I don't know when it changed, but I've realized that I don't like to hug anyone except my boyfriend.

I think that I used to hug people and not feel awkward about it.

I had another moment today. They come less frequently than they used to. It was a moment where some small thing someone does or says brings back a flood of crazy, intense memories from Kenya.

This time it was "Good Samaritan" that brought on the moment.

If there had been a true Good Samaritan for Harun, perhaps he would still be here.

I'll have to sort through more memories (I need a pensieve!) in preparation for my Peace Corps talk that I'm giving at PU Calumet later this month.

I'm done with this place in four short weeks! Yes, I'll be back in August, but I won't be in the same apartment.

I haven't been in a book store since I picked up An Echo in the Bone back in September... and somehow I completely missed that Anita Shreve had a new book out at the SAME TIME. Ugh, I can't believe it's been out for months and I just found out about it. And it even takes place in Kenya!

I'll be making a stop at Borders tomorrow morning.

My cell phone contract is up at the beginning of next month... which means I've been back for almost 2 years.

My Form 1's are now Form 4's! Those kids were ridiculous...

I guess I'm where I thought that I'd be after Peace Corps, but I didn't think there would be this much drama.

I really miss those peaceful nights when I'd blow out the candle or turn off the head lamp, and everything would be dark and quiet.

Colts vs. Saints!!

Sometimes I have mixed feelings about being back in America, but right now I'm so freaking happy to be here! The last time the Colts were in the Super Bowl (XLI), I was invited to a party with Marines(!), but had to decline because I was supposed to be in Kajiado, Kenya (in the desert, without decent tv). I was a sad, crying mess all night and anxiously awaited score updates from my Dad and brother-in-law. I got almost no sleep, but was happy to receive congratulatory texts from other PCVs the next day.

My Mom bought a Colts Super Bowl Champions t-shirt (which I wore today when the Colts were playing the Jets), but I didn't receive it until April. Strangely enough, a few weeks before Super Bowl XLI, I found a Peyton Manning jersey at a market at Caitlin's site in North Kinangop... Of course, I bought the thing without really bargaining and proudly displayed it in my house.

Soooo even though it's icky and rainy and cold here (compared to warm and rainy in Nairobi), I'm glad I'm not halfway around the world.

Hopefully, I'll soon be wearing a Colts Super Bowl XLIV Champions t-shirt... and send a picture of it to Carlos.

yeah, yeah, yeah... they say it's what's on the inside that counts, but it's amazing what bright blond highlights and a pair of booty-licious pants can do to improve a girl's mood

I'm getting myself out of this rut. It's a new year and time to start over.

I'm not usually one to make New Years' resolutions, but I thought of one for 2010: No more dating stupid alcoholics. Regular stupid guys are ok, and so are the smart alcoholics (they're rare, but they are out there), but I need to stay away from the stupid guys that drink way too much on a regular basis.

Maybe I'm a little late in realizing this, but at least I'm learning.

Check back in 2011 to see if I made good on my resolution.

meant to be spent alone...

While everyone else is going back to work tomorrow, I'll be on my way to a condo on the beach. It won't be warm enough to go in the water, but at least I won't be wearing a coat and scarf and gloves.

I had the BEST dream last night:

People at work chipped in for a going away present for me... $2000 in my bank account.

AWESOME!

What are the chances that that will actually happen??

In real life, I went to a party tonight and got to see friends from out of town. Good times. I'm exhausted from all that drinking, eating, and laughing.

It seems like every day I notice the same grammatical or spelling errors over and over again.

Here is my list so far:

1. you're/your - if you are too lazy to learn the correct usage, you might as well just use 'ur'

2. then/than

3. yea/yeah - so many people type 'yeah!', but I'm assuming that they're pronouncing it 'yay!'

4. definately - I think you mean definitely... really people, don't you notice the squiggly red line under that one when you're typing??

5. their/there/they're

6. to/too

7. its/it's

8. 'would of'/'should of'/'could of' instead of 'would have'/'should have'/'could have'

I seriously want to take a red pen and correct these when I see them.

My next post will be upbeat and happy. I promise. Not that anyone reads this anymore...

I'm so sick of the bullshit that has taken over the summer.

I'd rather be known for having too much fun than being a total stick-in-the-mud.

My letter from Purdue Grad School came today! I'm supposed to respond online, but that link isn't available yet. Boo. I want to accept the offer now!

The phone rang a few minutes after I got home from work today and I was very surprised that it was a professor (one of my favorites) from Purdue. He called to ask me a few questions about my grad school application and said that with my high GRE score(!) that I could expect to get my acceptance letter soon. I was mostly shocked that they called me at home to tell me instead of sending an email or letter. When I hung up the phone, I started jumping up and down and screaming, "AWESOME!"

I was just skimming over an old post and at first didn't recognize my own abbreviations. Sad.

Good night!

I forgot how much I LOVE Diana Gabaldon's books. I'm currently reading Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, and eagerly awaiting the release of An Echo in the Bone. The Lord John books don't have time travel or hot and magical stones, but they do feature Jamie Fraser every once in a while.

Tonight I really wanted fish for dinner, but then I decided it would just be easier to swing by Chipotle on my way home from the mall. I was about to order my usual Burrito Bol, but then I looked at the menu and saw prices for individual tacos! 2 tacos was just the right amount of food and it cost 1/3 less than what I used to spend. Amazing! I love finding new bargains!

My trip to visit LH is fast approaching. I'll be on that airplane one month from today!

I'm also trying to plan a trip to Paris in May. I need to hurry up and book my flight for that before all the cheap ones are gone!

This post is all over the place. Pole sana.

What's with my mood today? It's Monday, and I didn't feel like watching my favorite shows. It's actually been happening a lot recently that I would rather just sit and do nothing (aka mindless clicking around on facebook) than watch TV or read a book or watch a movie.

I made a book list for myself last year, and so far I've read 3. I've read other book that weren't on the list though. I guess I should take a trip to the library tomorrow after work. What an exciting life that I lead.

I got the best news from my sister on Friday... I'm going to be an auntie!!

I can't wait to know what the sex is so I can start buying baby clothes!

I got an email to day that was pretty awesome. When I saw the subject, I thought that it was another one of those scams that say you've won a bunch of money if you reply with all your bank information. It turns out it was from American Eagle, and it informed me that I was a winner of a Christmas wish list sweepstakes. Next week I'll get the paperwork to claim my $500 gift card!

I'm going shopping!!

It's been almost a year since my last post! I almost forgot that I had this.

A lot, and yet not much has changed in the past year.

More to come later (if I remember)

I arrived back in America on Feb 1.

The violence continues in Kenya.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

I realized when I picking up my bags on Wednesday that I hurt my elbow playing Wii. Too much tennis and bowling.

The extra leg room on the flight out of Chicago was nice. That whole plane was nice; probably a newer one. The movies were the same as the ones in December so I slept for a few hours on the way to London.

The flight from London to Nairobi was only about half filled. Seems people canceled their safaris because of all the violence and stuff. I don't think the animals have any opinions on the election though.

Matatus remind me of Excite Truck.

So... maybe y'all have been reading the headlines about the violence surrounding the recent elections in Kenya. Well those of us Peace Corps Volunteers that came to the US for the holidays have been told to stay at home another week. What's kinda funny is that when my Dad got on the computer to change my flights, he saw an email from the airline that my flight from Chicago to London was canceled!! We'd expected to pay extra to change flights but since it was the airline that canceled there were no extra charges! And my seat had been upgraded on the first flight and I get that same upgrade on my re-scheduled flight!

Pretty much, I get a free week of vacation. Nice. Bring on the football and beer.

I've almost finished one year of service. Whoa.

Thanksgiving was good. Went to an embassy family with a couple other PCVs. Thursday was the pitch-in dinner at the embassy compound. The highlight of the day came in the form of cold cans of beer which I enjoyed next to the pool. Then on Friday we had another turkey! I almost thought that I wasn't going to make it back in time from my doctor's appointment. The taxi driver took a detour so he'd miss the downtown traffic. What was supposed to be a 15-20 cab ride turned into about an hour of driving around and asking people for directions. Lame. At least he didn't charge me for all that extra mileage.

Saw a great t-shirt at the market today. It said, "Don't blame me. It smelled like this when I got here."

I really considered buying it, but it had a funky stain on it.

We closed school yesterday, which was a day sooner than originally planned. I think it's because there wasn't going to be enough food to feed all the kids one more day. So now I'm just hanging out and getting ready for my big trip to America.

Oh. Termites invaded my bafu so I poured DOOM powder on their little tunnels. Showed them.

I'm off to buy cheese.

Next week is the last week of "teaching" before final exams. The term can't be over soon enough!

I guess I picked the magic computer here at the internet cafe; the power went out twice and my computer never shut off!

Still no electricity at the house. It was supposed to come in October, so I'm thinking it might be here by next March. Or maybe never.

I'm a badass and decided to wear the new Halloween shirt from my aunt today. But I'm not wearing the matching socks. I'm saving those until I run out of clean socks.

Gonna wait til I get home to post the next round of pictures. Still trying to get a decent picture of Mt. Kenya...

aight I've been on this computer for too long and need to get my other errands done

5 weeks!

Last week was pretty boring. I sprained some tendons in my foot and have either been hobbling around on crutches or sitting and reading in a hotel room.

The other day I saw an interesting ambulance driving around the city. The word AMBULANCE was written both backwards and upside-down. Hmmmmm.

The singer at the bar next to the hotel has been doing the same material for the past few nights. He does an exceptionally bad cover of Hotel California, and then a few UB40 songs, then of course some Kenny Rogers.

Been reading a lot the last week. That's really all there is to do unless I want to watch bad sitcoms with Turkish subtitles.

I think I'm going back to my school tomorrow. Just in time to grade midterms. And hopefully get some good mail.

So I haven't really posted anything in a while; stuff has happened, but I just forget to write about it. For instance, last weekend I saw a man being pushed through town in some sort of sick parade to the river. I guess it's a tradition that if they find out a man isn't circumcised they embarrass him and cart him around town with his pants down. Yeah. This is 2007... right?

The president of Kenya visited the next village last month, so I made sure NOT to be there. Elections are coming up in December and there are more and more rallies being held around the country. Nothing scary yet.

Will try to post more often (if there's stuff worth posting)

Pictures from Scotland are going up on facebook right now!! Yippee! Haven't had a chance to change to flickr or whatever yet. I think that I can email a link to the pictures to people who don't have facebook.

First week back at school was kinda rough. I got sick Thursday afternoon and then sicker on Friday morning. Recovering now and will hopefully be healthy by next weekend. Gonna try to get some people together to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant (or maybe just Java House).

Saw the cutest thing today when I was walking to the matatu stage: 2 kids had an empty cooking oil bottle (the sorta flat, yellow kind) and were using it to sled down a little hill.

Not sure if it made the news back in the States, but there was a pretty big earthquake in Tanzania on Sunday and the 'tremors' continued for a few days. At first I thought it was just really windy, but wind can't make the bed and wardrobe shake. I was about to text another pcv on Tuesday night to see if he felt it too, but then my phone died. I was kinda freaking but went to sleep anyway and had the most messed up dreams about tornadoes and Marsh (and I'm not on Mef).

I asked the groundskeeper dude to build a bridge across my moat. Hopefully the pictures don't take too long to upload so y'all can see my new site (and some of the old place).

The kitten has a name now. Cochina Wienerdog.

Crap we gotta go soon. Check the Yahoo for new pictures.

My feet are dirty.

2 weeks!!!

I don't really have anything to say, but I thought I'd put up a post to let y'all know that I'm still alive.

Students are driving me crazy, but that's expected.

Might be able to put up some pictures on Saturday.

I'm hungry.

So I've kinda recovered from the party weekend in Nairobi. Still coughing and have a drippy nose.

The toga party was, um, interesting... My toga was pretty badass. I found a kid's sheet at the market in town that had all sorts of animals on it; like turtles wearing hats, orange elephants, and purple zebras. Too bad I lost it. I took it off to use the bathroom(was wearing tank top and jeans under it, I wasn't naked) and had it on as a shawl for a while, then forgot where I put it. Before I lost it, it also doubled as a wedding dress.

Then someone put the prom queen crown (made of shiny wrapping paper...it's Peace Corps) on me and told me to wear it for a while then pass it on.

I think the funniest part of the night was when a dude was confused and went into the women's restroom and was yelling at the hole in the floor. After I told him his mistake, we talked for a while and luckily stopped another guy from going in there. Crazy night. I didn't take any pictures, but I'm sure someone else has some of me. :)

Other News:

I'm going to miss the Camel Derby! It's the same weekend that I fly out of Kenya to meet my parents.

And speaking of that glorious vacation, it's less than a month away!!!

I'm not just being patriotic when I say that Yankee Doodle roasted peanuts are the best peanuts in the world.

What's not the best thing is the kitheri with sukuma (corn and beans with kale). I just need to pretend that it's spinach and I'm Popeye. Definitely getting enough roughage in the diet, yet some students keep asking if I'm ever constipated. Wow. That's pretty much impossible.

Oh I finally saw a non-bootleg version of Casino Royale last weekend. It waa completely in English(no Russian!) and finally made sense.

Woke up at 4am today and couldn't go back to sleep for a while so I got the headlamp out and finished another book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, the 6th and final book in the Outlander series. And in a few weeks I'll be able to read the final Harry Potter book. Not sure what I'll read until then. Maybe Silas Marner. I dunno.

The radio here just started playing the same Babyface song that was playing when I came in. I think that means I need to go.

So... I'm in the 'new' house now. It's nice. Really nice. It's actually a house and not just a place to sleep. The school might get electricty soon! That's exciting!

On the matatu back from town on Saturday a little girl puked on me. It was totally nasty.

The kitten likes the new house too. She has more room to run around. At night I close her in the bafu so she doesn't poo/pee on things that shouldn't be pooed or peed on.

Classes start up again tomorrow. Kinda nervous, kinda excited.

Not sure why I didn't think of it earlier, but Kristen told me how to make real coffee. No more instant crap for me!

Real hot showers and baths in a couple days! I can't wait to actually be clean!

Peace Corps came to visit my site last week. The APCD for education looked at my house and then observed a lesson. It was Form 1 physics and the students behaved worse than usual. Some didn't even have the right books out. Geez.

Then there's the issue of my house... apparently PC thinks I'm living too rough. Won't get into all the details (especially since I don't know if I'm going back or not) but I'm getting a well-deserved break for a few days staying at another PCV's house. With electricity and running water. Oh boy.

Have you ever played Musical Chairs with 20+ people in a 14-passenger van? I have. It's not as fun as it may sound. Add a puking kid on your lap and imagine my enthusiasm.

I'm just trying to look forward to the 4th of July celebration in a couple weeks. Maybe I'll have a house by then. Maybe not. Hakuna shida... matatizo nimezoea.

We finally got the "Richard Gere" video collection to work this past weekend so we watched Pretty Woman, Shall We Dance, the Jackal, Dr. T and the Women, Chicago, Bee Season, and Unfaithful.

I sat in a few lessons at a deaf school yesterday. The kids were so excited to have 2 Wazungu there! It was adorable. Then they were all asking about me later. I have a sign name now (make the letter K and tap the side of mouth). So much easier to do that than finger-spell my name.

It's funny to look at the web sites that Kenyans go to...

Hopefully by next post I will know what's going on.

Happy Summer!

Today is Madaraka Day. Kenya gained its freedom or something like that in, I think, 1963.

So I'm going to try to be more upbeat on here. I was in a good when I wrote that last entry, but I guess no one noticed 'mood: happy' at the bottom of it.

I have a big college level biology book that I let the students read sometimes. I've nicknamed it the 'Book of Knowledge' because it's basically my only decent reference. Well I was sitting with some students that were flipping through it this week and we were commenting on the pictures and stuff. One boy who was looking at it upside-down (and therefore couldn't read the captions or really see the pictures clearly) thought that the diagram of the female reproductive system was a brain. He's actually one of the top students so it made the whole thing even funnier.

Another funny thing happened in the same class. I was trying to get through the topic of Adaptations of Plants to their Habitat and said that when we finished we would move on to a more interesting and exciting topic. One of the clowns in the class, Wilson, yelled "REPRODUCTION!" and I had to correct him and said the next topic was going to be Pollution.

A Form 4 girl showed me how to use a twig to brush my teeth after lunch one day. It works pretty well, but I'm still going to use a toothbrush and toothpaste.

I gave a short impromptu English lesson to some boys on Wednesday. I had to explain lost, lose, loose, loss, and loos.

Another sticker in a matatu:

"Good boys take Jesus. Bad boiz take drugz." Love it.

EP saw this on a sticker in a PSV:

"A girl is like a common maize cob for everyone with teeth to chew." Don't exactly love that one.

I'm gonna go finish my grocery shopping now.

I can now access the internet with my phone!! There's no electricity within about 25km, but I can check my email.

Please stop sending packages to my school address. I'm trying to find a better way to get them. Letters sent there are fine though.

And speaking of packages, I don't need any more books! (well, I would like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows...) But if you really want to send me something I will gladly accept crossword puzzles and magazines.

During soccer practice, we have to chase the cows off the field.

We had a hailstorm yesterday and it delayed the teachers' meeting with the Board of Governors for about on hour. It was still raining during the meeting so we had to shout to hear eachother.

It took me a whole term plus a few weeks to realize what's been bugging me about teaching physics. The kids' level of math is too low so they don't always get where the formulas and theories come from. And we can't even do fun topics like projectile motion and radioactive decay. Booo.

I hate stupid people and bad science. According to the school secretary, people get fat from drinking water. It has nothing to do with calories. Ok. One of these days I'm going to lose it and just start yelling at her.... Then there's the chemistry teacher that believes in all that quackery crap. I won't go into that now.

Some dude tried to charge me 250ksh instead of 150ksh for a matatu ride today. I didn't let him get away with that.

Next Friday is a Kenyan holiday; their Independence Day, I think. Doubt they celebrate the same way we do.

Last night I dreamt I was eating steak. And it was good. I miss good steak.

Time to do some grocery shopping.

Internet has been down for a while. I don't actually know how long, but the last 4 times I tried to get on it wasn't working.

Some bad stuff happened since my last post. I guess I should say MORE bad stuff. First a student at my school died from injuries after falling/being pushed off the bus. Then on the way to the burial I found Dobby about 10 yards from my front door. So there was a second burial that day. It was really sad. Oh and one kitten is missing too. Never found it.

The feline count in my house is now down to 2. I gave 2 kittens away to students and will give one to a teacher probably next week. I'll be back down to one cat soon.

School's been a struggle. I started new topics in both Physics classes and the kids just don't get it. I feel like I have to dance around just to get them to pay attention.

Funny thing on the bus to town today... I was sitting next to some chickens tied up in a box. The fact that the chickens were there isn't that funny, but that I was sitting by them for over an hour before I even noticed them. Guess that shows how long I've been in Kenya.

Yesterday I told a student that "I'm not made of money" and he got really offended... he thought I was insulting him and wanted me to apologize. I didn't.

Perhaps I've mentioned the student that I have named 'Verbal diahrrea'... this is what a conversation with him is like

VD: You promised me a kitten. Where is my kitten? Should I come now to get my kitten?

me: no

VD: You promised me a hot dog. They are very sweet. I had a hot dog once. You said you would bring me a hot dog from Kampala. When will you go to Indiana? What will you bring me? I want you to bring me a hot dog. Remember when you called me 'Babbled Maggots'? There are whites at S and they have built a hotel. You should meet them. I told them all about you. They want to meet you.

me: do they serve hot dogs at their restaurant?

VD: no, but you will bring me one

...maybe not exactly but pretty close. Not sure what his obsession with hot dogs is all about.

Seen on back of a truck:

Father forgive them

Luke 22-24

I'm assuming they paraphrased.

that's all I got for now

nothing much going on since mid-april.

my house was struck by lightning while I was gone.

getting rid of the 5 little ones soon.

just reading and such til school opens again.

that's all for now

So I'm finally going to write about what happened at site and IST before the big rafting trip.

Had to slap a cow for drinking out of my jerrican one day, then a few days had to beat a cow with my basin to get him/her from drinking from MY tank.

There was a girlfight at school one day and I missed it! One of the Form 2 girls was being offensive (again) and got clobbered by first one girl and then half of the school.

After getting harassed by a creepy dude one Sunday at the weekly soccer match in the village, I decided to brave it again the next week; it's a good thing I went because during the game I had to stop a small boy from choking a smaller girl with part of a plastic bag. Everyone around was just watching and letting it happen. Gai!

Term One ended on April 4 and Term Two starts on May 8, so I still have a couple more weeks of just hanging out and getting over this awful cough.

Dyed my hair back to brown because I was getting sick of the roots. It came out reddish at first (eek!) but then faded to light brown.

Saw 2 new (non-bootleg!) movies: 300 and Dreamgirls.

IST was fun, boring, interesting, and abysmal. We were all really excited to see eachother on Monday night. Then the sessions we had were kinda blah. One really interesting thing we (math/sci teachers) did was to visit WOFAK, Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya, and talk about what they do there.

Also during IST there was a lil contest to see who could ask the most ridiculous questions during our sessions.

Tuesday and Wednesday were blah, then Thursday night a bunch of us went out for Mexican and then salsa dancing. Mike and I (mostly Mike) made up a "carne samosa" dance. Kenli dragged me out on the dance floor later and spun me around waaay too fast.

Friday was blah because it was raining and we (Katie and I) couldn't make it to the giant flea market for some good ol' second-hand clothes. Booo. Instead we went back to pseudo-Mexican restaurant and dipped chapati in salsa instead of spending more money on an actual meal.

Did I already mention that I got a new phone??

Sorry if this is completely all over the place chronologically. I've had to ask about 5 times what day it is.

Seems like I got sick once I got back to bathing regularly and lost my protective layer of dirt and stuff.

Oh during rafting I asked the guide is the scale for rating rapids was linear or logarithmic and he had no idea what I was talking about so I gave a mini math lesson on the raft. It was fun.

The showers at the campsite were awesome: they were open on one side so you could see the Nile while showering!

Crap I gotta go now. Need to buy new shoes because somewhere in my travels (across borders and in perhaps thousands of icky matatus) over the last week I misplaced 2 pairs.

Still haven't put up pictures from Jan-Mar but I will try and do it soon!!

Went rafting on the Nile yesterday. It was intense.... can't really say enjoyable though I'm glad I did it. Had about 4 mediocre spills and one really bad spill where I was sucked down and hit my knee on a rock (yeah, that doesn't sound that bad, but y'all weren't there). I think I was under for about 10-15 seconds. Now I totally understand what it feels like to be in a washing machine. After I got back on the raft and was breathing normally again but still bleeding in a few spots, our guide told us we were in a spot with crocodiles. Guess they can't smell fear/blood because then I definitely would have been attacked.

I bought a tshirt from the rafting place that has (almost) all of the rapids that we did yesterday. They have great names like Chop Suey and the Bad Place. Chop Suey was the one that kicked my butt. Oh and some guys bought DVDs of the trip so I'll get a copy eventually.

Getting kicked out of the internet cafe

I forgot my rough blog back at the hostel, so I'll be back on here later this week to write an actual post.

I was not eaten by a crocodile.... yet.

I'll post pics maybe on Friday. Not sure yet.

Wore my COLTS shirt on Monday and made some other PCVs mad, but I was so proud.

Anyway check later this week for actual "news".

nje

I've been kinda busy taking care of things at school and didn't make it to an internet place last weekend, and then yesterday the power was out in town.

Last week was kinda crazy. One morning I was woken at 5am by some students that needed kerosene for their lamp. 5AM!! I finally went back to sleep and then dreamt that people were invading my house and I had to fight them. That same night Dobby gave birth to 5 kittens!! I don't know how many boys and girls there are yet because she carried them into the ceiling. I had to be there and hold her in a basin while she was giving birth because she wanted to run around the house.

Last Saturday I went to an athletics competition with some students and took a bunch of pictures of them during the races and then just being goofy. Next weekend they have another tourney and I'm the only teacher that will be going with them! Uh oh!

The students had a movie day on Wednesday. I can't believe I sat through all of American Ninja 5 and about half of Mr. Bones. 2 of the worst movies ever made. But like I told Andy, AM5 did have numchuck skills and bowstaff skills.

End-of-term exams start on Thursday and then the term is over next Wednesday!! Then I have the rest of April free.

Can't think of anything else to say on here and it's time for me to go.

Soooo Monday morning I was forced out of bed because there were students at my door. Bearing gifts. 4 live lobsters/crawfish from the lake. When I finally stopped laughing I accepted them but didn't know what to do with the bag so I put them outside for a few minutes so Dobby wouldn't let them escape. With the help of another teacher I put them in a sufuria and filled it with water and took the pot to the school kitchen to be boiled. Too bad the things didn't have any meat on them. No one in the staff room was brave enough to eat them, so I offered them to students who also would not eat them. Oh well.

Later in the week I had to punish the entire Form 1 class to show them that I mean business. They had to pick up cow poop from the field and slash a new path for me in front of me house.

Don't freak out, Mom: I just transferred some money online.

Oh in the staffroom this week I had to explain to the other teachers that in Americans don't have a 5 yr marriage contract system.

Dobby is in fact a girl and in fact quite pregnant. The kittens are due any day now. I already have names picked out. I only expect 3 (maybe 4) kittens but I have 10 names picked out. 5 boy names and 5 girl names. When I give the kitties away, the lucky recipients will choose them based on the awesome names that Grandma Ellen gave them.

Boys: Rex, Fred, Trogdor, Barney, and I can't remember the last one right now

Girls: Myrtle, Buttercup, Skipper, Bambi, and Roxanne

Yesterday was like a field day at the school. I kept track of the winners of the events like 100m, 200m, 500m, 1500m, 3000m, and 5000m running, shot-put, discus, and walking. We didn't get through all the events so we'll have to do them next week before the regional athletics tournament.

Been having some weird dreams lately: Abby buzzed her head like Britney's, I went home for a weekend, went shopping at some crazy-huge mall with Jen and bought $11 chocolates and cookies, then called Heather and told her I wanted ice cream.

I'm not the only one having weird dreams; Caitlin dreamt she and I were driven to a mall and then were on a quest to find the rest of the Outlander books and had to battle people at Yankee Candle. Yeah.

Dobby licked dirt off my feet the other night; I thought that was very nice of her.

Put a letter to Mel in the mail today. Hopefully that one arrives. I was tricky and put tape on the postage so if someone tries to steal it, it will just get ripped up.

Mellie, look for a little elephant in your mail box in a week or so!!

Gotta go now. My tummy is asking for food and drink.

That's a pretty interesting name for a dog, but I like it. Daphyne thought of it. No, it's not my dog.

The midterm break was fun. Too bad it's raining pretty hard right now and I still need to go get some groceries. Booo.

Something smells funny. Ew.

Not water-closet, but a top-secret exclusive club for those brave souls.

Ate some yummy quasi-American foods this weekend and gonna make tacos tonight! Will tell about the weekend later when it's all clear.

I can't believe it's almost March!!

I need to get a new watch battery, but I'm too lazy since I can just use my phone. And it's a great excuse to have so that I can be late if I want.

Abby: thanks for remembering Even Stevens! We saw the brother-guy from it in a movie and couldn't remember what show he was on!

That's all I can think of right now.

Sorry for the disappointing lack of information in this post.

That's what some of the (male)students asked me when I showed them my snaps from America. They wanted to know what Kasey's and Abby's dowries were, even though I had already said a)they're both married and b)you don't buy wives in America. They also really want my phone number and try all sorts of tactics to get me to give it to them. Like one boy said he'd bring me 3 lobsters, another would bring me a bunny, and a whole bunch said they'd send me credit.

There's 2 new teachers at the school now and also had one leave. Too bad it's not the super-annoying and incredibly stupid teacher that left.

I started teaching the Form 1 students last week. I thought that they were scared of me at first, but it turns out I was just talking too fast for them to understand. Now I talk slower and repeat everything that I say at least 2x. I found that candy motivates all the students to go up to the chalkboard and try to do unit conversions in Physics. It takes them about 10 tries to get it right, but at least they're trying! I always trip on rocks in that room and have even fallen on my butt when walking to class.

I started grading the midterms last night. Why don't they tell you in training how upsetting it is to grade exams?? I feel like I've failed as a teacher when they get the answer wrong (or don't even write an answer down!). I saw this quote in the Standard today when I was eating breakfast:

"Teaching drives a man to drink, golf, or insanity." -John Muir

How appropriate (except I don't play golf).

I walked to the Posta again last week. It wasn't as bad that time. I got 2 packages: one from Carol and Rick and one from Katie and Steve. OMG I have 28 new books to read now!! Oh, I'm not going to change my address and get a private PO Box because I can have one of the kitchen workers from the school pick up my packages for me now.

I was very surprised to hear a Kenyan radio station play Rascal Flatts last weekend.

Perhaps I sent out a few angry texts last week complaining about not having any water... So I have this huge tank next to the house that's now completely empty because stupid fools water their cows there. The key for it is gone too, so if there was water I'd have to unscrew the tap for it to come out. There's also a tap behind the house that's usually shut off unless I bug the right person to have it turned back on. And when it's turned on, they let it run for hours.... So after 3 or 4 days of asking for water for dishes, laundry, and bathing, I finally got a few buckets of the stuff brought to my house. So I was able to bathe a whole 2 times this week!

My favorite Kikuyu word is baconi. It looks like 'bacon', the delicious pork product, but it's pronounced 'fah-show-nee' and means passion fruit. Silly Kenyans and their messed up spelling.

Ok, so a typical day/week at my school:

First I wake up about 7 and make a cup of Milo and coffee, then get dressed and walk the 2 minutes across the field to school around 8. Classes start at 8:15, but I only have the first lesson on Thursdays. The students have assembly on Monday and Friday mornings where they raise the flag, sing a hymn, and read a passage from the Bible. The lessons are 40 minutes long. After the first 2 lessons, there's a 10 minute break. Then after the 3rd and 4th lessons, there's a 30 minute chai break. Lessons 5 and 6, then lunch from 1:00-2:00, then the last 3 lessons. After classes end at 4, the students have activities til 5. They run cross-country, play netball, soccer, or handball and hold Debate Club on Tuesdays.

I have 2 lessons after lunch on Mondays, only one lesson on Tuesdays, and a whole bunch Wed-Fri. Yesterday was a reeeeeallllly long day for me; I gave an exam in Form 3 from 8:15-9:35 then had 3 lessons in Form 1. After I was done teaching I wandered around the other classes for a while and was invited to teach a CRE (Christian Religious Education) lesson about the prophet Jeremiah. Um yeah... I declined and just talked to the kids instead. Can't really call them kids though...some of the Form 4 students are my age!

I had a tri-lingual dream a few nights ago. First it was in English, then German, and a little bit in Kiswahili.

Katie and Steve: those chocolate covered Oreos were sooo good! Thanks! And I've already finished The Five People you Meet in Heaven and I'm halfway through The Devil Wears Prada. The receipts were still in 2 of the books. One from the Amsterdam airport and one from an airport in Hawaii!

I'm a tad bit pissed off and feel like yelling at someone. Maybe I'll vent at a matatu tout or a beggar. Probably not, but it's also not out of the question.