Apologies for the long delay since my last post. Unfortunately I have been ill with a viral lung infection. This was enough to keep me in bed and out of the classroom for a week, and also put paid to my plans to walk up Mount Kenya, which is challenging enough due to lack of oxygen at high altitude without having a lung infection which was already restricting the level of oxygen in my blood.

[The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere at sea level is 21%; here at RVA it is 16% (which on the positive side is a good place to train for even higher altitudes); at the top of Mount Kenya it is 11%….]

Even after being off sick for a week, it took another two weeks for the cough I was troubled with to clear up, and coping with catching up in the classroom and getting ready for the end of term meant blog posting was not high on my priority list.

We have been pretty busy: a couple of Saturdays ago we had 50 primary school pupils passing through our house in groups of 8. It was “Snacktivity” night, where they progress from location to location making snacks and having fun. Lesley had made plenty of fairy cakes, and they had to decorate them (and of course eat them), with some Wallace and Gromit to leaven the mix.

There was also school play, a comedy set in a school, with the daughter of the RVA primary school headteacher playing the school headteacher in the play. Given the evil nature of the character, we hope she wasn’t modelling her role on her mother 🙂

They have also finished renovating Centennial Hall, the main building used for assembly, concerts, big exams, etc. We were treated to a wonderful end of year music concert, with a string ensemble, a jazz band, a wind band and the choir. Here are a couple of pictures to give the atmosphere.

This building is not used for all assemblies. On a Friday, there is normally a flag raising ceremony in the courtyard outside the main adminstration building. The tradition is that if you are late to the ceremony, when the Kenyan national anthem starts you stop walking and remain stationary as a sign of respect until the anthem has finished, and then make your way to join the rest of the students and staff.

Here is a photo of students arriving late recently.

It actually feels a bit spooky, like a scene from a Doctor Who episode where the aliens have frozen everyone to the spot (if you don’t know Doctor Who, don’t worry!).

We are now very much nearly at the end of term. This week I have a couple of lessons left to teach, and then it is just revision for the end-of-year exams. I have around a week to mark the papers, which should be fairly relaxed. There will be some chaos around collecting text books and the return of rented calculators, but nothing too stressful.

Then Lesley and I will be travelling back to Europe to visit family, before returning to Kenya in the second half of August.