Finals = FINISHED

The days leading up to final exams were tough. I promised myself at the beginning of this program that I would take the classes seriously and study well for exams, and although it was difficult to stay focused, I think I succeeded! I have a tendency to be a little more frenzied and last minute about exam preparation, but this time I gave myself time, slept enough, and felt good about the tests when I took them. I'm happy about that, and even happier that they are over and we are now able to relax a little and spend our last few days saying goodbyes and wrapping up our time in Kenya.

Every day is full of more goodbyes and more things that remind me of how soon we are leaving and how much I will miss it here. I really do love Kenya. I try to tell myself I will be back and that this is only the beginning but it's hard to know.

Today we went to the primary school we visited a while ago to plant trees. This time we prepared 30 minute presentations (it turned out that the school had booked us for three hours, so there were some significant last minute extensions added to our presentations) on conservation and the environment. I signed up with three friends to teach grade 3. When we got there, we were informed that grade 3 had 98 students! We had also been told that they spoke some english, which turned out not to be true. This might give you an idea of the unpredictability we often encounter here... it turned out that the classes' teachers stayed in the classrooms with us and helped to translate, and 30 minutes of our three hours were recess, so that was a slight relief. Teaching the class was a lot of fun. The kids started out the class by doing dances to welcome us. They split up into different tribes for each dance: The Maasai girls did one dance, the Maasai boys did another, and the Kamba boys did another. I am always amazed by how good at dancing all the children are here! I remember noticing that in church, where all of the kids dance to the super loud, disco-type music they play and they just look like they are part of the music. I can't even explain it.

After the dances, we all talked about the animals in Kenya that needed to be protected, the way the food chain works, and the importance of water. Later we played sherades with different types of animals, sang a call-and-response song about trees (I brought my guitar) and drew wildlife and trees and talked about how humans, plants, and wildlife are inter-dependent. After class we all played outside and a bunch of the SFS students and I sang "Twist and Shout" and a bunch of other songs for them with the guitar. I had to stand on the land rover to play because so many of the kids kept grabbing the guitar. It was really funny and felt like a little stage performance.

Now we're back at camp and I decided to catch up on some things, this being one of them. Today is Monday. Tomorrow we are preparing a big goodbye celebration with everyone here. The next day we pack up, and we leave for Tanzania Thursday morning. Off to write our goodbye song...