July 26, Saying Goodbye to the School

So, today PJ came 3 hours late, but redeemed himself by bringing a cake. It was pink and apparently tasted more like a muffin with frosting than anything (much to Sam’s delight since he likes muffins more, but not to Aly’s at all), but I’m glad my hinting worked. I can’t eat cake, but Michelle and Aly have been talking about wanting one forever, so I have been encouraging PJ to get us one for about a week now. In reward for my altruism, I got an apple. Life is boring as the allergy queen. I did have several vitumbua (fried rice balls from heaven) since we will no longer be seeing that vendor lady every day. I will miss those 100 shilling balls of joy and fried stick-in-your-gut happiness.

I taught my last class at St. Denis. I went over will vs. going to, which is difficult to explain and, in retrospect, probably not terribly important. We also had an awkward goodbye speech/gift giving with the teachers, and then again with the student body. Tracy had to give a mini-speech in Swahili, and we all spoke a little in English to the kids.

While standing at morning assembly, I also saw that any students that showed up late would get hit on the hand twice with a stick. Others were punished more heavily for other offenses, but I didn’t stick around for that. Morning assembly ran 15 minutes into class time, and then I had to wait for students to stop taking desks and chairs in and out of my classroom. They look like ants in the morning, going to a fro, carrying things over their heads….

I felt sick most of the day. The chipsi we had for lunch didn’t sit well with me at all for some reason. It might be in part because of my nerves. I usually feel sick here (probably because of my parasite), but today was just particularly bad.

In any case, I took a family photo today, which the PC will print and frame. I think I might print off other photos as well since I’ve taken so many. I also went to the little vegetable stand to get cabbage (SCORE!) with my host sisters. Priska ate a mango the entire way, which was surprisingly funny to witness.

Tomorrow is the big day! I’M SO EXCITED/NERVOUS/SCARED/ANXIOUS. My perfectionism is on for the exam, but I’m mostly thinking about placement. Hoping for less bug bites tonight—I look like a leper because I keep scratching and re-opening scabs, then getting new bites. It’s a problem. I’m going to wind up with staff if I don’t start using Band-Aids or something to keep from scratching. But it’s like I never heal even if I don’t touch them for weeks!