This is for you Natalee…

 My second term of teaching has come to an end! Wooo HOO!! Like I said before it just flew by, but I’m not saying that is a bad thing. But this term did go much better than my first one. It helps so much when you actually know what to expect and what you will be doing. My students did tell me they wanted me to continue teaching them chemistry, which was shocking and good new to hear.
Even though I have now been in Kenya for 9 months, it seems that something happens everyday that just makes me laugh at the differences in the culture and such. These things especially  happen when I go to town. For the past month I have been teaching Kenyan Sign Language at one of the local health clinics in town. The second time I went to give the lesson, they put me in one of the rooms to wait until the lesson began. I sat down on the stool in the room. There was one pregnant  woman and a nurse in there.  They were talking, and then the pregnant woman went behind the cloth curtain which is slightly see through and proceeded to have an exam…all while I am sitting on the other side of the curtain in this small room. I had asked if they wanted me to sit outside, but they just responded with, “no no no you’re fine“. Needless to say I felt a bit awkward. It’s also funny, because the thighs of women are hardly ever shown and are considered sexual, yet I’ll be sitting on a matatu or walking though town and I’ll just see a mama sitting with her boob hanging out for the whole world to see.
I think one of my favorite things is when I walk to town are the little kids. Even if they are just calling me mzungu… they’re just so cute. Last week a group of kids changed the normal chanting of mzungu into a song which consisted of “cha la la mzungu! Cha la la mzungu!!”  all the while they were dancing… just because a mzungu walked by.  It’s typical for the kids to say “how are you” in a high pitched voice trying imitate us apparently, but on one rare occasion instead of saying “how are you” a group of kids just said “I am beautiful”. Haha, it made me smile quite a bit and I told them I agree. Another thing that is typical, a little kid will smile and say mzungu when I walk by but if I walk up to the kid to bump fists… many times the little kid just bursts into tears. Very comical
Another thing I have yet to get used to is being called madam all the time. It used to only be around school when some other teachers greeted me, but now whenever I walk to town most people are calling me madam. It is quite nice compared to be called mzungu all the time, but its still weird
Since I am on my break now, I am leaving tomorrow to travel to Lamu (a town on the northern coast) to stay with another volunteer for a week, and then I am off to Scotland to meet up with my Mom and sister!!!
I can’t wait!!!!