Term 3 has started, and after a week in the classroom, I think I am back into the swing of teaching again.

Over the Easter holiday period we had a wonderful time with Peter, Leandra and Sam, who came to visit us.

We spent the best part of a week at the coast in Mombasa with Peter and Leandra, relaxing. Then Sam joined us, and we had a couple of days on safari, including getting to close quarters with a rhino:

Once they flew off, Lesley and I went on an RVA staff retreat, also back on the coast.

Then is was back to school for in-service training before lessons restarted.

I have tried to ease my algebra students back into the term gradually – they appreciated having a lighter homework load during the first week, and I have been trying hard not to go too fast, to make sure that everyone is understanding the new material.

I have also been helping out with the Robotics Club:

RVA came second in the East Africa heats in Nairobi in February, which qualified them to represent Kenya at the regional finals in Morocco in May. Around 70 teams will be competing, from all over Africa and Europe. The team of seven students is very excited about this opportunity.

Many of the things which they are experiencing preparing for the competition (the need for team work, solving hardware and software problems, lots of testing, software configuration control, needing backups in case of illness) are very similar to the issues experienced when preparing for spacecraft operations. It is great for them to be able to get a taste of what is involved. It is also nice to be able to share stories with them from the space domain

Also this term we have had our first Caring Community group – seven Year 7/8s who come to our house for an evening together. Since Lesley is away at the moment (she had to return to Germany to collect her hearing aids, which stopped working and couldn’t be repaired in Kenya), I teamed up with another group, hosted by the Principal and his wife.

When we reached their house on Friday evening, the veranda was swarming with flying termites, which have been brought out by the heavy rain we have been having during April.

At the start of the evening, some of the students were collecting the termites. Here you can see them writhing on a plate.

Then the principal removed their wings and fried them for a few seconds.

Several of the students tucked into an extra snack that evening. Not for me!