Time is going by so quickly! I only have 25 more days in Kenya then it’s off to South Africa. I found out Friday that next Friday is my last school day. I thought it was the following Friday, but apparently only Class 8 goes to school that week for their exams. I took my laptop to school last week and showed Class 5 my video of them from last year. They quite enjoyed it. I also showed Class 4 some of my personal pictures of my family, home, places I’ve visited, etc. They, too, were excited to see my pictures. Several of the students stayed in during their lunch hour just to see them.
My nephew, Troy, and Louis arrived here Friday night at midnight. It was so good to see them! I felt like I finally had a tangible connection to the United States again. I saw them yesterday when I went to Kenneth's daughter's baptism at Louis' swimming pool (since they don’t have a baptismal font here). They stopped by this morning to see my place and invited me to a spaghetti dinner this afternoon. Troy brought me a couple of things I asked for and totally made my day - 2 cans of cream of mushroom and 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, 3 cans of green chilis, 2 cans of clams, Smarties for the kids at school (I brought some but it isn't enough because I'm teaching about 80 rather than 30 kids), and let me borrow the fly swatter from his room at Louis'. Who would have thought someone could get so excited over a can of Campbell's soup?!? It was like manna from heaven. My cooking possibilities have just expanded significantly.
I'm going into Mombasa tomorrow with Samuel, my former ascari (guard). I've got to go to Kenya Airways’ Corporate office to solve a problem on Diane's ticket. I need to show them my credit card and ID and have them notate it on her ticket, since I paid for it with my American Express card and she won't have it with her when she goes to check in. I've also got a couple of other things to do.
Right now, the Kenyan armed forces have attacked the Somali pirates after they kidnapped 2 people and killed 1. That is just the most recent problem, but it finally pushed them into taking some kind of action to let Al Shabaab and Al Quida know they are tired of sitting back and taking it. In the process, things have begun to heat up more even in Nairobi, and Mombasa (about 17.5 mi. from where I live) has stepped up their security measures on the ferry and other places.
I'm a little nervous to ride on the ferry again not in a car with everything that's been happening here with Al Shabaab. A mzungu (white foreigner) stands out in the crowd, and that's who they are targeting. The senior couple missionaries are going to pick us up on the Likoni side of the ferry so I won't have to walk on with all the hundreds of Kenyans. They'll drive us across the ferry into Mombasa and take us to the three places we need to go, then take us back across the ferry, where we will catch a matatu again to get home (about 45 minutes each way). Hopefully, I’ll get home in time to get to school by 2:00. On Monday, I only teach in the afternoon.
Today, Samuel and Grace came over and watched the Sunday Morning session of General Conference with me on my laptop. That’s what we would have been doing at church in Mombasa today anyway, so we all decided we could do that at home and save ourselves 3 hrs. of driving time. The three of us enjoyed the talks we heard.
I took a matatu down to the end of the road, and Troy picked me up to go have dinner. After dinner, I decided to jump in the pool and swim some laps. Eventually, I ended up at the ocean with Kenneth and Abraham’s kids. We swam out quite a way in the ocean although it’s very shallow. Then, they wanted me to teach them how to do somersaults in the sand. They had a great time, but looked pretty funny with their dark brown skin covered with white sand. Later, I gave Evelyn a swimming lesson. This certainly wasn’t my typical Sunday!
It just dawned on me that tomorrow is Halloween. They don’t celebrate that here, and since it’s spring heading into summer here, it doesn’t feel like time for Halloween, either.
Happy Halloween Everyone,
Kadi
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