This is me, holding my first parcel to reach Kenya. Some people have written to me from England, so here's the answers to all the questions and comments.
My school day starts when I wake up, usually before six o'clock. It always gets light at the same time here. It's dark at six but by half past, it is full daylight. I have something to eat, toast or cornflakes, and then do my homework (prep). I go to school about 7:30 – I just walk out of my house, across the field to the tarmac and I'm there. Registration is at 7:40. Our first double lesson finishes at 8:55, followed by first break (hot chocolate or tea with a bun or biscuits or cake) followed by another double lesson. Then it's assembly or hymn practice or house meetings for 15 minutes, followed by second break (water/juice and snacks like sandwiches, eggy bread, samosas, sausage rolls or fruit). Then there's more lessons until lunchtime. Seniors (that's me) have lunch at 1 o'clock. Lunch can be OK (roast meat and potatoes, fish pie) or not so OK (meat or lentil curry, vegetable lasagne) or really great (pizza and ice cream, fish and chips, chicken and chips). Some of the puddings are great – slices of fruit (melon, pineapple, orange) or chocolate mousse, jelly and fruit. I'm still getting used to the fruit salad with the passion fruit seeds in.
There are four houses at Kenton – Bongos (yellow), Kudus (red), Elands (blue) and my house, Oryx (green). The houses are called after African antelopes.
After lunch it's play. I play a tennis ball game with the other boys called sprout ball. You play sprout ball by trying to hit someone with the ball, and they try to run away. If you hit them, they are out. If another person hits the first person, then the first person is out and the second person is back in.
Then it's Senior Activity Groups (SAGS). I am doing philosophy, drama and DT this term. After SAGs it's Divs, which is short for Divisions, but it means games. On Mondays I do swimming. The pool is cold and our swimming isn't very interesting – we have to swim up and down the pool, normally 12 lengths. Because I live on site, I can use the pool if there's an adult with me anytime I want. I don't have to do lengths – I jump in to see if I can touch the bottom, borrow my friend's snorkelling kit, put on fins, play with a ball or just mess around. The heating has finally arrived - in a container - and when they FINALLY install it, the pool should be a lot warmer.
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays it's cricket – fielding practice and the odd match on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and nets on Wednesdays. The girls do rounders instead of cricket. It will be hockey next term. As well as games in the afternoon we have PE once a week. In PE we do athletics – I like long distance running, long jump and triple jump. There are also extra lunchtime sports clubs. I've done extra cross-country, but you can do football, cricket nets and rounders practice (if you're a girl). The school day officially finishes at 3:45, but Divs can go on after that. I usually go home and chill out, or sometimes play outside with the other children who live on site – or just do computer games – except for Mondays, when I have Tae - Kwondo. After school clubs are called 'extras'. Lots of people do sports extras, like tennis, golf or riding. The horses are out of town, so it's a bit of a journey to get there, but it's very popular, especially with the girls.
At Kenton, a lot of people play musical instruments. I am getting a chance to play in a school concert – they call them teatime concerts – this coming Thursday. I am on the drums and there will be someone playing a piano. My dad has jammed with me (on the bass) and that was fun. I'm having trouble trying to put a band together here as nobody is as good as the Lizards! (my band in Oxford).
During school, there is staff supper in the dining room for all the people living on site at 6:30. After supper I have a shower, read, or sometimes we play cards. We don't have a television. At the weekends, I try to do nothing. Mum and dad go out in the car to do some shopping or to see people. I've been invited to a couple of parties and we have had people round too. During half-term, I went paint-balling with some other Year 7 boys, I was at a birthday party, climbed Mount Longonot and went on a day safari in Nairobi National Park. I saw lots of different kinds of antelopes (kudus, elands), zebras, buffalo, giraffe, vultures and warthogs. We didn't see any crocodiles. As for snakes, we had one making its way across our garden the other day. It was about half a metre long, black and thin. Luckily, it disappeared quickly. We've also seen giant ants, a chameleon, gekkos (small lizards) and humming birds in the school grounds. The spiders here are normal size but some people have told me that you get baboon spiders, which are the size of your hand. Luckily, I haven't seen one of those. Also, we have had massive bees (we think they are bees) buzzing around our flower hedges. They are 5 cm long with light blue shimmery wings and a very loud buzz. Every day, black kites – big black birds of prey – circle the school field. They try to grab our snacks at break time sometimes. When it rains, the frogs croak really loudly and the ibis come out to peck for worms on the field. Ibis are big birds with long, curved beaks and a grey and shiny turquoise body.
I really don't want to go back to school on Monday.
