Kenya High School

Ryan and Kat!
Thanks for checking up on us and thanks for the comment. Kenyan schools are pretty crazy in most ways. The kids wake up around 5am. no... Let me rephrase. They are required be in class studying "preps" by 5am, so they must get up earlier. They have chai/tea at 6am to 6:40. After that are more preps until 8. Classes run from 8 to 4 every day with a few breaks thrown in. Then, from 4 to 5 they have exams. From 5 to 6 is games. 6 to 7 is dinner (ish) and then they return for more preps until 9 pm at night. Add on to all that, in kenya each class is assigned a permanent room. Meaning, they stay in the samerican chair/desk all day!

We are talking about 12 hours a day in your seat! On the weekends it is less - about 8 hours a day. Just chew on that a bit. In a boarding school these kids live in their seats. it's amazing how well behaved they are considering all that.

I try to make my lessons as interesting as possible and get them out of their seats. Even so, some kids are just zombified. Right now I'm teaching phyics for sophmores and math for Freshmen. So far i like it a lot.

Okay, i could say a million things about the system, but I'll wait.

In other random news, i am now the new basketball coach! Being... well... White, it was generally assumed by the students that i could play and coach basketball. At first i was hesitant about the whole thing, but then i went to observe a practice and i was amazed. These kids are great with their feet in soccer, but when it comes to hand-eye, all bets are off. They had talent and desire, but they needed help. Anyways, so i have been really busy with that. In my spare time I have been looking up how to coach, drills, and practice ideas. At this point it's exciting. The kids are so excited to learn and give me a lot of respect for what little knowledge i have.

In yet other news, Mandy is thinking of starting an Art club. We keep running into kids with artistic ability coming out their ears, but no outlet. The details are yet to form, but she wants to basically give them some organized place to practice their art and get feedback.

jees... I really could write so much more. Life is moving quickely.

Hope you are all doing well. Just shoot me and email if you wanna chat via phone and we'll call you.