Continuing the Journey: October 2006

Language School

As I mentioned on a previous post, we've just completed our mid-term exams. For the second half of our term we have a new teacher, "Mwalimu Bill". Hopefully, we will get some pictures of our teachers and post those, also. Bill is a very good teacher. At first, our class was disappointed to see Mwalimu Kiplimo go. However, we are now happy with our new teacher. He is a little more strict and we are working hard. We also have a new classroom, with carpet and padded chairs.

We are currently working on different verb forms, such as passive voice, prepositional verbs, etc. Cindy is examining some new verbs at the white board (ubao mweupi).

Our old classroom had a lot of pictures and charts for language learning. We sometimes miss the charts of noun classes and their subject prefixes. In our new class room we must simply have them in our head.
If you remember some Spanish or French from school, these languages have masculine and feminine nouns. The articles 'le' and 'la' in French, for example, depend on the noun. Greek and German have 3 of these "classes". In Swahili there are 8 noun classes. And the forms of the adjectives and subject prefixes (which we don't even have in English) must match the noun class. We are slowly getting it.

Pictures of Cindy and Mike

Mike is reading for his PhD studies. Anyone interested in the history of the church, or missions, I'd recommend this book. It's long but interesting.

Cindy had me pose for this one.

Here I am getting a kiss from a beautiful blonde!!

Cindy is walking through the yard. We compost our garbage, and she has just dumped some peelings onto the compost.

Cindy is watching Alia and I play in the yard.

Life, so far, in Nairobi

Cindy and I continue to attend the Anglican Church of Kenya language school everyday, where we are learning Swahili. We recently finished our mid-term exams, followed by a few days off from school. Both of us did good-to-very-good on the exams, and we are satisfied with our progress. Of course, it will take time and practice to become fluent.
At home we continue to enjoy the beautiful yard with its flowers and plants. Alia loves to plant new things, so we have sown some wild flowers, as well as, tomatoes, mustard, passion fruit and papaya.
Mike is reading a lot about Kenyan history and the church in Kenya and Africa for his studies. We hope to learn soon what he will be teaching at NIST.

Jessica hugging an older man!!!

Jessica hugging her new beau, Tom, in Williamsburg.

Jessica had a mid-term break from EMU. She and friends went to Virginia Beach and Williamsburg for 2 days. She said it was cold, but they went in the water anyway. She misses the beach after living on the coast of the Indian Ocean for most of her life.

She also misses her little sister, Alia. They talked for nearly an hour over the computer using Skype. Alia told Jessica several stories. She was very excited to talk to her big sister.

Rains and Pictures of Alia

We got our first big of the rainy season, and Alia wanted to go out in the rain.

The next day it was sunny again. Here I'm chasing Alia with the camera.

More pictures

Jordan continues playing the guitar. We hear many very positive comments about his guitar-playing, including overheard conversations from some of his teachers at Rosslyn.

I like this close-up of a fly on a flower bud in our garden. It is now rainy season and the weather is cooler (60s) so the flies aren't moving much. Though we've only had about 1 inch of rain in a week. I hope the rains pick up for the sake of the farming.

Alia likes to take turns with me, taking close-up photos of flowers. Here she peaked around a leaf as I snapped the picture.

Getting Ready for the Rainy Season

We haven't experienced a rainy season in Kenya, yet. But we've heard that it can come down pretty hard and fast. Jordan is on the roof cleaning out the gutters before the rains begin. Supposedly, the rains could begin any day.

Some pictures of the gray skies that we've been having lately. The clouds blow in from the east toward the west, coming a few hundred miles inland off the Indian Ocean. For the past week, mornings have looked rather menancing, but so far no rain.

In the sky you can some kites circling. A kite is very similar to a hawk or eagle.

In Virginia, Jessica climbs a mountain

Here Jessica almost goes over the edge.

Jessica and a friend with their walking sticks in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

On top of the mountain.

Just around the House

Cindy in Mike's "office", which is a small room off the courtyard, about the size of a walk-in-closet.

Some of Alia's artwork on the floor of our courtyard.

Alia has been watching Cinderella, and listening to the same bedtime story. So today, we returned from language school and Alia had her babysitter acting as the bad step-mother, while Alia scrubbed the steps on her hands and knees.

Nairobi Weather

People often have the idea that 'Africa' is extremely hot. When we lived in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa near the Red Sea, it was very hot. The hottest city in the world in fact. But Africa is a very large continent, so different climates are found throughout. Here in Nairobi we are 5700 ft above sea level (just over a mile high). While I doubt that we'll ever have snow, the temperatures are comfortable and the humidity is low. And it allows us to have a beautiful backyard.

Here the temperature is ~ 77F (25C) and 30% humidity on sunny Monday afternoon.

Views out of our bedroom window.

More pictures of our place and Alia

Our back porch and Alia enjoying some chai.

Alia is posing for the camera in our garden.

Alia and I have been shredding newspapers to use as compost. Here she decided to play in the pile of shredded papers.

Alia and a friend play in Alia's new sandbox. Simon, the gardener dug out the hole and lined it with the boards. I bought a ton of sand and wheelbarrowed it to the sandbox. It is one of Alia's favorite places to play.

Insects at our House

After experiencing primarily roaches and ants in, and around, our homes in Djibouti we have a new set of much nicer insects here in Nairobi.

Here is a butterfly on our back porch.