Fairbourne University

My family and I have done a lot new things, like moving to Kenya for instance. We are all about trying and doing new things. That is why after a year of international school we decided to try homeschool.

After a lot of thinking and researching, we decided that homeschool would benefit us much more than any school in Kenya could. Any good school in Mombasa is most likely on a British system and we are not very familiar with the British system so the scores they gave us on tests really meant nothing because we couldn’t understand what was good or bad.  In homeschool we can specialize and do things we love to do and we can trash the things that don’t really matter. We can also go at our own pace and complete things we know fast and spend more time on things we don’t understand. The best part of homeschool is that we are saving a lot of money, because school is expensive here. With all of the money we are saving we can travel the world and learn and experience new and amazing things.

Every morning we wake up and exercise. It is either a long distance run, surfing, or playing tennis. After an hour of that we eat breakfast and go to my dad’s office where we usually do Math, English and Science. We go home for lunch and usually work from home the rest of the day. I have decided to learn how to play the guitar so after lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday I am at guitar lessons. Then we read for an hour and two days a week we have swahili lessons. The rest of the day we do anything that needs go be done like business lessons, science projects, history or extra credit.  Then we are done with the day.

Homeschool is awesome, and I can tell it is really benefiting me. I have already passed 6^th grade math and I’m moving on to 7^th grade before the end of the year which is awesome. I love that we are able to learn about a new country and visit it, this year we are going to China! I would highly recommend homeschool to any kids who are self-motivated and smart. It gets more exciting each day!

Hiking Kasigau By Alta Fairbourne

Python Rock, opposite Mt Kasigau

The morning before the hike

My family and I went to Kasigau to hike Mt. Kasigau. Kasigau is a very small village in Tsavo; Tsavo is a game park where wild African animals live. We left Friday afternoon and it took us 4 hours to get there because there were long lines of monstrous trucks trying to pass each other constantly. We decided to drive on the side of the road where there wasn’t even a road! When we got there we drove up a short, bumpy steep road that lead up to a small mud house. At first we all thought that was where we were staying and I wasn’t so happy, but it turned out we had to walk up a small path to where we stayed. It was a small bungalow with only 5 beds and we were 7 people! It was dark and the stars were beautiful especially when we were sitting around a small campfire. We sat around listening to Everett do stand up comedian shows and it was hilarious. When it was time to bed I realized that my bed was very small and I had to share it with my brother, lets just say that it wasn’t the best night.

Starting on the trail

We woke up at 6 o’clock in the morning and it was cool and breezy, perfect weather for hiking. We ate a small cold breakfast off pop tarts and yogurt. Once we were all ready for the hike we set off.

Hiking through the steep forest

The sun shone really bright and everyone was sweating when we first started to hike. There were a lot of trees around us, but there was no shade. There were rocks of all colors and shapes on the ground as we hiked up the steep mountain. The trail was wide at the time but the higher we hiked the steeper it got. We had two guides that told us about the mountain as we hiked. They said that the Kasigou people used to live up on the mountain and she showed us shallow stone bowls that the woman crushed maize in. Now that we were higher on the mountain there wasn’t any sun we were all shaded by trees, which was very nice. The trail started to get really steep, and many people started to slip and fall. I had to hold on to small trees around me so I wouldn’t go tumbling down the mountain. The long green trees had sun glistening through through their branches and their bark was the color of the dark brown ground. We came to a part of the hike where there wasn’t really even a path anymore it just seemed like we were wondering through the jungle. The top of the mountain was near and we were getting excited to see the so-called amazing view.  As we reached the top of the mountain our eyes had to adjust to the bright sun as we looked off the mountaintop. The foggy sky covered up the view off the mountain so it wasn’t very cool; all we wanted to do was to get back to the shade. There were small green bushes around the border of the mountaintop and the ground was not covered in piles of leafs any more. We only hiked 3 miles up and it took us 2 hours, we were ready for lunch.

The rainforest

Enjoying our lunch

We scurried to the shade and sat down on the dirty floor unpacking the backpack that we brought. We pulled out pringles, chicken nuggets, apples, gummies and everything a small kid would love to have for lunch. After we had enough satisfaction of eating we started down the mountain again. Like I said the mountain was super steep and there was tons of leaves that you could easily slip on. Well I had a great idea, squatted down on my feet and slid down the mountain really fast. I thought I was going got be able to stop, but I wasn’t. I slammed right into a tree and it really hurt. After I started to do it we all started to do it, soon enough we were running, jumping, swinging on trees and it was all really fun. My dad’s new intern, Colby, was with us and we were running right by each other but he was a little in front of me, I saw him trip and right when started to laugh. Boom! I was on the floor right next to him; I was stupid enough to fall for the same trick. We both tripped over a tall tree root and my hand started to bleed and it felt like my big toe was split down the middle. My parents had a hard time traveling down the steep mountainside and we were going so much faster them we lost sight of them.

When we got back to where we were staying everyone was sore and tired. We packed up our stuff and crammed into our big white car. It was a long drive home but it was worth it. The hike was really fun and I can’t wait to go back there.

View from the top, too bad we couldn't see Tanzania!

Essays on Alta by Her Brothers by Porter and Everett Fairbourne

Alta on her 12th birthday

My Sister     by Porter

I have a sister named Alta.  She just turned 12 and she is close to my height,  around 5 foot.  She can sing and she is learning to play the guitar. My sister Alta is awesome because she is smart, athletic, and helpful.

Alta is no ordinary egg in the basket. She is super smart! She can pick up anything really fast, she can speak Swahilli better than me and I have had more time with it. Her math skills are extraordinary she has almost passed 6th grade math and it has only been two months.

Alta is one year younger than me and she can still sometimes beat my in a 5k. She came to Kenya and went to school at Braeburn here in Mombasa and she instantly became their best player on every team. Alta is a good representative for America. 

Alta is my sister but she acts like "vice" mom to to our mom.  She makes breakfast occasionally, watches over Everett, helps me with my homework, and gets me stuff when I'm sick. She stays at home and babysits me and my brother when my parents go out to eat.

Alta is super awesome because she is super human, has a brain like Albert Einsteins, and is vice mom. But sometimes she can be stubborn, loud, and acts like opposite girl but, that does not make her any less awesome.

Why Alta is Awesome       by Everett

Alta's skills on the paddle board

I have the best sister ever, her name is Alta. She is the one who you would think is the ordinary girl, but she is super awesome.

            Alta is the smartest chick I know. She is a cool nerd, all brains, none the lames.  If I'm stuck on a problem in math, I call Alta and she helps me a lot.

            Alta is super strong for a 12-year-old girl. If I could pick any 12 year old girl to fight two gangsters with guns I would pick her.

            Alta is the hardest working person ever. While I'm playing video games she is working on some extra credit thing or special project.

            Alta is super awesome, hands down. No doubt about it, Alta is awesome, from being smart to hard working. Alta Fairbourne is awesome.

Friday the 13th by Everett Fairbourne

The morning after we survived Friday the 13th at Tiwi Beach

It was friday the 13th.  All our bags were packed, we got in the car and drove away. We got to our destination in the middle of nowhere. Two men came and greeted us, and showed us our rooms. I had a really bad feeling about this place. I put my bags down and went to go see the huge biobob tree next to the house, as I walked down into the forest I felt someone watching me. We were having so much fun at the beach until someone came and told us “don’t come out at night, lock your doors and stay in!” Who was this man? I wondered. Then night fell; the kids were playing UNO while the adults were having a conversation. I could not help to over hear, but they were talking about voodoo. “People go around doing sacrifices for voodoo.” Said one of the parents. I still could feel someone watching me. After we had dinner the two men left mysteriously and put huge padlocks on the door, locking us in. Everyone made their beds and went to sleep. Alta, Porter, Adam, Tatyana, and I slept on the porch upstairs. We heard monkeys crawling on the roof all night. Porter tried to scare us with the wind and a blanket pretending he was talking to spirits. We all knew that he wasn’t scaring us, until we heard the doors shake, some one was trying to get in. we were all so scared, the parents came out. “What going on?” said my dad. Ben came running into the house saying, “don’t go out there! There are tons of people on the beach doing something!” Everyone was freaking out by now. I was crying, asking if I could sleep in my parent's room saying, “let me sleep in you room!”

“But Everett I thought you wanted this!” my mom replied, knowing that I wanted a scary story to tell from Friday the 13th.

“Ya, but I cant tell this story unless I survive!” luckily I can tell this story now because I survived.  Colby let me sleep in his room, and nothing ever happened to me.

Crazy Roads In Mombasa by Alta Fairbourne

         

  Everyday when we are driving  I can see some pretty unbelievable things from outside a small car window. Mombasa is filed with surprises, especially on the road. People are always looking for ways to get things done with their limited resources; it can lead to some pretty weird things.

           This morning we were driving to school and we were looking out the windows in and there was a huge dead camel on the side of the road and about 5 people were arguing about it, maybe about who killed, who would pay for it or maybe who would take it home for dinner. I didn’t know how it died but it was really sad to look at. Camel owners never are nice to their camels anyway so I’m glad he is in a happy place.  Coming home from school when we passed where the camel was I almost dropped dead. There was a huge puddle of blood and guts scattered across the road- it was disgusting! I don’t think I want to know what happened.

           On the road to my dads office there is a couple of big billboards on the way.  Sometimes they have some pretty funny advertisements on them. Well the person who owned one of the billboards must have not paid their fee to the government. You would think that they would just take privileges away right? Nope! They get some big bolt cutters and chop it down falling straight into the road. What a waste of time.

           I swear we have seen it all. The streets are filled with different types of taxis and cars. There’s a small motorcycle taxi called a boda-boda and sometimes there can be up to 6 people on one of them, sometimes I imagine them toppling over because of the weight. We see packed matatus and tuk-tuks and even people nearly getting hit by cars when crossing the road.  We once saw a huge truck in a small ditch so they could load a cart without a ramp. We have almost hit huge herds of animals crossing on the highway with a person whipping them so they would keep walking. We see Kenyan guys walking around with Boy Scouts of America uniforms shirts on,  which is hilarious.

           Its super funny because there is these huge dump trucks that have smiley faces and rainbows on them and they say “Keep Mombasa Clean” and they are filled with trash and there is ten times more trash around them. There’s also super dirty trucks with a huge tank that say “ clean water” and trucks that say “ ? Meat ?” its really funny.

         Sometimes when we go home from school we see this lady walking to go set up her little shop. Its really cool to watch her strut down the road with a table a chair and a cooler on her head. She has some epic skill, I would never be able to do that.

           I love driving around Mombasa and seeing cool and weird things. I’m glad I live in Kenya it's never boring.

Exercise by Everett Fairbourne

Morning, time for exercise!

              Ah Monday morning, a nice relaxing time until, no please don’t… “It’s time to exercise!” dad says in a stern voice. “But I exercised last week!”

            “We have to exercise every day” mom exclaims.

            “Okay, what are we doing today?”

            “Running,” says Dad.

            “Noooo, running takes too much effort, and the only thing I want to give effort in is sleep.” But I knew I have no choice. So I put on my shoes and head downstairs.

            We walk until the end of the road then we start to run.  I run my first step then immediately get a side ache. My feet start to hurt, I want to cry and… oh we are half way. I still have to redo it all.  After a long time I finally finish, we all walk in the door and collapse on the couch, Then I smell it, the pancakes, oh I love the pancakes their softness and their sweetness. So I get up to get the pancakes.

“Ow, my foot is so sore!” This is a problem, because the pancakes won’t come to me so, I will have to go to them. I have to do it, I have to take the pain for the pancakes.

            The next morning I am having the best dream until. “Its time to exercise!” mom says in a sweet voice. I get on my knees and scream, “nooooooo!” Nevertheless, I still end up downstairs playing tennis. Just watch out for balls. All this exercising is so tiring.  However it is making me strong, just imagine me in 3 years doing this same routine, with my dad as my coach, I will be so buff.

         

I guess the lesson here is… screw exercise, it sucks!

Everett after his workout