How to tell time in Kenya, Chakula (food) and my work at Mwokoeni

Not only did I have to learn numbers in Kiswahili, I had to learn a new way of telling time. The day starts at six in the morning but here it is called: saa kumi na mbili (12 hours). Between one o'clock and six o'clock, you add six hours and between seven and twelve, you subtract six hours. The most confusing part is that when Kenyans are speaking English, they use the hours that we use but when they are speaking Kiswahili, they use Kenyan time. When kids are learning to tell time, they have to add or subtract hours from the time it says on the clock. Some families change their clocks to Kenyan time (I saw this done in a matatu).
As I am writing this post, it is 9:00 PM, saa tatu.
Kiswahili numbers:
1 - moja
2 - mbili
3 - tatu
4 - nne (pronounced inne)
5 - tano
6 - sita
7 - saba
8 - nane
9 - tisa
10 - kumi

Saa ngapi? - what time is it?
response: Saa tatu. (3 --> 9 o'clock)

Chakula = Food
Irene, Njeri's cousin and househelp, cooks lunch and dinner everyday. Startches include: rice, corn, chapati (kind of like thin naan) and ugali (a mash of some sort of grain). Usuall yshe makes some kind of stew dish with meat, onions and other vegetables.

Chai
We drink tons of chai (tea). Chai here is made with water (maji), milk (maziwa), ground up tea leaves and masala seasoning. Masala is made up of: ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and nutmeg. You then add sugar to taste. At home we have it at least twice a day if not three or four times a day.

Today was my first day of working at Mwokoeni. We took two matatus there and walked through a very poor neighborhood to get to the school. The school is made up of buildings made of sticks and clay and tin roofs. We met with the director, Mr. Morris, who is very friendly and showed us around. He then placed us with the youngest class (3-5 year olds). Usually the class is split into two, KG1 and KG2 but Patricia, the teacher, told us the other teacher is not working at the moment. Unlike in the US, this kindergarten doesn't have a drama area or an activity center with squiggly scissors. It has two wooden tables, benches with placks attached for desks and a couple mats for the younger kids to sit on. The teacher has one chalkboard to teach from so there is a lot of repeating words and singing songs. Patricia asked me to help teach but I wasn't it expecting to at all so I wasn't really prepared. I ended up singing "head shoulders knees and toes" and "I like to eat eat eat apples and bananas"--which alex and hannah will rememeber we sang in Cassie's class. Couldn't think of any other simple songs to teach so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to comment on this or email me: emacrakis@yahoo.com

Hope everyone is having a wonderful fall so far :)