A month in...

So it was a month ago today that we arrived in Kenya, and it's amazing how many things we've squeezed into the time here. Here's an update on what the last couple of weeks have brought us...

We've enjoyed the teaching so far and have had some good, encouraging feedback. Rachel's settled into teaching violin and viola pretty well, and was chuffed to have the most gifted student in the school saying 'it's nice to have a viola teacher here' the other day... I had to burst his bubble and explain I'm really a cellist but it's nice to know I don't seem like a complete fraud. Dan's enjoying teaching maths, and had a drum and juggling student performing in assembly the other day to demonstrate what achievements persevering can bring. It was nice to see how much they've learnt even in 3 weeks of lessons.

Other than that we've enjoyed getting to know the staff better and the students too - names are beginning to stick in our heads now, and we feel that between us we know the majority of students at the school, thanks to the variety of responsibilities we have. We've been warned, however, that all the girls return after 1/2 term with their hair a different length and braided completely differently, so it's going to be pretty much back to square one with name learning... joyful joyful!

This weekend the students' parents have been here camping on the school site (a very funny sight as there's so many tents in one area of the grounds it looks like the circus has come to school)... but it's been nice getting to know families. There are informal consultations, chapel services that the children are involved in, and there's also a lot of really good food. It's so nice to have a variety after eating beef stew over and over again. Sadly though, as soon as they left we were served 'sweet and sour chips', an intriguing dish concocted from the weekend's left-overs... 

This week we're excited about getting our work permits (I know it's a little late but they have this annoying rule that you can't get them until you're in the country). These clarify that we're Kenyan residents, meaning we'll get much cheaper access to national parks and hotels, which is exciting, and we're hoping to celebrate by going to see lions next week!

Some people have been asking how the boys' Bible study is going - we've been having a great time with the 15 year 6 boys. The first week we were literally in the dark as we had a power cut here, but the boys are good fun and look forward to it - it's their one chance to go to a teacher's house so they're often very excited and hyper. We're looking forward to getting into it more as we study who God is, why Jesus came, and look at their identity as a child of God.

We're also looking forward to leading the music at an all age church service half an hour away next weekend. Most of the churches are in Kiswahili so one of the guys at school wanted to serve the white English speaking Kenyan community here through a church service twice a term at a farm down the road.

Well anyway, I think that's enough for now. As we say, we love hearing about what you've all been u[ to so don't hesitate to send an email, facebook message or even snail mail :)

Sending lots of love,

D and R

Hakuna matata...

Hey everyone,
hope you're all doing well. We've just arrived back from a wonderful weekend away with another couple who teach French at the school here. We ventured over the equator to lake Baringo, which is a beautiful place 2 and a half hours North East of Turi, where we saw hippos, crocodiles, monkeys, ostriches, lizards, kingfishers, fish eagles and loads of other cool birds and wildlife. It was so amazing - we stayed in a beautiful 'banda' (hut) on the lakeside and were quite surprised to find two enormous hippos grazing noisily just outside our window at 3am this morning! It was so wonderful to see a totally different part of Kenya, with no rain and proper heat... We travelled in our friends' minibus, which was quite entretaining as it looks a lot like the matatus that are small buses that travel around picking people up and dropping them off on their way, so we got flagged down a lot, until they realised it was full of mzungus...

We did actually do some work this week too... Dan's loved teaching maths and music to the years 4, 6, 7 and 8, and Rachel had a great time playing music games with the 'turitots' - nursery and reception, and also years 1-3. The week goes by very quickly as there are so many different rotas and duties - dishing out breakfast and lunch, supervising homework time and boarding duties in the evenings, but it's great fun and the kids are very warm and loving.

This week we're looking forward to starting the peri teaching - violin, viola and cello for Rachel and piano and drum kit for Dan. We're also taking our first children's bible study, which we'll be leading together in our house, and would appreciate prayer for (they're all year 6 boys so Rachel's a little daunted!) And then we finish next week with Dan's first juggling session and my cookery class... (more prayer required!) We're so thankful to God for his provision of everything so far, we love our jobs and can explore and travel in our free time, it's perfect!

We'd love to hear from you all and hear how things are going back home, miss all you friends and family lots.  If youre on skype please add us on either rachelclarejones or danojones65, we'd love to chat.

God bless and speak soon

D & R x

ps photos of this weekend to follow...

Saturday 3rd September

Hey all :)
Just a little update on what we've been up to over the last week...

We're feeling very settled here now - the other teachers and staff feel like family and it's hard to believe we've only been here just over a week. Many thanks for birthday messages for Rachel, I had a slightly strange birthday but it was really fun too. We spent the morning shopping in Nakuru, which turned out to be quite stressful as we only had about 1 hour 45 mins to buy everything we needed to set up a home... A little different from when we spent a day zapping things in John Lewis for our gift list! We managed to buy quite a lot of stuff though and got a computer dongle, which means we have unlimited internet in our house and have skyped some friends and family already, which has been lovely.

After that we had a cup of tea with the headteacher and his family, and then the deputy head hosted a party for me... pretty amazing as we'd only arrived on Thursday morning (my birthday was the Saturday)... People are so welcoming.

Since then we've been in crazy amounts of meetings... pool safety, fire safety, child protection, boarding house duties, games coaching (Rachel's teaching rounders once a week, and Dan's teaching juggling!), departmental meetings, full staff meetings... the list goes on! However... we're feeling pretty prepared now for the start of term and excited about meeting all the kids tomorrow.

We've got time off next weekend so are hoping to go to lake Baringo with some other couples to see some of Kenya, but we don't have a car yet so have got to work out exactly how that's going to work out.

Well anyway, do let us know what's going on where you are.
Many thanks for all your support and prayers - we're feeling very blessed to be here.

Sending lots of love,
Dan and Rach
xxx

PS afraid we're not quite sure how to get told about updates. I think if you change settings on your google account it might let you know... sorry!