Last Day in Olives.

It was strange walking through the village for the last time, trying to savour every last "How ahh yoo!" and imprint it in my memory. The effect was spoiled somewhat by my flipflop's tendency to flick mud in my face and a near heart attack when a large chicken leapt at me.
There were hardly any kids in school as it was the first day of the holiday programme, but a few more trickled in and we set off for a field trip to Fort Jesus. The kids were brilliant, really well behaved. When it was time to head off I said goodbye to Mr Tony and Mr Michael, both of whom said many lovely things.  I was looking around for Standard 5 when I heard Fikiri bellow "CLASS FIVE! TO THE CLASSROOM PLEASE!" He took me firmly by the arm and politely requested that I follow him. Bemused, I walked into the class to find the kids sitting in a circle waiting. Fikiri cleared his throat and began.
"Madam, when you work with a thief, you become a thief. When you work with a lazy person, you become a lazy person. But when you work with someone active, you become active. You Madam have been so active and so good and you have made standard 5 active and good also. Now we must have a new teacher, and what if they are lazy?"
"Or a thief?" interjected Joseph Katana.
I welled up slightly and reassured them that it was their choice to work hard and be respectful and that they would be a wonderful class regardless of the teacher (who I am sure will be neither lazy nor prone to felony.) I hugged them all and they wished me a safe journey. As I walked out the gate feeling lonely, Joseph Reuben came running after me. He linked his arm in mine, smiled and said "Madam, you cannot walk alone on your last day. Let me walk with you." We walked to the end of the village and hugged, both of us a bit teary. I told him how proud I am of him and made him promise to behave himself if his new teacher is pretty. He laughed and told me to hurry back to make sure class 5 are being good, and that he knew I would remember them as they will remember me.
I almost made it home with my dignity intact until I heard a little voice call "Madam!" I turned around and saw Shaban, the tiniest, sweetest kid in St 5. He hugged me and I said it was my last day. He looked at me like I was a bit slow and said "Yes Madam, I know, that is why I have come." I thanked him and told him how much I will miss him. He nodded, hugged me again and ran off shyly. I walked home slowly, my heart breaking a little.
It was never going to be easy to leave, and it was such a lovely goodbye, I'm glad it was a nice last day. It hasn't really sunk in yet, I don't think it will until I'm actually on the plane. It's not goodbye for good though. I couldn't forget Olives if I tried.

Chris gets married-Kenyan style.

After planning for months to be well rested the night before Chris and Caroline's wedding, I ended up being dragged to Il Covo by the Irish hooligans across the road and not getting home til 4am. Dim memories of Winnie the Pooh hats and drunken charades on the beach keep resurfacing... Not the best start to an 8am wake up call for an all day wedding, but once I got up the excitement was enough to keep me going. We strutted our way to the gates (most of us wearing Muriel's dresses courtesy of Kongowea market) and were greeted by an endless line of boda bodas. We must have looked so bizarre whizzing through the village, Sex and the City meets Hells Angels.

 

The church service was incredible. Chris and his groomsmen (incuding a be-kilted and very nervous Craig) had to dance up the aisle to the whole congregation clapping and singing to African music. While we waited for the bride, the church choir performed songs and dances, including one kid in a football jersey and tie who mimed and danced like a professional. When Caroline arrived the groomsmen (all 7 of them) had to dance down the aisle one by one and dance back up with a bridesmaid on their arm. This took some time. 

When Caroline finally began to walk up the aisle, all the groomsmen started cheering and Chris was beaming. I got a bit teary as she smiled at him and walked over to her seat. After a lot more singing and the world's most hilarious Reverend (" We are here today to join these 2 in the state of holy..... (excrutiating pause, fumbling of notes)...marraige.") Caroline's parents took her hands and walked her over to Chris' seat to entrust her into his care. The vows were said and the rings exchanged under the reverend's careful instruction

. "Hold up her hand-no dont put the ring on yet! Hold up her hand and slide the ring on carefully-you know which finger? Good, good. You may now place the ring."

 

After the (4 hour!) service we trooped outside for the cake cutting ceremony,apparently a much more serious and official affair than in Western culture. While the band gently sang "Cut the cake, cut the cake" in Swahili, a church elder with a microphone invited Chris and Caroline to "Proceed systematically to the cake area." As they arrived, he helpfully announced "They have arrived at the cake area", and in case anyone was missing the enormity of the occasion, "They are now cutting the cake" as they began to-well-cut the cake.

At this point in the proceedings, a group of semi-clad, hugely muscled acrobats appeared, apparently accidentally inivited to do so by Chris' daughters the night before. As they were performing and the cake was being distributed (systematically of course) the cave kids showed up with a bag of fancy new uniforms and hopeful grins asking to perform THEIR acrobatics. Chris being the sweetheart he is, he gave them permission, and I beamed with pride as they calmly and confidently strutted out onto the stage in front of hundreds of people, along with Joseph Reuben who performed some spectacular flips and spent the rest of the afternoon ensuring his team were well fed and well behaved.

 

After the cake came the food, which I was more than ready for. The Olives kids performed a song and funky dance routine led by my class monitor Faith Joseph as harried caterers ran around trying to feed everyone. I managed to sneak a few plates for the Olives kids and cave kids, one kid sorrowfully explaining "Ramadan Madam" and stuffing chicken in his pocket for later. The speeches started around 4.30 as I finally sat down and began to doze off in exhaustion. Joseph Reuben kindly offered to walk myself and the other volunteers home, so we said our goodbyes to a still beaming Chris and Caroline and hugged the kids goodbye. I got home at 5, went to bed, and woke up at 8am this morning.

It was a beautiful day, 2 genuinely happy people sharing their day with an entire village of people full of love and hope for their future together. And all accomplished in a most systematic fashion. :) 

The Solar System

In an over enthusiastic attempt to make the solar system concrete and tangible, I brought a giant yellow exercise ball into Olives to use as the sun, along with a bag of crepe- papered footballs (and in the case of Saturn, plastic bags and a tea towel.) Walking through the village trying to work out how to carry the thing was a challenge. The usual parade of toddlers chanting "How ahh yoo, how ahh yoo?" came to a complete silence as I rounded the corner. They stopped, stared, and as one began to chant "BALLLI! BALLIII!!!" in disconcertingly deep voices. I quickly hoisted the thing above my head as their little hands began to stretch towards it with idolic fervour and legged it as they started to advance.

I managed to make it to school unscathed and brought Standard 5 to the field for their lesson. Hamisi held the sun (the only kid I trusted not to bounce it to oblivion) and the others took a planet each and stood in order. We went through each planet and discussed it, then the kid holding it had to walk in a circle around the sun (a very patient Hamisi) whilst turning slowly in a circle. All went well until we got to Uranus (a horrendously ill-chosen Joseph Katana.) It went something like:
"Good work Saturn, remember to keep turning! Are your arms ok Hamisi? Good work Mercury, try not to bump into-JOSEPH KATANA! DO NOT HIT JUPITER! JOSEPH! JOSEPH! JO-Jupiter, dont hit him back, I'll deal with it. Joseph, do you want to be Uranus or not? (Cue much sniggering.) Joseph, be careful, the rings falling off Uranus! (Sniggering descends into full scale snorting laughter. Hamisi laughs so hard he drops the sun, which bounces off a rock and hits Ayub in the face.)
"Ayub, bring it back. Ayub...Ayub...AYUB MTUNGA! IF YOU BOUNCE THE SUN TOO HARD ITS GOING TO BURST! YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS!...5...4...3...2... SAMUEL GET DOWN FROM THE TREE!...Well how did Mars get up the tree? Did you bounce it? I told you not to...what is it Bonface? What? No I don't have Mercury, you have Mercury...Bonface I don't know, check your pockets-AYUB! ONE MORE BOUNCE AND YOU GO BACK TO CLASS! JOSEPH KATANA PUT THE RINGS BACK ON URA-ON THE PLANET YOU'RE HOLDING! CLASS 5 SIT DOWN!"

I made it home with 4 planets tattered and torn. Uranus and Saturn had disintegrated into a sad little pile of pipe cleaners and tea towels and Mars was wedged up the tree.We never did find Mercury.....But Neptune remained intact, as did my sanity, and the kids are experts on space now. All that remains is to perfect my straight face for the next few weeks of Uranus jokes. :)

Aligning the planets correctly.

 

4 out of 9 planets revolving aint bad...

Last Day of Term.

Last day of term, I can't believe it. Everyone was still psyched up about the Olympics, especially when it was officially announced that the winners were none other than the awesome Team Tembo. :) My voice was hoarse from all the cheering but I didn't have to raise it, it was a really chilled out day.

I gave each of the kids a card I had made for them and a picture of the class.  I was expecting the usual "Maaaadam, this one has a bigger card than meeee," but they all went really quiet and read their cards. When they finished they all started laughing and chatting and swapped cards to read eachothers. Fikiri shouted "God bless you Madam! God bless you!" and all the girls rushed up to hug me. Even Hamisi hugged me! I told them how proud I am of them and they told me they'd never forget me. We walked up to the field together where both the boys and girls won their football games and I sat in the sun getting my hair plaited into a strange teepee-like structure by a bunch of giggling kindergarteners. It was a good day. :)

Class photo Take 1: Sensible poses.

Serious faces...

Class photo Take 2...

Class photo Take 3. :)

Maintaining calm and dignity.

The weird and wonderful Bonface Mwendwa.

Olives Olympics

So we got to the school, and it looked like this:

We waited for it to clear then quickly tagged and painted our teams. I was Team Elephant with 25 kids from Standard 7 to Standard 1. "Elephant" was too long and awkward to chant, so we settled for screaming the Swahili word "TEMMMBBBOOOOO!" in opposing teams faces instead. We actually managed to get the kids from the other teams to start chanting for Team Tembo, that didnt go down well. :) When we got to the field Mr Joseph led the proceedings with the aid of a megaphone held so close to his mouth that it muffled 90% of what he was saying, and I rounded up the giggling kindergarten kids as they ran repeatedly onto the pitch.

We ran the sack race-and won it. Then we won the wheelbarrow race.We came second in the 100 metres boys and tried to remain calm and non-competitive about the whole thing.

Before we could win anything else, the rain decided to make another appearance. It bucketed down, we had to leg it to the school dripping wet and smeared in rapidly melting paint.

We waited it out, went home and changed, and came back for more. We marched to the field through the mud, 500 kids chanting "Rain rain go away, come again another day!" at the tops of their voices.We couldnt have our egg and spoon race as the children in charge of the eggs had eaten them and lost the spoons, but we had our 3 legged race and then the tug of war. Our finest moment.

All my Standard 5 kids were screaming "Pull Madam, puuuuulll!" and boasting to their friends that their madam is strong like a man. Not sure how to feel about that one, but our team was mostly tiny girls and the team against us had huge Standard 7 boys, so I pulled alright.I pulled for Ireland! And aww yeah: we won!! I got home at 5.30 after an 8am start covered in mud, paint, grass and sweat, my voice gone from screaming and cheering. It was epic. :)

Cave Goodies!

Thanks to one of the volunteers, Jen, we had funds to buy loads of supplies for the cave classes, including a blackboard, basketball, and storybooks with pictures of Kenyan children that actually relate to their lives. The kids were so excited, they made me write "Property of Ngome Giriama' on every book so no one would take them! It was a lovely lesson, we learned about the continents, read "Handa's Surprise and answered questions, then unwrapped the basketball. That disrupted the tranquility somewhat. :) Next week is my last week in Kenya and I've been so worried that things would just fizzle out with the cave but all the other volunteers have gotten really enthusiastic about it and promised to keep up the lessons. It's going to be hard to leave,but at least I know they're in good hands.

Using our new blackboard

Checking out the new books.

Cheesy grin time. :)

Everyone say "Shiny new basketball!"

Standard 5

Three musketeers: Ayub, Winnie, Joseph K.

Zakiya and Faith singing the national anthem.

Blocking Madam Ceri's face for the photo.