Ritchie's African Life

Mistletoe Market '09

Another year and another Mistletoe Market ... I planned the annual market for school last year and I am at it again this year. All the proceeds from the booth sales go to the Junior class to be used toward the expenses of the Junior-Senior Banquet. This market is a huge undertaking. There are 80 booths and lots of planning involved, but it's right up my alley. When I was asked to organize it this year, I was excited to see if I could out-do myself from last year. The market is on November 21. Please pray for absolutely no rain from midnight until 3:30 pm on that day. We need the rain, but on any other day except market day.

Kenya until 2012

After a very long period of prayer and reflection, I have come to the decision to renew my contract for 2 years. So I will be staying in Kenya and at Rosslyn until May 2012. I will continue my help at the church and serve God as He wills in Kenya.

Thank you for your continual prayers during this period of time that I am here. It is difficult to be away from family and friends, but I know that God has called me here for this time and for His purpose. Fortunately, I will have a round-trip ticket provided by the school so that I can go home this summer. So I will be in the States for June and July 2010. Hope to see you then. Also, since I am staying longer, you are most welcome to come and visit. Just let me know when you are coming.

Foot Problems

Ever since I twisted my left foot in May, I have been dealing with residual pain that was sparked from the injury. The pain is in my arch. I had similar pain with my right arch, but in 2003, I had an operation to remove a bone and reattach my ligament to alleviate the pain. I was going to see an orthopedic surgeon for help with this pain in my left arch. He was the one that helped me after the sprain in May. He sent me for physical therapy sessions. I have been to 2 sessions so far with not improvement. I will be going to a podiatrist tomorrow for his opinion. The pain is constant and is even present when I am not on my foot. I already have custom-made arch supports, so that is not the problem. I am dreading another 6-week recovery if surgery is the only option. I just want this fixed once and for all.

Census 09

Census 2009 means another impromptu Kenyan holiday. The night of 24 August, the government was sending around people to take a census of all the people residing in Kenya. The government thought that it would be best to take Tuesday, 25 August off as to give the census people time to count and get a better, more accurate count. I heard of some strange questions that people were asked. "Have you ever had an abortion?" "How many children do you have?" (asked to a single guy) "How do you dispose of your waste? Sewer line or long drop?" The Kenyans had to even declare their tribe, which caused some ruckus because that was the big issue from the election violence.

My holiday was not too eventful. I just hung out on campus with the other teachers. It was a well-needed and pleasant day off.

A new school year ... 2009-2010

Another school year is starting ... my 6th year of teaching and the new 2009-2010 school year. This year will be a very different school year. I will be teaching French 2, French 3 and AP French at the high school, then after lunch I teach an exploratory French class to 8th graders. Then from 2:50 until 3:20, I teach a 9-week intro to Spanish class for 5th graders. I am not sure what to think of this year, but it will definitely be a change. I will let you know how things are progressing.

Birthday Safari

For my birthday and Chris's birthday, Wendy and Jessie decided to organize a safari for us. Chris and I share the same first name, middle name and birthday (except I am 5 years older). We left on July 31 and came back on August 2. We stayed at a tented camp in the Masai Mara National Reserve. This time of the year is a great time to see the migration of Wildebeests. The Mara was spotted with them all over, but there was none of the majestic river crossing that you see on National Geographic or other nature channels. The rivers were practically dry, as well as the plains. There was really nothing to migrate to because of the drought in Kenya.

On August 1, our birthday, we did an all-day safari. This was the best decision we made. Since it was all day, we had our lunch packed up for us so we could stop and eat it later. By doing an all-day drive, we are able to go a lot farther away from the camp and get to see much more. Our driver did a great job. He is an ex-matatu (public transportation) driver, so he drives fast and gets where he wants to go. When we stopped for lunch, Wendy brought out the birthday cupcakes and she and Jessie sang to us.

We had a great trip. We saw tons of animals and we also enjoyed each others company. It was our last bit of freedom before starting staff orientation on Monday. Enjoy the pictures.

Lions, spotted by yours truly

Gotta love the scenery

Elephant

Chris and me

Wildebeest

Hippo and baby

Birthday day ...

Wildebeest on the edge of the river

"Who is first?" they were thinking

Wildebeest crossing the river

We waited a while until they got enough courage to cross

Rhino

Some of the animals migrating (wildebeest and zebra)

A hyena trying to hide off the side of the road

Impressions of Europe

My experiences this time around in Europe were different than in times past. This time, I went from a Third World country to Germany. Germany! land of rules and regulations that everyone follows. At first I found it to be a breath of fresh air, but soon it became restrictive. I missed the laissez-faire attitude of Africa. The Germans have and enjoy structure, like me, but Africa has been changing me. When I went to Strasbourg, France with my two German friends, it was like we were strangers in France. We waited at lights until it was signaled for us to cross the street. France really misses order. They have that Latin way about them. They enjoy life on their own rhythm. Late nights talking and eating is more their style. Then the British ... I truly felt out of place speaking English with my American accent. I know that they can understand me and I can typically understand them, but I was super conscious of my accent. They really do have a different kinda rebellious way about them. Their self-expression was over the top. They dressed however they wanted and seemed to do things their own way.

I don't think that Europe has changed, but my viewpoint has. Especially coming from Kenya to Europe, I saw things that I never really noticed before. I am grateful for the new look that I have on the world.

Wiesbaden, Germany (July 24 - July 26)

From Brussels, I traveled to Wiesbaden, Germany, where a college friend, Doro, and her new husband live. I met Doro when she was on an exchange program from Karlsruhe to Greeley, Colorado. She was active in Chi Alpha, a Christian group on campus, and that is where we met. Doro is an English teacher and her English is fantastic. Jonathan, a college friend, and I visited her back in 2004 when we did a 6-week trip to Europe. Doro recently got married to Nasser, who is from Morocco. It was good to have Nasser there because I could also speak French with him. This was my second time in Germany on this trip, so my first time was to get into German and now I should be able to speak German well. Na ja. Mein Deutsch ... ist nicht total schlecht, aber nicht wunderbar.

I spent two nights with Doro and Nasser. Since Doro had the summer off, which is a great teacher perk, she took me around Wiesbaden. Wiesbaden is the capital of Hessen and is within 30 minutes of Frankfurt. It's a quaint city and even has a market. Doro just loved the market and especially liked the fresh olives and other fruit and vegetables that one can buy there.

The time with Doro and Nasser was mainly a time of catching up. I think we ended up staying at home both nights and watching movies (in German). They took great care of me and Doro even packed me a few sandwiches for my flight back to Kenya. Danke fuer alles, Doro und Nasser!!

Brussels, Belgium (July 22 - July 24)

From Paris, I went on to spend 2 nights in Brussels. This was my very first time in Belgium, so I was looking forward to the new adventure. I booked a room at a hostel, so I was set to travel around. Unfortunately, the hostel was not everything I was expecting. It was more of a dorm-type atmosphere with communal bathrooms and showers. The crazy thing was that everyone needed to pack up their things during the day and store them in lockers and they close access to the rooms for the middle part of the day.

For my three days, I just bummed around the town. One of the biggest draws in Brussels is this little statue of a little boy peeing. Seriously, he is on t-shirts, magnets and tons of other souvenirs. Who would really want him as their "mascot"? Once I did find the statue, I stayed just long enough to take a picture and leave.

I also went to see the other sights of Brussels. The Atomium was built for the World Fair in 1958. You could go up in it, but I just chose to sit under it for a little while.

Another interesting site to see was the Africa Museum. This day started off really rainy and I didn't have an umbrella. The museum is mainly about the Belgian rule in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was here, that I really felt a longing to return to Kenya. Back in May, I was ready for the First World and to be in order and peace, but this museum really made me think about what I was missing in Kenya. The museum showed the progress of the colonization of the DRC and then relinquishing it back to the Congolese. There were many displays about the different tribes and the different customs that they all had. It is really hard to take in the huge influence that the Western world had on Africa. Below is a picture of the wooden elephants in front of the museum.

I was glad to have only spent 2 nights in Brussels. It really was not my type of city. It seemed disjointed and there was not much to see like in Paris or other large European cities. I ate at Subway many times and walked all over. Not really too much else to highlight about Brussels, except that I was ready and glad to be moving onto Wiesbaden, Germany, my last stop before going "home".

Paris, France (July 21 - July 22)

Paris ... it really hasn't changed much. I wasn't even planning to stop in Paris, but the tickets I got to go to Brussels were really cheap if I spent this one day, literally 24 hours, in Paris. I arrived from London, checked into my hotel and went walking around. I didn't want to spend too much money, so I tried to do as little as possible that didn't cost too much. I went to the normal sights of "la tour Eiffel" and Notre Dame. When I was at the Eiffel Tower, there was a Christian youth group from Kansas who were doing some evangelism. They set up speakers and were doing skits and also testifying. It was cool to see. They were passing out cards for the website www.atoi2voir.com.

After my short outing, I decided to watch the new Transformers movie at a theater near my hotel. I was expecting a little more than what I got, not from the movie, but from the theater. I guess the movie was out for a little while, so it was in a smaller theater. The movie was shown in a small room and on a small screen. It was frustrating, but a nice close to the day. The next day I boarded a train to Brussels.