Kenyan Football

Happy Labor Day, i think? I'm really not even sure if it's today or next week. i'm very out of touch with life in the U.S. Saturday was a great day for me b/c it's the first weekend that I didn't have to get up early and be here. I pretty much wake up everyday by 7 b/c the birds chirp really loud outside my window and the matatus are really noisy. i don't think i've every slept past 8. but in any case, it was wonderful to just get up pray, do devotions, and then i went running. this girl followed me all around the neighborhood in her flip flops and asked me about my sisters and told me about her pet rabbit, Latifah. only i think it's a wild rabbit b/c it's randomly all over the neighborhood. we got to see a group sending people off to a wedding. family comes to the bride's house early in the morning and they sing all these songs. they decorate the car (often a mercedes) with ribbon and roses.

in the afternoon, i went to watch steve play soccer for the World Hope team. po po and his friend went with me, which was fun because they're big fans of kenyan football. on the way there, po po said, oh yeah, i know you're friend, steve. he's always in the newspapers. so yeah, i know someone who's basically famous here. they play in this huge stadium, but there were only about 100 people there. it's only $1.50 to get in, but i think that's probably really expensive for local people. and also people are more fans of the national team. we sat by this little boy, soccerdome (AKA nicholas) who plays for the world hope sponsored kid's team. he was really funny. the first thing he asked me was, "do you have a fiance?" b/c all the fans bring their fiances. and kids here are so obsessed with white people's arm hair. he's like "muzungu skin is not like ours. it's so hard." and then he asked if i was going to take a shower tonight b/c my heels are permanently embedded with dirt. i tried explaining that it doesn't come off, but he didn't understand. people really try to be clean here. so yes, soccerdome was quite the entertainment for the afternoon.

today i went back to the juvenile home to talk to them about teaching. there are 2 teachers for 4 classes, so they seemed very open about this and liked that i'm a teacher from the u.s. i'm going to start on monday. just teaching on mondays and thursday afternoons. i told them i can teach english, math, and CRE (christian religious education). i'm excited but trying not to have any expectations, so that i'm not disappointed. we'll see how it goes. what gets me is that this is a government school. they should be able to hire teachers. i think the government actually does have some money; it just never goes to the right places. some of the kids don't speak much english, so that'll be a challenge. the head teacher wants the instruction to be in english though to help them learn. please pray for this opportunity and that they are able to learn something and be shown love.