My week has been hectic, filled of children, children, children and adults stroking my hair ("it is smart"), tropical rainstorms, getting soaked by waterfalls and yet more children. The small kids who live in our neighbourhood take IMMENSE pleasure in screeching 'howareyouhowareyouhowareyouhowareyouhowareyou' over and over and over again even once we've screamed back "WE ARE FINE THANK YOU!" and seem to have worsened since last year!
I've mainly been at school this week, teaching fun things like frisbeeing in P.E. ("is it a plate teacher?") and dull things like revision for their exams next week. The kitchen is getting finished this week and FOOD will come next. Horray! I feel so guilty seeing some of the children whose arms are so so thin, whilst I eat my lunch in the classrooms.
On Sunday we went to Thompson Falls (massive waterfall) and scrambled down the suspiciously boulder-like steps to the very bottom, getting absolutely drenched. I must go now to journey back through the maze of chickens, fish-sellers and eerily smiling men appearing from the darkness to go and eat my dinner of stew!
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Friday, 9 July 2010
Singing, Dancing and the Smallest Woman in the World
It is SO GOOD to be back in Nakuru.
Saying hello to everyone again, from the 600 kids at school, who screamed "MADAM ZOE!! IT IS MADAM ZOE!!!", ran, hugged me and wouldn't let me go until one of the other teachers came and prised them off me, and the children at the orphanage, to the mango sellers and friendly parents who remember me. It's so funny to be here, after a year of gradually feeling that it was just some crazy dream.
So far I have just been at the school teaching, and watching my lovely class greet me with singing, dancing and poems about stepmothers (bizarre), seeing the children at the orphanage, and climbing the Menengai crater (big hot hill) with a class of 81 pupils who were determined to turn my hair into a garden by tucking all sorts of bright flowers into it the whole way up.
The orphanage was fantastic to see; some of the kids from the one that closed down have been moved to a stunning new one, where they are so well looked after, with lots of food, toys, clothes and beautiful bedrooms. I was so pleased to see the girl I was closest to, Becky, and just hug and hug and hug her. It was like something out of a film. She wouldn't let go of me the entire time I was there, and told me all about her new lessons and friends.
Today all the schools are off, because 'the show' is in town. This is basically a mixture of an agricultural show, with tents filled with samples of the best aubergines grown in Nakuru, and a fairground, filled with freak shows ("come and see the smallest woman in the world, with a mermaid!") and what seemed to be all the Victorian rides that England has long ago deemed unsafe. I braved one of these, spinning round and round in the air on those funny flying chair things, looking down on all the staring schoolchildren and chickens below. An invisible Moi Kibaki, the president of Kenya, also seemed to be there, crowds of Kenyans lining the streets to see him.
But aside from the absurdities of Kenyan life, the best part by far has been to see the smiles on the kids faces for the first time in so long. I missed them and their funny ways (including brandishing a dead flamingo at me like a sword on my first day back - apparently it had a fight with another flamingo on the school field and died!)
Saying hello to everyone again, from the 600 kids at school, who screamed "MADAM ZOE!! IT IS MADAM ZOE!!!", ran, hugged me and wouldn't let me go until one of the other teachers came and prised them off me, and the children at the orphanage, to the mango sellers and friendly parents who remember me. It's so funny to be here, after a year of gradually feeling that it was just some crazy dream.
So far I have just been at the school teaching, and watching my lovely class greet me with singing, dancing and poems about stepmothers (bizarre), seeing the children at the orphanage, and climbing the Menengai crater (big hot hill) with a class of 81 pupils who were determined to turn my hair into a garden by tucking all sorts of bright flowers into it the whole way up.
The orphanage was fantastic to see; some of the kids from the one that closed down have been moved to a stunning new one, where they are so well looked after, with lots of food, toys, clothes and beautiful bedrooms. I was so pleased to see the girl I was closest to, Becky, and just hug and hug and hug her. It was like something out of a film. She wouldn't let go of me the entire time I was there, and told me all about her new lessons and friends.
Today all the schools are off, because 'the show' is in town. This is basically a mixture of an agricultural show, with tents filled with samples of the best aubergines grown in Nakuru, and a fairground, filled with freak shows ("come and see the smallest woman in the world, with a mermaid!") and what seemed to be all the Victorian rides that England has long ago deemed unsafe. I braved one of these, spinning round and round in the air on those funny flying chair things, looking down on all the staring schoolchildren and chickens below. An invisible Moi Kibaki, the president of Kenya, also seemed to be there, crowds of Kenyans lining the streets to see him.
But aside from the absurdities of Kenyan life, the best part by far has been to see the smiles on the kids faces for the first time in so long. I missed them and their funny ways (including brandishing a dead flamingo at me like a sword on my first day back - apparently it had a fight with another flamingo on the school field and died!)
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