monday. may 28 2oo7

near the end of a school year, usually things begin to wind down. you complete things and have this sense of relieved stress and relaxation. interestingly enough, more and more things seem to occur at the end of this school year for me. they aren't necessarily stressful things. i guess a good way to describe it is eventful. i don't remember the last time i just sat in my house and enjoyed the silence. like i said, it's not a bad thing...just an observation. here's how this past week went down: [ 05.18.07 ] - friday morning we arrive at school and head out with the 8th grade class on a 3-hr bus ride to the savage wilderness camp alongside the tana river. the entire day was designed to encourage team-building amongst the kids. [ 05.19.07 ] - saturday offered activities like hiking up a hill, kayak-capsizing exercises, repelling off a crane, and a bottle rocket competition. [ 05.20.07 ] - sunday morning was fully dedicated to whitewater rafting down the tana river. i think i had just as much fun outside the raft as i did inside the raft. floating down a fast-flowing river with a life jacket on is relaxing to me. [ 05.21.07 ] - monday morning i wake up sick probably from such an active weekend. it didn't help that i ended up subbing for all the classes of another sick teacher. ah well that's how i get treated around here. [ 05.22.07 ] - tuesday was abnormal in that we had a band concert for the elementary and ms/hs bands at a separate location from school. i enjoyed listening to imperfect music. every great musician had to start somewhere. right after the concert, we took a bus back to school for rugby practice. after that, i went home for an hour before i headed back out to play bball at rosslyn. even though i was sick, it felt good to run fastbreaks up and down the court. i'm looking forward to sfc this summer. [ 05.23.07 ] - wednesday was a regular school day up until 2:00pm when the ms/hs came together for performances prepared by their music class. they performed to music that they selected. the assignment was to choose a christian song and perform to it whether it be through choreography or actually singing and playing instruments. afterwards, we hopped on a bus to head out to RVA for rugby and vball games. trips to RVA are always exhausting because of the hour drives back and forth. [ 05.24.07 ] - thursday was normal. i tutored after school and then ate at rusty nail with the school staff for dinner. i think it was the first time in awhile since i've had steak. actually they were medallions but close enough. often times i eat food here in kenya, and it just doesn't feel the same as food back home. my stomach doesn't have that sense of familiarity. but that steak really felt right. speaking of which, does anyone wanna take me to taste of texas this summer? hahaha [ 05.25.07 ] - i had no lesson plans for friday because i originally planned to go on a 9th grade culture trip this past weekend. but it was cancelled because students were unable to attend. so all of a sudden, my weekend was wide open. naturally, i decided to wing it and just see what comes my way. after school, i went to java adam's to upload the rafting pics onto facebook. later on, brad picks me up, and we grab a bite at havana. [ 05.26.07 ] - i walk to hanbeen's around 9:30am to hang out and check out some new computer games. then he and i walk to myoung chul's for lunch. since mc's leaving to go to rosslyn next year, he invited the soccer team over to have lunch. they had so much food that we didn't even finish it. afterwards, the guys totally drowned themselves in technology. a few guys were playing football manager 07 on mc's comp. a few guys were playing nfs carbon on my comp. shaq and kwame were listening to my ipod. zam was playing with a psp. even though electronics takes over their world, i think it's definitely better than just sitting around watching a movie without any engaging of conversation. after mc's, i walked to adam's to meet up with kayla. we walked around toy market and bought stuff. it's always a great experience because there are so many funny things to pick out. i ended up getting a pair of jeans and khaki corduroys. later that evening, we went out to talisman to celebrate heather's bday. man that place was expensive! i had some thai chicken, but i was beginning to tire out from all the activity. afterwards, we headed to double inn to chill out. i enjoyed just sitting there listening to music. sometimes it doesn't really take much to entertain me. i wish i had ginormous speakers in my house. [ 05.27.07 ] - sunday's service was a children's service. i can't honestly say it was worth it to wake up for it. at the same time, maybe it was good that the service was light because all i could think about was eating lunch the whole time. yea i know i suck, but hey i'm being honest. for lunch, i treated myself to a giant calzone. that thing was about 10-12 inches long. afterwards, i went home and crashed. i don't think i've recovered completely from my cold, but i'm at about 90%. hopefully i'll be fine before i get on a plane in about a week. it feels strange to talk about an airplane because on the other end of that flight i will be returning to a changed society. it's impossible to anticipate all the changes, but in a way i'm excited to experience the unknown. ::: :::

wednesday. may 16 2oo7

i decided to take pictures of downtown nairobi on saturday. it's weird that we live nowhere close to it. i tend to forget that it even exists. i always feel like a tourist when i go there because everyone stares at me, and i'm always walking around unfamiliar areas. nevertheless, i have a good time checking out the city. so here's a familiar sign eh? the food isn't the same though. it's not a fastfood taco joint. they actually attempt to make mexican food. i was told they serve alcohol too. if you can afford to stay one night in this place, you're loaded. it's really nice inside. they have a pool/bar on top of the roof. i just think it's funny that the hilton here is nicer than some i've seen in the states. i thought this was funny because they actually have a Hertz company here. highlight the L makes it so obvious that they ripped that name off. Heltz is a driver's ed company. i think this burger joint existed a looooooooooong time ago in the states. that reminds me...there's also a woolworth's department store here in nairobi. i haven't seen one of those in a long time either. sometimes it feels like i'm stepping into the past when i see stuff like that. and finally here is the memorial for the former US Embassy building. the current one is located far away from here directly across from the UN building. ::: :::

friday. may 11 2oo7

when i try to recall the accounts of this week, one word comes to mind...rugby. i didn't know squat about this sport at the beginning of the year. i still can't claim to know everything about the sport. however, i can clear up the notion that rugby is football but with no pads. anyone who's a hardcore rugby player can tell you that the two sports are extremely different. i dunno if greg reads this site, but he can definitely appreciate this post. for one thing, rugby has no quarterback. in fact, it's illegal to throw the ball forward. but it is common to throw the ball backwards, like a lateral in football. actually it's done several times in a game. i think alot of football coaches could learn alot of trick lateral plays from watching rugby. in football, the offense has four downs to gain 10 yards, which means the game stops between plays. in rugby, it's nonstop. the only time the game stops is for injuries, out of bounds, penalties, knock-ons, or timeouts. other than that, it's just this constant moving of the ball. if you think it's tiring to run up and down a field in soccer, you won't be able to handle rugby. i had an opportunity to play with the boys on tuesday during practice. stupid me didn't wear cleats. with the grass being damp, making cuts was not an option. but it's instinct for me to wanna make sharp cuts when i'm carrying the ball, like in bball. so i paid respect to the inventor of the cleat that day. i attempted to make a sharp cut, and my feet flew up right under me. my legs skid across the ground, and my upper body came crashing down on the ball. it's been a long time since i've gotten the air completely knocked out of me. in a strange way, it felt kinda good. so here's to mr. cleat-maker. i applaud you sir, assuming it was a man. on wednesday, our rugby team had a game against RVA. once again, they have a long history of playing the sport. on top of that, i think they practice every day. our guys may have lost, but they gave them a good pounding. it's always fun to watch the kids in our school pulverize other kids. maybe it's because i'm a dude. i think we're most blessed by the fact that we and RVA are christian schools. it allows us to come together at the end and pray as brothers in christ. opposing teams in football from public schools can get pretty ugly after a game. hahaha i said "pretty ugly". ok i'll shuttup. i didn't get any good scrum shots because i only showed up during the 4th quarter. i sub-coached for the girls volleyball team, who played for fun like an exhibition game. i'm glad both teams were at the same level. we played best out of three to 25. we ended up winning the first and last matches. good job girls! due to their level of play, it was basically a battle of serves. ah man, i completely forgot about taking pics for vball. ah well. ::: :::

monday. may o7 2oo7

friday: - halfday at school - importance of being earnest @ 4:00pm - went home and watched a movie - hung out with brad at java at junction - hung out at girls' place - went home saturday: - got a ride to wns at 10:00am - sat in jen's room and watched rocky - rehearsal at 1:00pm - importance of being earnest at 2:00pm - spiderman 3 with the joe, ben, and anna radkovic - went with brad and kayla to nairobi hospital b/c brad has strep throat - back to girls' place - casa w/ jen i'm beginning to realize that i haven't had a "normal" weekend for a loooooong time. for me, normal is attempting to sleep in on saturday and later walking out to adam's to get online in order to talk to people at home. afterwards i'd enjoy a nice, cool walk in the dark back home. i can't remember the last time i did that. i'm not saying i like or dislike the changes to my saturdays. i just think it's really interesting how something has come up every weekend. as much as i like having certain things planned ahead of time, i also enjoy leaving my day wide open for random things to occur. oh yea, here are some pics from the play, The Importance Of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. our cast and crew did an awesome job! we went from having no set to being promised we'd have a set built at school to being declined that set to creatively improvising and using a corner in the library and a garden area outside the library. actually i think it made the whole experience more fun moving the audience through three acts. for the indoor scenes, it was set up similar to a blackbox, except we opened only two walls as opposed to four. the outdoor scene was set up like a typical outdoor theater except there was no actual elevated stage. in some ways, i'm actually glad we were handed this situation. we learned a great deal about making the best of our circumstances. we even picked up a new actress for the role of lady bracknell two days before the performance. she did a fantastic job of memorizing her lines and pulling that character together in such a short amount of time. i was most impressed and very proud of all the actors for their improvement and how much they've learned since the beginning of the year. i wish i recorded footage of their monologues early on in the year. they're soooo different from before! the crew provided whenever they were called on. with all the pressure of putting the set together, they pulled off an amazing job. the most integral parts obviously were the teachers, sue and heather. i helped early on when the boys were trying to wrap their heads around their characters. in the end, these two teachers directed with confidence. ok enough typing... top (L-R): muthoni, eliza, soo yeon, scott, vicky, natalie, anna, allan, mario, naomi, katila bottom (L-R): josh, katie, daniel, stefanie, becca ::: :::