Joy Unspeakable!

Good morning, dear friends! It is currently 7:57 a.m. (4:00 p.m. when I finished this) and ridiculously chilly out, but the birds are singing, the sun is shining, and I'm in Africa, so bring on the cold if that's what it takes! Our houses don't have heaters, just fireplaces, and since I don't have firewood yet, I've been "roughing it" according to RVA standards. Last night I added my sleeping bag to my bed, so I finally slept through the night without waking up from being cold, praise the Lord!

Yesterday was fantastic! We had new teacher orientation from 8:30-3, which we'll have today and tomorrow as well. However, it was hardly that long since we had a break for chai and mandazis (chai = a really sweet, milky sort of tea that is DELICIOUS; mandazis = an African pastry - they call it African donuts, but they don't have sugar or anything, so it's closer to a powdered sugarless funnel cake in the shape of a scone),a break for birthday cake for two of the new staffers, and an extra long lunch break, in which me and 4 other girls about my age had a little picnic in my side yard in the sunshine - it was beautiful! So overall, the meetings themselves weren't too long, and what we were discussing was so good and encouraging that it didn't make me go crazy or anything, despite the fact that I didn't have a Battalion crossword to work on.

Afterward came probably the most exciting part of the trip so far - a walk into town to the dukas, or shops. The walk takes about 10 minutes, and we pass by the Kijabe and AIM Hospitals and many Kenyans just roaming about the streets. I wanted to just stop and talk, or at least exchange a little longer greetings, but we were in a bit of a time crunch and couldn't take as much time as I had hoped. The dukas are very small - about the size of my little bedroom here (maybe smaller?) made of wood or aluminum, painted with bright colors which are now cracking and peeling. The "Super Duka," as it is often called, is like a very very small convenience store - it stocks some veggies, toiletries, textiles, cards, and gift type items, so it will come in handy when we can't get into Nairobi. There's a little boutique next door with African clothes, jewelry, decorations, figurines, etc. We got a little gift for Cassie (my neighbor, the birthday girl) and then headed back home.

After a bit of lesson planning, cleaning, chatting, etc., we had dinner with the superintendent and his wife and then headed back to Jen's (my other neighbor)house for a little birthday gathering for Cassie. There were just four of us "singles" there, but it was so nice, and Jen made chocolate chip cookies, which is a major rarity, so that was fantastic. We played Speed Scrabble - it reminded me of freshman year comlob days!

Well it's halfway through the day so far, and I've already thought of a million other things to write, so I'll probably be blogging again within the next 24 hours. Don't worry, this isn't supposed to last the entire year. Apparently when the students start showing up internet is practically unusable since we have such small bandwidth. However, from what I've heard, I have about the fastest connection of anyone we know. People are absolutely shocked to hear how fast things are running on my computer, so praise God that He's blessed me with that! How fun :)