School Fun

Hello Family and Friends!

I have a couple of fun stories to share. One story is about one of my girl students. Her name is Wangari and she’s a doll. On the roster it said that her name was Nora. At the beginning of the year I give my students a little card with my name and a pronunciation key with pictures on it. Well a few days into the school year she gave me a homemade envelope. On the outside she had ‘Miss Pourciaux 5th Grade’ with a piece of candy taped to the front. On the inside she had two pieces of paper. One piece of paper said ‘Miss Pourciaux, I’d rather be called Wangari instead of Nora’. The other piece of paper had her name with a pronunciation key of her name. It was absolutely adorable.

Another story was of one of my male students Navraj. My students came in from lunch and I was teaching in the front of the room. Every time I went to one side of the room I smelled old man’s cologne. When I paused and wrinkled my nose students started giggling. I said, “Ok, so what’s the laughter for?” One student with a huge smile on his face said, “Ask Navraj.” So I asked Navraj and he said a bottle of cologne in his bag spilled. Then he points to another student, Rak, and says that Rak put some one too. I had Navraj take the bottles, yes bottles because he had not one but two, outside. Days later he had me smell his bag of chips. The cologne smell was so strong in his bag still that the outside of his chips smelled like old man’s cologne. I do say I have a bunch of goof balls.

We have had quite a bit of fun in class. This past Tuesday we had Open House. I got to meet several parents that I had not met yet and see several that I’d already met. One of my students is a Downs Syndrome child. She only comes to my class for lunch, recess, any specials, and Science and History. The first week of school I taught on cells in Science. I made a cake and carved out a chunk of it to review plant cells. In the chunk I used different candies for the parts of the cell. On Tuesday Madison’s mom said that she came home raving about the nucleus being in the center of the cell. She said the nucleus was a chocolate ball. I used a Roche as the nucleus. I was thrilled because I knew that if she didn’t get anything else she understood that one thing. She’s a bright girl and I look forward to getting to know her better.


I want to say thank you to everyone for your prayers. I have had some neck trouble this last week. I had to be out of class for a few hours and get a massage because I was in so much pain. For two days straight I had a hard time getting around because of my neck. After the second day I started e-mailing friends and family asking for prayer. Each day after asking for prayer the pain eased more and more. By Friday I was exercising with my students while they were at P.E. I have no doubt that I felt better because of prayer. Medicine wasn’t helping and the massage only gave temporary relief for about two hours. I have found a chiropractor and hope to see her this next week. Her practice is walking distance from my house. The Lord is so good!

If you’d like an e-mail update for when I post new blogs please send your e-mail information to jewls4god@yahoo.com or julieinkenya@gmail.com.

First Week of School

This week was my first week of school. I enjoyed my class very much. The week started as a half day on Tuesday. I have a total of twenty-three students on the roster. I had five students absent. I am learning this is common because I was not the only teacher with that many students absent. One of the absentees arrived on Thursday and another arrived on Friday. One is in the USA until September when his parents are able to get their work permits. Two others are in Korea. I was told that they are probably still there because if they leave in the next week or two the parents can save hundreds, if not thousands, on airfare. Ah but this is all the life of missionary school.

My class this year is different than any of my classes over the last three years. I say different in neither a good way nor bad way. Usually I can tell in the first two days whether I click with my class or not. It took three and half days until I realized I had won them over. Even writing this now I wonder if I truly have won them over yet. They were not as readily accepting of me as my students in the states were.

One thing that has profoundly affected me is my student’s lack of Bible knowledge. While teaching in a Christian school in Florida each year many students came to my class with solid Bible knowledge. They had this knowledge regardless of whether they applied it to their lives or not. On Thursday I asked my students a basic Bible question. I asked them, “How many ways can you get to heaven?” Many could not answer. I also asked them, “Who can save you from your sin?” Many could not give me a direct answer. I read to them basic Bible truths from the book of Romans. After reading them many of my students responded as if they’d never heard it before. I also gave my students an assignment on Wednesday to write out their testimony. One student very boldly stated on her paper, “I’m too stubborn to become a Christian.” Most of the class stated that they were Christians but when asked how they know for sure their answers were completely works based. My what a mission field! I have no doubt that God has placed me specifically with these kids. It’s both humbling and scary to know that many of my students’ Bible knowledge will come from what I teach them in the classroom. I am thrilled to shepherd these kids!

Karibu!

Karibu! Welcome! This is a fun Swahili word that is used often here. I hope you are enjoying my entries. As usual this entry was not written today but last evening July 7th.

These last few days have been busy! We are all getting ready for school. We start August 12th. Our Welcome Picnic is this Saturday. It is at this event that we get to meet the majority, if not all, of our students and their families. I have already met two of my students. They are my special needs children that will be out of my room for all their core subjects. One of them is Madison. She is a downs syndrome child but very high functioning. The other is Simon. I, along with the other new teachers, had dinner at Simon’s house tonight. He is a remarkable and charming little boy. He was born at 22 weeks and spent pretty much the first two years of his life in the hospital. He is a miracle child. His parents are wonderful Christian people who give all glory to the Lord for Simon being Simon. Simon also has an older brother who is a wonderful brother to him. This family moved to Kenya 7 years ago when Simon was 5 years old. His mom was telling me how God has blessed and provided all that Simon needs being in Kenya. How blessed I am to be here! Already I see God at work in the lives of my students and their families. Please pray for those students that I will have that are not yet Christians. I am praying that the Holy Spirit will move them to action. I am also praying for those that are Christians in my class that they would step up to the plate and wholeheartedly live for Christ.

Please pray for a little Muslim girl in my apartment complex. I have only seen her and spoken to her a few times. I am praying that the Lord would give me an opportunity to talk to her and then eventually to her family. Her name is Hanna. I’m not sure if I’m spelling her name correctly, but the Lord knows who she is.

Today it hit me exactly how poor the people here are. The corruption is remarkable. I have not yet visited a slum but I see the people who live in them walking along the streets. Nairobi is an extremely diversified city. Walking along the street you see both the well-dressed businessperson and the one with well-worn clothes barely able to survive. After living in this place for two years I know that I will never be the same again. Already my heart is completely here with these people. I know that I am already changed. I remember thinking before I left that I would have some neat experiences and cultural shocks, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be moved the way that I am. The thought has crossed my mind as to why God would choose to place me in a country such as America, and another is born into poverty to live out their entire life that way. I am reminded from God’s Word that He is in control. Even when I don’t understand why some things are the way they are, He sees the big picture, as I am not able to. I am shaken to my core. I keep thinking to myself – Why me Lord? When there are so many other people much more qualified to carry out your work – Why would you choose me? I count it an honor and privilege that will all my faults and failures God would choose to use me. I love that he uses ordinary people like me with no extraordinary talent or way with words.

Thank you dear Lord for you are Jehovah and you are Almighty God!

Sight Seeing

This post is from August 1st. I seem to be a day or two behind in posting my entries. I don't have easy access to the internet.

Today we went to the giraffe center. I got to pet several giraffes. I even put a food pellet in my mouth and let the giraffe take it from me. It was pretty gross. I had giraffe slobber all over my face. Yuck! We also saw warthogs. They really are ugly animals. I got some pretty good shots of them with my camera. They were better at posing for the camera than the giraffes were.

Les and Karen Ommen are living in my director’s home while he is in the U.S. with his family until January. The guy who works for them asked them for something yesterday. Now before I tell you what they asked for I should let you know that we were forewarned that we would be asked for things by Kenyans. Four days later and here is a guy who’s already asking. The guy asked for shillings toward his circumcision fund for his three sons. He’s trying to raise 3,000KSH for his three sons to get circumcised. This would be around $46-$47 in the states. It’s odd for me to think that someone would ask for money for his or her child’s circumcision but truth has proven me wrong.

I got to work in my classroom for the first time today. It was good to have a few hours to get a little organized. I have a wonderful view of the elementary playground, soccer field, and Ngong Forest from all my windows. I would venture to say I have one of the best views in the entire school. West Nairobi School has a beautiful campus! It’s not flat like I’m used to traveling around on, it has hills and steep sidewalks. I’ll get a pretty good workout just walking around school everyday.

For dinner tonight I went to a family from the school’s home. Their name is the Kirby family. They are a sweet bunch. They have been in Kenya for over 10 years. Joel and I were the two teachers chosen to go to their home. The other teachers were each paired in twos and sent to other students’ homes. Joel and I had a good time. I was pretty tired from getting up at 5:40 this morning and so I was glad that Joel carried the majority of the conversation. I actually asked him if he would do most of the talking as we approached the Kirby’s door earlier in the evening. I was thankful that he took me at my word.

I must share with you a verse that the Lord spoke to me with today. The verse is I Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

More Adventures!

This was written Thursday July 31st. Happy Reading!

Today was yet another exciting day in Africa! We most definitely drove on a sidewalk today. The bus started moving and one person says, “Why is that person walking right in the middle of the street?” Then we all quickly realized that that person was walking on the sidewalk and we were not on the street. It was quite amusing. Each new staff member has a great sense of humor. I have thoroughly enjoyed touring the city with them.

Today I couldn’t help but smile when I saw a car that had their license plate number on both the bonnet, which is the hood of the car, and on the side of it. Now in Kenya parts get stolen off cars all the time. One of the teachers just got their side view mirrors back from the shop. They were getting their license plate number posted on them because just last week their original ones were stolen when they were stopped at a roundabout. It’s different to see cars with their license plate number posted all over parts of their car.

I found out that we should be moving into our apartment on Monday. Amy Polhemus and I are the 'we' I am talking about. Our house help also starts on Monday to clean our apartment before we move our things in. I did find out that we are on the ground level right by the guard’s stand. We are going to make the guard our best friend so that if ever we have trouble he will protect us quickly and readily. I think I’ll like having house help. She will come twice a week and sometimes she will come on Saturday if we need her. This will take some time getting used to because I am accustomed to doing everything on my own. I’m sure after a couple of weeks of school I will have so much on my plate that I will no longer feel the urge to ‘help’ her. I don’t remember her name because it is definitely Kenyan, but I do know that she is very trustworthy and has been working with missionaries for fifteen years now.
Tomorrow we go to the Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe center. After that we will eat in Karen and head to the school to start setting up our classrooms.