School Times

I have several fun things to share from this last month. The first will have to be about a cultural blooper. I was teaching history and I was talking to my students about sugar cane. Well I started to talk to my kids about the sugar cane plant in my hometown in Louisiana, and I mentioned how much it stunk up the town at certain times of the year. My students, even my American ones, looked at me with baffled eyes. The ‘deer in the headlights’ look quickly told me something was not right. After a few probing questions I realized they all assumed I was talking about a literal plant and not a factory. We all had quite the laugh at both our blunders.

As I was riding home one day with some of my fellow teachers we had to stop to let the cows cross the street. You’re probably thinking, “That’s no big deal.” We live in Nairobi, the largest and most developed city in Kenya. To have cows cross the street in the city is pretty amusing in my book.

Another day on the ride home one of the teachers noticed a monkey on someone’s gate. I’m saddened to report that I was not able to view the monkey because I did not look up in time. I hope to see one soon though.

One Friday night thirteen of us teachers all went out to a fabulous Chinese restaurant called ‘For You’. This place is so great that my roommate would eat there every day if she could afford it. We all got to the restaurant much later than we anticipated. A drive home that normally takes about twenty minutes took us almost an hour and a half because traffic was so backed up due to the Nairobi Fair. Well Nairobi can get quite cool in the evenings. The later you’re outside the more you need to bundle up. Getting to the restaurant later meant that we would have a chilled dining experience. The restaurant does supply jikos to keep you warm when you dine outside. Jikos are basically little pots with burning coals. This night was probably the most eventful that we’ve had. The electricity went out before we ever got to order our meals. The workers came out with candles. The electricity came back on inside the restaurant but not outside the restaurant the rest of the evening. We ordered and later after we’d eaten a waiter brought out a lantern to help us keep warm. The waiter who had given us the lantern apparently had it turned up too high and after a few minutes the glass around the lantern cracked. While the cracked lantern made some of us weary it made others intrigued. One of the teachers started playing with all the little knobs around the lanterns base. He eventually tired of it and stopped. Well it started to give off a smoky smell and this same teacher proceeded to blow out the filament at the top of the lantern. We all thought we were in the clear until all of a sudden the lantern caught fire. We all ran away from the table. We thought for sure that the teacher sitting directly in front of it got burned but thankfully he was not harmed. The same waiter who brought the lantern to us ran to the kitchen to grab a towel so he could smother the flame. That was definitely one dining experience that I will never forget. I did take a picture but only got the towel wrapped around the lantern. I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to capture the lantern engulfed in flames.

Today I was told about a woman named Agnes who lives in the Kibera slum. We have students at our school whose parents work in a school in the heart of Kibera. The wife learned of this woman because her daughter is in their school. The daughter went from first in her class to twenty second in a short amount of time. As a teacher you know something is happening at home when such a drastic decline in academics occurs. When this wife went to visit the family she learned that the mom, Agnes, had been burned and that is why she had not been able to stay on top of her daughter’s schoolwork. Agnes was stepping off a matatu (public transport vehicle; minibus) when her ex-boyfriend doused her with gasoline and lit her on fire. She had to have surgery for her burns. The hospital that she went to did not do a very good job. Apparently her body is like a patchwork doll because they took pieces of skin from all over for her grafts. They also didn’t explain to her certain measures she needed to take for proper care of her burns. The only person she had to take care of her after her accident was her little nephew. Due to lack of physical therapy her burns tightened and her mobility was limited. This missionary wife found her and offered her help. She took her to a better hospital. The first doctor who saw her was honest and said that he could not help her. The next doctor was honest and said that he didn’t know exactly how much he could do but he would try his best. At present she is recovering from her second surgery. The missionary wife and her husband have helped to find Agnes a more sanitary home because the one she was living in before had dirt floors and infection was more likely to occur. Agnes is also an orphan. She became an orphan at age fifteen. I get to meet Agnes some time next week and I’m thrilled to meet her. As most of you reading know I lost my mom at thirteen and a half, and I lost my dad three days after my fifteenth birthday. Also, thirty percent of my body was burned and I had to have skin graft surgery at age fifteen. The missionary wife was telling me that Agnes is having a hard time seeing God’s hand in all of this and I’m so excited to have the opportunity to share with her my story and the confidence I have in knowing that God’s hand has been in it all. Please pray for Agnes.

I have another prayer request. My class is in charge of chapel on October 31st. I’m quite nervous because I’ve never put on a chapel before. I’ve seen just about all of the other elementary classes already and they’ve been really good. Pray that I would have clarity of thought as I’m preparing for this with so many other things on my mind.

Thank you everyone for your prayers. Some days I know that prayer is all that carries me through. Also, please continue to pray for a car. I still have not found one.

I love you all and praise the Lord for your wonderful support!!

P.S. Some of you may not be aware but earlier this month I cut 13 inches off my hair!!