the best of Africa: in photographs.

i'm leaving on a jet plane today. i'm sure i'll be back again. my tanzanian adventures conclude today, and although they have been challenging they were more than worth it. here are a few more glimpses of life here.

banana tree.

packing the bus real tight at the Kenya border.

dirt roads.

Ela, a student with downs syndrome whom i had the privilege of working with.

giraffes on the side of the road.

my first and second grade class.

baobab trees. aka: 'the lion king' tree.

papayas.

savanna coffee lounge!

a hillside of slums in Kenya.

giraffe kisses.

cattle were regularly herded down our road.

weekly visits to the orphanage. i will miss their hugs.

thank you for sharing in my tanzanian adventures. they were plenty and beyond what pictures can capture.

rum pum pum pum.

we had our Christmas program last week. my students were the sheep and the shepherds - some complete with cowboy hats and cumber buns. i can't even calculate the number of times i had to remove shepherd staffs from their little hands in order to prevent an eye being poked out. i have no doubt they would be great at 'watching the flock by night'. by the end of the program we were all dripping in sweat. it made singing 'we wish you a Merry Christmas' seem completely out of place.

letters.

you can never be sure just how much impact you have on a child as a teacher. your presence, a smile, a hug, stars written all over their efforts. all of it goes remembered by their young age. i've recently received letters from my students whom i worked with in cedar falls for my first half of student teaching. i once taught them how to write friendly letters. the proper places for commas and necessary spacing. subject, predict, and all the components of a complete sentence. question marks. exclamation points. they always remind me why i'm doing what i am.
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December 5th, 2008

Dear Miss Conlee,
I miss you. How are you? When I smile I think of you. When I look at my papers it reminds me of you when you smiley faces and stars on my paper. When I wear something polka dot it reminds me of your jewelry and dress. I like to laugh but when I do it reminds me of you. You rock.
Sincerely yours,
Kailee
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December 5, 2008

Dear Miss Conlee,
How are you doing? I hope you are doing well. One of my dogs ran away. We already put up our Christmas tree. Have you already see a snake yet? How is your life over there? I bet it is fun. It is really cold over here. I for got when you were coming back.
When you come back, please bring the warm weather back, pretty please. Guess what, I got a brand new puppy. She is going to be 8 weeks old on Dec.10. She is really small. I miss those smiley faces that you put on our papers. What do you do on the weekends? How many subjects do you teach? What do the kids do for recess?

Sincerely,
Alex
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December 4, 2008

Dear Miss Conlee,
Hi, it’s me, James! Remember? I was the guy you worked with a couple of months ago. What have you been doing? I have been trying to build a weird vehicle: a bulldozer for my room. My room is like a junkyard and every junkyard needs a bulldozer. I have also been trying to see if I can perfect robots. I don’t know how I am going to perfect a robot, all I do know is that I am trying my best. I heard you are coming in a couple of weeks. I can talk Miss North into throwing another pizza party if you would like. Seriously, I can.

Sincerely,
James (and Miss Allan)

P.S. I hope this is your favorite color. P.S.S. I hope you like this font.

a kenya filled weekend.

i adventured with a few others to Nairobi, Kenya for our long holiday weekend. we ventured the city and managed to do several great things in a few days.

we went on a bit of a safari to Nairobi National park and saw several african animals.

we also went a giraffe center where you could hug, kiss, feed, and pet giraffes. i kissed lora. it was quite rough and wet.

one evening we ate at a restaurant called 'carnivore'. it doesn't sound appetizing, but it certainly was. my picky-self ate lamb, roast beef, chicken, crocodile, turkey, ostrich, and cucumber soup. each serving came around on a huge spear until you couldn't handle anymore.

didn't see it coming.

i wasn't prepared.
i haven't practiced.
i didn't see it coming.

perhaps because i haven't birthed my own children just yet.

but today was the day.

"Miss Savannah, the girls on the playground keep saying santa clause is dead. is he?! no. he can't be. who will be in charge of Christmas?"

tis' the season.

these are a few of my favorite african things.

mhula and i have have been writing essays for the past three days. college entrance essays to be exact. the man is fluent in three languages, although writing and speaking come at various ability levels. mhula is desperate to attend a university in America or Canada this coming fall, and so the application process is in full swing. he has hashed out essays to universities splattered across an entire nation. days spent editing essays which teachers have told him are not adequate. and so i've been determined to help.

in two hours i took several essays mhula has been staring at since september and retyped them with correct grammatical ordering, wording, and the like. when mhula read through them he asked, 'how do you even think to use these words?' my simple reply: 'mhula, i only speak one language. and i've had 22 years of practice.'

thinking about the potential and desire mhula has to improve the life of his family and those living in his village in northern Tanzania, and how that could be altered or withheld by various grammatical errors in an essay. this has quickly become one of my favorite things.

there are others which have made the list.
like the faces of our gardener and house lady when i extend my hand with a cold bubbling bottle of coca-cola. and the laughter of the children at the orphanage when you swing them like monkeys.

these are a few of my favorite african things!

battle.

i'm coming to learn that 'love the sinner and hate the sin' is quite applicable to teaching.

just when you've made it through the next set of directions Jack is off in the corner continuing the establishment of his lego creation he started before school.

me: "Jack, it seems you're not doing what was asked. do you remember what the directions were?"
Jack: "no!"
me: "Jack, were you doing your best listening when i was giving the directions?"
Jack: "no! i don't know what to do"

and so i love the chubby cheeks and brown eyes of the child, but pieces of me shrivel at their continuous inattention and behavior.

similar to the circumstance today when Anna chose to bite Jerry and then spit on him. or when Cosi decided other boys could be on his team at recess if they paid him 10,000 shillings.

it's moments such as those.
when you have to separate the behavior from the child and refrain from taking it personally.

loving them is worth learning this battle.