Alive and well, more to come when I can

So far, Kenya has been amazing. It has just been a bit difficult to find internet access.

We arrived in Kenya as 42 volunteers. 15 Small enterprise and development volunteers, 6 Information and Communication Technology volunteers, 13 Secondary Level Math/Science teachers, and 8 Deaf Education Teachers. Sadly, one of our SED volunteers was the victim of one bad thing after another, so she traveled home. Sue, if you ever find my blog, I hope that all is well now.

Most of my sessions are with the other 12 math/sci teachers. We have been in a school for this week and last week. We spent 2 days observing teachers and then we started teaching. The students are coming in on their break, so we are mostly doing review work, but it is good practice. Today, we had a lab session, but no one brought the keys for the lab, so it was not the most productive day, but we did come up with a creative lesson. I have been working as a chemistry teacher, because there is a shortage of them in the group. It sounds like I will be doing chem and physics when I get to my site.

We also have Kiswahili language group meetings. My language group has Nick from Minnesota, Will from California/Colorado and Jennifer from Indiana. We are all science teachers. Our language teacher, Abbas, has done good work, so we are getting to the point where we can function when we go to town.

I found a welder named David Kamau, and he made me a charcoal briquetter. I had my instructions, and I wound up paying about $6.25 (it should be about $2), but it is a good start. I am working with a man called Fire to procure an oil drum from Nairobi. Hopefully we will be making charcoal in the next week or two. He is also working on constructing a windmill to use as a water pump (seems similar to the D-Lab Honduras design), so I may talk to him about applying for IDDS. In kiswahili the word mahindi can refer to maize or maize cobs, so I have distressed some people when I talk about making charcoal from mahindi, since there is currently a maize shortage in Kenya. Still, I have found myself giving Amy Smith's charcoal spiel a few times, so it may become a big project in Peace Corps Kenya.

In order to experience the culture, we are all living with families around town. My family is Kikuyu and they have 3 sons (15, 14 and 10). They are very nice people, although I have not enjoyed the Pentecostal church services as enjoyable as they do. This Sunday was a shorter service. Only 3 hrs 20 mins. My mama katika Kenya (Kenyan mother) is a very good cook, and she makes sure that I eat several plates every day. Everyone is very nice, and it is glorious to wake up to a beautiful view of Mt. Kilimanjaro every morning.

I am currently working on a means to update this more comprehensively and regularly, so please be patient. I will have more to say soon. Also, I will try to reply to communications soon, but internet is rather sparse, so I only ask for patience.

Finally, I just read The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier, which I really liked, and strongly recommend. I think it is a good answer to Jeff Sachs' take on poverty.

Hope everything is going well, my friends-
Daniel