Kili Half Marathon done!!!!

After several weeks cramming in some training, today I ran the Kili Half Marathon!

I've done a half marathon before, but this one was rather epic.  Even the training was a funny experience, since some of the world's fastest runners come from East Africa.  The week before last when I was out running I had a local runner stop and say, "Madam, are you ok?" with a total look of concern!  Yes, I'm ok, this is just how I look when I run....sigh!  It was so sweet how encouraging everyone was in the training weeks though.  Whenever another runner runner would pass me (which happened often!) they would give me a mini round of applause, which was often enough motivation to do another few kms.

After getting up at 5:30am all the people running from our organisation met up to walk 2kms to the start line.  Parking is rather crazy so it was the only option!  Six other people did the half (including 3 housemates) whilst others did the 5km.  We'd been on a drive around the course last night so I knew what to expect: lots and lots of hills!  Thankfully it's the first half of the race that is hilly, and the second half is generally a gentle downhill slope, except for a hill right at the end which was sooo painful!  I managed to run the whole thing, and only really felt pain for the last 3kms. By that time it was pretty hot too!  I kept a slow pace and finished in around 2hrs 35 mins.  It was great being part of a group, and seeing people I knew watching along the course.  Having friends cheer and in turn cheering for others when they entered the stadium was really special.  We were all so stoked to finish, though not so stoked about walking 2kms uphill back to our car...after all that running it hurt!  Lovely Allie stood at the finish line and took some epic photos.  I think there are some professional ones available on the website at some point so I'll add those later too.

Half Marathon gals before the craziness began....

Walking to the start line....still bedtime methinks

Allie took a pretty pic of Kili at the stadium!

Entering the stadium...woot!

Taylor and I in the aftermath...

Go team HOPE!

Kara, Alma, Taylor, Rebecca and I.  We did it!

 It has been a rather intense day and I'm loving every bit of relaxing now before school tomorrow. Overall though, I'm happy to have another special memory (+ medal and t-shirt!) from this beautiful part of the world.  Only three weeks until school holidays!

School, school and more school

This quarter is sooooo long!  I remember last quarter wishing we would have one full week of uninterrupted school after endless public holidays.  This quarter though, zero school days off for 10 weeks.  To be honest, it's not so bad as class is pretty routine now.  I am really loving my class and have discovered a love for high school teaching.  I never thought I'd be keen for teaching older kids, but it is seriously so much fun.  

Last month I took the class on an excursion to Natural Extract Industries, a small company that processes vanilla extract and cocoa.  No need to fill out risk assessments here, and transport was all of us jumping in the teacher van and me driving!  It was the most relaxing excursion I've ever organised! The students were really polite and asked lots of interesting questions.  It was so special when the guide was showing us everything in the laboratory.  At school we don't have any Science resources at all so even the test tubes were fascinating!  Of course I bought some cocoa and made the class chocolate cookies for the next day....a good excuse for some baking! We also went to Uhuru hostel for Samosas and soda.  It was $12 well spent as they had a great time chatting and trying out the playground.

Learning about how vanilla is processed and stored

The kids asked great questions and the guide was so enthusiastic

Van selfie...so there weren't enough seats for all the kids...
no bother here!

Samosas and soda at Uhuru

Kids are never too old to try out a new playground :) 

Since this quarter is so long, we had a break from routine this week and had a Technology Challenge Day!  This involved the students working in pairs to complete 4 challenges involving design and construction.  The class can get super competitive, so I talked with them at the start about always putting people before tasks and they were amazing!  The main challenge (worth double points) was to create a rubber-band powered car that could travel the longest distance.  They were so encouraging of each other and came up with some pretty cool designs.

Building the tallest possible tower out of 3 sheets of paper

Designing a cardboard bridge that can hold the most water

Rubber-band car construction begins.....

Using toilet paper rolls to make the longest running marble run

Car testing time!

So it seems February has been all about school and not much else.  Still, that's the reason I'm here and I am learning a lot.  Admittedly I didn't love the school in the beginning as I felt I had so little say in anything and was treated more like a student teacher rather than an experienced teacher.   That has changed a lot since then though and I'm learning how and when to speak up about things, and when to keep my mouth shut!  Life in Little America is still frustrating at times, but I feel I have a place here and am excited to see how I can contribute towards this rather unique little school.