Weeks Flying By

Two weeks have flown by!  Don’t really know where to start to fill you in, so this post may be all over the place. 

For starters, life here has been great!  It is every bit as beautiful, and the people here are just as welcoming and friendly as I remember.  It’s different than life on the Big Island, though, and I feel like I’m starting all over again making friends and figuring out where to buy what.  Luckily, I have incredible roommates - Justin, Shannon, Hunter, Avery, and Braelyn- who have been introducing me to people, and showing me the ropes!  I am living with the Browns until I move into my own house (more about this below), and, well, life with the Browns is fun!  They have busy busy schedules, and Shannon is super mom!  A day for her includes homeschooling 3 girls, having a constant stream of visitors and patients, teaching 3 English classes, as well as the daily laundry, cooking, and cleaning.  I get tired just thinking about a day that full!

I have been getting up early in the mornings to run through the fields as the sun is coming up!  It is so freeing (minus the long skirt and head covering) to have a plethora of paths to choose from.  I start running and take whatever trail I feel like that morning and explore new places around our house.  One morning this week, I was pretty far away from the house, and it started POURING! Like gallons of water being dropped on my head.  It encouraged me to pick up the pace, but when a long skirt gets soaking wet, it sticks to your legs and constricts your stride.  I loved it, though, and still took in the scenery as I sprinted home! 

My neighbors have been extremely welcoming and helpful in teaching me Swahili.  I have been going and sitting with an older neighbor, Mariam, in the mornings.  She is patient, kind, and wants to help me learn- which is awesome!  I have started bringing a booklet and she gives me new words and phrases each day.  As I have been sitting and listening, I am realizing I am understanding a lot!  I am also starting to become more comfortable attempting to speak it.  On Thursday morning, we were talking as usual, and another neighbor came up.  Mariam introduced us and the neighbor wanted to take me to her house to introduce me to her family.  I went, and met about 20 people that live with her in her house.  They made me try cloves and some type of extremely sour fruit.  She then took me to introduce me to other neighbors.  I’m pretty sure they would have taken me to meet other neighbors, who would then take me to meet other neighbors……etc, if I didn’t have to return home for lunch and classes.  I love that, though!  I love meeting people, and everyone is so hospitable.  I left that visiting session with eggs, fruit, and chapatis that were gifted to me.  If I visit like that every day, I won’t need to buy any food from the market.  

We have had two full weeks of English classes now, and I am really enjoying being a part of that.  Right now, I am doing more observation and whatever simple tasks to help Shannon.  The thing about the classes here are they need a lot of explaining in Swahili in order to understand the English concepts.  I’m not quite ready for that!  I am, however, really trying to learn as quickly as possible to take over these classes from Shannon and free up more time for her to help patients with her nursing skills.  Prayers for continued enablement for language learning would be greatly appreciated!  Our students are working hard, and it is great to see them understanding and progressing in just a short two weeks.  I’m looking forward to spending the next 10 weeks with them and getting to know them better.

I haven’t been in the local schools yet, but today I went to a meeting where the Headmaster informed all of the parents of the test results from the National Exam.  Three out of 110 students who took that test from this particular school in our town, passed.  Only those three students will be able to go on to any further education.  He told the parents that something MUST be done to increase this pass rate and that they need to start helping.  He talked about the teachers, and introduced me as a new teacher on the Island who was going to be working with them.  After the meeting, we briefly discussed how we can work together to train teachers, teach English, and increase their graduation rate.  Starting next week, I will be going into the schools on a weekly basis, and really looking forward to it!

More on housing that I mentioned above: I found a house I really like and will most likely make a deal with the owner in the next couple of days.  The house isn’t completely finished yet and will most likely take two to three months to finish once we make the deal.  I’ll post some pics of it once we make the deal and it is officially mine.  I already know some of my neighbors there, and there is a beautiful open rice field right out my front gate. 

In other news, my piki piki arrived yesterday.  I obviously couldn’t bring it on the airplane with me, so we had a friend bring it over on the ferry.  I rode through the fields yesterday afternoon, and it is still just as fun as the first day I got it.  Justin thinks his is faster, but there’s no way.  The girls saw my piki piki and walked inside and said, “Mom, Ginger’s piki is cool.  It even looks faster than dads.”  Yep.  They know what’s up.  Also today, I got a call saying that a cow was giving birth in the woods behind the field, so I put on my flops and a head covering and jolted for the forest.  Unfortunately (actually fortunately because I have a weak stomach) I missed the actually birth, but got to see the little calf try to stand up for the first time.  He tried and tried, but never succeeded while we were watching.  I’m sure the little thing finally stood.

God is good.  This place is great.  These people are wonderful. I am truly loving life.  

You know you live in the shamba when.... racing a ngombe cart through the field is your Sunday afternoon entertainment.