Kristiann Fry
c/o St. Angela Mumias Secondary School
P.O Box 235 - 50102
Mumias, Kenya
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
The roller coaster of life
Ok, so it’s been awhile since I last posted. Sorry about that. Things have been insane during training! But I’ll try and update you all as to what has been going on. After arriving in Loiotokitok for one week, the deaf education group went to a town about 4 hours away called Machakos. There is a primary deaf school there so we got to meet a lot of deaf students and practice our signs with them. I found it was actually hard at times to communicate with them because a lot of the kids didn’t actually use KSL and they didn’t know how to spell. So with most of the kids I found out what their names were and that was about it. Sometimes I didn’t even get the name because they are Kenyan names… but it was still great to meet them and be able to play some games. The Kenyan children are very creative as to how they make toys. At the school, they made soccer balls out of plastic bags (which they call paper bags, don’t ask me why) and string. My little brother at my host family made a toy car out of a plastic bottle and lids.
Another weird thing I noticed at the school, they had barbed wire everywhere. At first we thought it was to block the cows from eating the plants, but I think it was actually to block the kids from getting into the plants…. Yeah they don’t treat children here quite the same as in the U.S.
Machokos was a pretty developed town, pretty much the complete opposite of Loitokitok. All the streets were paved, there were a bunch of shops AND there was a supermarket that’s kinda like walmart in america,, just not nearly as big. But we were able to find ice cream (YES ice cream!) chocolate, cookies, and other random assortments. Needless to say a lot of us spent nearly our whole allowance there, haha.
We were all supposed to be in Mackokos for 2 weeks, but Peace Corps though it would be best if Beau and I (we are the two starting the new secondary deaf education program with the Peace Corps) went back to Loitokitok for the second week to take part in the math and science program. So we rode back to Loitokitok in an SUV with the people who would be presenting to us all week. We were in the back row of the car, and let me just say it was probably the most uncomfortable ride ever. Our knees were right up against the seat in front of us, and it was a bumpy ride… so it was painful. Beau had a cramp in his leg within the first 10 minutes of the ride. When I got out of the car it was hard to stand up straight. In the future I will gladly ride in a Matatu rather than the back row of an SUV for 4 hours.
Everyone in our group found out what our future sites will be. I’m going to me in a town called Mumias. I’ve heard that my school is really nice and it was one of the first secondary deaf school built I think. One other guy from my group is going to be in Mumias also, but he will be teaching at the primary school. My house will have electricity and running water! I was surprised to hear that. It’ll be nice, but I kind of wanted to have the experience of living without those amenities. I guess if I really wanted that experience I can just not use them, haha. And who would actually do that? I know I won’t.
Our training group celebrated Thanksgiving, on Friday, in two separate groups since the deaf ed group was still in Machokos (except for myself and Beau). The math and science group celebrated it at our meeting hub called Outward Bound. A couple people from our group helped to organize the whole thing and helped the cooks at outward bound to make all of the food. It was definitely the best meal I have had while here in Kenya! We had chicken, turkey (which didn’t come out until the meal was pretty much finished), mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, gravy, and rice and spinach (which no one really ate because we have the pretty much every day here). And to finish the meal off we had brownies and chocolate cake! The brownies were definitely the favorite of the entire meal. When I get to my future site, I’m going to attempt to make them using a jiko (though I doubt it will work since my cooking skills are sub par). After dinner we all sat around a bond fire drinking some nice warm beer : - ) welcome to Kenya, where warm beer is the only beer available.
About 3 days after our Thanksgiving I got really really sick. Medical moved me to the hotel again so I would have my own space and bath room. It was pretty scary at times. I had a temperature of 105 at one point (but I took Tylenol right away and the temperature started to go down) and other times I was shivering so much that my teeth were chattering. Apparently those are symptoms of malaria but I know I didn’t have it because I haven’t missed any of my medications. It turned out to be a gastrointestinal bacteria, and antibiotics wiped it right out.
About a week ago a big group of us went on a long hike with some of the current volunteers. It was absolutely beautiful. I got to see the outskirts of Loitokitok where there are the big farm fields, with the lush green fields and the rolling hills. Then the majority of the hike was in a river bed. At the top of the hill before a couple of us were about the head down into the river bed, a piki piki (motercycle) came through. The guy asked “how are you” which is normal so we all responded saying good. As the guy was driving down the steep, rocky, bumpy, slippery hill, he yelled out “Welcome to Africaaaa….“ It was too funny. At times it felt like were in a rain forest since it was so green, lol. I got to see wild monkeys for the first time! We were walking along the path and then all of a sudden a monkey dropped down from the tree about 20 feet in front of us and went running off into the woods. There were about 5 monkeys total in the tree. We also got to see the border of Tanzania, but we didn’t get to cross into it because we would be kicked out of the Peace Corps if we did (since we don’t have visas or permission to go). It pretty much looked the same as Loitokitok though, lol.
Last week was definitely the hardest week for me during training. It was the secondary model school. Basically they brought some students in and everyone who will be teaching secondary school got to practice teaching. Training for Beau and I has been frustrating because Peace Corps is just pulling us back and forth between the deaf ed group and the science group since we the first to ever do this. So the two of us didn’t find out that we would be working with deaf secondary students and teachers until 2 days before the model school was to begin. Along with that there was a lot of miscommunication. We were told that there would be 2 teachers who would be able to cover all four subjects (math, physics, chemistry, and biology). But once we met the teachers we found out that they taught math and biology between the two of them. So on Monday, Beau and I observed the teachers and how they work with the deaf students. Then on Tuesday we both had to teach our own lessons… in sign language, since we were teaching deaf students. Needless to say, I was stressed out. My first lesson, I was told by the observers went well. But I felt like it went horribly. So I was really upset about how my lesson went. To add to my stress, I found out that day when trying to pay for lunch, that my wallet had been stolen from my purse. Thinking about the past days events, it had to be one of the students that stole it (not necessarily one of the students that I was teaching). So I wasn’t in the best mood that day. BUT when I got back to the dorm I was staying in, I found that I had received a package from my sister!!!! It could not have come at a better time! I had to teach a second lesson on Wednesday. This lesson went much better for me and I felt much more confident. I was able to do a demonstration of how acids react with metals to produce hydrogen. The students really enjoyed it. Also, the credit cards and id’s that were in my wallet were found in one of the classrooms! The money and the wallet itself were still gone, but that was totally ok with me. The cards would have been hard to replace. I’m starting to learn how life here is going to be a roller coaster. One day is so hard and you just want it to end and the next will be the complete opposite lifting your spirits so high. The rest of the my lessons/labs for the week went just fine. The deaf teachers who came to help us and to observe asked one of the volunteers why they were there. They thought that Beau and I were great teachers and are already better than most teachers for the deaf. Hearing that definitely helped to build my confidence.
The last night with the students was Friday. We had a bond fire and made smores! (a volunteer had marshmallows that her brother brought her when he visited) I ended up talking to one of the deaf students for about an hour. After I walked away, I was amazed at the fact that I was able to hold a conversation for an hour in a language that I have only been learning for about a month.
Every single day is interesting here. Especially my walks to and from town. I mentioned before that all of the little kids will ask “howryoo?” But some will also ask the same thing but they will say it with a really nasally voice or they will even pinch their noses to have a nasally voice to try and imitate us. Apparently Americans have nasal voices. It kind of gets annoying at times, especially when adults will do it, not only the kids. A woman that other day after I passed her and she was already behind me asked “how are you” with her nose pinched, lol. But then it was balanced out by a different man who called me madam, which is a sign of respect. I was shocked to hear madam instead of Mzungu.
Ok I think I may have bored you all long enough :-P. I’m going to head outside and enjoy the sun and listen to the different church choirs I can hear from my house.
Much love to everyone! I miss you all!
Another weird thing I noticed at the school, they had barbed wire everywhere. At first we thought it was to block the cows from eating the plants, but I think it was actually to block the kids from getting into the plants…. Yeah they don’t treat children here quite the same as in the U.S.
Machokos was a pretty developed town, pretty much the complete opposite of Loitokitok. All the streets were paved, there were a bunch of shops AND there was a supermarket that’s kinda like walmart in america,, just not nearly as big. But we were able to find ice cream (YES ice cream!) chocolate, cookies, and other random assortments. Needless to say a lot of us spent nearly our whole allowance there, haha.
We were all supposed to be in Mackokos for 2 weeks, but Peace Corps though it would be best if Beau and I (we are the two starting the new secondary deaf education program with the Peace Corps) went back to Loitokitok for the second week to take part in the math and science program. So we rode back to Loitokitok in an SUV with the people who would be presenting to us all week. We were in the back row of the car, and let me just say it was probably the most uncomfortable ride ever. Our knees were right up against the seat in front of us, and it was a bumpy ride… so it was painful. Beau had a cramp in his leg within the first 10 minutes of the ride. When I got out of the car it was hard to stand up straight. In the future I will gladly ride in a Matatu rather than the back row of an SUV for 4 hours.
Everyone in our group found out what our future sites will be. I’m going to me in a town called Mumias. I’ve heard that my school is really nice and it was one of the first secondary deaf school built I think. One other guy from my group is going to be in Mumias also, but he will be teaching at the primary school. My house will have electricity and running water! I was surprised to hear that. It’ll be nice, but I kind of wanted to have the experience of living without those amenities. I guess if I really wanted that experience I can just not use them, haha. And who would actually do that? I know I won’t.
Our training group celebrated Thanksgiving, on Friday, in two separate groups since the deaf ed group was still in Machokos (except for myself and Beau). The math and science group celebrated it at our meeting hub called Outward Bound. A couple people from our group helped to organize the whole thing and helped the cooks at outward bound to make all of the food. It was definitely the best meal I have had while here in Kenya! We had chicken, turkey (which didn’t come out until the meal was pretty much finished), mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, gravy, and rice and spinach (which no one really ate because we have the pretty much every day here). And to finish the meal off we had brownies and chocolate cake! The brownies were definitely the favorite of the entire meal. When I get to my future site, I’m going to attempt to make them using a jiko (though I doubt it will work since my cooking skills are sub par). After dinner we all sat around a bond fire drinking some nice warm beer : - ) welcome to Kenya, where warm beer is the only beer available.
About 3 days after our Thanksgiving I got really really sick. Medical moved me to the hotel again so I would have my own space and bath room. It was pretty scary at times. I had a temperature of 105 at one point (but I took Tylenol right away and the temperature started to go down) and other times I was shivering so much that my teeth were chattering. Apparently those are symptoms of malaria but I know I didn’t have it because I haven’t missed any of my medications. It turned out to be a gastrointestinal bacteria, and antibiotics wiped it right out.
About a week ago a big group of us went on a long hike with some of the current volunteers. It was absolutely beautiful. I got to see the outskirts of Loitokitok where there are the big farm fields, with the lush green fields and the rolling hills. Then the majority of the hike was in a river bed. At the top of the hill before a couple of us were about the head down into the river bed, a piki piki (motercycle) came through. The guy asked “how are you” which is normal so we all responded saying good. As the guy was driving down the steep, rocky, bumpy, slippery hill, he yelled out “Welcome to Africaaaa….“ It was too funny. At times it felt like were in a rain forest since it was so green, lol. I got to see wild monkeys for the first time! We were walking along the path and then all of a sudden a monkey dropped down from the tree about 20 feet in front of us and went running off into the woods. There were about 5 monkeys total in the tree. We also got to see the border of Tanzania, but we didn’t get to cross into it because we would be kicked out of the Peace Corps if we did (since we don’t have visas or permission to go). It pretty much looked the same as Loitokitok though, lol.
Last week was definitely the hardest week for me during training. It was the secondary model school. Basically they brought some students in and everyone who will be teaching secondary school got to practice teaching. Training for Beau and I has been frustrating because Peace Corps is just pulling us back and forth between the deaf ed group and the science group since we the first to ever do this. So the two of us didn’t find out that we would be working with deaf secondary students and teachers until 2 days before the model school was to begin. Along with that there was a lot of miscommunication. We were told that there would be 2 teachers who would be able to cover all four subjects (math, physics, chemistry, and biology). But once we met the teachers we found out that they taught math and biology between the two of them. So on Monday, Beau and I observed the teachers and how they work with the deaf students. Then on Tuesday we both had to teach our own lessons… in sign language, since we were teaching deaf students. Needless to say, I was stressed out. My first lesson, I was told by the observers went well. But I felt like it went horribly. So I was really upset about how my lesson went. To add to my stress, I found out that day when trying to pay for lunch, that my wallet had been stolen from my purse. Thinking about the past days events, it had to be one of the students that stole it (not necessarily one of the students that I was teaching). So I wasn’t in the best mood that day. BUT when I got back to the dorm I was staying in, I found that I had received a package from my sister!!!! It could not have come at a better time! I had to teach a second lesson on Wednesday. This lesson went much better for me and I felt much more confident. I was able to do a demonstration of how acids react with metals to produce hydrogen. The students really enjoyed it. Also, the credit cards and id’s that were in my wallet were found in one of the classrooms! The money and the wallet itself were still gone, but that was totally ok with me. The cards would have been hard to replace. I’m starting to learn how life here is going to be a roller coaster. One day is so hard and you just want it to end and the next will be the complete opposite lifting your spirits so high. The rest of the my lessons/labs for the week went just fine. The deaf teachers who came to help us and to observe asked one of the volunteers why they were there. They thought that Beau and I were great teachers and are already better than most teachers for the deaf. Hearing that definitely helped to build my confidence.
The last night with the students was Friday. We had a bond fire and made smores! (a volunteer had marshmallows that her brother brought her when he visited) I ended up talking to one of the deaf students for about an hour. After I walked away, I was amazed at the fact that I was able to hold a conversation for an hour in a language that I have only been learning for about a month.
Every single day is interesting here. Especially my walks to and from town. I mentioned before that all of the little kids will ask “howryoo?” But some will also ask the same thing but they will say it with a really nasally voice or they will even pinch their noses to have a nasally voice to try and imitate us. Apparently Americans have nasal voices. It kind of gets annoying at times, especially when adults will do it, not only the kids. A woman that other day after I passed her and she was already behind me asked “how are you” with her nose pinched, lol. But then it was balanced out by a different man who called me madam, which is a sign of respect. I was shocked to hear madam instead of Mzungu.
Ok I think I may have bored you all long enough :-P. I’m going to head outside and enjoy the sun and listen to the different church choirs I can hear from my house.
Much love to everyone! I miss you all!
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