2010

It's the end of another year.  Time to reflect on where we've been and anticipate where we're going.  I spent this morning reviewing my calendar, lesson plans, Facebook statuses, and messages home, piecing together the big and small things that made an impact on my year.  It's been a full year - plenty of disappointment, plenty of joy.  I'm thankful once again for God's provision in my life here in Nairobi, and I'm looking forward to what He has planned next for me.  This was my year...


January.  New Years.  Picked up Lauren, a sorority sister and friend from Miami, from Jomo Kenyatta airport.  Spent ten days enjoying Kenya like a tourist all over again.  Swanky tented safari.  My first leopard sighting.  Kamikaze termites falling from the sky all over our dinner table.  Ate trout in a tree house.  Stood on the equator.  Kissed a giraffe.  Said goodbye.  Started fourth semester of teaching.  Led a discussion on social "tribes" in class and was asked by a nosy student afterwards which groups I was in as a high schooler. When I mentioned my "drama geek" status in HS, another student chimed in: "Wait- drama 'geek?' But drama's cool!" to which several other students promptly agreed.  Felt like a champ.  Listened in disbelief to a phone call confirming a coworker’s tragic death.  Everything and nothing changes. 

February. Teacher appreciation week. In a bundle of notes from students: "Dear Miss Weiant, Thanks for being a great English teacher. Your classes are really interesting. And I think you dress well.”  Valentine’s Day comes and goes.  23 and a half years old, officially. 

March.  Connections with friends-of-friends in Nairobi.  Spirit week.  High school teachers dominate in dress and overall spiritedness.  Hundreds of hours spent in the computer lab, finishing up the yearbook.  Nervous breakdowns.  Lots of coffee, lots of fellow teachers to help.  Finished.  Egypt.  Landed in Cairo, promptly visiting the pyramids in Giza.  Second-hand smoke inhalation from our guide, Ahmad.  Overnight train to Aswan – Nile River cruise back up to Luxor.  Couldn’t believe my eyes.  I’d never had such close encounters with history before.  Absolutely incredible.

April.  Heavily recruited friends to apply with NICS and come and teach with me in Kenya.  Began adding new hires as friends on Facebook so better to stalk them, my dears.  Rehearsals for Steel Magnolias.  The actress playing Shelby quits.  Then returns, two days later.  Nerves shot.  Requested set is never built.  More lessons in making do with the little you have.  Cried on stage with the full cast of girls, who had all “hormonally synched up,” if you know what I mean.

May.  AP exams.  Chronic headaches and eyestrain ultimately lead to the optometrist.  First pair of glasses in my life.  Junior/Senior Banquet.  My first true experience as a chaperone involved eating a free delicious dinner, enjoying a truly great high school band, busting a group of seniors who’d gone on a little adventure away from it all, and climbing into a fellow teacher’s car several hours after the night was over with all the leftover people who didn’t fit on the bus.  Thank goodness the police weren’t out in full force that evening.  Lock-in rehearsal with a group of giggling boys.  Opening and closing nights for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged.  Final week of class.  Yearbooks arrive.  Final exams.  Graduation.  Year two of teaching complete.

June.  Packed up the house and said goodbye to No. 6 Lampco Court.  Lots of other, more tearful goodbyes.  Packed my bags, and enjoyed over 24 hours of travel back to the US.  London culture shock.  Even more culture shock in America.  A full week of jetlag and resting catch-up, but it was great to finally be home.  Weiant and Huff family dinner at the Red House.  Sundays at Life Community Church. Alumni Weekend at Miami.  Sweet time with my sweet sister.  Creation Museum.  Dropped brother Sammy at Kent State for Arabic studies.  Catching up on pop culture.  Beth Moore Bible study.  Fun times with high school crowd in Hilliard at prayer overnight.  HS girls group over at our house for the rest of the summer for cooking sessions with Señora Weiant and good Bible study with adorable girls.  Put-in-Bay for the weekend to visit Leslie with my parents.  Nostalgia.

July.  More visits with old friends.  Fourth of July fireworks in one of my favorite places – on the dock in front of Gilead Cottage.  A great week of teaching and fellowship at Gull Lake.  Received AP exam results: two “3’s” and two “5’s.”  Ecstatic.  Cedar Point.  Chicago for my friends’ Cheryl and Barry’s wedding weekend.  Great fun and pillow talk with Rosie.  Twelve hours of road time with another good friend, Mike.  Lots of trips to Target and Walmart to prepare for the journey back “home.”  Visits with LCC cell groups.  Anxious packing and more goodbyes.  Columbus International Airport.  I get frisked for leaving a Pepto tablet in my back pocket and scolded for having my laptop underneath my shoes in the bin.  Not exactly the travel expert I thought I was.  Met up with roommate Jen in Chicago.  First flight travel buddy since I was 15.  Landed, all luggage made it.  Moved in to new house, complete with new roomie, Dawn, on Muringa Rd. 

August.  Workdays in my classroom to prepare for year #3.  Picked up my brother and friend at Junction shopping center (surreal) after their mission trip for a few more days of local adventures in Nairobi.  The Kenyan Constitutional Referendum put a bit of a damper on our plans – stayed inside a good deal of the time.  Wear green for yes, red for no.   Yes wins.  Said goodbye to visitors.  Mzuri Monday Madness.  Two and a half hour prayer walk around West Nairobi School campus.  School begins.  Two sections of American Literature, AP English, Yearbook Production and three Theatre Arts classes in the same period.  President Kibaki declares August 27 a national holiday for the signing of the new constitution, but he must have really planned it in honor of Jen’s and my birthdays.  24 years old.

September.  Back in the familiar cycle of lesson planning, reading materials, hunting for resources, and grading papers.  WNS open house.  Boys soccer and girls basketball games.  The Tso family welcomes baby Kansas.  Faculty begins The Truth Project.  Enlightenment.  Juniors read The Scarlet Letter; AP students read No Exit and Hamlet.  Yearbook planning in full swing.  Discovered a streaming video website that enables us to watch live college football games.  Life feels complete.  My Facebook account gets hacked and dozens suffer.  Some message about rapid weight loss.  Staff retreat at Brackenhurst.  Messages on forgiveness and general sense of failure in relationships.  My Rainbow sandals are stolen from my room.  I give a rather sober chapel message on the consequences of sin.  WNS middle and high school have their first biannual Spiritual Emphasis Week.  The student discipleship program gets going and I fell in love all over again with my five wonderful girls.

October.  I continue seriously considering a transfer within our network of schools to one of three schools in restricted nations.  I share these thoughts with my parents, who initially seem a bit taken aback, then within the same conversation seem totally on board.  I have a renewed appreciation and love for my supportive family.  Brother Sam and I conspire to teach/learn at the school in Kabul.  Kenyatta Day.  Found fake Subway in Nairobi with my roommate. Some American must have started the place, because it was a complete knock-off, right down to the green and yellow logo on the paper sandwich wrappers and laminated brick on the walls. Hadn't had turkey in two months.  Parent-teacher conferences.  Two of the longest days of the school year.

November.  I host a dinner at our house with my discipleship girls.  Chicken enchiladas and lots of laughter.  High school staff meeting.  Re-working lesson plans for the end of the semester and writing finals.  Intensive poetry unit with AP students, This I Believe project with juniors, working towards deadlines with yearbook staff, and casting for our production of The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 with theatre students.  My father reintroduces me to the idea of applying to the Trinity Forum Academy in Royal Oak, Maryland.  Downloaded application packet, updated CV and wrote essays.  Thanksgiving at the Bussell home and a brief trip to Mombasa for some time in the sun.  Students begin asking if I’m returning next year.  I’m not sure how to answer.

December.  WNS talent show.  Jamhuri Day.  Exam week.  Graded thirty five final projects, sixty additional projects, and collected materials for yearbook deadline.  Considered the enormous difference there would be should I ever transition to public schools.  Whole-staff lunch in the bandas on the last day of the semester.  Goat and chapatis. Another dinner with my discipleship group.  Personal pizzas this time, and paper sacks with little gifts for each girl.  Overnight visit with one of my high school girls.  Relaxation and needed rest.  Email from Trinity Forum confirming my initial interview in January.  Dinner with Bevins family and photo slideshow from Afghanistan.  Chinese dinner Christmas Eve and movie on a borrowed projector.  Christmas morning.  Ate breakfast with a missionary family on our compound and watched in awe as three little girls opened their garage sale-bought presents with pure delight and thankfulness.  Gift-opening of our own at our place.  Post cereal, CoffeeMate flavored creamer, Ugandan hand-blown glass and paper bead necklace, and plenty of chocolate.  Delicious dinner and lots of laughs at the Nazarene compound with the WNS crowd.  Good books.  Sleeping in.  Skype dates with family and praying for Grandpa Weiant, in and out of the hospital/ER after surgery, and Nonnie Imboden, struggling in nursing care. 

Depending on, Waiting on, Rejoicing with, and Enjoying the Lord.  Constant flitting between contentment and discouragement, expectation and devastation, hope and fear.  Wrestling.  Looking ahead.  Understanding and reflecting upon what’s past.  Appreciating where I am in the present.  Doing my darndest to surrender what’s in my future.  Thanking God for you, and praying for a blessed beginning to the New Year.