A few things I have learnt so far...

• People here are very friendly, which is almost always a good thing
• It's really really hot at 4pm and you can get burnt very easily
• You can get two mangoes and an avocado for 25 shillings (less than 20p) from a stall near school - depending on the quality when I eat them I may well be visiting that one fairly frequently!
• Maybe I'm more of a dog person than I thought (but who could help it when this lovely one wants to be your friend?!)

• Old-fashioned rat traps work
• Matatus are not as scary as I thought, and can be quite fun
• The fares on buses vary, without apparent rhyme or reason. This would have been less surprising on a matatu, but on a bus where you are issued with a ticket I would have expected the same journey at a similar time of day on a bus run by the same company and taking the same route would have cost the same!
• Brushes like this are really effective:

• Children at Mahali are addressed by either their first name or their surname, not as a formal thing but just to teach them their names, and therefore I have twice as many names to learn!
• There are four main types of home - a house, a hut, a manyatta (Masai house) and an igloo
• Ice is extremely exciting to children who have never seen/felt it before and may cause loud, shrieking chaos!
• Milk mostly comes in packets like this:

• If you are a white girl on your own getting on a matatu or bus or walking anywhere you are liable to be stared at a lot and also talked to and asked lots of questions (as well as being offered taxis, motorbike rides etc!)
• It is fine to fit a family of 4 on a motorbike, or else a couple of people and a lawnmower
• Kenya is beautiful, surprising, sometimes a bit scary, but an amazing place to be
• God's family is worldwide, and when you are in a new place people will welcome you as if you are an old friend, and you'll find you fit right in :-)