
in c.
by d.
on
17. The teacher
has ____ the naughty girl
a. beat b.
beaten c.
bitten d.
bit
24. Herd is to
cattle as ____ is to eggs.
a. bunch b.
pack c.
tuft d.
clutch
Read the story
below and answer questions 26-38. (I found this story an interesting pick)
After
a time I saw a little old man making signs to me to carry him on my back over
the brook. Having pity on his age I did so, but when I would have put him down
on the other side he twisted his legs so tightly round my neck that I fell to
the ground half chocked.
Although
he saw how weak I was he refused to get off me. He opened his legs a little to
let me breathe better. He put his legs into my stomach to make me rise and
carry him further. Day after day, and night after night he clung to me. By good
luck I threw him away and ran as fast as a hare.
36. By good luck
means ______.
a. the old man
was lucky
b. the writer
fell down
c. the old man
fell down
d. the writer was
lucky
And for any of
you who took the test and want to see if you’re smarter than a 5th
grader, here are the answers to the questions I pulled:
1. D à I realize B & D are both spelled
correctly but if the teacher didn’t look at the exam and the child marked
B-then they’re wrong
2. C
3, A
4. B
5. A
6. D
16. B
17, A
24. D
36. D
The English
composition prompt?
‘Write an
interesting story about market day’.
There ya have it.
I will be on break until 4 September when Term 3 will begin and go until mid
November. It’s nice to relax in my house and experience life without having
door knocked on every 10-15 min with some child needing a
bandaid/magazine/wanting to chat/asking for whatever they can smell coming from
my kitchen J Ohhh I
love ‘em but a few weeks break is not bad. I’m getting lots of reading in and
painting a lot as well.
Hope you all had
a glorious summer full of fun and are ready for school to start or for those of
you not in Education, hope you got some sunshine somehow J
Sending lots of
kisses from Kenya,
Bissy
