Kenyan Food

Realized I never posted this from last year....Here's a little insight into Kenyan cuisine:

Food. It's a pretty big deal. A couple weeks ago my students experienced cooking and eating some Kenyan foods. Here's what went down:

So, the room was divided up into stations for the kids to visit. They were armed with a plate, fork, and a cup of chai. Chai is a very popular Kenyan drink since it's grown right here. It's tea, milk, and sugar. Then, off they went from station to station learning about some popular Kenyan foods.

One of the stations had the 4th graders make mukimo. It's a dish with mashed potatoes, corn kernals, and peas. You can check out the pictures and can tell there are other ingredients in it as well.

Students worked hard to remove the kernels from the corn. Coincidentally corn tastes very different than what I'm accustomed to; it's definitely not as sweet.

Githiri is another dish that involves corn and beans. You simply put these things together, along with whatever other vegetables you like and boil them up. 

One of the basic staples is ugali. It's a cornmeal + water dish and doesn't have much taste on its own. Although it looks like mashed potatoes, you can cut it with a knife. It's very filling, but you wouldn't want to eat it by itself. Cover it with some kind of sauce or here, sukuma wiki (think greens). 

At another station kids got to make rice, or pilau. Most were a fan of mashing up the garlic.

 All these ingredients were added to the rice, along with other spices, to make it nice and tasty. Also, meat was added in.

You can see the rice on the plates- its light brown. Students also enjoyed watermelon! 

Another Kenyan staple is chapati. It's round and flat; for those back in Florida, think tortillas. Chapati is good for soaking up juices and a vehicle for all the other foods to get to your mouth. 

Students got to roll out the dough and form the chapati.

Um.....bless their hearts.

 In Uganda we ate a delicious breakfast meal: Rolex. Basically you take a chapati, then accompany it with a thick layer of scrambled egg. Rolled Eggs turns into Rolex. It's a great on-the-go meal and we even had the fortune of stopping by Uganda's No. 1 Chapati Company. Since we had no time to spare, we missed the cooking lessons. Next time.

I was quite delighted with my Nutella and banana chapati. Delicious!

For those of you wondering if this is what I eat all the time- it's not. I'm a fan of stir fry, fajitas, sandwiches, and other easy to make wonders along with all the fresh fruits and veggies found here.

Since I originally wrote this, a Subway has opened up just a few minutes away. We also enjoy ordering pizza for delivery and going to Ethiopian restaurants.

Taking my New Wheels to the Tea Fields

I'm now officially the owner of a '99 Rav4! This is so exciting, because it means more independence and opportunities to get out of the city and explore more of this beautiful country. When your classroom is literally a 2 minute walk from your house and you live and work on the same campus, sometimes you just need to be able to get away for a little bit.

Enjoying the full service at the gas station.

So far I've mostly taken little trips to the mall near us to get groceries or to go out and get coffee. This weekend though, as part of our efforts to get out of town more, a group of friends traveled out to enjoy lunch in the tea fields.

Seriously, Crayola should make a box of green shades inspired by tea fields.

This particular farm has a gorgeous flower garden that attracts all kinds of birds. The food was delicious- I particularly love the pumpkin casserole that is creamy with some kind of cereal on top.

Although I'm a little nervous about driving out on the Kenyan roads sprinkled with potholes and crammed with animals, carts, pedestrians, and crazy matatus (buses), I'm so excited about the opportunities having a car will bring.

New School Year!

Well, I've been back in Kenya for about a month now. We've made it through four weeks of school already, and I am very much enjoying second grade. I've got a class full of sweet, rambunctious, bright learners. It amazing to think of all the places these kids have lived and the experiences some of them have had at the age of 7 or 8. I am blessed to be their teacher.

Here's a little peak into my AMAZING camping classroom, complete with a LOFT (YAY!):

Ready for S'more learning!

Classroom library in the corner over there.

Everyone loves the loft- perfect for curling up with a good book!

View from the loft

Another view from the loft

My desk and the Smart Board.

View from the back of the room.

So that's where I spend a lot of time! All these pics were before school started, so it looks even more lived-in and cozy.

You can be praying for my students to feel safe, loved, and excited to be at school and in our classroom. Lift up their families and the work that they do here- it's incredible to hear how God is using these ministries in Kenya and East Africa. Also, pray for those students and families who are not yet believers, that they may come to know Christ. You can ask God to fill me with patience and love for these kiddos, to build great relationships with them and their families, and to have lots of energy in the next couple weeks as I take on some more responsibilities. I love my job and I'm so thankful to teach here.

Thanks so much for all the well wishes, support, and encouragement. It's great to know you have friends and family in your corner, rootin' for you.

-Sarah

School's Out!

Desks are cleaned. Report cards went home. Final assembly is over. Teachers waved the buses away. Keys are turned in.

It's summer!

Here's a video of some of the highlights of the year with my students. It's a little long (11 min), but they are cute, so it's worth your time. :)

http://animoto.com/play/beZS08F1M8KjpI08zz2pQQ

I'm thrilled to say that I will be coming back to Rosslyn Academy next year, but instead of teaching fourth grade, I'll be teaching second. Initially I was to say for one year, filling in for a teacher on sabbatical. I knew that if an elementary position became available, I would love the opportunity to stay on longer than a year. However, nothing seemed too possible and it looked like I would be returning to Florida- which would have been great, but deep down I wanted to stay at Rosslyn.

Thinking that maybe I could stay in Nairobi, I applied to another international school here. I've typically ask God to make things so obvious to me so that I'll know what I'm supposed to do. Well, I didn't even get an interview. Door closed. A little stunned, I resigned myself to the idea that God only wanted me here a year and that was that.

A few months later and I was already thinking about life in Wauchula, how I would transition back to being a public school teacher, and wondering about what grade I would teach. Seemingly out of the blue, a position became available and I was offered the second grade spot. Door opened. It would seem like a no-brainer, but I had already started thinking about Florida and preparing myself for the move back home.

After praying about it and talking it over, I took the job. It seems that the theme of this chapter in my life is about trust, and trusting that God will take care of needs and even attend to the wants of my life. I know that teaching is one way God can use me, and I totally believe that can be in Nairobi or Wauchula.

I've already started looking at second grade blogs and thinking how I want to organize my classroom. I have a loft! It's in a circular building, so the shape is a little funky. There are lots of windows and I'll still have a Smart Board.

Luckily, I know some pretty awesome former second grade teachers that I'm looking forward to chatting with, if there are any other current/former second grade teachers who have any advice for me...let's hear it! The same goes for any current/former second grade students! ;)

Ethiopia Revisited: Lalibela

After castle hopping in Gonder, we flew over to Lalibela to check out the churches there. What is special about these churches is that they are really old, and they are carved out of the same piece of rock. One church carved out of one giant rock. It's really impressive.

One of the rock-hewn churches.

This was a group of men singing and chanting. 

There were polka dot umbrellas all over the place. I loved it. 

We had a guide that took around to all the churches and told us the history behind them. You could really see the progression and increased detail from the oldest to the youngest churches.

Church of St. George (when you walk up on it)

Church of St. George (looking down on it)

Church of St. George (down, looking up at the church)

What's also crazy is that these churches are still in use. They aren't huge, and wouldn't hold a large congregation, but people still go there and make pilgrimages to the town of Lalibela.

Sitting by the fertility pool. 

We had dinner and saw an amazing sunset. The countryside of Ethiopia is breathtaking.

Ethiopia Revisited: Gonder's Castles

Once we were at the capital in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), we stayed for a day or two then headed off to explore some of the famous land marks the country is known for. First up was a city named Gonder, famous for it's ancient castles.

Lindsey is a great travel partner! 

The flight to Gonder was in a small-ish plane over mountains, so we felt a lot of turbulence. We landed after about 30 minutes travel through the air and caught a taxi to our hotel. Turns out that the taxi drivers want the most money they can get for their fuel, so we had to wait until we had a full taxi. Also noteworthy, this taxi was probably older than me and there was zero leg room in the backseat, even for someone who's 5' 4".

Luckily though, we were the first drop off at the Florida International Hotel. I felt right at home! ;)

We checked in to our room, then we hopped in a tuk-tuk to explore Gonder.

We didn't exactly speak the same language, so there were a couple awkward moments and wrong turns.  We did enjoy that strawberry air freshener, though.

We were only there for a day, so we got right to the sightseeing. A nice Polish man wanted to go in with us for a tour guide, so we heard the history of the castles. It really made me aware of how much African history I know little about.

The castle complex including different buildings built many years apart. The group of them is called Fasil Ghebbi.

We also visited a famous baptizing place....

This is the Fasiladas Bath Timket. Once a year they fill this giant pool up with water and it gets blessed. Once blessed, it's a free for all and everyone jumps in for a dip in the water.

When we were there, there wasn't really any water.

This is what it looks like when they celebrate. (photo from Wikipedia)

And a famous church....

This is Debre Berhan Selassie Church. We did remove our shoes to enter. There was a type of porch that wrapped around the whole building. Women were kneeling/laying/praying along the right side. There was a man in the back as well. The walls inside the church were covered with paintings of Biblical stories. There are many paintings and photographs of the ceiling of this church.

This ceiling is pretty famous- those are angels. 

We made a stop at a market...

And of course we had Ethiopian for lunch...

We had dinner with a view of Gonder...

Then it was back to the Florida International Hotel for a quick night's sleep before we were up early to head off to Lalibela to visit the churches.