our adventures and wanderings

Well, I have been teaching for five years now. And, honestly, I am completely and officially burnt out. I have taught preschool, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, and Title One reading support. That is six positions in five years--in case you can’t count. When I was little, I would play teacher constantly, writing endless names on notebooks and teaching from my miniature whiteboard that was my favorite toy. I would spend countless hours locked inside my room teaching my students (usually stuffed animals). For some reason, my older and wiser brother never volunteered to be one of my students--I wonder why? My bossy personality lent itself completely to this play profession. All of my students would get A’s and B’s, except for one, who always got an F. He was usually a boy. As I grew older, I thought about different careers, but eventually settled again on teacher. I helped out in one of my former elementary classrooms in high school and I was instantly sold. I...

Well, what can we say? We haven't been the best at updating our blog for the last...2 years. So, here are some life updates: In case for some reason you haven't heard, we have decided to stay at Rosslyn for the next two years.  I (R) have been teaching 4th grade for the past two years, and John continues to teach kindergarten. We will be visiting Indiana this summer for the first time in two (wow!) years. We are excited to see family and friends. Pray that we are able to enjoy quality time with each of our families, which has become more difficult to balance as my parents have separated.  I've become quite the "birder" and am also enjoying getting back into drawing and painting.  John has become a pretty talented climber and has enjoyed mountain biking. He loves climbing outside at a beautiful place called Lukenya. We camp there often. John has also been reading more than I do! We joke that we are turning into each other.  Jarvis joined our famil...

The most beautiful water Last week, we traveled to Zanzibar, Tanzania with our friends Johnny and Melissa. Zanzibar is an island off the coast of Tanzania. Tanzania is the African country below Kenya. My parents and brother had been here the two weeks previously, which was wonderful. Because my family had been here and it was the end of the semester, I had not had tons of time to think about our trip to Zanzibar. We left the day after my family left Nairobi. Though I had not had much time to think about our trip, I woke up the day we left excited for a new adventure. In my mind, I was picturing a Florida-esque atmosphere of luxury. Early in the morning on the 27th of December, we headed for the airport. I was a little nervous, as I usually am when we travel. I was also nervous because the Kenyan police are notoriously annoying at the Nairobi International Airport. Just the day before, a police woman had threatened to arrest my brother for a made-up offense in the airport parki...

In front of our house I know that it has been a ridiculously long time since our last post. Sorry about that! Here's what we have been up to:  We moved to Kenya, to Rosslyn Academy's campus, specifically. The transition was difficult at first because Nairobi is very different than any of our previous African experiences. But, we are adjusting well and love this country just as much as we did when we came in 2013.  President Obama flew into the campus and landed on our soccer pitch (basically in our backyard). We completed a week of new staff orientation and learned tons about Kenya and Rosslyn Academy. We completed a week of full staff orientation, met all of the staff, set up our classrooms, and made lots of new friends. We began teaching. I am teaching third grade and John is teaching kindergarten. We have just finished our third full week of teaching. Here's a little more about that: Teaching here at Rosslyn Academy is incredible. R...