I'm a Fan

I'm constantly amazed at God's creativity, especially among all the neat-o plants and animals here in Kenya.  Just about everyday I see something that is straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.  Did he live in my backyard to get those ideas for crazy trees? 

Anyway, here is one such plant, the fan palm.  The trunk is practically braided together.

The branches fan out from side to side.  It's flat!  And it's really tall! 

I'm a fan.

Going Bananas

We have a row of very mature banana trees behind our house.  It has been very eye-opening the last few months to watch bananas do their thing.  It's quite different than what I imagined standing in the grocery store picking through the small bunches of greenish bananas on display while growing up in the States.

The bananas start with this huge red flower thing.  As the stem grows downward, the bananas "bloom" above it where the petals have peeled off.  These are baby bananas.

Eventually, the stem is very long, several feet, lots of the red petals have fallen off, and the bananas have matured.  Someone comes along and chops off the whole bunch.  Many people in Kenya grow bananas in their shamba (garden) which they harvest and sell.  It's not unusual to see a bus's roof rack stacked with banana bunches.  Our bananas are grown to serve with meals in the dining hall.  Every lunch and dinner, the kids get a piece of fresh fruit with their meal.  The sad thing is, raw bananas make me sick, and these are the sweetest, most delicious bananas ever!



Signs

"Keep Tidy"

I must say, I love when acacia trees offer me sage advice unexpectedly.

Random

We started a new school year yesterday.  All the kids are in new grades and I'm desperately trying to remember not to insult them by forgetting it.  I would just like to note a few things about this school year:

1.  On the first day of school, while I was on recess duty, a student found a 4-inch dead baby snake frozen in striking pose.

2.  I hate dead bodies of any type, including snakes, but somehow, I found myself funneling kids into a line while holding this dead baby snake above their heads until order reigned so they could hold it one at a time.

3. It was kind of an out-of-Kate experience.  I'm not really sure what came over me. 

4. I made two boys cry today at different times.  Well, they made themselves cry.  I just disciplined them.

5.  A new student in Class 1 from the community decided to smile handsomely, shake my hand and ask very nicely how I was doing right in the middle of me negotiating which Class 2 student had to clean their lunch table and how to get Class 3 in a straight, quiet line.  I could have hugged him.

6.  We received funding to purchase a nice, electric piano (not to be confused with an electric keyboard) and it was delivered yesterday to my music room.  Wow.

7.  I played the new piano for a long time last night after I put the stand together. I starting using it for music class today.  All of the kids were really impressed until they learned it could only make 10 different sounds, not hundreds like the old keyboard.

8.  I am going to start teaching a few students piano in the afternoons.  Next question, how do I select a few students out of 97?

9.  Totally unrelated: Did you know the bark of the Papaya tree makes hearts in the wood?  I didn't either until this weekend.

Move over Martha Stewart

I receive Living magazine all the way over here in Kenya.  Thankfully, they pay shipping because it cost my mother $8.94 to send me a magazine through the mail.  Anyway, Mrs. Stewart had a huge article about the virtues of succulents and her large collection.  She could have taken all the photos on my front veranda.

This plant makes me laugh because the underside of the leaves are striped like a zebra and someone planted it in a zebra container.

I like feeling these leaves when no one is around to think I've gone mad.

This plant is slowly overtaking the porch.  This stem is probably four feet long.

These plants are everywhere along the wall surrounding the compound.  If I was trying to jump the wall, I certainly would not want to land on these spikes.  I also love how you can see the impression of each new leaf on the old leaf from which it unfurled.

This last plant sits on a table in my living room.  I think one day I will paint a room this color.

I hope you enjoyed our garden tour of the day!  Except a real garden tour would tell you the names of plants and I don't know any.  I guess Martha Stewart can have her job back.