In the last 8 months that I have been here in Kenya I have noticed a few things:
Apparently all mzungu (white people) look alike. There is a new mzungu girl who has been living in Mumias for the past couple of months. One day at school while I was sitting at my desk this man comes up and introduces himself to me. So I tell him my name of course (which like all Kenyans, just cant seem to pronounce my name and calls me Christian or Christine). He then asks me if I remember him… no I don’t. I’m sorry. He says that I met him in the cyber café in town… which I never go to. It then later came out that he was actually thinking that I am Lisa (the other mzungu woman).
Picking of the nose is completely normal and fine to do in public. I can’t tell you how many times I have looked over at the man sitting next to me on a matatu and hes just picking his nose. This has also happened while I talking to a fellow teacher, and as we are talking and having a good converstion, he is just digging away.
Its completely normal to ask a complete stranger to marry you. I was sitting in the front seat of a matatu and this man just comes up and asks me if he “can help me with marriage”.
There are some cows that are striped like a tiger
Kenyans have no concept of what a line is. I can not even begin to count the number of times that I have been standing in “a line” waiting to buy something when other people will just walk right up in front of me and say whatever it is they need. I mean a fellow teacher even did this as I was talking to them. They have no shame in cutting in a line. I am still dealing with the anger and frustration this causes me whenever it happens, but it slowly becoming something that I expect to happen anytime I am in a line, haha.
It is not unusual that when you first meet someone, you tell them what religion you are and ask theirs. Lee and I were in town for our weekly lunch on Fridays. As we are sitting in the crowded table packed hoteli, this man walks up to us and introduces himself, stating that he is a teacher at the local Muslim school. He then tells us that he used to be a Muslim but he is now a follower of Christ and is Christian, and that he changed religions because he doesn’t like what “those Muslims” do and their beliefs. When he walked away lee and I just looked at each other speechless. I still don’t know how to respond to people who say things like that.
Not only do men ask for me to take them home with me, but women do to. Right after the conversation that I described above, the server of the hoteli comes over and speaks directly to me (not Lee who is male) and asks which country I am from. Once she is informed that I am from America, she decided to ask if I would take her home with me…. Hmm that was a tough decision for me to make.
The public form of transportation, matatus ( which are 14 passengers vans but they tend to sqeeze around 20 or more people in) are typically pieces of crap. Lately the matatu conductors (tauts) have been putting the low number of 14 people in these vans because there have been a number of police checks along the road. At the checks the police have been checking to see if the passengers are wearing their seat belts. As I am riding on a matatu, the taut tells us to put on our seat belts. I look down to put mine on, yet there is no clasp on the belt. It is just the belt part. So my form of a seat belt became a knot.
Those are just a few of the things that I have noticed : )
The past month has quite honestly gone by very fast. And it has been enjoyable. Teaching chemistry still sucks though. But there was this one particular chemistry class that was very entertaining. As I was walking to class, I was thinking that the lesson would be really boring for the students and that they would all just fall asleep like normal. The lesson was how magnets can be used to separate some mixtures. Little did I know that this would be one of the most enjoyable for the students. I told them how some substances are metallic and are attracted to metals. I then showed them how iron can be separated by sulphur with a magnet. The look on their faces when they saw the iron move to the magnet was… just priceless. One of the girls asked me if it was witchcraft with a look of bewilderment of in her eyes. After I finished showing them, they all wanted to try it themselves, so the rest of the class was spent with them each trying the magnet themselves. I walked away from that class just stunned as to why they loved that experiment so much. But then I realized, most of them have probably never seen a magnet here. In America most people have magnets on their refrigerators and it is common for a kid to be able to play with one. But here, most people don’t have refrigerators, and without a refrigerator why need magnets?
I have really enjoyed teaching Life Skills this term. I have been teaching about HIV and AIDS and the past couple of weeks have been about condoms. I was able to get a bunch of free condoms from the hospital here so that each of the students can learn how to use a condom in class. And all I have to say is, its just hilarious to see their reactions and facial expressions when they got to try it themselves on a model. One of my form 3 students thanked me after the class and said it will really help her in the future. Hearing that really helped me with discovering why I’m here. Even if I don’t make a huge difference while here, I at least know that a few girls now know how to protect themselves from HIV.
One of the past weekends, Danielle finally made it to my site. As always when with another volunteer, it was wonderful. We went to the big “walmart” store, got to enjoy some ice cream, other junk food and watched some movies in the evenings. I was especially happy that she was here to go to a dinner with me. The father of the catholic church invited me over for dinner, and it happened to be on the night that Danielle would be in town. So we arrive at the house, and it was just the father and the 2 of us. Conversation was a bit slow at first and consisted of some awkward silences. But slowly things started to go smoothly. Then it was time for dinner. We all move to the dinner table to get the food, and the dishes were unveiled. It consisted of 3 things… the 3 things I think I despise most: some type of Meat (it brought back the memories of this past Christmas and the goat meat), tomatoes, and ugali. Danielle and I just looked at each other and smirked. I stupidly forgot to tell the father that we are vegetarian before the dinner, so I decided to suffer through and just try to swallow the food…. The ugali was especially hard for me to eat since there was nothing to cover up the taste and texture. But besides the whole food issue, the dinner was quite nice and enjoyable.
I have discovered that I can also carry the bags on top of my head like many of the African mamas I see. I when I come back from market I carry the bag of food on my head (which actually is less painful). I’m proud of this and just had to post it.
Well I hope you enjoyed reading my musings, love and miss you all
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Travels, Chasing Rats, and Friends visiting
So sorry to those who actually read my blog, I have been horrible with keeping it updated. Which means I have a lot to say.
So the last time you heard, I was planning on traveling to the coast and then to Uganda and also Nairobi during my break in April. It was great. The coast = HOT! And apparently I wasn’t even there when it was “really” hot…. It’s so hot there its hard to sleep at night. I got to go snorkeling in the Indian Ocean! I wasn’t able to wear my glasses, so I couldn’t see details, but it was still really cool! Also went to a really nice hotel for one day that has a pool and Indian buffet. Entering into the hotel was like entering into another world… a Mzungu world. Very surreal. I was able to see 3 other volunteers sites and houses which was nice to see how they are living. They are very lucky to have the beach so close, but I must say I do enjoy my weather a bit better : )
After about 6 days, 3 of us headed back to the Western Province. We took the train over night into to Nairobi, had lunch in Nairobi then continued on to another volunteers site for the night. The town we were in is called Bomet, and could not be more opposite from where we just came from. We needed 3 blankets at night to say warm, slippers for the feet and in the morning you could actually see your breath! I never would’ve thought that weather like that existed in Africa. The next morning we moved onto Kisumu to meet with everyone else who planned to go to Uganda. I was able to enjoy some ice cream and a brownie in Kisumu, very nice. Also I got to take a shower in Kisumu which had not happened for about 3 days, so that was nice too… The bus ride to Uganda was not too bad. It was interesting to see the roads in Kenya compared to the roads in Uganda (which are actually painted and not filled with potholes, imagine!) The place we stayed at in Uganda was right on the Nile. And the Nile is huge, much bigger than I thought.
Rafting down the Nile… oh man, it was filled with awesomess. There were a total of 3 rafts for our group since there were 26 of us. We asked to have a wild ride and that we did. We went down 4 class fives and 2 other rapids which means I flew out of the boat a couple times. And a couple times, I gulped the Nile water in an attempt to breath, but it was a lot of fun. I also got to go bungee jumping! Whew, talk about an adrenaline rush. When I was standing at the edge about to jump off, my legs, hands, arms, pretty much my entire body was shaking.
After the adventures on the Nile, the group headed into Kampala where we met with some Peace Corps Uganda volunteers. It was interesting to be able to hear their experiences and how things happen there. Ended up having one of the best nights ever in a bar just dancing the night away the everyone. My time in Uganda also included getting lost on a matatu, walking about town, going to a Mosque and refusing to pay for a requested 30,000 Ugandan shillling donation.
Once my adventures in uganda were finished, I headed back to Nairobi fot IST (in service training) where I got to see all of my PC friends and catch up on things and also eat lots of goooood food.
I finally arrived back to my site at the end of April. I had the weekend to recover and then I had to start teaching again the next Monday! But it was nice to be back at school. I am slowly becoming used to teaching, though there are many times its still a struggle.
I have had some fun episodes with some rats that are living in my ceiling. They decided to venture out into the house and start to eat my bars of soap (a total of 4) along with other food in the house. So now I have a little kitten, which is about the same size as the rats at the moment,… but not for long :D Its really nice to have the extra little company in the house, I must say. And she does provide a lot of entertainment.
I traveled to Kisumu this last weekend to work on a project and also to meet up with some other volunteers. Great time as always, but the biggest thing that stands out in mind honestly is going to a little hole in the wall hoteli (restaurant). A group of 3 of us were sitting there eating our cabbage and chapti when a little girl walked in… looked at us and literally gasped out loud! Haha apparently she wasn’t expecting to find 3 mzungu in there.
I convinced a friend of mine from PC that I met up with in Kisumu to travel back to my site since we had no school on tuesday (National holiday here). It was so great to be able to have her visit and see my site. The majority of our time was spent just sitting around, watching a movie, playing with Panzi (the kitty) or sitting at the school. Doesnt sound exciting, but that is a typical day : )
I can’t believe that I am already nearly half way through the second term here and nearly 1/4th finished with my time in PC. Time is just flying by…. Thanks to everyone sending letters and packages, they certainly do help me out and pick me up on my hard days here.
Much love to everyone and try to stay in touch!
So the last time you heard, I was planning on traveling to the coast and then to Uganda and also Nairobi during my break in April. It was great. The coast = HOT! And apparently I wasn’t even there when it was “really” hot…. It’s so hot there its hard to sleep at night. I got to go snorkeling in the Indian Ocean! I wasn’t able to wear my glasses, so I couldn’t see details, but it was still really cool! Also went to a really nice hotel for one day that has a pool and Indian buffet. Entering into the hotel was like entering into another world… a Mzungu world. Very surreal. I was able to see 3 other volunteers sites and houses which was nice to see how they are living. They are very lucky to have the beach so close, but I must say I do enjoy my weather a bit better : )
After about 6 days, 3 of us headed back to the Western Province. We took the train over night into to Nairobi, had lunch in Nairobi then continued on to another volunteers site for the night. The town we were in is called Bomet, and could not be more opposite from where we just came from. We needed 3 blankets at night to say warm, slippers for the feet and in the morning you could actually see your breath! I never would’ve thought that weather like that existed in Africa. The next morning we moved onto Kisumu to meet with everyone else who planned to go to Uganda. I was able to enjoy some ice cream and a brownie in Kisumu, very nice. Also I got to take a shower in Kisumu which had not happened for about 3 days, so that was nice too… The bus ride to Uganda was not too bad. It was interesting to see the roads in Kenya compared to the roads in Uganda (which are actually painted and not filled with potholes, imagine!) The place we stayed at in Uganda was right on the Nile. And the Nile is huge, much bigger than I thought.
Rafting down the Nile… oh man, it was filled with awesomess. There were a total of 3 rafts for our group since there were 26 of us. We asked to have a wild ride and that we did. We went down 4 class fives and 2 other rapids which means I flew out of the boat a couple times. And a couple times, I gulped the Nile water in an attempt to breath, but it was a lot of fun. I also got to go bungee jumping! Whew, talk about an adrenaline rush. When I was standing at the edge about to jump off, my legs, hands, arms, pretty much my entire body was shaking.
After the adventures on the Nile, the group headed into Kampala where we met with some Peace Corps Uganda volunteers. It was interesting to be able to hear their experiences and how things happen there. Ended up having one of the best nights ever in a bar just dancing the night away the everyone. My time in Uganda also included getting lost on a matatu, walking about town, going to a Mosque and refusing to pay for a requested 30,000 Ugandan shillling donation.
Once my adventures in uganda were finished, I headed back to Nairobi fot IST (in service training) where I got to see all of my PC friends and catch up on things and also eat lots of goooood food.
I finally arrived back to my site at the end of April. I had the weekend to recover and then I had to start teaching again the next Monday! But it was nice to be back at school. I am slowly becoming used to teaching, though there are many times its still a struggle.
I have had some fun episodes with some rats that are living in my ceiling. They decided to venture out into the house and start to eat my bars of soap (a total of 4) along with other food in the house. So now I have a little kitten, which is about the same size as the rats at the moment,… but not for long :D Its really nice to have the extra little company in the house, I must say. And she does provide a lot of entertainment.
I traveled to Kisumu this last weekend to work on a project and also to meet up with some other volunteers. Great time as always, but the biggest thing that stands out in mind honestly is going to a little hole in the wall hoteli (restaurant). A group of 3 of us were sitting there eating our cabbage and chapti when a little girl walked in… looked at us and literally gasped out loud! Haha apparently she wasn’t expecting to find 3 mzungu in there.
I convinced a friend of mine from PC that I met up with in Kisumu to travel back to my site since we had no school on tuesday (National holiday here). It was so great to be able to have her visit and see my site. The majority of our time was spent just sitting around, watching a movie, playing with Panzi (the kitty) or sitting at the school. Doesnt sound exciting, but that is a typical day : )
I can’t believe that I am already nearly half way through the second term here and nearly 1/4th finished with my time in PC. Time is just flying by…. Thanks to everyone sending letters and packages, they certainly do help me out and pick me up on my hard days here.
Much love to everyone and try to stay in touch!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Going with the Flow
It's 4 in the morning and I woke up randomly, so I thought I would write a new post for everyone. The past week I have discovered that Kenyans don't make plans until the last minute and also wait until the last minute to change plans. I knew this a long time ago, however this past week was my first true experience. One day before the school is supposed to close for the term, I learned that instead of the school being closed for the entire month of April, they have decided to have the students come back 2 weeks early to cover more of the syllabus. This of course means that the teachers need to be here to teach the students. However I will not be because I have a 2 week training session with the Peace Corps. When I heard this information, of course Im like... well crap, what am I supposed to do with my classes that I teach. I talk to one of the other teachers and their words "Don't worry about it, someone from your department will cover them..." I dont know if this will actually happen, but Im not going to take their advice and not worry about it.
Also I had been planning to go with the students who are competing in sports to a different town for 3 days of competition. The same day that I learned the school is opening early... I was told one hour before we were supposed to leave that students are no longer going to the district competitions. You could say that I was a bit peeved... but I acutally wasn't. I have come to expect this from kenyans, haha. I need to learn to live more relaxed and just go with the flow as the Kenyans do.
I leave in less than 3 hours for the coast to visit the other volunteer, Beau, who is also doing the secondary deaf education program with me. I am so excited for this break and traveling! But it was a bit of a hassle to plan out. I am taking a bus in the morning that takes me to Nairobi, then in Nairobi I will have a little less than 2 hours before I need to be at the train station to take a train over night to make it to the coast. To book the train ticket I had to travel to a town that is about and hour from here. On the matatu to the other town I was sitting by the window waiting for the matatu to leave and one of the many men who try to sell the most random things (handkerchiefs, kitchen knifes, combs, popcorn, cds... and the list goes on) came up to my window and instead of doing to normal thing of shoving the random things in my face.... He just looks down and stares at my cheap walmart watch which is actually broken for about 30 seconds striaght, no lie. So Im just looking at him looking at my watch, when he finally looks up at me, he just says "thats a nice watch" and walks off. He didnt even try to sell me anything. Haha made me laugh alot.
Well I am going to go finish packing and hopefully sleep for a little bit before I take off!
Also I had been planning to go with the students who are competing in sports to a different town for 3 days of competition. The same day that I learned the school is opening early... I was told one hour before we were supposed to leave that students are no longer going to the district competitions. You could say that I was a bit peeved... but I acutally wasn't. I have come to expect this from kenyans, haha. I need to learn to live more relaxed and just go with the flow as the Kenyans do.
I leave in less than 3 hours for the coast to visit the other volunteer, Beau, who is also doing the secondary deaf education program with me. I am so excited for this break and traveling! But it was a bit of a hassle to plan out. I am taking a bus in the morning that takes me to Nairobi, then in Nairobi I will have a little less than 2 hours before I need to be at the train station to take a train over night to make it to the coast. To book the train ticket I had to travel to a town that is about and hour from here. On the matatu to the other town I was sitting by the window waiting for the matatu to leave and one of the many men who try to sell the most random things (handkerchiefs, kitchen knifes, combs, popcorn, cds... and the list goes on) came up to my window and instead of doing to normal thing of shoving the random things in my face.... He just looks down and stares at my cheap walmart watch which is actually broken for about 30 seconds striaght, no lie. So Im just looking at him looking at my watch, when he finally looks up at me, he just says "thats a nice watch" and walks off. He didnt even try to sell me anything. Haha made me laugh alot.
Well I am going to go finish packing and hopefully sleep for a little bit before I take off!
Monday, March 15, 2010
The Simple Life
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!!
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!!
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.
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