today is the day that WNS played their first interschool girls bball game and boys soccer game. much thanks goes to kayla for organizing interschool sports for WNS. most people don't know how much work she has put into making this all happen. she also helped me coach today's girls bball game. great job to mr. kearby for coaching the boys soccer team. i'm proud to say that for our first games, the girls won with a score of 10-7, and the boys won 1-0. great job rhinos!
for anyone who noticed, the girls are wearing jerseys that say "L.I. Christian". there was a school in long island, new york that sold their lockers on ebay. we bought the lockers, and they threw in all their sports uniforms. so for the time being, these are the uniforms we'll be wearing.
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saturday. september 23 2oo6
this week was a week of curveballs. this past wednesday was supposed to be the first interschool games for WNS. the boys soccer team and girls bball team were scheduled to play a school named st. christopher's. the students were all excited and looking forward to this day. we even got them to dress up for gamedays, so there was alot of hype built up to this day. however, it rained, so both games were cancelled and rescheduled to a different day. that put abit of a damper on the week.
yesterday was FUN Friday for the 9th graders. again, we faced a change in plans. we were originally scheduled to go mountain-biking. our guide got sick, so we switched to bowling at village market. about an hour before leaving the school, we find out that the lanes were booked by someone else. instead, we played putt-putt golf at village market. it was a krazy day of changes, but in the end it all worked out. we had fun. i think the most bonding occurs on the bus because the students have so much to talk about.
i had brandon, mario, and kim in my group. eric had josh, kwame, and enog on the other course. the girls (anna, natalie, victoria, becca, stefanie) were one hole ahead of us on the same course.
somehow we managed to hit a few golfballs over the wall. the locals were nice enough to throw them back to us. one time anna (the aussie redhead) hit one that jumped over our wall AND the wall on the left =P
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friday. september 22 2oo6
i took this picture for two reasons: 1) HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIFER!!! if i could visit you up in northwestern, i'd cook this nice warm meal for you. check out the steam coming off of that =] this is the first REAL meal i've cooked since coming to kenya. before this, it was always sandwiches and ramen. i haven't found a bakery that makes bday cakes yet, so for now i present to you this...hehee
2) i also showed this for my parents, so they'd know that i'm taking care of my health. i cooked way too much, but it tasted really good!
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sunday. september 17 2oo6
alright i just had to post this cuz yall know i'm a shoe nut. i started watching initial D stage 2 today (and yes i still watch anime; it's not like i have a tv or anything). and the first thing i caught besides the huge change in graphics is this screenshot. for anyone who's as krazy as me, you know that these are being released on january 20, 2007. my cousin alfred had these back in the day, and you know for sure i'll be getting them too =]
here's an ol skool clip with mars blackmon. it's interesting to see how nike's marketing strategy worked. i'm sure the comments about the long shorts and short socks were intentional. they got into our heads. "money! it's gotta be the shoes!"
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saturday. september 16 2oo6
like i've mentioned a billion times, each weekend offers a new surprise. today wns is scheduled to play in a softball game. however, i was given the opportunity to visit RVA. visit hannah and nathaniel or play softball? well that was an easy decision. there was an event going on where teh seniors make fresh donuts and cook lunch to raise money. so a bunch of us headed out there. the donuts were freakin awesome! i had a maple donut and a chocolate sprinkled donut *drool* for lunch, i had a taco salad. argh..i forgot to take pictures of the food. i did remember to take pics of my adopted brother and sister though =] after they gave me the grand tour of RVA, we came across a tiny log cabin which was the prayer chapel. (btw, does anyone recognize the t-shirt nathaniel is wearing? hehee)
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friday. september 15 2oo6
HAPPY 26TH BIRTHDAY TO SAM! HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY TO DAPHNE ON SUNDAY!
oh btw, the chasing giraffes video and one of the rugby videos are up now. hopefully i'll get to see some of you online saturday morning. get your webcams and mics ready =] laterz...
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oh yea i forgot to mention that while i was at the internet cafe (on friday night), i met some interesting people. there was a guy there named jonathan from canada. he was working with medicine in the villages of kenya. he was talking to me about how he encountered tribes that were very superstitious. then there was a girl behind me who overheard us and started talking to us. her name is annabel, and she's from the UK. actually she's been living in madrid for the past three years. i think she was in kenya because she was teaching. later on, i found out that she's a spanish teacher. she's hopping on a plane to go back to madrid on saturday. i just think it's interesting how we were three completely different people from different cultures, and yet we were carrying on a conversation in an internet cafe. we exchanged email addresses, so i'm curious to see what will happen.
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monday. september 11 2oo6
here are the pictures from this weekend. if you wanna know what i actually did, then check the saturday post. also i tried to add some videos. but since my comp was giving me problems, i had to stop the upload halfway through =P right now, only the jumprope video works. i need to add the chasing giraffes video and two videos from the rugby game. i guess i won't be able to upload them till the weekend comes around cuz that's when i go to yaya.
mark and i stayed in a room that had a striking resemblance to a hotel room
we drove up to the hill to have lunch...daylan, kayla, me, and jen
brent gave a short msg while we were up there. he shared about God's calling and listening to Him
it was fun repelling down the hill. the best part is bouncing off the wall and dropping down
my first live rugby game. people were hyped about the game because it was a world cup qualifier.
i can't believe some guys came out to do karate moves for the halftime show....hahahaa
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saturday. september o9 2oo6
uploaded two new videos
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God continues to teach me the importance of friendships. this past weekend the teachers had a retreat out in lukenya. we stayed in nice places, and the scenery was peaceful. it was a good time to reflect on the past month. we also had a speaker named brent hanson give us biblical truths regarding our positions as teachers. he spoke about our calling, motivation, unity amongst ourselves, and loving the kids. here's a daily rundown of what went on:
thursday -- halfday of school -- drove out to lukenya -- mark and i crashed after flipping through 4 channels of television -- ate dinner -- brent had us play the balloon game (motivation example) -- megan, sarah, mark, angela, kayla, and i played phase 10 (note to self: skip is blue)
friday -- ate breakfast (which i rarely do, but it was paid for so why not) -- brent spoke; we played a balloon tower-building game -- hopped on the bus and drove up to the hills -- brent shared about his calling to africa and listening to God -- ate our sack lunches -- alison, daylan, jen, and i repelled down the side of a hill. trevor and kayla helped out. -- drove down the hill -- stopped to climb up the spontaneous 2-minute rock =P -- drove alittle more and saw a giraffe all alone, so we decided to chase it...hahaha it was soooo fun! -- got back to the lodge and played volleyball -- ate dinner -- watched emperor's club using my laptop and a projector
saturday -- ate breakfast (again for the same reason) -- showered just cuz i didn't do it the night before -- played volleyball -- had some tea -- played volleyball again (oh btw, it's beach volleyball cuz there was sand) -- ate lunch -- headed back to wns -- went to my first rugby game with mark, sarah, angela, trevor, and some of his friends (kenya vs namibia; it was a world cup qualifier, and kenya won =) -- went to dinner with mark, caleb, sarah, angela, and brad at trattoria in downtown i had the lasagna. it didn't have any tomato sauce, but it was really good.
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wednesday. september o6 2oo6
i had a chance to meet alot of people tonight. the girls had met a few guys last weekend and invited them over to hang out tonight. all the girls, myself, ryan, chris, brian, brent, and brad played a game called imaginiff. it was fun because everyone always thought of the funniest answers. i think the best part for me was coming to the realization that we were a group of people whose common link was serving the Lord. i like hearing about how God has worked through us in walking down different ministry paths, and yet we're able to meet at such a crossroad. it never occurred to me throughout the entire evening that i was the only non-white. i was busy appreciating the fact that we were all christian. tonight was memorable to me because it once again gives me a glimpse of what heaven will look like, colorwise.
thursday will be a half day of school, so that us teachers can set out on a retreat to a place called lukenya. i don't know too much about what the setting will be, but it sounds like it's gonna be fun just to leave nairobi. there will be a speaker i believe and possibly some hiking. we return on saturday afternoon. HOPEFULLY, i can get online and catch some of you on skype or aim when it's morning time for yall. i say hopefully because i dunno how tired i'll be when i get back, but i really do wanna hear your voices. so get your mics ready! ok that's all for now. please pray that God will continue to give me wisdom in leading the boys bible class.
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sunday. september o3 2oo6
wow has it been one month already!?!? i've been looking over some of my old posts in my archive, and it's amazing to see how God brought me from one stage of my life to another in a matter of one year.
==== site-related stuff ====
ok i need yall to help me out with something. i want to get a general idea of who is reading my website and how often. my posts have been really long because i've been trying to write every random thing that i find interesting. but if i have a better idea of who's reading all this, then i can better cater to yall. so could you please leave a comment with your name and how often you check this site out...like do you read every post or once in awhile or whatever? you don't necessarily have to leave your first and last name. but if you know someone else who has the same first name as you, you gotta distinguish and help me out here.
also, i added a Videos section to the navigation bar. i hope to put more youtube videos in there. if you haven't already checked it out, i have some videos up of my place here in kenya.
==== storytime with Nevets ====
my weekend was once again unpredictable, and i kinda like that. yesterday, my only plan was to get online and chat or skype with as many people as i could. so i walked for 30min out to yaya centre because they have an internet cafe called easy surf which has the fastest connection i've found so far. i get out there around 11am, which is 3am at home. i didn't expect to catch many ppL online, but i was fortunate enough to get to talk to my brother, jonathan, and melody. i figured i'd hang around yaya centre for about 6hrs and go back to the internet cafe when all of you woke up. i hadn't really thought it out...i mean what can you possibly do for 6hrs?
as i was leaving easy surf, i saw jen through the glass window. there's a women's restroom right next to easy surf, and they just happened to be there as i was coming out. they were there to do some grocery shopping, so i thought...hey why not join em? i mean i do have 6hrs to kill. so they bought stuff, and we took it back to their place. when we got back, i overheard megan talking about taking kayla and daylan out to sarit centre. it's another shopping mall that i had been wanting to see. the other one i wanna see is village market. since they had room in the car, i decided to head out to sarit centre with them.
we drive out for less than 5min, and the car dies....hahahaa. since the car is sorta ghetto, the gas gauge doesn't work. apparently the car ran outta gas. i thought it was hilarious because in all my years of riding in a car, i've never had one run outta gas before. so we pushed the car off to the side of the road and walked to a gas station. the whole thing was really funny to me cuz we could still see their apartment from where the car died. since some of us had done a fair amount of walking that day, we decided to take a taxi back to the car. i think the cabdriver was confused when we told him to drop us off next to a car sitting on the side of the road.
fast forward...we arrive in an area right outside of sarit centre. since it's a saturday, there's alot of cars trying to get into the parking lot. so there was traffic lined up all around the mall. the locals know this, so they stand alongside these roads and try to sell stuff to you. occasionally, you'll get bums trying to ask you for food or money. the funniest part of the day was when one guy approached megan and asked her for money. she said she didn't have any. then the guy saw a bottle of water sitting on the dashboard and asked for it. so megan kindly gave it to him. this dude has the nerve to say,"it is hot." and he handed the bottle back to her. hahahaa...beggars can't be choosers! all of us in the car cracked up. i still can't believe he gave it back.
anywayz, after 15min of looking for parking, we finally went inside. this mall was the closest thing to america that i've seen so far. the place was huge, and i'm willing to bet that everyone shopping there was part of the upper class. to me, it was interesting to see what kinda stores they have. their major department store is woolworths. i remember seeing that years ago at home, but now it's nonexistent. there wasn't anything particularly different about this mall compared to ours, except that maybe they have more of the kenyan clothing and ethnic stores. oh yea, their malls always have a grocery store connected to it. that's not a bad idea actually. it saves ppL the trip of going to two separate places.
after sarit, we went back to the girls' place. it was around 530pm, so it was the perfect time to head out to yaya and get online again. i was glad to see alot of you online. i ended up talking to my parents on skype. jennifer got her webcam to work, but there was no sound. but i was happy enough to get to see jason, jennifer, and kai OUTSIDE having a garage sale. that was kool. fix your mic! it's not fair that i can't hear you. i had spent so much time talking to my parents that i didn't realize how late it got. so i didn't get to talk long with those three, and AGAIN i didn't have an opportunity to skype with ey =\ next time...i promise! it's nice to know that i will get to hear ppL's voices and see their faces. i look forward to that every weekend, except next weekend. i'm going on a teacher's retreat. but MAYBE i'll be back in time to skype and chat again. we'll see
just when you'd think my day was over, kayla invites me over for dinner. and again jen is an awesome cook. we had pasta and beef. and of course peanut butter chocolate cookies. afterwards (even though i know they were so tired), we watched the ghost and the darkness. it's an old movie with val kilmer and michael douglas. it's about these two legendary lions in africa. i believe you can see them in a museum in chicago. anywayz, see what i mean when i say UNPREDICTABLE???
