Christmas Break!

     Today was the last day of the first semester.  All my grades have been entered and I have made it through my first semester of teaching.  It was a half day and instead of having a Christmas party in the classroom, we took all of the elementary to a nearby orphanage and had a Christmas party there with the kids.

      Going to the orphanage is, by far, one of my favoite things to do here.  The kids are all so sweet and excited to see you!  They will climb on your lap, play with your hair, hold your hand, and basically just be all over you.  It reminds me so much of my kids at Westside and makes me miss then a lot, but it also makes me so happy to see all the little smiles.

     Today we brought in some chips and cookies for the kids.  We also sang some Christmas songs and did a little play for them.  After the worship service we played games!  The elementary kids were in charge of the whole program, games included.  It all went really well and I was so proud of all my kids.  During the games things got a little chaiotic, but it was great!  Most of the kids at the orphanage speak hardly any English and we only have a few students that speak Swahili and so the kids could not really understand the directions and they all just wanted to run around like crazy anyways. 

    The red noses were supposed to be a part of one of the games.  I think that the plan was for it to be some type of relay race, but I am not entirely sure.  At any rate, that game quickly turned into stick a nose on everyone around you and then run around laughing.  It was a lot of fun!

     After we got back from the orphanage I said goodbye to all my kids for a month.  Many of them are traveling back to the countries that they are originally from to visit their families.  I had the afternoon off then and already am wondering what I am going to do with myself for the next month. 

      We do have several things planned so far including a trip to the Mara and to Mombasa.  I also have quite a bit of lesson planning to do for next semester.  I will be getting two new students next semester and adding a grade so that I will now be teaching first through fourth grade.  I have to say that I am looking forward to sleeping in a little bit (my running has been pushed back to 7 am instead of 5:40) and also to cooking my own meals instead of eating in the cafeteria.