Choirs and Cockroaches

I went to the service at the school today – there’s a service in English that all the boarding students are required to attend. Rev. Kendagor preached, and it was nice to hear a message in English without someone translating the whole way through. Then Brian, Noreen, and Andrew (the Bible College student who lives in) came over for dinner in the afternoon. It’s been a pretty quiet day I guess, but I’m still tired!
I had my first choir practice at the school on Friday – it was fun! They have decided to send one class at a time, so I had Standard 8 pupils (about 14 year olds). There are about 45-50 in the class, and they’re good singers! Of course, I didn’t really know what I was doing – so just made it up as I went along as usual! J They sang in church this morning so we practiced for that, and then we just went over a few of the pieces they already knew. They love to sing – after the class period was over, some of the kids wanted to stay on and sing for another while since that was their last class of the day. So I was playing the piano for another hour, while they kept calling out favourites.
There’s no such thing as personal space here in Kenya – the kids sit on top of each other on the benches during services etc. While I was playing, one girl was leaning on one of my shoulders, and one on the other, and someone else was playing with my hair as they were all singing around the piano. You would see even boys walking along with their arms around each other’s shoulders, and I have seen men holding hands as they walked through the street. It is VERY strange to our “Western” eyes, but the Kenyans think nothing of it – they’re just showing affection to friends. They probably think we’re really standoffish and cold!!
They say cats have nine lives, but I think the cockroach must win the award for most stubbornly holding on to the one life that it has. I saw one in the bathroom last night, but couldn’t be bothered going for the spray etc so decided to let it live this time. So I went on to bed, and was just getting comfy when I heard that sound the cockroach makes (can’t describe it – a sort of a squeak). But it sounded pretty close by, so I switched on the lamp and sure enough – there he was on the floor right beside the bed. Too close for comfort. I grabbed the spray which was handy on the bedside table and went for him. Well, he went leaping and darting all over the room, but I followed gamely and nearly knocked myself out with the amount of spray I had to use. Finally, his jumps got a bit weaker and I finished him off with a flip-flop. I must confess that I’m so lazy that I just set the flip-flop on top of him and just jumped back into bed. Although I did wonder for a minute if I should move him outside the door in case all his friends and relations came to bury him. It was quiet the rest of the night, though, so I guess cockroaches aren’t into funerals.