Kenya vs America

 

Well  I  love  America because of the food!!! and I'm always  having fun with my cousins.And I have  way too much fun with Nickel City and Lagoon.   But Kenya feels different,  the food is different, the general  environment is different, even the air is different that's what makes it so awesome! And you can't compete with the outstanding view of the the golden sun rise in the morning. For fun I get to go to beach and body board or chill out. I can't say  which one I  favor.  
Sports, sports, sports in America for me consist of basketball, tennis,  and American football. I really miss basketball and American football like the excitement of the shooting thought the net. Also the adrenaline of running and scoring a touchdown. But i'm being sucked into British sports like cricket and football these spots may seem boring and un fun but there surprisingly joy-able and exciting as in my first cricket mach I managed to bowl a wicket in my first game ever! And most of you who don't know what a wicket is look it up its a very complicated game witch will be a challenge for you to figure out how the game works. As for football i'm playing in my first mach i'm waiting for the ball to come to this side of the field for I am a defender once the ball comes to my side I stop the offending team from scoring and then I  watch as the ball i stopped went into the other goal. But to be honest I really do like American sports.
                             Schooling in America is very different from here, here we copy notes instead of learning how to use them, here we get a ten minute break and a 30 min lunch break there I would get a 30 min lunch break but a sorter day for here I have around 7 hour 30 min days. Here we do more projects. There they do more games.
                         I go on different types of trips here We go to the huts on the beach in Takaundu we eat amazing food wake up early in the morning a surf on the glass water with the reflection of the sun rise simmering throughout the water. But on the other hand in Utah we would we would go to lake pawl there we would sleep and early night on the house boat and wake up quiet early and have a delicious breakfast like truly prefect then we would stand into our swimming suits and hit the water.
We surf, body board, water ski, tube, and wake board.We do this until our legs can't hold our wait and then we retire to our beds. I really love both of these trips.
                     Kenya compared to America.
Here there is tons of people on the streets. In America it practically feels like a deserted ghost town.Here the roads are overflowing with tuktuks, Mattatos, and bodaboda's. There you see cars in a strait line!  Here we eat chapatti But if I had to choose one i would choose to experience this awesome experience longer.

                                                                                                                            

School

By Lilli Holmberg

Ever since I have been to this school I have been loving it! I have met so many new people and have done so many new things. Although I have been taking all these different classes I have been loving them all. I love all the teachers and all the teachers love me. I think my favorite teacher is my science teacher also my football teacher (soccer). He is so nice and is such a fun teacher, he also gives me the most house points which is good for Simba house. I have also been loving the sports I have been playing, I have been playing netball, football (soccer) and tennis. I have been playing on the school's soccer and netball team and have been doing tennis lessons with coach Soloman. It has been really fun experiencing these new sports and although I have made some fouls I get better every time I do it. I am so glad that I got a chance to be in this school and experience the British school way.

School Food Equals Poison

By Everett Fairbourne

No more! Just no more school food!
My school food is disgusting, because it has the top ten worst foods.

10: Dry pasta. (that comes in blocks)

9: Chicken and beef that are pink in the middle.

8:  Rice that smells rotten.

7: Sauce that tastes like #!$%.

6: Ice cream that taste like melted bread with milk.

5: Spaghetti that kills taste buds.

4: Sausage that is filled with death (the truck  that delivers it even says "?meat?")

3:  The potatoes;  how can you make a bad potato?

2: Lamb that has horrible spices

and now...

1: THE HOT DOGS!!!!!!!!!!! THEY TASTE RAW AND ROTTEN WITH BAD BREAD!!!!!!!!!

I was gaging during this blog.

But I finally have convinced my mom to let me take pack lunch.

The Question I'm Allways Asked

By Alta Fairbourne
At school, as you all know, my brothers and I are the only member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) in my whole school!  It can be really difficult because that leaves everyone with different beliefs. It's really hard sometimes to ignore all the swearing. Everyone is always asking me what I  believe; sometimes it can be hard to answer them.  Just lately my best friend Tasha was talking about how she is scared of dying because she says she just will be nothing forever. Right when she said that I asked her, " really? you think your spirit will disappear?  I believe that when you die your spirit travels back to the spirit world and once Jesus visits the earth we will all be resurrected and return to our bodies, but our bodies will be perfect again." I could tell she thought I was crazy, and all she would say was, "cool". This other time we were traveling to Nairobi for Hockey and it was in the morning and Tasha offered me some tea for breakfast and I told her sorry I don't drink tea, and she asked why not. I told I wanted to keep the present God gave me clean and healthy and I wanted to keep my body like a Temple. She accepted that and never offered me tea again. This is why I love living somewhere else and experiencing a new culture and meet lots of kids from all over the world who all believe different things and I love being a missionary and telling people about my beliefs.

Lilli H is in da' house!

By Lilli Holmberg  

  When I first heard that I was going to Africa for a term I was so excited I couldn't wait but when the days were getting closer I was getting more and more nervous about missing my family and friends but at the same time I was still excited to see my aunt,  uncle and cousins. When the day actually came I think the excitement took over me more. My uncle Jason slept over the day before we left. We woke up at 5:00am but I was so excited that I was not tired. For my last breakfast in Utah we went to this diner called "Sunshine Café" and it was so good. Finally we set off to the airport. We got on a small plane that was a 3 hour flight to Austin, Texas. Then it was a bigger plane from Austin, TX to Amsterdam that was like a 9 hour flight. Then from Amsterdam to Nairobi that was like a 8 hour flight and then finally a 1 hour flight to Mombasa, Kenya. On one of the flights I fell asleep on the person that was next to me that I didn't know and my took a picture of it but, the thing that was embarrassing was that I didn't know I was sleeping on her because I fell asleep on the armrest and slipped off onto her. When we got there it was like midnight and waiting for my uncle and I was my aunt and my cousin Alta, when we saw each other we just ran straight to one another and gave each other a huge hug. We got to their house everybody was awake and waiting for us, I gave everybody a big hug.
     My first day of school was on Wednesday and I was so excited to meet everybody. I was just followed my cousin Porter the whole time because I didn't know where my classes were or what was happening next. I noticed that the school here is totally different than any school I have been to in Utah. Probably the first thing I noticed is when you walk to your classes you walk outside because the hallways are outside and it is just more like a sidewalk. Second thing I noticed was the lockers, the lockers here are just like small wooden cubbies that are out side and seem totally different than the lockers that I would have thought they would have looked like. Third, I noticed that they call a lot of things different names then we call in America, like for example, instead of grades they call it years like you are in year 6 instead of being call you are in 6th grade and you have to say trousers instead of pants or they will think you are talking about your underpants and a lot more things. Forth thing would probably be that all the years (grades) from year 1 to year 12 are in one school together but the interesting thing is that when you go from America to Kenya you move up a grade because they do not have preschool nor do they have kindergarten but they start 1st grade a year earlier than us so when I was in Utah I was in 6th grade and then when I went to Kenya I was in year (grade) 7. I am still getting used to everything but I don't mind and I really enjoy experiencing a new school and meeting people.
     I can't wait to experience and try new things while I am here. I know I am going to have many adventures and many new stories to tell that.

Porter's Trip to Tsavo

By Porter Fairbourne

So around the end of last term we went on a trip to a place called Tsavo, the t is silent. It's like a safari. When we got there they had made a elephant out of poacher traps and it had 5 legs. So at first they said we could choose who we slept wit,h but then when we got there they chose our rooms and I was stuck with the year nines and year eights. The first thing we did was play soccer and just eat lunch which I think was good.  By time it was time to go to bed people already had plans of evilness. They were all going to wake up at 12:00 am and all meet together,  but since some people came out early the teachers stayed out there in till like 2:00 am. The next morning there was one very long lecture. That day we were going to go on two drives through Tsavo.  I saw it all except for lions and hippos and rhinos.  It was actually kind of boring because we only saw the animals for like 5 seconds and then they were gone.  Then we would drive 30 min to find another animal.  They said they run away because of poachers. When they see a car they think, "poachers run!!!"  We played with these hula-hoops for a long time and we just chased each other with them and threw them at people. The bus ride was sooo bad! Someone spilled a giant bottle of coke and it was going everywhere. You couldn't keep anything on the ground including you feet. Then we went on another drive and it was equally boring. When we were going home one year seven had to go in the other bus with the year 8s and year 9s and I bravely stepped forward mostly because this bus had A/C. The trip seemed really short.

Wasini Island

By Alta Fairbourne
Not too long ago my family and I left to a island called Wasini.  It was very pretty. The boat ride to our hotel took a while, but it was worth it. The hotel was very nice it had a big bed in the lounging area and hammocks. We were the only ones there, so we all got to have two people in each room. We went out and swam and hunted down some crabs,  which we all ended up with a couple of scratches due to the spiky coral. As usual we had dinner. There was tons and tons of bugs. Bugs in my food; bugs in my drink; bugs in my soup. IT WAS HORRIBLE! We put on tons of mosquito repellent and went to bed. I went to bed with a horrible belly ache and it was super hot because my fan wasn't working.

In the morning we went on another boat to go to the coral reef to go snorkeling. On our way we saw dolphins. Immediately everyone was like, "let's swim with them" so we all jumped in and swam with them.  Lots of us got to touch them and got really close. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my whole life. We were so lucky because the dolphins were so friendly and didn't swim away. Once the dolphins swam away we got back on the boat and headed to the coral reef for snorkeling. It was the most beautiful things I have ever saw! The fish were unbelievable. They were all different colors; all different shapes and all different sizes and had all different patterns. And the coral was amazing! It was orange and pink and white and blue and purple. It was beautiful!! We went to the near beach and rubbed sand all over ourselves because the sand was so pure it made our skin super soft. After some time of playing around we went back to our hotel packed and went back home. I loved the trip so much and really enjoy going on vacation with my family.
Here is the video that Ben and Natasha's family made about swimming with the dolphins.

Narobi Hockey Tournement

Last Friday morning some of my friends and I got on a airplane to Nairobi to participate in the under 11 and under 13 field hockey tournament. I have never played hockey before and I had never touched a hockey stick before so the odds didn't look so good. I did end up signing up for the under 11 B.M.I.S hockey team. I have been taking three one hour hockey lessons each week for 6 weeks, two on Monday and one on Tuesday all with my best friends. There was about 12 girls on the team and two wouldn't play in Mombasa, and four wouldn't play in Nairobi, a bit nerve racking. In the end, I was picked for the team.  I was so excited. Some girls on the team that weren't picked had played for at least 2 years, it kind of made me seem like a pro. We won the league in Mombasa, but the Nairobi girls are really competitive, big, and aggressive. I play wing and its a lot of effort; especially when its boiling hot out side.

When we arrived in Nairobi we went to the boarding house of Garden Estate Braeburn. I felt like I was in jail.  The rooms didn't have pillows, sheets, or blankets and the walls were made of dark grey stone. Nairobi felt so nice out it was the first time I have been cold in a long time; not air conditioning cold, weather cold. The next day was the big tournament and it was raining, uh oh. It was raining all night and all day with loud thunder followed along with lightning. When everyone woke up in the morning all of the flying termites that lived outside were inside EVERYWERE! There was thousands of them, the bathroom sinks and the showers were full of them the halls were full of them. I was petrified of them, I thought they were going to bite me.  They looked so scary and so big.  The worst thing was it was still raining, that meant there was tons of mud, I mean tons.

 The tournament still went on. We got on the bus after breakfast and made our way to Peponi. Peponi all ways wins; they win all of the tournaments.  They won the rounders tournament and the previous hockey tournament and they win every year. But we didn't give up, even though it was super cold and muddy we played all four games and lost and had the best attitude. That's all that matters right? Peponi won, but really I think we gave it our all and left with smiles on our faces, and next term I am hoping to find myself back in Nairobi for net ball. Wait, what is net ball?

diffrent look

 Once upon a time there was a baby born named max. He was the most intelligent baby, he knew everything how it is and why it is. He was perfect until one of the doctors dropped the little baby on the head, now all he thinks, hear and read is the opposite of the real world, and he can never learn his punctuation. Now his future is to an end, or a big journey just stared....

30 years later
Angry boss- max get out there and get my food!

Max-yes sir, I’ll put it on my schedule that you’re going on a diet, and thank you for being so polite.

Angry boss- [sigh] when will he learn, okay I need my food umm... i could say the the opisit so he can under stand me hi five. Then the [odd] angry boss hi five.

Ummm..... a max start right over there you are getting promoted.
Max- what, no please don't fire me, I’ll do anything please.

Angry boss- no leave.

Max- I can stay.

Angry boss- I mean stay.

Max - nooooooooooooooooo.

Max- stupid boss he kicked me out in the rain, on a Monday.


But I guess I can try to get a new job.

Hay look a magazine of all job's, wait none of its there. I could make a list of what I want to do.
Now he's driving home.
Max - aw home at last, Joe! You home [Joe is Joe - Baw wow = [here sir].

max - good boy can you fetch me a paper and a pen.

Joe - rrra rraara =[do it yourself].

max - ug okay.

max - [writting] um.. 1. soccer player


2. asronot

3. singer

4. dog vet

5. umm i forgot this

one

6. i also forgot this one
max - joe what do you think of my list.

Joe - raw [good]

max - thanks time to do number 1.


max started to driving to the soccer place.

Max - hi I’m here for the job

Coach - job? We had a job free?

Max - what do you mean you didn't have a job? You do it says it right here on this sign.

Coach - no that says no job free.

Max - yay I know it says that.

Coach - then why did you say that?

Max - because I had to because if I didn't you would not understand.

Coach - now that you said that I don't under stand

Max- well... then they both started arguing really loud.

5 minutes later...

Coach - shut up! Coach now has a gun...yay. Coach - I will shoot you if you don't shut up!
Soccer player – hay, hay cool down.



The soccer player started to walk over to



Them. Soccer player - don't fight.

Max - he started it.

Coach - shut up!!!!! Bang, bang!

Soccer player - hay no!

now the beloved soccer player is dead. coach - no... wait... i didn't mean to...kill you.

max - your fault

coach - arg! okay you can have the job!

max - why not!

coach - okay now you don't get the job.

max - thank you for the job.

Coach - okay we got to practice we'll start off with this. Now pass me the ball and don't shoot a goal.

Max - okay, I’ll shot, just for you.

Coach - you’re fired!

Max - you mean it! I’m getting promoted!

Coach - you, getting promoted?

Max - no you can’t fire me.

Max - well, okay than I’ll leave

Time for number 2. Astronaut. [Driving to astronaut place.]

Umm... can still have a job even thogh it says no job free.

Astronaut coach - but that says job free.

Max - you know what never mind this. Do I get the job?

Astronaut coach - no.

Max - I can!

Astronaut coach - ehh, why not.

But first we need to go on this, it will help you to be prepare for the rocket.

Max - hay it’s one of those spiny thingies.

Astronaut coach - here are your partners.

John, Johnny and john.

　

Max - okay let’s get started!

Astronaut coach - okay, everybody in. ready, go!


Then the thingy is spinning fast
John - max, you look really nice, and cool and...

Max - shut up! You getting out of this thingy! Max opened the door and john flew out and died.

Astronaut coach - stop the spin! Stop the spin!

Max! You killed him!

Max - let me guess you want to fire me to.

Astronaut coach - [nod]

Max - well okay then I’ll leave.

Max - do you know what I’m not going to give up, because I have been fired after fired? So you can't fire me. So ha!

Astronaut coach - look, max that’s just life.

You get fired you don't give up.

Max - okay then. [Sniff]

Astronaut coach - now good bye.

Max - okay


To be continued....

Having our first Young Womens activity in our small branch!

By Kesley Pope
  
 A couple weeks ago we planned our very first Young Women's activity! When we first started talking about "young women's activities" they had no idea what that it was! It was my time to be a mini missionary! I was able to explain what you usually do and can do for activities! They were so interested in it!
     The upcoming sunday we were deciding what we should do for our activity. We had all sorts of ideas like, bowling, going to see a movie, going to get ice cream ect. Then one of our girls came up with an idea to go visit the less active members in the village (thats where all the girls live) I thought that was a great idea! Our final decision was to make home made cookies for these girls that were un-active in the church!

  That following Saturday Tasha and I made these really yummy cookies! We were all going to meet at the Kindergarten in the village. I was kinda scared cause I have never really seen a village before only in pictures! So I was nervous. To be honest me and Tasha thought no one was going to come! We thought it was just going to be us. We are driving there and I was so excited! We get to the elementary and one of our girls were there with the Young Women's president! We are waiting for the girls its been like 20 min or so! Then we see them come through the gate! All the girls were right there! It made me so happy that they all could make it!
     We start to walk towards the village its sooo hot outside like at least 90 degrees! They keep asking
"Are you okay? Do you need to rest?" Me and Tasha say no but secretly we are dying!! We get to the first girls house! And of course... She's not there! The family says give her 40 mins she will be back home soon! Ugh thats soo long! It was so hot also! I left the house and I went to play with the kids they were so cute oh my goodness! Finally the girl came back to the house and she was so happy to see us! She started to cry she says " I didn't know you guys really cared about me that much!" it was so cute! We gave her the cookies and she was just so thankful it was adorable!
     We start walking to the next girls house and we have seriously been walking for hours! Its killing Tasha and I. All the girls are so used to it! Its amazing! We get to the next girls house! She was really cute and kind! We got to share some thoughts with her and she was so happy and she says " I wont disappoint you ill be at church tomorrow!" - Next day at church I was able to bare my testimony in sacrament about what we did and how grateful I was to be able to do that activity! It was a unforgettable experience!

Missionary split #2

By Porter Fairbourne

While my cousins were here, Adam, Johnny, Josh and I went on splits with the missionaries. We were  first dropped off at the missionaries' house to study the scriptures.  After studying for an hour we left and started to walk.  We walked on dirt roads filled with trash and goats. We walked for about 20 minutes until we got to our first house and it turns out that they were not there.  So we walked about 10 minutes to our next house.  We went to this community of connected houses and so we walked in. This house was a nicer house.  It has good couches and a TV.  We taught a 30 minute lesson on the gospel and then we went next door.  There was a young lady and she was really new to the religion and so we just went over the introduction of the Book of Mormon. Then we  met up with Adam and Josh and so we headed to get on tuk tuk.
Then we remembered Troy gave us four Book of Mormon's to give out.  So before we left we had to give them out.  So we stopped these two guy and we told them what we were doing and what our religion is about and they were not interested. So we had to try again.  I saw another guy across the street looking at us.  I walked to this guy and  I told him about our religion and the Book of Mormon and he asked, "is this true?"   I looked straight into his eyes and said "yes, this is 100 percent true" and I said "I want you to read this book and pray about it and if you fill something inside of you will know this book is true."
Then after that every one gave out there books and we started for the tuk tuk's.  When we got there we waited for 10 min for Adam and Elder Kakarie.  Then we met the rest of the family at a beach restaurant.  It was a awesome day. 

MY COUSINS CAME TO KENYA

By Alta Fairbourne

I was so pleased when I figured out some of my cousins were coming to Kenya, including some of my friends. I missed them so much that it made me so exited and happy when I saw them pull in to one of  my favorite restaurants, Makuti Grill. They came in a big white van.  We then celebrated by eating chapati, beans, rice, cabbage, fish, chicken, and lots of soda and juice. They seemed so tired but really excited to there with us. Later that day (after we had a big lunch) everyone was so tired we tried to wake them up by going swimming. They said that they loved it so far they said it was like Hawaii, but then I told them about Kenya's government and what its like to be poor. Then they really got the taste of what really Kenya's like. The next morning we had a big breakfast with me not tired because I didn't have to wake up at 6:00 to ride a hour long bus ride to school. That day we went to the beach. It was everyone's first time (except my brothers and I).The beach was beautiful but it was super windy and the sand whipped our skin hurting a lot but it was all worth it. We headed down to the ocean and one of my cousins Adam fell into a hole in the wet sand and realized it was some sort of spring it went really deep down and it looked as if we had no legs. When we went home everyone seemed to really enjoy the beach and they wanted to come back.  On Thursday my brother,  Johnny--my friend, Josh--my friend, and Adam--my cousin all got to go with the Kenyan missionaries to teach the gospel.  I was so jealous even though I knew would not end up having fun anyway. It was a long day until we went to lunch at Yules. The next day they left for the village I was kind of sad I didn't get to go but they came back on Saturday saying, "I didn't like it but I didn't hate it" or "it was a great experience for me" and "it was very hot and I didn't like the food, but the kids were super cute they sung a ton but could be very annoying like when they wouldn't stop holding my hand or when they jumped on me and pulled my hair." The next day was church and they had brought a notes from someone in America for some of the kids in my primary.  They were so excited that they got a note.  For the rest of the lesson they were writing a note back to them. Some of the notes said things like; God bless your soul, I love you, you are my best friend now, etc. The next morning we had to say goodbye again.  I hate goodbyes.  I wish that everyone I love could come live in Kenya with us.

My mind has grown

By Everett Fairbourne 

I have been doing some art.  In other words, Everett has got art on his mind.  It hit me after one day at school at  the last lesson of class, and that lesson was art and I drew a yeti eating ice cream. and I loved drawing it, when I came home I knew I had to draw that again. I drew it and showed it to my mom and the I tried to draw bigfoot, but then I realized, why don't I draw them both trying to hurt each other? One has a tree in his hands to hit him with it, that one is Bigfoot.  The other one is throwing two penguins at bigfoot, and that one is the Yeti.  

That's not all the art. I have been playing, "making my own Lego". When I say that I mean I ripped them apart and re-built them in a different image. And I don't use the instructions to build my ships.  

I also have been writing a loooooooong story. It's called, "Different Look". It's going to be a movie in 2031.

Getting Use to Kenya

By Kesley Pope
Kenya has been soo fun and also crazy. It was so hard leaving Utah and my friends and family but I know I won't regret the decision coming to Africa.
     My flights were from, Utah to Detroit from Detroit to Amsterdam from Amsterdam to Nairobi from Nairobi to Mombasa. It was so boring. From Utah to Detroit I could not stop crying I was so sad to say goodbye to my friends and family! I got my self together and said this trip is going to be so cool. I slept every single long flight which was so nice.
     Once i got to Mombasa I got off my plane and it was so humid, I felt wet! I asked myself, "how am I suppose to get used to this?"  So I get my bags and I see Natalie and Jason waiting for me.  It's about midnight! It gave me such a relief. When we were driving home I thought I was going to die driving with Jason! There are not a lot of rules with driving here which I am still not used to! But I just couldn't get off my mind, I was just so excited to see Porter, Alta and Everett. We get to the apartment I walk in and i give all the kids a hug! Natalie says "Get to bed you have church tomorrow!" I was like are you serious?! I'm gunna be so tired!

     My first day at church was NOT what I expected. I expected a normal church but, no. This church has about 40 people in our branch.  It's super hot and they don't really know what they're doing! It's really different but I actually really enjoy this church, it's really interesting! The one thing that is a little odd is that women are so open with breast feeding there children here. If there child is crying then your gunna see something that's a little different then what people do in America.
 
  Everything is just happening so fast! Its only my 2nd day and it's my 1st day of school! I was super nervous not going to lie! I get to school Natalie takes a "First day of school picture!" I go and get my classes all organized and right as i walk in all the girls, there's about 9, say "Hey American come sit next to us!" The girls there are all super interesting here and there all soooo nice! They ask me " Do you have Facebook?" I was like, wow you guys are so last year;).  Anyway they are such smart girls and make me wanna do so good this term. It will be a big challenge, I can already tell! Just because Mapleton Junior High is just what I'm so used to and making a change from going to the American system to the British is so hard but that won't get in my way.
     My first weekend here was a blast!! We woke up around 9 and went to the beach! My first time!! I was so excited! Right as we get there we got out the paddle boards! It was amazing! Right after the day at the beach me, Alta, and Porter went to the pool to tan... Not a good idea! We got the coconut oil going on! Oh I did not think the sun over here was so strong. Adding that I haven't seen the sun for about 3 months. From the long day in the sun I  came back home and I realized how sunburned I was! I could not move for 3 days it was horrible! Its been about a week and a half now and I'm still peeling! Then of course the Fairbourne's decide to go paint balling with some friends! I knew it was going to be so painful adding that I was soo sun burnt! It did end up being really fun though! My next weekend wasn't to great,  I was so sick from Wednesday-Saturday.  We were not for sure what it was but it was miserable! 
    Africa has been so great so far! Ive realized Africa is not meant for woozy and I'm looking forward to everything that's coming my way! 

     
     

10 Reasons Why Lilli Should Come To Kenya

By Alta Fairbourne
I think there is no doubt about it Lilli Holmberg should come to Kenya (I'm talking to you Lisa and Troy).

1.   Lilli is the sister I never had.

2.   Lilli hasn't been out of Utah for a while.

3.   There is a room in our house not getting used.

4.   I miss Lilli she misses me.

5.   It would be good for her to learn a new culture.

6.   Lilli needs to see Esther's new baby.

7.   It would great for her to come to our school, Braeburn she would learn a lot.

8.    Lilli would come back ten times more responsible.

9.    Lilli loves Kenya.

10.   She will get to always go to the beach.

Petronilla

Petronilla helps Porter with his Kiswahili homework

By Alta Fairbourne 

I think I have talked about everything there is to talk about except one thing, my moms assistant Petronilla. She is the person who is kind of like a nanny who cleans our apartment. She is super funny when she doesn't understand things. She has been with us for five months and she stays in our apartment in the servant quarters. After about a month of her staying with us she bought a t.v and she never stops watching her soap operas. She gets super scared to be alone so she all ways locks the doors. On Saturdays and Sundays she leaves to her house in Ukunda and when she comes back she all ways has a new hair-do. But now, her dad is sending her back to Culinary Arts school in Nairobi she is leaving us. We will really miss her.

I Went on a Mini Mission

By Porter Fairbourne

So in Kenya there aren't very many missionaries because it really hard to get a work permit,
so there is hardly any missionaries. So the missionaries from our church announced that they will allow anybody that has the Aaronic Priesthood can go and a missionary split.  So me and my dad went the next week. We visited people in our church and gave a message and answered their questions.  It was a great experience and I cant wait to go again so I can put my awesome missionary skills to action.
 The people we visited were really poor most of them had no electricity and had only one room that was filled with beds. This one family that we tried to visit first,  their dad wasn't  there.  The only people there were the two little girls their mom died some time back. Another family had big holes in there roof and rain would come in. But all of them have a love for God.

Tennis

By Porter Fairbourne

Porter wore this hole through his shoes in 3 months of playing tennis

I am training three times a week for one hour.  My coach's name is Coach Solomon.  When I got here my mom could cream me in tennis. Now I am beating her 6 to 1.  I have had lots of fun playing tennis and there is an upcoming tennis tournament and coach is getting all his best players together and we are playing each other to get ready for the tennis tournament.  My serve has increased in speed and power and accuracy since I have been here.  I am ready to compete in this tournament I am very confident because I have already one a tournament once.

Happy New Year

By Alta Fairbourne
I am the most organized person in the family; this is why I set up our New Years. We will start on New Years Eve.  I told Everett that New Years would suck if we didn't do anything so we got started. We blew up 6 balloons with six different notes in them saying a game to play. Every hour we popped the balloon and played the game. We popped the first balloon at exactly seven( after dinner ); mom popped it. It was iPad break, yay! We all needed to digest the bean and cheese burritos. Apart from the beans (they were too salty) everything else was perfect. It surprised me because my mom never has messed up on burritos, ever. As a hour went by of doing what we do all day we popped the next balloon. We were going to play "scum", one of my favorite card games. We dealed out the cards and I realized I had the best cards and that's why I ended up winning that round. That's means I am president and I get two of the scums (the last place players) best cards, two aces. Well let's just say the next round I wasn't  doing so well I dropped all way down to scum and my mom was President. It was time to pop the next balloon.  It was playing "draw and pass" when you write a word down then pass the note pad over.  That person draws the word you wrote.  Then pass then and that  person guesses what the picture is and writes it. Then pass, then draw, then write, then draw then write so on. Then you see how close the last word was to the first word.  Usually they are really funny.  After an hour of playing that game we popped another balloon it was "Fairbourne's Got Talent". We all did our talents.  Everett did a successful magic trick followed up by Porter dancing to "Im Sexy and I Know It", then my sucky performance.  I was singing, "Jar of Hearts" I was so off tune it was giving my self a headache so I quit in the middle of it knowing I would loose anyway.  Porter and Everett tied.  So they arm wrestled for it. Porter won barely Everett was stronger than I thought he was. The time was up so we didn't get to pop the last balloon. We pored sparkling grape juice and every one hated it but my mom and I we counted down to New Years and popped these confetti cannons and watched fireworks from the porch. It was very quite and we were the only ones celebrating except for some people down by the pool who were very quite. We had a awesome New Year even though I miss all my cousins back home. I remember when we got together on New Years and I remember Hannah, Lilli, Ellie, Megan, Brynn and I made a little block hut in the corner of one of the bedrooms and we were making really embarrassing videos on Hannah's ipod and I was wearing onezies and I cut of the feet and it made it so I couldn't wear it because it kept falling off because the Zipper came off with it, so ya

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Ya, christmas

by Everett Fairbourne

Ah, the best time of the year, the time where the family gathers up and celebrates our Christ the Lord's birth, and we open our presents from our family.  It is the time to rejoice and have fun. In other words, Christmas. I was so excited for Christmas and I was so happy that we bought our presents from Dubai. There is just one thing that makes me want to kill Porter or to kiss him. He did a mean trick on me that I loved. He noticed there was one toy that I really wanted at one mall but it wasn't at the other one. When we went to go shopping, we went to the one that didn't and I didn't find it until the end of the trip.  By that time I spent all my money and couldn't buy it, I was so sad.  I felt like my trip was ruined.  Then, on Christmas morning,  I opened Porter's present from him to me, it was the toy I wanted, the Adventure Time Finn wrestling doll! the one!  I loved it,  but by coincidence Alta  happened to give me Adventure Time Finn and Jake action figures and a comic book.  Me and Alta were the only ones to make mom and dad a present. After opening the presents we went and watched a movie, "Frozen", it was more of an musical type like "Tangled".  Then we went swimming with Palo and Andre. It was kind of a bad Christmas with not all the family and no snow and...no...Rock, but it was also a good Christmas.  All I need is my mom,  my dad, Alta, and Porter.
                                              The End

Our Kenyan Christmas

By Alta Fairbourne
I got to say, I do miss Christmas back home, with the skiing and the snow and all, but Christmas here in Kenya was pretty great. It all started on Christmas eve when we stayed home.  We decorated Christmas cookies and we FaceTimed all of my wonderful cousins back home. It was awesome, I love to have the chance to talk to my cousins even if I was only saying hi. As far as I know, I stayed up very long until it was time to go to bed that tomorrow would be Christmas. I was excited but not as excited as I usually am on Christmas Eve.  It wasn't the same this year; it probably was the snow. Early that morning we realized Santa came and . . .  he gave us a box of fruity pebbles and of course a stocking full of candy. Once we looked through our stockings we opened the presents we gave each other. I ended up getting everything I wanted for Christmas. After that, as always, we had our big fancy Christmas breakfast. This year not as much, just French toast, eggs and hash browns. The rest of the day was really fun. Around noon we went to Frozen, I really enjoyed it. It was a great movie. After that Hunter's family came over, the Sebresos. We had lasagna for dinner and it was fabulous.  It was the first time I had it in a long time. We soon went swimming and I taught my self to do a back dive. After some time passed we went back inside and the Sebresos left and we watched a Christmas movie and went to bed. Well that was our Kenyan Christmas.

Christmas Trip to Dubai

By Porter Fairbourne

This year for Christmas break we went to Dubai.  So I was ready to go to Dubai.  We drove to the airport and we got in line and we got there really early so we had to wait. Everett bought some really gross Oreos. We finally got on the plane and then I felt so uncomfortable.  Well I did what I always do on planes, I fell asleep on my dads lap for the whole plane ride.  When we got to the Dubai airport and had to get in line.  We saw two people faint which was crazy! Then later that day, we went and hit the slopes which was pretty awesome. They had jumps and stuff and it was pretty steep for inside a mall. The mall were massive. We ate at Shake Shack a lot that week. It was the most mouth watering, stomach growling, hamburger place ever. We also went to a place I like to call Atlantis, I call it that because everybody else does and that's what it says on the sign. 
It's so cool, they have slides that go up hill and lazy rivers that are so fun they are more like rapids. We also went to a really big mosque.  It wass so cool, there were all of these gold leave poles and big chandeliers. That was fun. We had a really good time.     

Our Dubai Vacation

By Alta Fairbourne

 Let me say that Dubai reminds me of home. With skyscrapers as tall as Paul Bunyan and the same old restaurants like Subway, Mc Donald's , KFC, Wendy's, Pizza Hut etc. We were in heaven as we spent every little second at the biggest mall in the world it had every store you could think of including the biggest toy store in the world, a ice rink, indoor amusement park, Movie theater, A little kids place were you go through lessons to do what you want to do when your older and its called  Kidzania and its really big and expensive look it up.There is also another mall we went to that wasn't as big but it was still huge and it had a indoor ski hill.  This is were we went. It was super awesome because me and Everett got one piece ski suits. We all got on our matching ski equipment and hit the slopes (bunny hill). It was colder in there than we thought, and really slow ski lifts to the top.

Then we would skied down in three seconds. We didn't have gloves so our fingers felt like there were going to fall off. After a couple dozen runs our time was up and we had to leave. Right after we went to Shake Shack. The best food ever!  We all had super fun skiing and eating.  As we headed back to hotel,  my dad couldn't seem to get home. The roads kept sucking us back onto the freeway.  It felt as if it was taking hours,  even though we were so very close. Well, anyway, our hotel was called the Al Barsha Hotel Apartments and our hotel room was huge. It had a living room with a black couch a TV, and a coffee table with three lamp posts around it. Next to the living room was a dining table and the kitchen. The kitchen had a big fridge and a microwave also a oven and cupboards full of cups spoons plates etc. Next to the kitchen was a washing machine. That followed up to our rooms which both had a bathroom with a shower. The next day we decided not to go to the mall but to go to Atlantis. It is one of the biggest water parks ever. It was so super duper fun! Where we went on pitch black dark water slides down into a shark tank to super steep rides that you barely touched the slide. But I thought that the family rides were the best.  We headed up to the top not knowing what was ahead.  We all got in the huge tube which soon started down the slide with drop offs twists and turns and it seemed like the tube could easily go off track and we could all die. In the end all of us were laughing and smiling and saying, "let's go again!" but Little Everett was crying saying, "no way! too scary!"  We ended up going on the other family ride, that was way more scary. I was going backwards; I didn't know we were going to drop as we got closer the drop I started to scream, "turn me around! help! help! help!" My life flashed before my eyes as we dropped super fast and then went up the slope and back down it ended up so fun. But little Everett was crying saying, "way too scary!" but then we went again on both of them and this time Everett didn't cry. After that we split up, my mom and dad went on a ride we were to small for and we went on a different ride. My mom and dad didn't know what it was like as they stepped on a glass circle and a dome closed around them. Someone's voice said, "one. two. three." and the glass fell away from their feet and they dropped into the slide, shooting them up and up and up and then they went down and down and down. After that, my mom and dad were pooped as they went to get their clothes on and we went on more rides. We soon left and we went home taking us a half an hour due to my dads expert driving skills, if you know what I mean.
The next day we drove really far and went to church then we went to a park and rented a four person bike  (we managed to fit 5) and road along the boardwalk. Then we went to a big Mosque.The next day we went ice skating and saw a really cool fountain show. The we got on a long airplane home back to the old Kenya then I realized Dubai is the complete opposite of Kenya.