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.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Matatus, Ice Cream, and Green Fields
This past weekend I went to visit one of my friends, Danielle, at her site and it was probably my best weekend so far. Danielle lives in a town called Litein which is about 5 hours away. So to make the trip worth it, I left on Friday morning (I worked it out so I would not miss any of the classes I teach on Friday). I piled into a matatu (14 passenger van which they normally stuff at least 20 people into) at 7:40 in the morning and arrived in Litein at 1:30 after transferring matatus in 3 different towns. It was my first time traveling by myself here but everything went great! The drive there was beautiful. Pictures just do not do justice to the beauty. Litein is the tea country so there are a bunch of bright green fields with rolling hills. Never pictured that to be Africa. Kinda reminds me of Scotland in a way… weird.
Once I arrived we went back to Danielle’s house on the school compound and there were 3 other teachers that she works with cooking lunch for us! They were so sweet. I was told they even cleaned her house since I was coming! They made chapati (Kenyan style tortillas) a salad type thing (that had tomatoes in it and yet I thought it was good!) and chicken. Even though I decided to be vegetarian, I ate the chicken…. couldn’t turn it down. It was delicious! They laughs were never ending as we were all sitting there eating lunch together. I went to class with Danielle (Kenyan sign language class 8) and met some of the students. When we walked up all of the students just swarmed us and wanted to meet me. It was so cute! They all started to tell me their names and asking my name and where I was from. She works at a primary school so there are kids from whats equivalent to kindergarten through 8th grade. Apparently she was talking about me all week to the students, so the students were very excited for my arrival.
Danielle showed me around town, during which it seems the crazy people found and flocked us. Its amazing how much attention 2 mzungus can get in a kenyan town. Then for the rest of the Friday night we just hung out in her house talking about life at our sites, the culture, friends and our home back in the US. We stayed up until 11 pm! Which is pretty late for me, hah. Saturday morning we woke up and ate a delicious pineapple for breakfast. Fruit, especially mangoes and pineapple are really cheap at her site. (pineapple costs about 34 american cents!) We decided to head to Kericho (which is about 45 min from her town) for the day. There is a big supermarket there comparable to krogers. We bought ice cream there! So we walked to a park in the town and enjoyed our ice cream sitting on the grass underneath a tree. We had lunch then at a hoteli. I’m pretty boring and just ate chips (fries). Arriving back to Litein from Kericho, it was raining. Kenyans seem to have a fear of rain... and do not go out in it. So being crazy mzungu, we decided to run back to the school even though it was pouring down rain. As we were running back, a car drove by and of course drove right through the huge puddle of muddy water right as we were passing it. My entire left side of my body, including my mouth, got covered in the muddy water, haha.
Once we got back to the house, we changed into dry clothing and curled up under our sleeping bags and watched some much needed chick flicks. That evening we went up to the dining hall to hang out with the students for a bit before they went to bed. It was sooooo much fun! The students ended up showing me some dances. One of them was a Scottish dance, and the deaf students probably have better rhythm than I do. After they showed us the dances, the students wanted danielle and me to show them some american dances. So we did the chicken dance, macarana, and the electric slide. They picked it all up really fast.
So after the dances were finished, instead of going to bed like they were supposed to, they decided to seperate and swarm Danielle and myself. We both had about 20 kids surrounding us. Asking my questions about america and mumias, and also random questions about what food I eat. They are so amazed by arm hair and will just rub my arm. One of the kids pinched the side of my hand, and since it was soft, said that I don’t work very hard, haha. They then continued to compare both Danielle and myself saying that I was whiter than danielle, Danielle is stronger than me, and i have hairer arms than her. As they are around they all end up at one point holding my hand and feeling my arm. My watch ended up lighting up since the button got pushed, and one little boy was just so amazed by it. He looked up at me wide eyed, and mouth gaping open. Oh it was so priceless. Also the students noticed my bracelets that I was wearing. One said that they looked like they were Masaai made and a different student said they looked like witchcraft, haha. I thought you would enjoy that Natti : )
It was wonderful going to see danielle at her site, but it also made me realize (even though I already knew it) what I’m missing at my site. I’ve been struggling a lot lately with building relationships with the other teachers and even the students somewhat. I’m sure part of it has to do with the fact that I am shy when I first meet people, but I think that they have been kinda standoffish also. It has been a huge mental burden on me, making a number of my days a challenge. Toss into that the fact that I have to teach chemistry in Kenyan sign language (that I just learned) when the national syllabus requires a bunch of experiments to be done that quite often are not possible to do at the school. Everyday has been a struggle for me, but I’m making it. It seems that a couple of the teachers are starting to warm up to me, and I just hope that it continues. I know I just need to give it time for things to develop.
Once I arrived we went back to Danielle’s house on the school compound and there were 3 other teachers that she works with cooking lunch for us! They were so sweet. I was told they even cleaned her house since I was coming! They made chapati (Kenyan style tortillas) a salad type thing (that had tomatoes in it and yet I thought it was good!) and chicken. Even though I decided to be vegetarian, I ate the chicken…. couldn’t turn it down. It was delicious! They laughs were never ending as we were all sitting there eating lunch together. I went to class with Danielle (Kenyan sign language class 8) and met some of the students. When we walked up all of the students just swarmed us and wanted to meet me. It was so cute! They all started to tell me their names and asking my name and where I was from. She works at a primary school so there are kids from whats equivalent to kindergarten through 8th grade. Apparently she was talking about me all week to the students, so the students were very excited for my arrival.
Danielle showed me around town, during which it seems the crazy people found and flocked us. Its amazing how much attention 2 mzungus can get in a kenyan town. Then for the rest of the Friday night we just hung out in her house talking about life at our sites, the culture, friends and our home back in the US. We stayed up until 11 pm! Which is pretty late for me, hah. Saturday morning we woke up and ate a delicious pineapple for breakfast. Fruit, especially mangoes and pineapple are really cheap at her site. (pineapple costs about 34 american cents!) We decided to head to Kericho (which is about 45 min from her town) for the day. There is a big supermarket there comparable to krogers. We bought ice cream there! So we walked to a park in the town and enjoyed our ice cream sitting on the grass underneath a tree. We had lunch then at a hoteli. I’m pretty boring and just ate chips (fries). Arriving back to Litein from Kericho, it was raining. Kenyans seem to have a fear of rain... and do not go out in it. So being crazy mzungu, we decided to run back to the school even though it was pouring down rain. As we were running back, a car drove by and of course drove right through the huge puddle of muddy water right as we were passing it. My entire left side of my body, including my mouth, got covered in the muddy water, haha.
Once we got back to the house, we changed into dry clothing and curled up under our sleeping bags and watched some much needed chick flicks. That evening we went up to the dining hall to hang out with the students for a bit before they went to bed. It was sooooo much fun! The students ended up showing me some dances. One of them was a Scottish dance, and the deaf students probably have better rhythm than I do. After they showed us the dances, the students wanted danielle and me to show them some american dances. So we did the chicken dance, macarana, and the electric slide. They picked it all up really fast.
So after the dances were finished, instead of going to bed like they were supposed to, they decided to seperate and swarm Danielle and myself. We both had about 20 kids surrounding us. Asking my questions about america and mumias, and also random questions about what food I eat. They are so amazed by arm hair and will just rub my arm. One of the kids pinched the side of my hand, and since it was soft, said that I don’t work very hard, haha. They then continued to compare both Danielle and myself saying that I was whiter than danielle, Danielle is stronger than me, and i have hairer arms than her. As they are around they all end up at one point holding my hand and feeling my arm. My watch ended up lighting up since the button got pushed, and one little boy was just so amazed by it. He looked up at me wide eyed, and mouth gaping open. Oh it was so priceless. Also the students noticed my bracelets that I was wearing. One said that they looked like they were Masaai made and a different student said they looked like witchcraft, haha. I thought you would enjoy that Natti : )
It was wonderful going to see danielle at her site, but it also made me realize (even though I already knew it) what I’m missing at my site. I’ve been struggling a lot lately with building relationships with the other teachers and even the students somewhat. I’m sure part of it has to do with the fact that I am shy when I first meet people, but I think that they have been kinda standoffish also. It has been a huge mental burden on me, making a number of my days a challenge. Toss into that the fact that I have to teach chemistry in Kenyan sign language (that I just learned) when the national syllabus requires a bunch of experiments to be done that quite often are not possible to do at the school. Everyday has been a struggle for me, but I’m making it. It seems that a couple of the teachers are starting to warm up to me, and I just hope that it continues. I know I just need to give it time for things to develop.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
It has been a little over a month that I’ve been at site now. And man it has been a challenging month… I arrived at site on a Thursday night, and then “started” teaching the next Monday. However, come Monday (after school was supposed to be in session for one week already) the timetable for the classes and who was teaching which classes wasn’t even made. This is about the time that my shock at how the Kenyan schools are run took over me. It’s definitely much more lax than the states. The timetable wasn’t completed until Tuesday, so I started to teach on Wednesday. For the two days that no one was teaching, the students were just sitting in their classrooms reviewing their notes. Pretty amazing that the students are that orderly.
So Wednesday rolls around, and I was one the verge of vomiting and running away because I was so nervous to teach, haha. Even to this day before I go to teach a class, my heart starts to beat to the point where I can hear it in my head. But I’m getting used to it a little more each day. It has definitely been a challenge to try and teach the information so that the students can understand, not only the material, but what I am trying to say. Kinda hard when you’re teaching in a language you’ve only known for 2 months. I’m still trying to find my place in the school, and what benefit I am bringing by being here. Hopefully I will figure that out soon. But I only have 28 more days of teaching before the end of the term : )
I’ve been participating in games (sports) after school just to try and get to know some of the girls. It is amazing how tough the Kenyans are…especially their feet! Most of the students run in cheap plastic flip-flops and then most will end up just running barefoot… in a grass field that has sticks, burs, and rocks randomly throughout the field. And not only are they running barefoot, but they play soccer barefoot also! I tried to kick a soccer ball wearing a decent pair of sandals and I think my foot just about started to bleed. Alright I think you get the point that I am amazed by this, so I will stop talking about it now.
Buying my food at the market has been interesting also. Market days are on Friday and Sunday. I normally go on Sunday since Im in class on Friday. I walk into town, and a bunch of mama’s are spread out with their produce in front of them sitting underneath an umbrella to have shade from the intense sun. Since I am Mzungu (white) I of course am told initially the Mzungu price. I have to haggle with them to try and get a lower price, which typically isn’t the Kenyan price, but it isn’t as high as the Mzungu price either.
On that note, it’s pretty funny that it has taken me living in Kenya to start cooking. I have a small little gas stove that I use typically to make either some sort or rice or potato meal. But I do still have many nights when I just make a PB&J because I am too lazy to cook something. I have also taken up baking. Now you might wonder how I can bake when I don’t have an oven… Little do you know, you can make an oven using a jiko (charcoal stove thing) So I have made a chocolate cake and granola and this weekend I plan to make cinnamon rolls which I am quite excited about.
My house is wonderful. I have come to the conclusion that they gave me the best house on the school grounds. I have nothing to complain about here, except for the 5 roosters (at least it sounds like 5) that start to make noise at about 4 every morning…. Yeah…
This past weekend, I traveled to a town called Kakamega that is about an hour from my site. The only rainforest in Kenya is located there. It still amazes me how many kenyans can fit into a matatu. I think at one point I counted 25 includint the driver. There are litterally sometimes 3 people or more standing at the sliding door with their butts hanging out holding onto the seats. I serisouly cannot express just how crazy it truly is. But it is very entertaining at the same time (at least it is when you are not one of the people being crammed in there). But don't worry because I always make sure to have a safe seat. I traveled with a Canadian woman who is here for a month volunteering with a local AIDS organization. We stayed in a small little thatch roofed hut in the forest. It was wonderful! I thought that it would have been hot and humid but to my surprise it was really chilly. I could’ve used another blanket at night! It was a great nights sleep except for the black and white monkeys that started to make calls at 3 am, and let me tell you…they are loud. We went on 2 walks through forest in the 1.5 days we were there. The second one was awesome. We got up at 4:40 in the morning to go on a walk to the top of a hill in the forest and watch the sun rise. And just if you were wondering, a rainforest really does sound like the tapes they play in the zoo : )
I must say thanks to those who are sending me letters/emails/comments, they definitely brighten my days.
So Wednesday rolls around, and I was one the verge of vomiting and running away because I was so nervous to teach, haha. Even to this day before I go to teach a class, my heart starts to beat to the point where I can hear it in my head. But I’m getting used to it a little more each day. It has definitely been a challenge to try and teach the information so that the students can understand, not only the material, but what I am trying to say. Kinda hard when you’re teaching in a language you’ve only known for 2 months. I’m still trying to find my place in the school, and what benefit I am bringing by being here. Hopefully I will figure that out soon. But I only have 28 more days of teaching before the end of the term : )
I’ve been participating in games (sports) after school just to try and get to know some of the girls. It is amazing how tough the Kenyans are…especially their feet! Most of the students run in cheap plastic flip-flops and then most will end up just running barefoot… in a grass field that has sticks, burs, and rocks randomly throughout the field. And not only are they running barefoot, but they play soccer barefoot also! I tried to kick a soccer ball wearing a decent pair of sandals and I think my foot just about started to bleed. Alright I think you get the point that I am amazed by this, so I will stop talking about it now.
Buying my food at the market has been interesting also. Market days are on Friday and Sunday. I normally go on Sunday since Im in class on Friday. I walk into town, and a bunch of mama’s are spread out with their produce in front of them sitting underneath an umbrella to have shade from the intense sun. Since I am Mzungu (white) I of course am told initially the Mzungu price. I have to haggle with them to try and get a lower price, which typically isn’t the Kenyan price, but it isn’t as high as the Mzungu price either.
On that note, it’s pretty funny that it has taken me living in Kenya to start cooking. I have a small little gas stove that I use typically to make either some sort or rice or potato meal. But I do still have many nights when I just make a PB&J because I am too lazy to cook something. I have also taken up baking. Now you might wonder how I can bake when I don’t have an oven… Little do you know, you can make an oven using a jiko (charcoal stove thing) So I have made a chocolate cake and granola and this weekend I plan to make cinnamon rolls which I am quite excited about.
My house is wonderful. I have come to the conclusion that they gave me the best house on the school grounds. I have nothing to complain about here, except for the 5 roosters (at least it sounds like 5) that start to make noise at about 4 every morning…. Yeah…
This past weekend, I traveled to a town called Kakamega that is about an hour from my site. The only rainforest in Kenya is located there. It still amazes me how many kenyans can fit into a matatu. I think at one point I counted 25 includint the driver. There are litterally sometimes 3 people or more standing at the sliding door with their butts hanging out holding onto the seats. I serisouly cannot express just how crazy it truly is. But it is very entertaining at the same time (at least it is when you are not one of the people being crammed in there). But don't worry because I always make sure to have a safe seat. I traveled with a Canadian woman who is here for a month volunteering with a local AIDS organization. We stayed in a small little thatch roofed hut in the forest. It was wonderful! I thought that it would have been hot and humid but to my surprise it was really chilly. I could’ve used another blanket at night! It was a great nights sleep except for the black and white monkeys that started to make calls at 3 am, and let me tell you…they are loud. We went on 2 walks through forest in the 1.5 days we were there. The second one was awesome. We got up at 4:40 in the morning to go on a walk to the top of a hill in the forest and watch the sun rise. And just if you were wondering, a rainforest really does sound like the tapes they play in the zoo : )
I must say thanks to those who are sending me letters/emails/comments, they definitely brighten my days.
Friday, January 8, 2010
My Site!
Since I’ve gotten so many requests for a new post…here it is! :)
The past month has definitely been an interesting one. I took my LPI (language test) towards the middle of the month and I passed with an intermediate level! That was exciting. It makes you really anxious though because they have a camera recording your sign and that just always makes me nervous. But it was a huge relief to know that I passed and I could focus on other things during training.
About 3 days before Christmas the entire training group traveled to a town called Makindu to talk with AIDs Support groups. Traveling to Makindu definitely made me appreciate Loitokitok for its weather and beauty! Makindu is mostly dust and hotness. Not a whole lot of greenery. But still the visit was very nice. 2 groups came and danced for us and a lot of the trainees joined in. It was a lot of fun. I noticed that the men use their hips much more than the women, which is completely opposite of what you would think. One of the groups was a bunch of old Mamas. They all had so much character in their faces, and they just made you smile. I don’t know how old they all were but they sure can put a lot into dancing. I didn’t understand any of the songs they sang but they were all about AIDs and they present them to the community to spread awareness. We also heard from a support group for people living with AIDs. It was great to hear their stories and see hoe they can still have a positive outlook on life, it really puts things in perspective on how lucky we all are.
My Christmas was the weirdest Christmas I have ever had. It definitely did not seem like Christmas. It was probably about 75 outside, the only snow I could see was the bit at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Kenyans Christmas feast is typically goat. So my family bought a goat about a week before and my Baba was going to slaughter it the morning of. So I purposely woke up late (about 8:30) in hopes of missing the slaughtering. But as I went to the toilet….I could the goat crying… which means I heard the goat being slaughtered. Great….. I went back to my room for a bit and opened my present that Zane had given me before I left, so that cheered my up :) So I went out in the living room after a bit and had breakfast by myself which has been usual in my homestay. Then I just sat in the living room reading and Baba would call me outside occasionally to show me how the goat was being roasted. Then my Mama brought me a little bit of meat out, which I found out was goat liver right after I bit into a piece. It was so hard to swallow the tiny piece I had in my mouth. I took the rest of the piece to the toilet with me…. Then my mama brought a plate of food out for me and set it on the table for me to eat. I was so confused because I knew that they had company coming over to eat lunch so I didn’t understand why they were having me eat by myself. But it turned out to be ok that I ate by myself because I was able to eat the food at my own pace and could make faces if needed, lol. Then about an hour after I ate about 10 relatives to the family came over. So I awkwardly sat in the living room and watched everyone else eat since I already had eaten. Everyone was speaking Kiswahili the entire time also. A couple of the women kept commenting on how quiet I was, I guess they didn’t make the connection that I don’t know Swahili and therefore would not be able to take part in the conversations. But still fun even though I had no idea what was going on. People watching is always interesting, but it definitely was not Christmas for me.
The day after I went for my first run in Kenya. It was too funny because you could tell how the Kenyans were surprised to see a mzungu running and one man kept imitating me and how I was running….so I don’t know if he was making fun of me, but it was still funny. When I got back from my run, some of the relatives were back at the house visiting again. My Mama brought some soup out to give everyone. I took a little to be respectful. Let me just state the fact that the soup looked like dirty water…and it tasted like it also. I gagged every time I took a sip of it. I would have taken it with me to the toilet if it wouldn’t have been noticed. But I just suffered through the gagging and drank it very slowly. I found out later that the soup is made with the head and hooves of the goat….
Then the Sunday after Christmas, I went to Jon’s house. On the walk to his house I walked by 2 little kids who were yelling the typical “howroo” and “mzungu” But I noticed that once of the kids was only waving with one of his hands…yeah he was just peeing right there, lol. That’s typical for the men here. They’ll just peel off to the side of the path and pee right there. But anyways Jon’s family slaughtered another goat for some more celebration. So I had to endure some more goat meat. I will say that I fed the cat a bit while I was there, haha. After Jon’s all of the trainees met up at Mary’s house to have our own Christmas party. That definitely was more of a Christmas for me. We all brought a snack to share. Whitney made some “fudge” which never hardened and it was perfect for dipping all of goodies in. New Years Eve was a fun night also. All of the trainees met up at the training hub that is outside of Loitokitok’s town center. We ended up just watching a movie and then sitting around a bond fire drinking a couple of beers. It was nice. I will say that that is the first time I have ever been able to have a bond fire on New Years Eve.
One of the days towards the end of training, there was some massive rain. The road became a raging river…and I am not exaggerating at all. This was also the day that I decided to wear my rain coat (at least that’s what I though it was) and not use my umbrella. Yeah, I discovered that my rain coat is not actually a rain coat. Maybe its just a drizzle coat. But my shirt was soaked entirely underneath. But its amazing how it can rain so hard and the road becomes a river, but 2 hours after the rain stops, it looks like it was just a small rain that happened. The ground just soaks it all up so fast.
The last day in Loitokitok there was a host family appreciation party. It was funny because at one point my Mama told me that my little sister and brother will miss my computer…. Lol. Its funny how Kenyans try to express their emotions here. But my Mama did say that she wants me to come back and visit. My family was nice but I’m ready to have my own place.
Our travel to Nairobi for swearing in was interesting. Since it had rained pretty good the night before leaving a lot of the road was muddy and hard to pass through. I actually saw two cars that were stuck in mud that was as high as half the height of the car. I took a picture, so once I am able to I will post pictures to face book for everyone.
Our swearing in ceremony was surreal. It was at the American Ambassadors residence since this is the 45th year of PC in Kenya. It felt like we had been transported to Hilton head in the U.S. or something. The place was so nice. The event was televised and most of us were shown on Kenyan National TV! That was exciting. So now we are all officially Peace Corps Volunteers, no longer just trainees.
I traveled with the principal of my school to Mumias (my site). It took 10 hours to go about 400 miles I think. So it was a long travel, but it was so exciting to arrive in Mumias. It’s a lot bigger than what I expected. And there are so many people. My house is really nice! It has running water (meaning a flush toilet!) a shower that has a water heater!! And bed’s (there is a spare bedroom), a table and some chairs. So I was very nicely surprised with where I will be living these next two years. I ate dinner with my Principal last night since I have no means of cooking food right now. She has 6 children and 1 grandson. So I’m excited that there will be some young kids around my house. There is also room behind my house to start a garden! I don’t know when that will actually start, but I’m excited. I also discovered last night that I have a couple of roommates living with me… some geckos :)
Well that’s all that I have for now. I do start teaching very soon, so keep me in your thoughts and send good vibes my way because I am very nervous for this!
The past month has definitely been an interesting one. I took my LPI (language test) towards the middle of the month and I passed with an intermediate level! That was exciting. It makes you really anxious though because they have a camera recording your sign and that just always makes me nervous. But it was a huge relief to know that I passed and I could focus on other things during training.
About 3 days before Christmas the entire training group traveled to a town called Makindu to talk with AIDs Support groups. Traveling to Makindu definitely made me appreciate Loitokitok for its weather and beauty! Makindu is mostly dust and hotness. Not a whole lot of greenery. But still the visit was very nice. 2 groups came and danced for us and a lot of the trainees joined in. It was a lot of fun. I noticed that the men use their hips much more than the women, which is completely opposite of what you would think. One of the groups was a bunch of old Mamas. They all had so much character in their faces, and they just made you smile. I don’t know how old they all were but they sure can put a lot into dancing. I didn’t understand any of the songs they sang but they were all about AIDs and they present them to the community to spread awareness. We also heard from a support group for people living with AIDs. It was great to hear their stories and see hoe they can still have a positive outlook on life, it really puts things in perspective on how lucky we all are.
My Christmas was the weirdest Christmas I have ever had. It definitely did not seem like Christmas. It was probably about 75 outside, the only snow I could see was the bit at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Kenyans Christmas feast is typically goat. So my family bought a goat about a week before and my Baba was going to slaughter it the morning of. So I purposely woke up late (about 8:30) in hopes of missing the slaughtering. But as I went to the toilet….I could the goat crying… which means I heard the goat being slaughtered. Great….. I went back to my room for a bit and opened my present that Zane had given me before I left, so that cheered my up :) So I went out in the living room after a bit and had breakfast by myself which has been usual in my homestay. Then I just sat in the living room reading and Baba would call me outside occasionally to show me how the goat was being roasted. Then my Mama brought me a little bit of meat out, which I found out was goat liver right after I bit into a piece. It was so hard to swallow the tiny piece I had in my mouth. I took the rest of the piece to the toilet with me…. Then my mama brought a plate of food out for me and set it on the table for me to eat. I was so confused because I knew that they had company coming over to eat lunch so I didn’t understand why they were having me eat by myself. But it turned out to be ok that I ate by myself because I was able to eat the food at my own pace and could make faces if needed, lol. Then about an hour after I ate about 10 relatives to the family came over. So I awkwardly sat in the living room and watched everyone else eat since I already had eaten. Everyone was speaking Kiswahili the entire time also. A couple of the women kept commenting on how quiet I was, I guess they didn’t make the connection that I don’t know Swahili and therefore would not be able to take part in the conversations. But still fun even though I had no idea what was going on. People watching is always interesting, but it definitely was not Christmas for me.
The day after I went for my first run in Kenya. It was too funny because you could tell how the Kenyans were surprised to see a mzungu running and one man kept imitating me and how I was running….so I don’t know if he was making fun of me, but it was still funny. When I got back from my run, some of the relatives were back at the house visiting again. My Mama brought some soup out to give everyone. I took a little to be respectful. Let me just state the fact that the soup looked like dirty water…and it tasted like it also. I gagged every time I took a sip of it. I would have taken it with me to the toilet if it wouldn’t have been noticed. But I just suffered through the gagging and drank it very slowly. I found out later that the soup is made with the head and hooves of the goat….
Then the Sunday after Christmas, I went to Jon’s house. On the walk to his house I walked by 2 little kids who were yelling the typical “howroo” and “mzungu” But I noticed that once of the kids was only waving with one of his hands…yeah he was just peeing right there, lol. That’s typical for the men here. They’ll just peel off to the side of the path and pee right there. But anyways Jon’s family slaughtered another goat for some more celebration. So I had to endure some more goat meat. I will say that I fed the cat a bit while I was there, haha. After Jon’s all of the trainees met up at Mary’s house to have our own Christmas party. That definitely was more of a Christmas for me. We all brought a snack to share. Whitney made some “fudge” which never hardened and it was perfect for dipping all of goodies in. New Years Eve was a fun night also. All of the trainees met up at the training hub that is outside of Loitokitok’s town center. We ended up just watching a movie and then sitting around a bond fire drinking a couple of beers. It was nice. I will say that that is the first time I have ever been able to have a bond fire on New Years Eve.
One of the days towards the end of training, there was some massive rain. The road became a raging river…and I am not exaggerating at all. This was also the day that I decided to wear my rain coat (at least that’s what I though it was) and not use my umbrella. Yeah, I discovered that my rain coat is not actually a rain coat. Maybe its just a drizzle coat. But my shirt was soaked entirely underneath. But its amazing how it can rain so hard and the road becomes a river, but 2 hours after the rain stops, it looks like it was just a small rain that happened. The ground just soaks it all up so fast.
The last day in Loitokitok there was a host family appreciation party. It was funny because at one point my Mama told me that my little sister and brother will miss my computer…. Lol. Its funny how Kenyans try to express their emotions here. But my Mama did say that she wants me to come back and visit. My family was nice but I’m ready to have my own place.
Our travel to Nairobi for swearing in was interesting. Since it had rained pretty good the night before leaving a lot of the road was muddy and hard to pass through. I actually saw two cars that were stuck in mud that was as high as half the height of the car. I took a picture, so once I am able to I will post pictures to face book for everyone.
Our swearing in ceremony was surreal. It was at the American Ambassadors residence since this is the 45th year of PC in Kenya. It felt like we had been transported to Hilton head in the U.S. or something. The place was so nice. The event was televised and most of us were shown on Kenyan National TV! That was exciting. So now we are all officially Peace Corps Volunteers, no longer just trainees.
I traveled with the principal of my school to Mumias (my site). It took 10 hours to go about 400 miles I think. So it was a long travel, but it was so exciting to arrive in Mumias. It’s a lot bigger than what I expected. And there are so many people. My house is really nice! It has running water (meaning a flush toilet!) a shower that has a water heater!! And bed’s (there is a spare bedroom), a table and some chairs. So I was very nicely surprised with where I will be living these next two years. I ate dinner with my Principal last night since I have no means of cooking food right now. She has 6 children and 1 grandson. So I’m excited that there will be some young kids around my house. There is also room behind my house to start a garden! I don’t know when that will actually start, but I’m excited. I also discovered last night that I have a couple of roommates living with me… some geckos :)
Well that’s all that I have for now. I do start teaching very soon, so keep me in your thoughts and send good vibes my way because I am very nervous for this!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
New Address!!
Kristiann Fry
c/o St. Angela Mumias Secondary School
P.O Box 235 - 50102
Mumias, Kenya
c/o St. Angela Mumias Secondary School
P.O Box 235 - 50102
Mumias, Kenya
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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