It's RAINY SEASON HERE FINALLY!!!
It only came a month late (meaning that if it ends at the normal time then we've lost a third of rainy season!). This was the first day of rainy season, and it was awsome. It rains here now pretty much every night, is cloudy in the morning, and then gets partly cloudy by the afternoon. Stark contrast to the clear skies that happened pretty much right up until the day the rains came. The rain is reeeeally good for the community here and needed for people to do the farming that supplies a lot of their food. We're hoping maybe people will be able to have some to share with us!
BY the way, this is the courtyard at AMCC. The girls' bedrooms are on the left, the boy's on the right. It's a real cozy place, and I like it quite a bit. :-)

Second picture is of the outside of the kitchen. Do you see all of the smoke coming out from the chimney? Me neither! This is a problem! Maybe 5% of the smoke created when we cook goes out of the chimney (even though it is located directly above the fire). The rest flows sideways (though there's no wind!) and has enveloped the walls in that room with soot. A whole year of it, 3 times a day. It's nasty, coughy, sooty stuff and we really want Nancy and the kids to stop having to breathe it all the time! Any suggestions that cost little money (and a little money to buy it!)?

Third picure is Reverend Mark. Not really much of a story to this. I get asked to 'have a word' a lot more here than I did in the US, and it's just funny to me. I normally either find a passage, read it, and then comment loosely on it, or talk about how nothing will satisfy us except for healthy relationship with Jesus (which I believe is true but sounds suuuuuuuper lame posed as a one-liner on my blog). I have to dress up here a lot more, maybe that's the other thing about this post.

Now on to more news that has no related picture!
This week we developed a rotating schedule of daily responsibilies for John, Nancy, Nick, and myself. Nick and I were pretty stoked about it, and upon reflection so glad that we waited a month before to created one because it helped us have a better grasp on what is really needed and healthy for this place. Nick and I alternate being "errand boy". Meaning that we go places that someone is needed, but not for a culurally specific task. Ex: I walk 50 to the closest source of electricity for our cell phones to get charged.
Yesterday I had my best errand adventure yet: school parent meeting!! I was told it would start at 9, I showed up at 9:10, then left for an hour because I was the only one there, then returned and waited in the shade until it started at 11. The meeting was conducted in Kikuyu (the mothertongue here, not Swahili, the national language of Kenya which Nick and I are learning), and I sat through 5 hours of it.
BUT, the middle 2 hours were an end-of-the-term ceremony, where they announced the placement of every single student in the school and had them all get in order according to their placement in their class! The fun part of this was that AMCC students pretty much kicked butt, AND, since I was the rep for AMCC, I got to go up whenever it was time for a parent to accept an prize, or pin an award to a kid's shirt. Pretty much the closest I've ever felt to being a parent, and honestly, I was pretty dang proud of our kids here at AMCC! We have the 1st ranked kid in 5th grade, 3rd in 2nd and 7th, and 2nd ranked kid in 8th grade. And we got prizes for these kids (a thermos to keep chai warm, a washing basin, and two juice pitchers). Everyone laughed when I would go up to accept these awards, because it was obvious that I was not the parent of any of these children. I'd love to go to another, because our kids are doing well and it is pretty encouraging to get some recognition for it!
The bummer of it was that I didn't know that the meeting would last more than 30 minutes, and I didn't know it would be outside, so my nose got FRIED. It's the worst sun-burn I've had here yet and will take a while to go away. Though hopefully it will all be gone in a month because my girlfriend is coming to visit!! Woohoo! Lord willing, Karen will arrive in Kenya on April 30th and leave May 7th. We're going to try to ride some rhinos and other stuff. In reality, she'll chill at AMCC and then, hopefully, we'll hike up Mt. Kenya!!! (google it, that thing is awesome)
We'll see. I'm stoked about this, though not being able to be physically affectionate with her in public will be difficult (word on the street is that we could get arrested for such indecent acts!).
Welp, I'm out for now! Thanks for everyone who reads this and contacts me somehow! Your energy is like multiplied a hundred times by the time it gets to me and it means a heap. Adios.