the end of the first school week

yesterday was officially the end of the first week of class. it was pretty good, got to know more of the students. john, david, mark, thomas, and samuel. these guys seem to be stuck in my head. maybe because i have seen how much they have opened up to me, and the fact that their java skills are getting better and better each day. i gave a mini-recitation with the other guys on some of the problems that the students had trouble with. one of them was the sorting problem of the elements of an array. for some reason, i was really nervous when teaching in front of the class. but i think the students saw that i was a nice relaxing guy, and really participated when i asked them questions. i even had john come up to the board to show the class his thought process of approaching the problem. it was all good, and i can't wait to do some more teaching next week.

we celebrated that night by going out to dinner. ( the previous night we pretty much cooked whatever food we had left in the kitchen...leftover rice, eggs, and corn ) it was really nice. we called up our friend we met at Hell's Gate, Tess, and she met up with us in our apartment. we took a matatu down to downtown nairobi, which i must say the experience was quite exhilirirating. i had no idea where we were going...not sure whether we'd make it back alive or whatnot. in the end, we had a good time. ate some chicken breast and a nice restaurant, hung out, chatted, and then, for like 3 straight hours started dancing at the dance floor. i haven't danced this much since....never. i really tried to break it down with some moves i learned from the mit breakdacning boys, but in the end, i just did my own thing, and it was pretty fun. my legs were hurting this morning like crazy.

the work is getting harder and a lot. we pretty much covered the basics of java, movign on to classes and objects. michael also wants to start introducing sms technologies to the students, and have them write a moeny transferring appliaction as one of their projects. me and michelle are responsible for creating a interface for the students to use to send and receive and text messages. i've been messing around with java swing for the past two days, and i think i grew extra pimples from all of the frustration and confusion. i finally got all the components in the right place, and it looks pretty nice. now i'm trying to get all the events working with one another. for some reason, buttons are so much easier to work with. i have a list of two options, inbox or compose a message. i can't seem to get the enter key to work with the options. and the listeners for the list are giving me a headache. anton or ray, if you guys know the answers, help a brother out. time is short right now, so i have to move quick.

anyhow, i signed off for a google android from michael today, so now i have access to one for the next 5 weeks. i decided i needed a phone in case i wanted to test out some applications, as well as if i need to call home. i tried calling again today with skype, but the internet was so bad, my mom could barely hear me. i just wanted to call and wish my sister, jeanette, happy birthday. she is turning 17, and i wish i was home to celebrate her birthday. the best i can do is shout it out to the world...so jeanette, this entry is dedicated for you!

HAPPY 17th Birthday!