Jambo rafikis

Here is the last two days worth of top news:

Staff and students enjoy lie in on Sunday.

Too much swimming results in sunburned backs!

Barbeque goes down a treat.

Josh Collet tries lots of fish food....not a fan, but funny to watch!

Alfie joins travelling gymnastics troup!

Boys lose at football on the beach.

Power cut results in millions and millions of disappointed blog readers and leads to major rioting in Worthing and some parts of Scunthorpe!

Kenya 15 run school for Monday... No one dies, one person cries (four times)......(and it wasn't me)

So everyone I hope you are fine, we are all fine (in case you are wondering why I start with this every evening, this is how Kenyans' respond when you ask how they are....fine...never good or great or amazing, always fine. I can imagine if they won the lottery and someone said how does it feel to win all that money....."fine").

As you are no doubt aware we had a lie in yesterday and did not meet for breakfast until 9am. Some boys got up early and went for an early morning swim. I can hear you all asking how many, how many, as you are desperate to know if you won the last competition. Well the answer is 4, so none of you won. Pity, as the prize was significant! oh well, maybe you will win tonight's instead.

After breakfast lots of students planned lessons and lots went to the pool to truly take advantage of the day off. I would love to say that I went and planned lessons, but the sunburn on my back would prove me to be a liar! So armed with plenty of sunscreen loads of us entered the pool. About 3 hours later an equal amount of lobsters left the pool to go and get ready for lunch. We were bieng picked up at 2pm at the front of the hotel to make our way to Mtwapa. Chris and Karyn had arrived early as they had gone to church this morning. as an extra little bit of information I can say that Joash called at 10am to pick up some washing from the boys and staff so they will have freshly washed clothes from Wednesday, i am pretty sure some of them have run out! Anyway, back to the blog,  at 2pm we dived into the Mtatatus and headed for Mtwapa. On the drive we pass a National Game Reserve and a major prison. Though ulimately most gossip was about the state of the roads and the slum that we drove through in Mtwapa, there is so much poverty here.

On arrival at Mtwapa the mtatus came to an abrubt halt and we all got out to be taken round a small National Museum Forest. This contained an old Chrurch that the boys were led round with interest. We saw a few different bits of wildlife including millipedes and lizards, but no monkeys. We also got to taste a BaoBab Nut (not sure of spelling there) which was quite sour and pretty bizzare. Most of the boys loved it though, but the ladies were not allowed to much as it makes the lazy apparently! I am pretty sure that the hotel must serve it in the morning, but thats another story for another time, coz if they read this then I am dead!

We arrived at the beach and had lots to eat and drink including Lobster, Fish (not pirahna!), prawns, squid, octopus toast, vegetables and fruit. Moment of the day went to Josh Collet for trying everything even though it was obvious I was making him eat the stuff for the humour factor. Very very funny It was lovely to be joined by Mary and Joash for the afternoon. Mary is the Headteacher and she got to talk to many of our boys and staff in a relaxed atmosphere so that was nice. Joash is our man who sorts out all our problems so the boys absolutely love him anyway. After dinner there was a gymnastics show and Alfie got to join in, something to do with weight!

We arrived back at the hotel after 7 to find that there was no internet and so most people took the chance for an early night, myself included so that will end my blog for day 6, apart from the competition, I suppose you deserve one after the disappointment of not communicating with your babies last night, so here goes:

If I say to a student in the morning "Jambo, Habari gani?" what am I asking? Good luck all

Also in case you are wondering, the olympics question from the other night will be answered when it is all totalled up, I have not forgotten.

So day 7, we were up early this morning and down for breakfast at 7:30. James and Alex were feeling a bit under the weather, but bieng that nasty Mr Straw I made them eat or else the pill that shall not be named (did you see, did you see) is not as effective.

Matatus were with us by 8:50 and we arrived at school by 9:10, just in time for those who were due to teach at 9:20. Everyone taught lessons today apart from James and Alex who were still quite ill. Everywhere you looked there were proud little moments going on, not enough camera capacity to ever record it all and somehow the camera does not do any of it justice. The minute you take a photo you lose the smells, the dust, the noise and the feeling that the Victory Students give you as well as the proud feeling you get from bieng associated with our students. Moment of the day today goes to Louie who taught a dance lesson to students of all ages, they had such fun and so did he. Another highlight was Ed, Mike and Sam alongside Miss Riggs, Miss Page, Mrs Stewart and myself teaching the kindergarten students how to do the macarena to Beat it and also teaching them the moves to Saturday night! Genius

After all that hilarity the worlds premier science team (consisting of Riggs, Harrison and Straw) taught Standards 5 and 7 about space. Riggs and Harrison were amazing whilst Straw basked in the credit afterwards!

There was a Summit meeting after school so thats about all I can report on apart from to say we left at 4:20 and went to the Nakumatt to stock up on goodies and ice cream. Further shenanigens in the pool followed that little excursion and then all meeting for dinner at 7:30.

I think I have covered everything apart from to say a big thank you to Dan for telling you all about our little internet problem yesterday. Lots of people have asked about pictures, but the computers here do not allow us to upload pictures. I am going to try something different tomorrow so hopefully you may be in for a treat tomorrow evening, but no promises!

Anyway the competition for day 7 is :

Tomorrow I have arranged for our party of 20 to be split into 5 groups. Each group will go to a different Victory students house to see how they live and meet their family. The students range in age from standard 5 to standard 8. We will be taking gifts to give to the students parents/carers which will include sugar, flour and detergent. To the nearest 100 how many KES to you think it will cost to provide these gifts to the household.  A reminder that at last check 100KES was around 68p. Good luck rafikis

Kwaheri X