The Long-Anticipated Update

    I really don’t have an excuse this time for not posting for an entire month. It’s pitiful and I am well aware of that.

    I do have something of a reason, though. I was on vacation for a few days, which really doesn’t account for the entire month, but that’s my story. That and searching for a job for next year using very slow internet, redoing my resume, and trying to finish up all the end-of-the-year things teachers have to do.

    So vacation. It was fabulous. I have to admit that when I went last year down to the coast of Kenya with all the other WGM missionaries for our annual retreat, it wasn’t as great as I had anticipated. Last year, we drove the grueling sixteen hours, dropping from an elevation of close to 7,000 feet above sea level all the way down to sea level. And as the elevation dropped, the temperature rose. I remember very little about that trip other than sweating profusely while my ears popped the entire way.

    This year, however, due to the rise in gas prices, it was cheaper for us all to fly than to drive all the way, so instead of the awful drive, we had a nice, short flight. Very nice.

    And maybe I was more prepared for the heat this year, but it didn’t seem as steamy. Overall, it was a very nice retreat.

    The adults went to morning sessions with a wonderful, amazing pastor and his wife who spoke on the life of Moses, I believe. I worked with the kids again, which meant I got to go for free. This year, I was in charge of the youngest group, the 3-5 year olds. At first, I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t have my third and fourth graders, but it was really fun to work with kids that I don’t have in class. Most of them were kids I’d never taught before, so it was fun to have that interaction. I looked at a few VBS curriculums from the classroom (there are several people have left those over the years, some better than others). In the end, I used a few of their ideas, but kind of did my own thing. At the last minute, I packed some books to read and am I ever glad. We definitely needed more activities than I had planned.

    One of the books I had packed was Tikki Tikki Tembo, which is an older children’s book, originally published in the late sixties. It’s an old Chinese story about a time when the Chinese named their firstborn sons very long names and why they don’t any more. It was so much fun--the kids LOVED it. One of the families has borrowed it since then to read some more. We also read Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, another old children’s book that I remember reading as a child, which has some fun sounds in it, too.

    We had some sudden changes in our plans because I had brought some arts and crafts for them to do, that went along with the Bible story each day. Afterwards, I realized that I had never actually planned crafts for three-year olds and had completely overestimated their motor skills, so we had some last-minute changes. By last-minute change, I mean that I made something else up off the top of my head and we ended up with some pretty funny-looking sheep drawings. I think it was learning experience for us all. :) And really, most crafts made by three-year olds look pretty funny anyway, don’t they?

    All in all, we had a really good time, despite the craft disaster, although I wished I could have been in some of the sessions.

    Afternoons were free, just hanging out around the hotel and on the beach. Very relaxing. We flew down to the coast on Friday the 11th.

    The official retreat ended on Monday, so some of us flew back to Nairobi, but most of the families went ahead and stayed through the week. I arrived back at Tenwek the next Wednesday and started teaching again the next Monday.

    As much as I enjoyed the time off, I am lucky to have a job I love going back to. It is nice to be back in the routine of school with my students. It’s hard to believe I only have three weeks of school left. I don’t think it has really hit that I am leaving. It seems like this life could just keep on going--and should.

    I was thinking about it the other night as I was getting ready for bed and ended up having a crazy dream about flying home, via Hawaii (as if that was on the way to Atlanta) and meeting my family there. But while I was there, I got a call  on my cell phone (which, miraculously, worked in Kenya and Hawaii) from a visiting doctor’s wife here at Tenwek, saying she needed help because the police picked her up and were holding her and her two boys in the Bomet jail. So I was frantically trying to call people at Tenwek to go get her out. I was also stressed because I realized on the plane that I had not actually packed up my apartment here--I had just packed what I was taking and left a whole heap of stuff for someone else to clean up. But, completely unrelated to either one of those story lines, I remember, very vividly, a scene from my dream where I was walking with my family--parents, brothers, and sister-in-law and all--through the Hawaiian Wal-Mart and explaining to mother that because I never had any eggnog at Christmastime (which is true), I really wanted some then. I suppose it might have helped all the tension I was feeling in the dream. :)

    I think that dream might have been indicative of my stress level these days. :)
Speaking of leaving, I am leaving behind an empty classroom. Well, not entirely empty--there will be 12 kids here to teach, but, as of right now, there is no teacher for next year. So if you, or someone you, are interested in a teaching job in Kenya next fall, please email me for more details. I am working on some sort of job description and will probably put it in a separate post, but it would be working primarily with a multi-age classroom of elementary school age kids, as well as teaching separate classes of younger and older students at times.

    If you are not at all interested, please pray for the search. Tenwek Hospital is also looking for a CEO for next year. We’ve had a fabulous interim CEO this year, but so far, no one has turned up. Both of those positions need prayer.

    Along the same train of thought, if you are hiring in the Lexington, KY area next year, I am also looking for a job.  Or if you are vacating a house in the Lexington area and would like to rent it out to someone. If someone approached me on either one of those scores, it would save me much time and energy. :) I realize it’s not very likely, but who knows?

    We are in the midst of trying to finish up everything in the last few weeks of school. We are also planning the annual Fine Arts Festival (a fancy name for our talent and art show), which has proved much more challenging than last year--and so far, all we’ve had to do is set a date. But we finally have a date, not in the middle of our testing week, when everyone will be here, so I am happy. I think it will not be as elaborate as last year’s festival, as most of us are also in the midst of packing up our houses and do not have the time and energy we did last year, but I am still looking forward it it.

    This has turned into a much longer post than I had planned, so I should sign off for the night. Have a great Sunday!

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