this was a day.

a few hours ago i pulled a huge thorn out of the bottom of my foot. it actually wasn't THAT big, but doesn't that make a better first sentence than "i pulled a tiny thorn out of foot"? regardless of size, this splinter serrriousssllyy hurt because it was really deep AND because the end tip actually has some poisen in it which makes it hurt even more! yay~ of course, the poisen part was what was lodged inside my foot. i was joking with Cecilia, our cook and my new friend, that the thorn was probably half way between the top and bottom of my foot. that is an exaggeration, but whatever.

the thorn itself is NOT that important. amazing i know. but it's not. the REASON for the thorn, however is very important. here is the story.

today was my first day of school. i walked onto the compound as all the kids were having their meeting. they were completely adorable, recited the lords prayer (tho not a single kid was saying the same thing at the same time and i have a feeling that none of them knew what they were actually saying, even the ones who understand english). then i sat in on a few classes to get a sense of what each class is learning, also because im still totally at a loss as to how i am going to suddenly become a teacher!! ate lunch with the other teachers who are all simply great and after a long day of feeling out of place, stared at, and awkward our 30 minute walk with Suzanne and Lauren back to the whitfield's house. here is where it gets incredible.

again i am going to have to tell you, whoever you are, that what i am about to write and what you are about to read is going to sound like a made up story straight out of a movie. but it's not. it actually happened. and it was probably the coolest experience of my life....

before we started our walk home we noticed the sky beginning to turn grey and far off in the distance we could all see a storm coming our way. like i was saying yesterday about the openness of this place, since there is nothing between your vision and the sky, you can see the whole storm taking place before you, even when it is miles away. i got to see the weather in a comepletly new way. it was so beautiful because half the sky was sunny still and the other was totally grey and cloudy! the kids were still playing around the fields, i have a feeling that storms always look like this here in kenya, so to them this was nothing special to them. bu to me looked like the sky was attacking us! anyways. we started walking, Suzanne saying that the storm would probably go the other direction, much to my sadness actually because it really did look like quite the storm...so we started walking, and we had a group of about 25 of the kids from school walking with us. actually they were walking behind us, whispering, watching, laughing, not daring to go ahead.

then it started to rain. huge drops, and freezing! as we started reacting to the rain, the kids started laughing and reacting to it just the same. then it really started to rain. like REAALLYYY started to rain. i was quite drenched quite quickly. my laughing made the kids start to laugh, we can't communicate very well, but we all were experiencing the same thing: the joy of a good rain, the excitement of getting soaked, and the elation that we were all in it together. they all started laughing as the drops got faster and bigger and as we started laughing and screaming about it too. then it started to hail. again this was no light, small hail. this was heavy, pebble sized balls of ice that flew down at us and smacked you so hard that we all have a few bruses on our faces and arms. everyone started screaming and shreeking, but we were all still laughing just the same. i think the kids really loved to see us: these white american girls who had been with them all day so proper, suddenly become just as affected by the weather as they were.

by this time the dirt roads had become streams of muddy water, so much so my pants dragged in the mud, and nearly were falling off because they were so wet and heavy. i was slipping all over the place. i took my shoes off, planning on carrying them, when this girl came up to me and prompty took my shoes from me and told me she would carry them for me. another grabbed lauren's shoes. i kept laughing, lauren kept laughing, suzanne was laughing probbaly the hardest of us all. and the kids loved it. eyes were just staring up at me so happy that i was enjoying a good dance in the rain. they were thrilled. they were also freezing, but that was totally secondary. it got really bad, so we all ducked into an open church that was on the side of the road to wait it out. the hail on the tin roof of the church was incredible. it sounded just like my granfather's rainsticks, only times about a billion.

but the storm wasn't letting up and we were all getting really cold not moving so we decided to get going again. we kept walking slash running shlash slipping, still laughing, pretty much sliding our way along this road of mud and water. at one road split most of the kids went the other way from us, while we kept on going, still followed by a few. we ended up having to cross a river by this tiny slanted bridge. since it was so muddy we crawled, naturally. the kids on the other hand did it walking, still carrying my shoes. this made me feel like an old person. whihc was the first time that has ever really happened. it was the first time that i have felt separate from what kids do. anyways. we made it back to the house safely, well except for my foot. at some point during my shoeless escapade i managed to step right on a thorn. it took a long time and a lot of digging in my own skin (ooo yummy) to get it out. it still hurts like crazy too.

so. that was my day. those kids loved it, i loved it. Suzanne and lauren loved it! it was so much fun! it was one of those experiences that could have gone on forever. it was also one of those times when i was totally, 100% alive and awake. i was so free of everything that my mind could be telling me about these kids, about that school, about my own fears of teaching, etc. instead i was seriously, just simply, being there alive.



back to the topic of school for a completely secondary point, not NEARLY as interesting as the first, are there any thoughts as to good games to play (keep in mind that most of the kids don't understand a lot of english) mom or margeret, circle games from waldorf? play ideas. it looks like i am going to be teaching english, and also im going to be leading a project to build a small garden that will soon grow food for the kids lunch at the school. im going to make it an entire school wide project, as in im going to have each class be responsible for helping me with some aspect of the garden! i have to think about it some more, but i do think that it will work. like i was saying before, the teachers at the Mukuri primary school are all so wonderful. they are warm and welcoming, and they give off the impression that they really care about teaching and about their students. its really great. its also quite fascinating to be on this other side of the teacher student relationship. normally im the one being taught, or the one paying attnetion (or not paying attention as the case may be). suddenly i am observing a class for the sole purpose of understanding a means to teach....soooo weird.

the kids here so really different than kids back home. american schools are filled with hyper-active, attention seaking kids who can never sit still and who can never be quiet. here, it is the complete opposite. nevermind telling a child he must be quiet, it is harder in fact to get them to speak in the first place...really different.


as a final note i wanted to say that i had my first lesson in Swahili today! i know a few key words and also how to conjugate the basic present tense!! here is an example, if i can remember it without my book which is downstairs...

i sleep - mimi ninakulala

i know a lot more, but will write it out later because someone is telling me that there is ice cream downstairs and you all know me and ice cream!

love to everyone!
xoxoxox
sophiebess

ps oly you're a butt. two fingers! big duuhhh i figured it out after a milisecond!