Glass and Giraffes

We’ve been teaching for 2 weeks now. Matt is teaching calculus to 14 students and Sandy is teaching two sections of basic math to 45 students in each section. It was a little discouraging to only have about one-quarter of the students present the first day of class and one-third the second day. However, we are told that by the second week, we should have most of our students present in class, and that is how it worked out. Many students have difficulties with either finances or travel, making it difficult to return the first week of class. The Kenyan students are very different than those in the US. They are very quiet and respectful in class, and don’t ask questions, even when they don’t understand something. They will come up after class and ask questions, just not in a public forum. When we ask them to answer a question, they are also uncomfortable and quite when they do respond. I’ve also noticed one other difference in my calculus class: their precision in graphing. All the students bring rulers and most use graph paper. They take a lot of time getting their graphs to be very accurate. I asked them if this was because they are all computer science majors, but they told me that was just how they were taught in school. Much different than American students where you are lucky just to read their graphs!

On Saturday, we went to the K&G glass company.

The road to get there was incredibly bumpy. It was a dirt road with many rocks and potholes in it. It is only about 3-4 miles away, but it took about 35 minutes to drive to it. They were not actually blowing glass this week, but that might not be bad. They say it gets very hot when the furnaces are going, and it was a warm day anyway (around 90 degrees, but with NO humidity).

They had started one of the furnaces, but it takes 1 week to preheat. They make some very pretty recycled glass. They make it very hard, so it is not as likely to break as most glass. They also had some small stained glass shops there as well. We bought a couple of pieces to bring back with us.

We then went to the giraffe sanctuary where we had lunch at the snack bar and got to feed the giraffes.

We were surprised that Maddy actually wanted to feed them since she is generally afraid of animals. However, she did not hesitate, and said their tongues felt scratchy when they licked the food out of her hand.

They also allow you to put the food (big pellets) between your teeth so the giraffe can take it from your mouth and in essence kiss you. Needless to say none of us desired to do that. Feeding them was a pretty dirty job as it was.





On Sunday, we went out to lunch with the Stantons, Roland, and Darnel Starks (the speaker for Holiness Week at ANU from Scotland).

While we were waiting to order our food, we saw a family of 5-6 baboons walk across the railing on the deck where we were sitting. They walked on the railing until they got 2 tables away from us and then they jumped up on the fabric awning over our heads. I kept hoping that the awning was strong enough to support them so that we did not have a baboon come through into our laps. They have been known to come steal food off of diners’ plates, so thankfully they did not return when we were eating.

Overall, we are adapting well to life in Kenya, and thoroughly enjoying our time on and off campus. Maddy has asked several times if we can move here, but always recants when we remind her of her friends and family back home that she would miss. On the up side of this is that we can tell that she is enjoying herself as well!