See you Tuesday!

Hi Everyone!

We stayed for one week at a farm called Spannocchia. You can see a picture at www.spannocchia.com. It was very beautiful. I can show some photos when I see you. They made Italian food and everything was fresh from the farm. We ate a lot of tomatoes and vegetables and pasta. We relaxed too!

Today we are in a city called Sienna. It is not too big and not too small. We can see many old things. Old buildings, old roads. They are very beautiful. It is interesting to see the same buildings that people saw hundreds of years ago.

Tomorrow morning we go to the airport and begin the journey home! Thank you all for your letters. I am excited every time I read one. I remember and miss all of you! I am excited to see you on Tuesday.

Love,
Teacher Jen

See you Tuesday!

Florence, Italy

Hello Everyone! How are you? How was the State Fair?

We arrived in Florence, Italy on Wednesday afternoon. It is very very beautiful here. I like the people, the food, and the language.

Can you find Florence, Italy on the world map?

Can you ask Teacher Eloise to teach you "hello" in Italian?

I will tell you about the photos.

In the first two photos you can see the Italian ice cream. It is very good! It is called gilato. We really like the gilato!

You can see some photos of the streets and the river. You can see one artist drawing on the street. She makes a picture that looks like a very old picture. People leave coins for her. At the end of the day, they wash the streets. A new artist comes and draws another picture.

You can see one photo of me at the bottom of some stairs. We climbed up the stairs to the top of a hill. You can see photos of the city from the top of the hill.

Tomorrow we will take a train to another city called Siena. Then we will go up to a very very small rural town. The name is Spannocchia. We will stay there for one week. We think it will be very peaceful and beautiful!

I miss all of you very very much and think of you a lot! I am excited to see all of you on September 9!

Love,

Teacher Jen

Lamu

Hello Students! How are you? I have enjoyed reading your messages! Please send more!

Here you can see pictures of Lamu. Do you remember what part of Kenya Lamu is in? Take a look at the Kenya map.

This is our third day in Lamu. One day we went out on the boat all day. We went fishing and cooked the fish on the beach.

Lamu is small. It's an island. There are no cars. It is peaceful.

We will go on the boat tonight to see the sunset. Tomorrow we will fly back to Nairobi and take a nighttime airplane to Italy. We arrive in Italy Wednesday morning.

I miss you all!

Love,
Teacher Jen

Our Friends in Kenya

Hi Students! Thank you for your wonderful messages. I was so happy to read them!

I wanted to show you some photos of our friends in Kenya. The lady with no hair is Sara. She is the manager of a center for boys. The boys can stay at the center if they live on the streets and have no place to stay. We met some of the boys in 2007 and visited them on Monday.

You can also see pictures of the boys. They showed us where they stay and where they sleep. Sara gave us a Kenya drink that the boys usually have for breakfast.

You can see us giving the boys some boxes of clothes. It is used clothing, like at the Alley Shoppe. They don't have money to buy clothes.

In the group photos you can see our friends. In one picture I am next to Wandera. She is the woman with the nice smile. She is standing between me and Andreas.

In another picture you can see our friend Ombok. He is kneeling by me in the front.

Wandera and Ombok are married. They are working very hard for people to have a better life in Kenya. Many people in Kenya don't have enough money for food, water, housing, or health care.

You can also see pictures of some kids dancing. They are a church youth group. They are part of Ombok and Wandera's church.

It is sad that so many people have a difficult life here. It is nice to meet them though and they are so friendly.

Below, you can see pictures of animals in Kenya.

Below that you can see pictures of Isili. Isili is the Somalian part of Nairobi.

I think of you all every day! Please keep writing to me.

Love,

Teacher Jen

Animals in Kenya

These are photos of animals that live in the National Park in Nairobi. Yesterday we went there. We stayed in the car and drove around the park for 2 or 3 hours. We saw so many animals! I have only seen these animals in a zoo before. These animals are not native to Minnesota so we only see them in the zoo. But they are native to Africa, so I can see them here in Kenya. The giraffes were very friendly! Sometimes they came near the car. The lions like to eat people though, so we didn't get out of the car when we were near the lions! :-)

What kind of animals do you see in the pictures? Do you know the name in your language? How about in English?

Isili Photos

These are photos from a neighborhood in Nairobi. The neighborhood is called Isili. It is where the Somali people in Nairobi live. Many Somali people live in Nairobi because Somalia is not safe now. So people leave and come to Nairobi.

Some of our Somali friends in Saint Paul and Minneapolis lived in Isili before they came to the U.S. Do you remember Khadra? She lived here.

What do you see in the photos?