its been a whilllleeeee

Wrote this a while ago,,, have more to say about recent stuff but will later on...just finished up finals and am heading to climb mt. meru w/ some friends...

15 April 2008
So its about 2 in the morning over here right now, and no, I don’t have wireless internet or any internet within 3 hours from here, I just had the genius idea to write my entry before and then I ll just save it and put it on the internet when I get there in the next few weeks, I do have my lap top here. Well I cant sleep. Maybe you are thinking, what’s new? But sleeplessness is way unusual for me in this part of the world.
Probably you don’t remember but a LONG time ago in October I think I wrote in my blog about teaching about the Amoeba, at least I think I mentioned it, well anyway, I think that I have met this Amoeba. Well I really hope not, but tomorrow Im going into town to get it checked out. My friend has an Amoeba, he named it Sparky. Maybe hes making it up, not the Amoeba part, the name. Whatever it is has caused me to downsize big time,,,he he, im not really that upset about that part….but seriously its uncomfortable even if I maybe could fit in my Sophomore year jeans again. Wow, Im just realizing I sound like im constantly having some weird illness, but not really this is like 2 in 7 months. This is just the exciting stuff that happens, otherwise Im pretty healthy as usual. And scabies have been gone for almost a month!!! Hooray… Oh great I probably just invited them back by saying that….
Other exciting news,,,, Matako had her kittens!!!!!!! March 15 I went out for the usual Saturday hike up the plateau with a few of my students. Before I left she was being all clingy and whiny and I just had a feeling that was the day. I had also had that feeling the day before, then the day before that… But anyway, when I got back from the hike she wasn’t crying at the door for me and I kind of called around from her, and then in my room I heard an echoe of faint cries and there they were, on my second clothes shelf on top of my nice comfy CLEAN clothes. Ohhhhh but they were so cute so they used my fleece as a cushion for a good week ( I am still waiting to actually NEED to wear a fleece). Two little babies. Tako 1 and Tako 2 (Butt cheek 1 and Butt cheek 2) NO just kidding, but that’s what I tell SOME people. One is tan and white and one is sort of blackish, not tabby and not calico. I think they are both girls but havent checked in a while. My friend Mat is taking one of them Im actually very scared of what he might name it, and then one of the primary school teachers is going to take the other.
That was an exciting week…Midterms…Actually midterms are somewhat boring. Unless you count giving out zeros for cheating as not boring. But I really hate doing that and I tell the students that every time. At the point that midterms came along (we all give midterms during the same week) I had really only been teaching my form ones science and math in English for about a week and a half after we completed the English Orientation course, so there really wasn’t much to test on. They did way better than I would if I had to take those exams in Kiswahili. Actually I really don’t remember why completely, but I did not like proctoring exams…oh yes, because of the tapping. When a student needs something, like extra paper, a question read to them (the ink smudges), they tap to get the teacher’s attention and then I would have to climb up and over to their seat and tell them and then by the time I’d sit down someone else would do the lil tabletop tap. But I also remember, that the second I think of having to be the one actually taking the exam, boy am I glad I am NOT taking that exam, not that mine are difficult exams, but hopefully my Kiswahili exam during training was my last exam ever. Yeh, that’s probably not true…but hopefully.
I did say mid terms was an exciting week….One afternoon I was grading exams in between tests and it almost started to rain, so I remembered I had just done some laundry that morning and did not want it to get all wet. Went down to my house was hanging up my underwear on the lil clothesline in my guest room/office when my backpack, leaning against the wall, moved a little. So Im still holding a couple pairs of underwear and I look over at the bag thinking, oh Matako hasn’t been able to kill many rats this week since she’s been busy with the kittens, its probably just a rat rustling under the bag. BUT, just to make sure it was a rat and not S”OMET”HI”ng else, I very tentatively pulled back the bag and stepped back. Not two seconds after I pulled the bag a greenish brown head and a long slithery tongue emerged from behind the bag. So in my head Im like OMG there is a giant puff adder in my room (guest) I quickly jump out of the room, then think better and shut the door, flinging the underwear all over the room as the door his the clothesline, locked the door. At this point im like squealing and jumping around and flapping my arms like aghghghghghQQQ!!! ( and I used to play with my neighbors snakes when I was little) I ran into my room checked on the kittens and they were safe and was just thinking thank goodness it didn’t go in my bedroom and get the kittens, and oh my gosh (im keeping the language PG) if it had been at night and im stumbling around by candlelight barely seeing 2 feet in front of me and I stepped on that thing -----eeeeeeeek. So still squirmying and making awful squirmish noises and pretty much laughing like I do when I m nervous -I run up to the school to tell someone, and I run into my Mkuu (head mistress). And im like NYOKA (snake) in my house, she had been talking to the fundi and he immediately grabbed this long bamboo pole and some other kids grabbed big sticks and we all made our way down to the house and then I remember my underwear flung all over the room, not like im embarrassed its granny panties or anything, but underwear are like not okay to be flashing all around here and these men are gonna have to go in this underwear confetti room. Yeah, that’s probably the last thing I should have been thinking of…So I let them into my house point to the room, the fundi opens the door and starts banging around with the big bamboo stick with me peaking around the corner ready to jump up on the coffee table just in case it comes out, when I see a flash run across the floor, and a long thick giant LIZARD . Yep. A KENGE (it looks like a lizard, don’t know what it means in english). Not really harmful. Though they say it eats chicken eggs, maybe it could have gotten to the kittens since they were less than a week old. They ended up killing it anyway, and hung it up on a string. I tried to get a picture. IM telling you it was BIG really!!!
Well Im actually gettting tired now. So NDOto njema for now.