So today has been a wonderful day and I thought I would write about it.(although it started off to a questionable start). I woke up not wanting to have to go to school….typical Monday. Then as I was going to the bathroom sitting on the toilet I heard a noise in the kitchen and my first though was that I had an intruder… little did I know I was correct. A rat went scrambling by my doorway. For the past two months I have known that Ive had companions living in my roof, but they have never ventured out before so I was never too worried about them. But my morning consisted of me following the rat around in the house trying to get it to head to the door. Pretty exciting : )
Then today I had to teach my form 3 life skills class. Last week the entire school attended a lecture about HIV/AIDS during which the lecturer told them all that condoms are for prostitutes and have small holes in them that allow the virus to pass though. So my goal for the lesson was to correct the information that they had been told. This turned out to be the absolute best lesson that I have had with my students. I asked them if they believed the woman and that condoms have holes in them. 2 of the students said they did not! So that was good. But after I told them the truth about condoms, my class proceeded to ask me a bunch of questions about condoms and AIDS. It was wonderful!!! It is the most I’ve had my form 3 class participate before. I told them that we have an agreement, what is said in the class is secret… I wont tell the other teachers and they will not either. So I’m really excited to be able to continue the class next term.
The students are truly wonderful. Its so funny because when I put notes on the board, if it involves a chart or a picture all of the students will get out their protractors and rulers to draw the pictures… they are so particular and precise. Also I gave my form 1 students an assignment, but I told them that we would just go over it together. But this morning when I walked into the staff room… on my desk was 12 notebooks from my form 1 class with the assignment finished.
I had a lot of free time today since the term is coming to an end, and I contemplated a number of things. I had to plan when I would be able to walk to town to mail a letter. Then I started to think about how much I would take that for granted in the US…mailing a letter. You can walk 30 feet out to the end of the driveway and put the letter in the mailbox. But here I have to walk 20 minutes into town to drop the letter in the letter box. But I wasn’t upset when I had to make the walk… I was looking forward to it. I enjoy hearing all of the kids along the route yell out “how are you?!” continuously even after I have responded. The children here dont have the luxury of a school bus coming to pick them up for school. Some students will walk as much as 2 hours maybe even sometimes further just one direction to make it to school. I never truly considered all of the things I took for granted while in the US. However, this past weekend I also enjoyed washing my laundry which took an hour to do… it did not consist of just putting the clothes into a machine and walking away… I have to do the scrubbing myself. But I’m starting to enjoy the simple life.
One thing I still struggle with is when I have to take my trash outside. We don’t have the luxury of just leaving it at the end of the driveway for someone else to take care of. Instead they burn everything that is trash here. So I have had to face the consequences of consumerism. I cant bring myself to throw out the plastic bottles know that they are going to be burned, so I have a collection started, which I know at some point I will find a use for them.
Anyhoo, that’s all that I got on my mind at the moment. Now to potentially attempt to make dinner….
Love and miss you all!!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Slowly Finding My Home
These past couple of weeks have probably been the best at my site. What has made then much better are the students. For a couple of the days the teacher who heads up games everyday was not at school, or left early. So I got my Frisbee out and started to throw it with some of the girls. Afterwards some of the form 1’s (freshmen) started to ask me questions and where I’m from, how I like the food here. So just having some of the students start to open up to me was great. On a different day I was watching some of the girls practice volleyball when one of my students in my form 2 (sophomore) chemistry class started to talk to one of the other students about me. She said that she loves me and told the other girl that I’m here for two years and she doesn’t want me to leave after two years. I was so surprised when she said this, but it really felt good to hear. So the connections that I am forming with the students has helped me a great bit here.
Last weekend I traveled to Kisumu and met up with 5 other volunteers. It was so much fun and sooo great to see the others. We shared stories about sites and what has happened the past 2 months. There’s this shopping center in Kisumu that has a store called Nakumatt that is similar to walmart and the center also has a movie theater!!! So we all went to see the movie Valentine’s Day. It was crazy because the movie theater was nicer than some of the theaters in the US. There are some great restaurants in Kisumu also, so we all got a taste of american food with pizza and brownies. And 3 of us bought a liter of ice cream from the Nakumatt and split it. It was absolutely wonderful and delicious!
This weekend has been much more subdued. On Friday night, I went over to Lee’s house (he is the other volunteer at the primary school in Mumias) and we cooked dinner together. As I was walking over to his place, I was carrying a bunch of things for cooking. One of my students (the one who said she doesn’t want me to leave) saw me and asked if she could help me carry the things! It was so nice. But for dinner we made meatless meatloaf, potato salad AND a mango pie! The pie was by far the best part of the whole meal. but the potato salad was a close second for me, haha. We watched a movie on his laptop, then at 11pm when the movie was over I left to walk back to my house. Our two school compounds are connected by a gate so it was ok to walk back so late. But when I got to the gate on his compound, there was no guard around and the gate was locked. I started to look around, and I see a big dog walking around….. This is when my heart started to pound. I didn’t know if the dog was solely a guard dog or if it was somewhat friendly. I often hear a dog barking at night, so I was a bit frightened, lol. I called Lee and went back to his place and slept in his spare bedroom.
Yesterday I spent about two hours organizing the lab that the school has. My school is so lucky to actually have a lab with supplies and glassware, but the way they were storing the glassware was basically just putting it all in buckets together. So much of it has broken because of this. So I took to the time to organize it all, I’m curious to see how long it will last. I woke up early this morning to wash my clothes, which I have become used to doing. Though there are definitely times that I wish I could just toss it all into a machine.
With the term winding down… Only 3 days of classes left, then the students have exams for a week, its hard to believe I’ve nearly been here 3 months. But it has been a long 3 months at the same time. I feel that Mumias is slowly becoming home to me. I think that if the students continue to warm up to me like they have been, it will be a very wonderful home : )
Oh I have started to read a book called “Beyond the Sky and the Earth” about a woman who volunteered in Bhutan. It is crazy how just in the first couple of chapters so much of what she has written has at one point been my same thoughts or experiences, so if you want a book to read, check it out.
Last weekend I traveled to Kisumu and met up with 5 other volunteers. It was so much fun and sooo great to see the others. We shared stories about sites and what has happened the past 2 months. There’s this shopping center in Kisumu that has a store called Nakumatt that is similar to walmart and the center also has a movie theater!!! So we all went to see the movie Valentine’s Day. It was crazy because the movie theater was nicer than some of the theaters in the US. There are some great restaurants in Kisumu also, so we all got a taste of american food with pizza and brownies. And 3 of us bought a liter of ice cream from the Nakumatt and split it. It was absolutely wonderful and delicious!
This weekend has been much more subdued. On Friday night, I went over to Lee’s house (he is the other volunteer at the primary school in Mumias) and we cooked dinner together. As I was walking over to his place, I was carrying a bunch of things for cooking. One of my students (the one who said she doesn’t want me to leave) saw me and asked if she could help me carry the things! It was so nice. But for dinner we made meatless meatloaf, potato salad AND a mango pie! The pie was by far the best part of the whole meal. but the potato salad was a close second for me, haha. We watched a movie on his laptop, then at 11pm when the movie was over I left to walk back to my house. Our two school compounds are connected by a gate so it was ok to walk back so late. But when I got to the gate on his compound, there was no guard around and the gate was locked. I started to look around, and I see a big dog walking around….. This is when my heart started to pound. I didn’t know if the dog was solely a guard dog or if it was somewhat friendly. I often hear a dog barking at night, so I was a bit frightened, lol. I called Lee and went back to his place and slept in his spare bedroom.
Yesterday I spent about two hours organizing the lab that the school has. My school is so lucky to actually have a lab with supplies and glassware, but the way they were storing the glassware was basically just putting it all in buckets together. So much of it has broken because of this. So I took to the time to organize it all, I’m curious to see how long it will last. I woke up early this morning to wash my clothes, which I have become used to doing. Though there are definitely times that I wish I could just toss it all into a machine.
With the term winding down… Only 3 days of classes left, then the students have exams for a week, its hard to believe I’ve nearly been here 3 months. But it has been a long 3 months at the same time. I feel that Mumias is slowly becoming home to me. I think that if the students continue to warm up to me like they have been, it will be a very wonderful home : )
Oh I have started to read a book called “Beyond the Sky and the Earth” about a woman who volunteered in Bhutan. It is crazy how just in the first couple of chapters so much of what she has written has at one point been my same thoughts or experiences, so if you want a book to read, check it out.
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