Jambo! Habari yako? (Hello! How are you?)

All good here.

Teaching going very well, & I'm very happy with my students. I have been picking out the students whose marks were a bit lower, & so after teaching my class, I sit with them whilst they practice... whether they have asked me to or not! This means I can assist the students who are too afraid to ask any questions. I was very pleased to find that my classes all did very well in their exams, and even more pleased to see an improvement with the students I have been assisting. Very satisfying. Hopefully their marks will continue to increase.

I have a few random things to tell you about (in no particular order):

Eunice (Edith's daughter) came back to Nairobi for a weekend. On arriving she said she'd seen a snake in the grassland we walk across just outside our house! I was quite alarmed at first, even though she said it was only small. However, still hasn't put me off walking across the grass, even at night. Obviously it's too far (& far too sensible) to walk the long way round on the road!

Reason for Eunice's visit was for a Thanksgiving dinner, where we were expecting at least 16 guests. Spent most of the day cooking in the biggest pans I have ever seen! Was worth the effort because the food was all lovely. Whole evening was very enjoyable, only downside was my indigestion (caused by over-eating of the lovely food!)

I have taken to eating 'a Mars a day' recently, naturally only because it helps me 'work, rest and play' (a fine excuse!), but it's strange cos I don't eat them that much at home. So, not doing very well at curbing my sweet tooth. Realisation that I need to do something about it came this week when I decided to buy 2 from the local shop (where I have now depleted their whole Mars bar supply and am now known by the shop keeper) to save going back the following day, but instead I ended up eating BOTH... within 2 hours! (this also possibly explains recent weight gain...?!)

I'm suffering with some allergies at the mo, & I'm now unable to differentiate between bumps caused by mosquito bites and hives caused by an allergic reaction. Looked on NHS Direct website but nothing I can do since I am unable to isolate the cause of the problem because I've changed so many things in my diet. Also, since allergy is occurring quite frequently, it must be something I'm eating regularly, which suggests I obviously like whatever it is... so suspect I probably wouldn't be prepared to stop eating it anyway!

Had an incident the other morning... I was preparing the tea, tried turning the gas down when it was close to boiling but it wouldn't turn down... so tea ended up boiling over. Removed tea to avoid further mess... but then spurt of gas from cylinder resulted in flames spurting out from cylinder across the kitchen. I was USELESS so had to wake up Edith & Norah. Luckily, Edith to the rescue & removed canister, put it outside & put out the flames. Canister didn't explode & we all lived to tell the tale! Edith leaves soon to go on a training course in Holland for 10 days, & has nominated ME as head of the household. Wouldn't be surprised if she is probably now questioning this decision, just to be sure that she does return to still have a house!

May 1st was a public holiday, & Mr. Kanyi (Director of Unity College) took me up country to visit his family. So good to get out of Nairobi for a day, to go into the countryside and enjoy some nice scenery & get some fresh air. It was nice to meet Paul's family, although most of them didn't speak any English so I used the few, limited Kiswahili phrases I've learnt & spent the rest of my time relaxing, reading my book and walking around the shamba (farm) to look at all the different crops.

On leaving, Paul's Grandmother gave me a LIVE chicken as a present! Think I can safely say it is the most unusual gift I have ever received! I have outright refused to assist in killing/plucking/gutting of said chicken! I hope it is killed before Edith leaves for Holland, leaving me in charge!

Well that's all from me for now! I have added some new photo albums for you to have a look at when you have time. There is one album of my Unity College students which is really nice; however, I didn't realise how young I look with my hair tied back until I looked at the photos afterwards. Its embarrassing looking through the photos as in some of them, I look younger than my students!! Quite embarrassed to admit this, but it made me miss my wardrobe and particularly my hair straighteners! Perhaps I will shave my head after all (What do you think Mum?!!). Ha ha.

Thanks to everyone for your emails/letters, it's always lovely to hear from you!

Lots of Love,

Rach xx