It’s a hurricane of pineapples, mangos and kids!

Although I have 3 weeks of teaching under my belt, I still can’t tell which kids are in which class. Friday’s schedule has me going to class 6 for PE for 35 min and then class 7 for PE. So, I went to class 6 and played some volleyball. My kids love being outdoors and when I said class was finished, one boy( I know, 3 weeks and I STILL don’t know all their names and sign names. You try mastering 60 students names AND their sign names. And that is JUST for your class, you also have to be familiar with the 150 other students names and sign names. It’s not easy!) So this one boy, kept giving me a hard time by pleading for more time. I had to lay my foot down since I was going into another teachers time. So we all went in, I dropped off my class 6 and headed to class 7. Well, I walked in and who should be sitting at HIS desk? The boy from class 6 who was giving me a hard time about coming in! I must have had a really funny look on my face because the entire class started laughing. The little brat was complaining to me about bringing him in early and he was in PE next block! Hopefully this means we have bonded and there will be no more tricks from here on out. I’m nervous how the kids see me sometimes. I know we get along and they have been so patient with me while I am learning their sign names and everything but I KNOW I am not as “ strict” as the other teachers. At home, I know how to be firm and playful at the same time. I know what works and what doesn’t. But here, a teachers idea of firm is using a stick to spank the kids and sometimes it‘s for big AND little things that really don‘t deserve punishment. I haven’t found a happy medium yet. Right now I am just being myself but sometimes I feel like being myself is too lenient, like it’s closer to being their friend then their teacher. I think I just have to remind myself that I will be the worst teacher during these first 3 months. Then after that, I will have figured out.

Saturday, one of the teachers decided to take me to her home in Kisii. I have the next 2 months planned with visiting different teachers homes. Unlike kericho which is in the rift valley, Kisii is to the west near lake Victoria. It was fun to get out of Litein and travel to a different place. If you stay on the compound for to long, you can get island fever. I got a lot of shopping done for my house and had a blast with the ladies. We stopped for lunch at a really good hotel where the other tables children decided it would be fun to see how close they could get to a muzungu and touch it without getting noticed. I love it( loaded with sarcasm) how mothers bring little babies right in front of your face and laugh when the baby starts crying. I bet you would cry too if so far all you have seen are black faces and then all of a sudden you have this white face in front of you. It would be scary as hell. At times I feel like I am in a zoo and I am the main attraction. Kids want to touch me but they aren't sure if I'll bite. Grown ups can't stop staring and they aren't subtle about it either. Some days I can just laugh it off but others I get a little frustrated. Today was one of those days. I think it was a combination of the heat and not being able to sleep in.  On the way home, I found out, you can still get a lot of shopping done and you don’t even have to get out of the matatu. The minute the matau stops, men and women rush over and circle the matatu selling their produce. If you are sitting by the window, they will open it and push ripe pineapples and mangos in your face. “6 for 100, 6 for 100” they say as they push 6 pineapples inside the window. All of a sudden whether you were going to buy them or not, You have 6 giant pineapples in your lap and all of a sudden you feel like your drowning in pineapples. And of course there are different people selling the same things, so if you say yes to one pineapple lady, the other pineapple ladies flock to you expecting you to buy 12 pineapples, like 6 is still not enough. It’s a hurricane of pineapples, mangos, bananas, and passion fruit inside one very small matatu. By the time we got home, we were all exhausted. I cut up one of my pineapples( yes, I gave in and bought some) and went straight to bed. Plans for tomorrow???? I’m sleeping in, working on my schemes and lesson plans and finishing my wash, I’m wearing my last clean pair of panties.

P.S.
 If you have Facebook, I have posted pictures onto my FB account. I'm still trying to figure out Flickr for the blog. I should have it sorted before my 2 yrs are up. :)