VICTORY!!!!

You would have thought it was the National Championship the way the crowd clapped and screamed for our little WNS middle school girls’ basketball team on Monday. It was their very first game…and it was intense. Although there were not many shots made, each one was met with parents and fans screaming and clapping like it was the scoring basket in the last second. The girls could hardly believe their eyes when the time ran out and the score board read home 7 away 10. They had won their very first game. I heard a couple moms say that they were holding back tears of joy and excitement for their girls. It was so cute I could not even handle it! Then the girls ran down the hill to watch the end of the boy’s game. They jumped and screamed and threatened to take out the other team when they took out Ian Meredith (our big star). It was one of those days that I was so proud to be a teacher at WNS. I would not have wanted to be anywhere else in the world. As the time ran out on the boys game they too exploded as they won 1-0. It was victory for the underdogs. We had gone to play against the International School of Kenya, which is more than three times our size. Needless to say we were all a little shocked but so very proud. One of the boys walked up to me after the games and said, “Hey Miss Carraway we have a perfect season.” I love their excitement and optimism J Who knows how the rest of the season will go but we made it through our first game despite the minor issues of not having enough jerseys, not having enough space on the bus, no clean water, and who knows what else we forget….but it was all ok in the end. WE WON!!! The girls next game is a tournament on Saturday. They are all coming over to my house for a sleep over on Friday night and then we will go to the game together. Hopefully we will be able to get some sleep before the games. It will be fun no matter what. God has really placed a burden on my heart for the middle school girls. I really want to start a small group of some sort with them but right now it seems like there is so little time. If you think about it I would love your prayers about wisdom with that situation. Well, enjoy the pictures (we are dark blue) and hope to hear from you soon!

the rain begins....

So, today was supposed to be West Nairobi Schools' first competitive sport games in about 8 years...but then it rained. The kids were so disappointed. I really hated being the person who had to make the decision on what to do, because that would mean that they were all upset with me. Because of course they don't consider the rain...thunder...lightening and all that. We have been practicing for about three weeks at this point so they were very ready for their first game. Now our first game will be an away game next week against a very difficult team. I am kind of glad about that though because there is A LOT less for me to plan at away games. This morning when I got to work I had a huge long list of things that I had to make sure got done. Today was definately a day that I felt like the Athletic Director. When you are a kid you don't realize who has to make certain decisions like how to put lines on the field, who puts the first aid kit together, and who has to make the final decision on if a game is cancelled or not. Well, I found out today that those are all part of my job including much more It really is a lot of fun, even if I do sound overwhelmed! :)
My roommates and I got our car (I will add a picture soon). It is so nice to finally have a little bit more freedom. We are still learning how to drive on the left side, around pot holes and people and goats and who knows what else. The public transportation here is called a Mutatu. The thing about these vans is that they think (or should I say they do) rule the road. The pull off when they want to, wherever they want to and enter the road whenever as well. So you never know when they will pull out in front of you. Right now Jen and Alison are practicing driving everywhere because Daylan and I don't have our international driver's licenses. They are getting better. The first time out with Jen she said, "This isn't that hard." To which I responded, "Jen, you just need to drive on the left side of the road instead of the right." We got a good laugh out of that.
Well, I guess that about sums it up for now. If you are not recieving my updates emails and would like to please let me know at kaylacarraway@gmail.com I will add more pictures soon!

in case you haven't seen enough....

There are more pictures and videos on some of the

other teacher's sites if you are interested:

daylanarnold.blogspot.com

jenharvey.blogspot.com

steventso.com

girls will be girls :)

There is never a dull moment in a house full of girls!!!

picture is worth 1,000 words

I didn't want you all to be doubting that we really did chase the animals

and get really close to them so here is proof...I still get a smile on

my face just thinking about it! :)

(PS I am the one in yellow)

there they are....we did get closer I promise...cameras just can't capture it

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing

my new favorite hobby is chasing giraffes...

WOW...what a fun weekend we had. The staff at WNS went to Lukenya to a resort to have a little retreat. Normally I don't like waking up early in the morning but when the option came up to go out to look for animals at 6 am I knew I would be sad to pass it up. So all of the new students went out on a bus over the Kenyan countryside. We rode around a bit and didn't really see much...a couple zebras, a wilda beast, and some other random animals; but they were pretty far off. My roommates and I kept asking if we could get off the bus and walk/run and we did for most of them time. Then after about a hour we finally saw some giraffes but they were way off and the road did not go near them. So off we went "huffing it" as Trevor (the prinicpal says). We walked and walked and could not find them. Then when we almost gave up hope we finally saw them on the next hillside. So off we went again further into the "wild". We tried sneaking up but lets face it four girls looking for giraffes are not so quiet. Then finally we found them. We started taking pictures and they started running. We could see three of them at that point. So then we decided to follow them. Yea...long giraffe legs and short Kayla legs are very different. They are so cool when they run though, so graceful. So we just kept chasing them and would hind behind hills and stuff like that. Then we saw 8 giraffes and we got so excited...but they saw us and took off again. So off we went again....running and running...yea you get the point. Then they stopped so we tried to sneak up again so we went around this little hill and there were 13 giraffes of all sizes and ages. THEY WERE SO AMAZING. They were right buy a HUGe herd of zebra, wild a beast, and some monkeys too. The monkeys really didn't like us though they were like barking at us. I was scared of them! We got within probably 50 feet of all the animals. IT WAS SO AMAZING. Now I see why people chase animals on National Geographic and all. Later the whole staff went up this mountain and we hung out and some of then did repelling. I took pictures :) Then on our way back down we found another giraffe so of course we had to chase it. Daylan and I took off running at it and it just stood there looking at us. We got within 20 feet of it and it wasn't moving. We started screaming..."Why aren't you running! MOVE!!!" And then finally it turned and ran (gracefully of course). My friend Steve took video of us chasing it so I will try and get it from him. IT WAS SO INCREDIBLE! Jen and I also decided to jump rope with the repelling rope on the side of a huge cliff... enjoy the video of me falling. I thought I was going to die! A little more adrenaline for the fun day! :) So yea...overall it was such a fun weekend. I finally really felt like I was in Africa. Hope all is well! I love hearing from you all so please write when you can. If you have any question or want to see any other pictures just ask.

oops...ran out of gas...had to take a taxi :)

Busy weekend...

I had a lot of fun this weekend although it has invovled a ton of walking. On Friday night Jen, Daylan and I walked about 1 1/2 miles to a church where they had a praise and worship night. It was in a huge white tent but there were like 1,000 people there. It was so amazing. Some of the songs were in Swahili but most were in English. It was so fun to watch them sing and clap and dance. Yea I felt so white it isn't even funny. But it was really cool though. They have it once a month so I think that will definately be something that we go to. When we were walking there we passed this huge crowd of little boys who had just got done playing soccer. They were so funny and so excited to see white people. They were really cute though. Today we all went out for breakfast with some guys from Samaritan's Purse who work in Sudan, but are out just for a bit of rest and relaxation. Jen, Alison, and I walked back from there to our house like 2 miles away. On our way we stopped at "Toy Market" an outdoor thirft store basically. They had so much stuff it was crazy but of course they wanted to charge us way more than others so we didn't buy anything today. Later Megan, Daylan, Steven and I tried to go shopping somewhere else to look for soccer balls for the school. Although I did not find soccer balls we did run out of gas :( Yea that was an experience, which of course invovled MORE walking ;) When we finally got on the road again we were stopped for a bit because of traffic and this little Kenyan boy walked up to the window and asked for some money. We didn't really have anything to give him, plus once you give one anything they all come running...so anyways we had a bottle of water on the dash and so he was like please even some water. So Megan handed him the bottle of water and as soon as he held it he said. "That is hot I don't want that." And handed it back to her. It was so funny. We all just died laughing...it really is true that beggers can't be choosers. So yea, who knows what will happen next. It has been a fun weekend. Next weekend we are going on a retreat as the school staff so that should be fun. Enjoy the pictures and write me when you get a chance!