Reflections

As my time here draws to a close, I have been reflecting quite a bit on how much things have changed for me, both in Kenya and back at home in America (or should I say the “states” so I get used to saying that now).

When I first moved to my community of Mumias, anytime I would walk to town the word “Mzungu” (meaning white person) would be called out to me. Now when I walk through town I often hear the word “webo” - hopefully spelled correctly. After several months of hearing that I finally asked a friend what that word means. I was told it means “girl of our tribe” in the local language of Luhya. I heard this and a slow smile crept over my face. Finally after putting in my time of nearly 2 years, the town of Mumias views me as a local. I find this to be a good feat because Mumias isn’t a tiny village that is easy to integrate into. It’s a fairly good size town with many different people everyday.

I also think back to when I first started to teach. I still remember the first day of teaching classes, as I walked towards the door of the classroom it felt as if my heart was going to jump out of my chest. My hands couldn’t stop shaking (which isn’t exactly what you want when you have to teach using sign language). It would take an entire class or two… or three for me to get the kids to understand what I wanted to happen.  But just last week I had taught my last life skills class and the topic was healthy relationships. The students brainstormed a list of all the different types of relationships and were able to list so many. Then they made up dramas within 5 minutes that portrayed different healthy and unhealthy relationships. I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time I watched them present their dramas. 2 years ago, they wouldn’t have been able to do that…. But now they can and they do even better than expected.

My first 5 terms of teaching at my school, I would wonder how much influence I really had in being here. My thoughts have finally been answered this last term. Almost everyday the past month the students ask and confirm the date that I will be leaving Mumias. They beg and plead for me to stay and continue to teach them until they graduate. They tell me that when they leave school at the end of the term I better hide because they will be crying knowing I won’t be here when they return.  The other teachers have told me how they have noticed how much the students enjoy my teaching and that I will be sadly missed when gone. Sometimes you’re never told how much you are affecting someone’s life. I am lucky enough to have been told.

However, as happy as I am to know how I have made an impact on my students… they have made an impact on me 10 times larger which I can not put into words. As I write, tears fall down my cheeks knowing that I will be leaving them soon. 

It is such a bittersweet leaving my community. I am truly excited to come back to the States and see my friends and family again. But the thought of leaving my girls makes my heart start to pound just as it did my first day of teaching as I took my steps towards the classroom. It’s interesting how things do change.

Kenya… it’s been amazing, and I will see you once again someday. But until then, America get ready because I’m coming back!

Death as a part of Life

It's 9:30pm and normally I would be asleep by now (sad I know), but for some reason I'm not ready to go to bed yet. So I thought I would give you all a little update on what's been happening.

A few weeks ago while standing at assembly (students announcement type of thing) in the morning, my principle informed everyone that a form 2 (sophomore) student had died earlier in the week. When she announced this, it was a very odd moment for me. I looked around at all of the faces of the students who just heard this information for the first time. There was no show of emotion. No tears. No... nothing. I do not want to think that Kenyans are heartless people. Far from that. But at this moment I realized just how much death is apart of everyones life here in Kenya. For all of the students, they have probably already lost a classmate during primary school, a sibling, a parent and so on. Death is so common here that when it occurs... its nothing new. The funeral was the following Monday. So all of the students started a money collection which would go to the family. They also prepared a dress for the girl since she did not have one to be buried in. The funeral was out in the village, but to my surprise when I arrived there were Catholic priests in their robes with their special cups giving a service. I don't really know what was said since most of it was in Luyha, but for a small bit it was interpreted into Kenyan Sign language, during which they just described how the girl died (diabetes). Once the service was over they moved to bury the girl.... which was quite interesting. The clan in the area the girl was from has a tradition to bury everyone sitting up. So they had a special coffin made in which 2 boards could be removed to reposition the coffin into sitting position. Apparently this started when the king of the area long ago died in a mud slide sitting up. Below I have a picture of this old mama who I just couldn't resist taking a picture of

and this is a picture of some kids at the funeral who just couldnt resist the Mzungu. They look happy don't they? (Kenyan just do not smile in pictures)

The weeks following the funeral have been very fulfilling. I travelled to Nairobi recently and not only get to eat good food, drink good beer, and hang out with good friends, but also got to get a project that I've been very excited about started. There is a group of Volunteers working to create a video that is deaf friendly showing the process of going to get tested for HIV. Along with this video I want to make a poster showing how to use a condom correctly and another showing what to do if you are HIV - or HIV +.  So to say the least I'm very excited to get this project going.

I have also started a Health club at my school the past weeks with a fellow teacher. I taught them all how to do self breast exams. And today I just had a very successful meeting about the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

And here is a picture of my first health club meeting: self breast exams :)

Bad Lesson turned good

A few weeks ago I taught a life skills class about self esteem. I personally did not think the lesson went very well, so I was dreading having to teach life skills again the following week, but lucky me, I was going to be travelling for a meeting the day that I was supposed to have the next life skills lesson. I told my students that I would not be in class for chemistry or life skills that day and gave them some work to do for chemistry. At 3.30 (30 min before the end of day classes) one of the students came up to me and told me the class wanted me to teach them life skills then since I would not be able to on Friday. I was thinking to myself "seriously they want another class after that last horrible one?" So I said "we will not be able to finish before 4 if we start now. You really want me to come teach life skills?" and she replied with an enthusiastic yes! I'll just say it was very nice to know that even though I thought that my teaching skills were subpar, my students seem to not think so :)
Also this last weekend I decided to try to get a group of girls together to teach them how to play Ultimate Frisbee. Even with the scorching sun bearing down, I was able to round up 13 girls to play. After about 20 minutes of them all learning how to throw the frisbee, the game began... and it was so much fun! The girls caught on really fast and we played for about an hour maybe. At the end I asked if they wanted to play again in the future, and they all said yes (I mean why wouldn't they?) I asked them if they would want to play on saturdays or on sundays. They politely asked if we could play on BOTH saturday and sunday. :) looks like I have some fun weekends ahead in the future.

And So A New School Year Begins

I've had a busy month and a half off of school and I was lucky enough to enjoy it with friends and family.      The biggest highlight of course would be meeting my father and being able to spend Christmas on a safari in one of the national parks. We got to see a full arched rainbow so close that we could see where the pot of gold was located, all the while a pack of lions was sitting in front of this said rainbow. It was just amazing :) Also during the trip my father got to come back to my site and get the true experience of visiting a kenyan home, which means eating so much to point of needing to unbutton your pants but this is not possible since you are in someone elses house. 

I am now back at my site trying to get mentally prepared for this new school year. But luckily since I am in Kenya this means that I have the pleasure of being on Kenyan time. The teachers were supposed to have a meeting yesterday to start the school year off, which means of course that the meeting was held today instead. And since the students first have to have exams to start the term, this means that I don't start to teach until mid next week. Ahhhh how nice. I have an entire week and a half to get mentally prepared to begin teaching again. There are still those moments that are so typical to Peace Corps volunteers where I question how much longer I can make it. But then those moments are counteracted with high moments which reconfirm why I'm here. So I bring this up because as I was sitting in the staff meeting today thinking about the coming school year, I began to wonder how I will be able to do this all again for an entire year. I mind started to spin thinking of the long hours that will be spent waiting for meetings to begin, hours spent preparing lessons, and material for class, and of course the long hours spent sitting alone in my house at night often staring at the geckos crawling on the walls. However after the meeting a student who I never even taught last year came up and greeted me excitedly and happily, my mind slowly began to settle realizing that I can actually do this for another year.