FRIDAY At breakfast that last morning, I hardly recognized some of the kids. Boys who had hidden under sunglasses and snow caps now had gelled hair and clean faces. Some of the girls had traded their sweat pants for skirts and had dug out the jewelry. We boarded the bus a little after 9am. Though... Continue Reading →
THURSDAY That fourth morning on the mountain, I awoke to a chatty and eager group of kids. Little had changed in our circumstances. We were cold, dirty and still at 14,000ft - a long way yet from home - but the mountain was behind us. In the girls' bunk room, packing seemed to take twice... Continue Reading →
WENESDAY Dawn. Kids stirring in their bunks. Cooks in the cookhouse. Porters arranging equipment. Nathan moaning? No. A few minutes before six, I opened my eyes. Not enough sleep, but it would have to do. Jon was already up - or perhaps still up - and Bill had just joined him. "How's Nathan?" Bill asked. "You... Continue Reading →
TUESDAY (The day that wouldn't end.) 6:30am I gradually become aware of the sounds around me - of the cooks out in the cookhouse and the other chaperons stirring in the bunks. Bill: "Is it that time?" Jon: "Yep" Bill: "Do you want to get them up or should I?" Jon: "Yep" I wiggle around... Continue Reading →
Monday My alarm beeped at 5:30 am, but it was almost 6am before I realized I was still in bed. I leapt up and began the mad scramble - less than forty-five minutes to get the laundry off the line, finish packing, pack my lunch, take a shower, ice the cake that I was sending... Continue Reading →
Ten days ago, I was sitting in an early morning staff meeting when the school's intercultural trip coordinator slipped in and whispered that he needed to talk to me outside. "Lillis, one of the 9th grade teachers has a lung infection and can't go on the intercultural trip next week. We need you to help... Continue Reading →
Saturday morning dawned bright and lovely - 68 degrees with nothing but blue sky. Inspired by the freshness of the day, I decided to make my first true venture into downtown Nairobi. For several months I had heard talk of a certain "Biashara St.," aka fabric alley. Finally, curiosity and the blazing bareness of my... Continue Reading →
On Saturday, I was driving across town when a newspaper vendor standing at an intersection caught my eye. He was holding a stack of the Saturday Nation - one of the city's leading papers. The huge cover story so piqued my interest that I quickly shuffled for some change while rolling down my window, inching... Continue Reading →
I arrived at school this morning at 8am GMT+2. As the last polls closed in the US, I sat at my computer checking headlines. Outside my window, elementary students arrived on the playground. Second and third graders echo-chanted "BA-RAK! O-BA-MA! BA-RAK! O-BA-MA!" As I walked to the staff lounge to check my box, I received several... Continue Reading →
I had the pleasure of chaperoning a high school Habitat trip this weekend. On Friday after school, another teacher and I took sixteen HS kids to a Habitat site four hours north of Nairobi. We arrived in the evening, camped out on the cement floor of a school house, and went the next morning to... Continue Reading →
Of Wonders & Wanders 
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