I guess I say this a lot in these emails, but I’ve never had a day like Saturday in my life. The drop out rate in Kenya is almost 70%, but when lunch is provided, the numbers tend to drop dramatically. We hoped to decrease the drop out rate and help children learn a little easier.
The plan was that all the maize and beans would be delivered to the orphanage where they had a guarded locked room. On Saturday morning...
The thing that is causing the most tension in our household is not that school has started, not that we have 16 8th grade boys living with us, but Katie. My older boys are outraged with her.
She can say Da-Da and Mama. But her third word was not JT or Matthew.
It was Jessie.
The dog.
This has NOT gone down well with the boys.
Katie has also caused some tensions with Nancy. Although I was the one who really pressed for a girl,...
Until Kenya, the best one I ever heard was a prof at the Naval Academy. He excused himself from a meeting because `his ship needed to leave the harbor’. I was puzzled until I saw him leaving the restroom.
The older boys and I are taking Swahili lessons while Nancy is gone, and he confirmed to us something that she had told us earlier. In Kenya, if you’ve got to go do your duty, you excuse yourself by saying `I’ve got...
For the last day of school, I borrowed something from Erma Bombeck, and modified it for my classes. I started alphabetically, and told Ha-Sun Ahn: `You are my favorite student. I appreciate your brilliance in grammar, your witty writing, and your hilarious speeches. Please don’t tell anyone in the class that you were my favorite student.’ I moved on to Ryan and said `Ryan, you were my favorite student. I loved your accents when we read out loud, I appreciated...
Continue ReadingBen and Katie turned one on Sunday. It was a festive day, with them eating their first piece of cake (Katie put her finger in the frosting and licked them; Ben ate his cake and then started looking at Katie’s with heightened interest.)
Katie is pulling up but not quite walking; Ben is crawling but not as ambitiously curious as Katie is. He is content to thoroughly examine one toy for a long time; she needs to see everything.
Perhaps the biggest...
They asked the staff to provide prizes for the talent show. Most people made cookies, or something like that. Not me; I wanted something BIG; significant even.
Without beating a joke straight into the ground, what I offered seniors in high school was a CD of Neil Diamond’s Greatest Hits.
This being RVA, the kids cheered mightily when it was announced, although several kids asked me if it was a first place prize or a LAST place prize. They had a special...
We’ve got this genius guy here, someone who has managed to hook a microwave system to the only satellite serving Kenya telecom to improve our phone system. He is an accountant, programmer, engineer, etc.
He hurt his shoulder recently, and has had a rather painful recovery and therapy. I saw him walking the hall of the business office, and he had a bag of frozen peas on his shoulder. As you know by know, I am quite quick on the up...
The twins set our morning ritual. Lately, I’ve been lucky enough to slip away around 6 and exercise. I get back around 6:30, and I change them while Nancy prepares their breakfast. After we feed them, we get a blanket out and put them on the floor to play. Usually, we are all rushing about trying to get ready for the day, but on Saturdays, I like to play on the floor with them.
On a recent Saturday, I was playing...
