Kwaheri Kenya

Goodbye RVA! Goodbye Kijabe! Goodbye Kenya!

We plan to fly out tonight. UK airspace is open and we are hopeful that we will be in London in the morning.

Thanks for following our Kenya adventures!

Packing Up & Heading Home

We have started packing up the house. We've spent a lot of time sorting and organizing in order to get rid of a few things before packing - you should see the stacks of art work around here! Abby has long been a productive artist, but over the past few months, Andrew has joined in as well.

We have been home one week since our travels to Uganda and Egypt. It has been fun to have time to spend with our friends here before our departure. On Friday, we took a day trip to Nairobi (shopping and waterslides) and on Saturday, a day trip to the Lake Naivasha area. We, especially Abby and I, have been filled with conflicting emotions - great excitement over going home and reuniting with friends and family as well as great sadness and tears as we have so many "lasts" and as we start saying our good-byes.

We plan to depart Nairobi on Thursday 22 April on an overnight flight to Lodon and then spend 5 days there before flying to DC on 28 April where we will visit with Alex's parents for a couple of days before we return to Durham. We hope that the volcanic activity will not delay or interfere with our travel plans, but we know that is beyond our control. Stay tuned...

Uganda and Egypt

As soon as the term ended, we hopped on a bus and a plane and headed to Uganda. We spent an incredible three days with our friends who are missionaries in Bundibugiyo, Uganda, followed by a few days of visiting Queen Elizabeth National Park and Entebbe/Kampala. Highlights were climbing to and playing in a waterfall, walking in the rainforest with the monkeys and baboons, hard-boiling eggs for a snack at the Hot Springs in Semliki Forest, driving through the countryside, visiting with our friends, touring Christ School, pizza night at the outdoor brick-oven, an overwhelmingly warm and celebratory reception at the school upon our arrival, safari by boat on the Kazinga Chanel in QENP where we saw dozens of hippos, a few crocs, and many species of beautiful birds, and a herd of elephants bathing/playing at the water's edge.

Alex, Abby, Scott, and Luke

Our family at the Hot Springs

Celebration at Christ School

The Equator!

Huge numbers of hippos at the water's edge in the Kazinga Chanel in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

Swimming at the Mweya Safari Lodge after our boat safari

Melissa, Abby and Andrew at the Kazinga Channel

From Kampala, Uganda we flew to Cairo, Egypt for a week of touring Cairo, Giza, Luxor, and Alexandria. Highlights were navigating the entire week on our own (as opposed to traveling with a tour group), visiting the Pyramids, riding a camel, sailing in a felucca on the Nile, playing at the beach at the Mediterranean Sea, seeing King Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, riding an overnight train in a sleeper car, wild rides on taxis throughout Cairo, and eating local food (felafel, shwarma, hummus, grape leaves, fresh squeezed juices, etc.).

Swimming at the hotel in Giza by the Pyramids

The Step Pyramid in Sakkara

Entering a tomb

Visiting the Pyramids at Giza

After a short camel ride

Walking like an Egyptian at the Sphinx

Sailing on a felucca along the Nile in Luxor

Playing at the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt

There is so much more to tell about these trips, but I at least wanted to start with a brief update and a few photos.

Andrew turns five!!

Ballet Recital

Abby's ballet class has been working all term on a performance of Coppelia. Unfortunately, she will miss the final performance in May, but we were glad to attend a dress rehearsal on the stage during the last week of the term in March.

Abby (middle) in the wedding scene

Abby (left) as a "Dutch Girl" dancer

You Know You're a MK (Missionary Kid) When...

Abby is a nature lover. Not a day goes by that she does not stop to smell the flowers, observe an interesting bug, create art out of leaves and sticks and flower petals, and so on. When the flying ants came out of the ground after a huge rainstorm a few weeks ago, there were swarms and swarms, and she was right there observing them. She helped Alex collect a whole container of them. She even helped him pull their wings off. But when it was time to fry them up in a little butter and salt as is the custom around here, she wanted nothing to do with them. Alex enjoyed his midnight snack, but the rest of us just stood by - at a distance.

Alex diving in...

Swarms of flying ants coming out of the ground

Just yesterday, again after a big rainstorm, a few more flying ants were creeping out and taking flight. Abby and her friend, when walking home from school, ran into two friends (veteran MKs) who were collecting flying ants for an afterschool snack. Well, these two blond headed six year olds caught the bug, so to speak. As soon as they arrived at Amelia's house, they collected two - count em - two flying ants and asked her dad to fry them up for them. Apparently they each ate one. When Abby returned home in the early evening, she helped Alex collect a few more and they fried up a bunch. We all tasted them this time (except Andrew). She tried to convince Andrew to eat one, saying, "They taste like bacon!" The taste is a little bit like popcorn or potato chips: basically fried, salty crunchiness. Mmmmmm....

Emptying her collection into the hot butter

Muncha, Muncha, Muncha

Just like bacon...

Last week of the term

Singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" with the Kindergarten class

I had my last music session with the Kindergarten class.

They are always enthusiastic singers and especially love songs with movements.

This is our last week of the term. I have one more music class with 1st-2nd graders and 3 more days of teaching first grade. Alex's biology and calculus classes are away on interim (week long trips for juniors and seniors), but he is teaching two sections of geometry to fill in for another math teacher who is also away on interim. And when the juniors and seniors return, he will supervise a practice AP exam and then take his biology students on a half day trip to the Kiambethu tea farm to observe the plant life in the beautiful flower gardens.

Climbing Mt. Longonot

Mt. Longonot, an extinct volcano, is one of the mountains that we can see from our backyard. Last Saturday, we hired a babysitter and drove with some friends for about an hour through the valley to the base of the mountain. It was a steep, quick ascent which took about one hour. Once we reached the top, we trekked for about 2 - 2.5 hours around the rim of the crater. I was expecting that part to be the "easy" part, but I was wrong -- there were still many steep ascents and descents as we went along the crater rim. The views were majestic and the hike rigorous.

Our Backyard by Abby

Here is a photo from our yard. It is a sunset. It is raining over near Mt. Longonot.

We grow roses and a garden. We have a compost. There are lots of trees. We have passion fruit vines. The flowers are very beautiful. We have a great view. We can see the whole valley and lots of mountains. I can even see the crater of Mount Longonot. We have a bottle brush tree. We have a bird bath. We see lots of mousebirds. We even found two nests: one on the ground and one in the passion fruit vine. We have a little backyard porch. We have two little wooden chairs. There is a green plastic chair too. We like our yard a lot. We like to play in it. One time we even had a picnic in the yard. There are banana trees that we climb on. We see pretty sunsets every evening. Sometimes we even see the sunrise. There is a guard post higher than our house. It leads to the guard trail. The guard trail is a path around RVA. We like to play at the guard post. There is a big bougainvillia bush in down the road. There are some in our yard too.

Alex in the classroom

We just spent a wonderful evening with Alex's AP biology students. They have recently completed their coursework and are now reviewing in preparation for the AP exam in early May. Tonight was a bit of a celebration for them and our time with them this year. Here are a few photos of Alex teaching last week, specifically running a lab and discussing the results:

Tennis Baseball

Each term, there is a Titchie sport which all K-6 children are invited to play. They play games on Tuesdays and Thursdays and are coached by High School students. Abby played soccer in the fall; and both Abby and Andrew (now that Andrew is a Titchie) are playing tennis baseball this term. They have one game left: students vs. parents and teachers! These photos are from their game last week. They have grown leaps and bounds since the first game. Andrew stood on the sidelines watching the entire first game. He eventually started fielding and batting and now is enthusiastically playing the games.

Here's a great sequence of Andrew at bat:

Andrew in the field:

Abby running for home!

Skating Party

When was the last time you went roller skating/blading? Every term, Titchie has a skating party, BBQ included. They dust off the piles of roller blades and skates that have been donated through the years and students sign them out for the weekend. The kids are allowed (the weekend of the party) to skate on the outside (basketball) court. Abby missed the fall skating party because she was sick with a fever; and though Andrew went this year, he left early because he was sick (thankfully a short sickness this time). Abby had a ball and was practicing with her skates for two days, but couldn't quite make it away from the wall.

The day after the party she said to me, "Mom, when we get home, would you buy me some skates?" My reply, "Tell me what you're thinking about." Abby continued, "Well, if I get skates when we get home, I can practice and get really good at skating so that the next time we come back to RVA - will I still be in Titchie when we come back to RVA? - then I'll be able to skate really well at the party!"

Lego Club

I haven't had as much time this term for Lego Club, but I've just started getting together with a few students in order to teach/learn about Lego Robotics. Here are a few photos from last week's club. These are the same Legos that I used in Lincoln, MA and at the Duke School in order to teach science and engineering concepts to elementary aged students. There was a donation of about 6 Lego Robotic kits to RVA and the hope is to get a few people proficient who can then use them to teach students in a local Kenyan school, where the students have little opportunity for hands-on learning.

Caring Community: Dutch Night

Alex frying up the pannekoeken

Students helping chop (and eat) fruit for toppings

Preparing for the feast

A serious game of Dutch Blitz

We had our last Caring Community meeting with our seven 10th graders. We had Dutch night with Dutch pancakes and Dutch Blitz. We had a blast with the kids. It is always so fun to spend an evening with them!

I think we're headed into a series of "lasts" in the coming weeks.