Today we had a ceremony at school for the late headmaster before we take the body to Western for the burial. It was very peaceful, although the body arrived about 4 hours late from the mortuary.
Also, it rained Monday, and I learned about an interesting phenomenon. When it rains, the area changes from relatively bug-free, to swarming with termites like locusts. In my house last night, I was inside with the light on, which apparently translates to "please infest my house." I promptly turned out the lights, and they left pretty quickly. At school today, the students went all over the grounds collecting the bugs (they die pretty quickly). Then, at lunch, along with the maize and beans, we also had some cooked termites. After some coaxing, I agreed to eat two. It was very crunchy and salty.
Anyway, soon there will be a post should be filled with travel adventures. Exciting!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Adventures in the Lab
I decided to make some preparations for a chemistry lab. It was all pretty simple, I chose an enthalpy lab, since it's relatively low maintenance. Unfortunately, I discovered that even the simplest task comes with complications. Since we are in a temporary space, hopefully this will resolve itself in a few months.
List of things that I wish were in the lab:
1. Space for all the students to fit in the room (they are constructing a lab, and with luck it will be finished in a few months.)
2. Space to move around and observe them working
3. Labeled chemicals (well, about 75% of them have labels, but the rest are a mystery. I am grateful for how well stocked their supply room is)
4. Some kind of scale (I couldn't make solutions of any known concentration)
5. Sinks for running water, and as a place to dump solutions after finishing.
6. Thermometers that don't spill mercury everywhere when you take them out of the cabinet.
7. Chalkboard
Other than that, everything was nice. I am now using all of my spare time to organize the lab. Maybe I will come across some of these things...
List of things that I wish were in the lab:
1. Space for all the students to fit in the room (they are constructing a lab, and with luck it will be finished in a few months.)
2. Space to move around and observe them working
3. Labeled chemicals (well, about 75% of them have labels, but the rest are a mystery. I am grateful for how well stocked their supply room is)
4. Some kind of scale (I couldn't make solutions of any known concentration)
5. Sinks for running water, and as a place to dump solutions after finishing.
6. Thermometers that don't spill mercury everywhere when you take them out of the cabinet.
7. Chalkboard
Other than that, everything was nice. I am now using all of my spare time to organize the lab. Maybe I will come across some of these things...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Unexpected Responsibilities
Peace Corps told us to expect the unexpected. I knew that there was no hope of envisioning the twists and turns I would have. However, I did expect a slightly smoother transition.
Our acting headmaster has gone to Western Province to make preparations for the funeral of our late headmaster. That leaves us with a faculty of 3 right now. And right now, I am also the Teacher on Duty, which means I am also in charge of various administrative duties. It's not completely radical; my responsibilities are things like announcements, activities, keys, scheduling and discipline (probably other things that I still haven't learned about). Still, it is a bit overwhelming.
In my downtime, I am preparing lessons for the agriculture classes. We are all picking up the slack in our own ways right now. This should be interesting. I am basically sticking to those few topics where I know anything: trees and irrigation.
Also, I have a stack of papers that Peace Corps wants me to fill out, but life is a tad busy right now, I will get to them when I can.
Our acting headmaster has gone to Western Province to make preparations for the funeral of our late headmaster. That leaves us with a faculty of 3 right now. And right now, I am also the Teacher on Duty, which means I am also in charge of various administrative duties. It's not completely radical; my responsibilities are things like announcements, activities, keys, scheduling and discipline (probably other things that I still haven't learned about). Still, it is a bit overwhelming.
In my downtime, I am preparing lessons for the agriculture classes. We are all picking up the slack in our own ways right now. This should be interesting. I am basically sticking to those few topics where I know anything: trees and irrigation.
Also, I have a stack of papers that Peace Corps wants me to fill out, but life is a tad busy right now, I will get to them when I can.
Monday, January 26, 2009
A Very Enjoyable Weekend
This weekend was a lot of fun. On Saturday, I led the agriculture session, and I don't think anyone caught on to the fact that I have never practiced agriculture in my life. Afterwards, I walked around my area a lot to familiarize myself. There is a disused train station about 50 meters from my house. It is a shame that they have let the railway go, since the lines are there, they just need maintenance. I also saw the portable metal homes where the police stay. The checkpoint is near my house also, so they are my neighbors. I also found the Maktau War Cemetery. It is a small memorial with the names of Indian soldiers who died during WWI. I am rather confused as to how it came to be in Kenya, but I imagine I will find out in time. Most of what I saw, however, was dying maize crops. Even though I am in Coast province, we are pretty far from the water, and the rains came much too late this year.
I had my first adventures in cooking also. With no table, I was a little limited. On Saturday, I made an omelette. I tried adding eggs to sauteing onion and tomato instead of the other way around (ingredients: 36 shilling=46 cents). It didn't look so pretty, but it tasted fine. On Sunday, I basically just threw onions, tomatoes and curry on some rice. It was pretty enjoyable, and even looked edible. I still haven't made any ugali.
MOST IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT: I have a bed! Last night, it was delivered, and we assembled it. No more sleeping on a mattress wrapped in plastic on my floor. I put on the sheets, and slept amazingly well last night. I also discovered during the afternoon that the coolest and most bug-free room I have is my bafu. I brought a chair there and sat and read for part of the afternoon.
I had my first adventures in cooking also. With no table, I was a little limited. On Saturday, I made an omelette. I tried adding eggs to sauteing onion and tomato instead of the other way around (ingredients: 36 shilling=46 cents). It didn't look so pretty, but it tasted fine. On Sunday, I basically just threw onions, tomatoes and curry on some rice. It was pretty enjoyable, and even looked edible. I still haven't made any ugali.
MOST IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT: I have a bed! Last night, it was delivered, and we assembled it. No more sleeping on a mattress wrapped in plastic on my floor. I put on the sheets, and slept amazingly well last night. I also discovered during the afternoon that the coolest and most bug-free room I have is my bafu. I brought a chair there and sat and read for part of the afternoon.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Teacher's Strike
With the teachers' strike continuing, there could be complications if union staff came to schools and found people teaching. My school is rather isolated, so it seemed unlikely that we would receive anyone to check on us. Even so, we would not want to anger the teachers' union...
We spent much of Wednesday at school preparing for and holding a community fundraiser so that they can arrange for the body to be transported across Kenya next week. The fundraiser was successful, and I learned a lot about Harambee functions in Kenya. Also, as the ceremony was drawing to a close, I realized that there was a good chance they were going to ask me to also speak. I also realized that everyone was speaking in Kiswahili. I panicked and tried to think of some kind of eulogy I could offer to introduce myself, and how I would do it in Kiswahili. Finally, I just settled on doing it in English. Regrettable, but in the future, I will prepare a few words in Kiswahili any time I am meeting the community as a whole.
In other news, since we have been very busy with everything at school, I haven't had a chance to learn a lot of things about my community. For example, I mostly only know the teachers at the school, so if they are busy all day with funeral arrangements, and I need to get water from the pump, I don't know who to talk to. That resulted in me not having water for washing things (clothes, dishes, house, myself) most of the week. Somewhat unfortunate. Let this be a lesson to the Peace Corps staff that education volunteers need to arrive at their sites sometime prior to one week into the schoolyear.
I got to watch the inauguration at a restaurant near my house. It was nice of the president to mention me. He talked about nourishing hungry minds around the world, and that is pretty much my job description.
Otherwise, not much else to report from the week. I found out that PV=nRT is also not part of the curriculum, even though they treat gas laws extensively. I was helping the English teacher with some of his work this week, since he has a heavier workload as acting headmaster. It is hard to correct grammar to Kenyan English as opposed to American English. Also, I will be supervising some kind of agriculture activity at school tomorrow. Not really sure how someone who has never lived anywhere but extremely urban settings got that job, but it'll be an adventure. I have written a lot of suggestions for Peace Corps on how to improve training, hopefully to be sent when I actually post this. I think I am earning a reputation as Mr. I-Have-an-Opinion-About-Everything. (yes, that is a reference to 10 Things I Hate About You. I have nothing to be ashamed of.) I guess I will go with it for better or for worse.
We spent much of Wednesday at school preparing for and holding a community fundraiser so that they can arrange for the body to be transported across Kenya next week. The fundraiser was successful, and I learned a lot about Harambee functions in Kenya. Also, as the ceremony was drawing to a close, I realized that there was a good chance they were going to ask me to also speak. I also realized that everyone was speaking in Kiswahili. I panicked and tried to think of some kind of eulogy I could offer to introduce myself, and how I would do it in Kiswahili. Finally, I just settled on doing it in English. Regrettable, but in the future, I will prepare a few words in Kiswahili any time I am meeting the community as a whole.
In other news, since we have been very busy with everything at school, I haven't had a chance to learn a lot of things about my community. For example, I mostly only know the teachers at the school, so if they are busy all day with funeral arrangements, and I need to get water from the pump, I don't know who to talk to. That resulted in me not having water for washing things (clothes, dishes, house, myself) most of the week. Somewhat unfortunate. Let this be a lesson to the Peace Corps staff that education volunteers need to arrive at their sites sometime prior to one week into the schoolyear.
I got to watch the inauguration at a restaurant near my house. It was nice of the president to mention me. He talked about nourishing hungry minds around the world, and that is pretty much my job description.
Otherwise, not much else to report from the week. I found out that PV=nRT is also not part of the curriculum, even though they treat gas laws extensively. I was helping the English teacher with some of his work this week, since he has a heavier workload as acting headmaster. It is hard to correct grammar to Kenyan English as opposed to American English. Also, I will be supervising some kind of agriculture activity at school tomorrow. Not really sure how someone who has never lived anywhere but extremely urban settings got that job, but it'll be an adventure. I have written a lot of suggestions for Peace Corps on how to improve training, hopefully to be sent when I actually post this. I think I am earning a reputation as Mr. I-Have-an-Opinion-About-Everything. (yes, that is a reference to 10 Things I Hate About You. I have nothing to be ashamed of.) I guess I will go with it for better or for worse.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Fun Times and Bad News
Well, this weekend was quite the whirlwind. I traveled to Voi on Saturday morning and met with Nick, another education volunteer who is stationed nearby. We spent the day in town and ate lunch with Yuri (sp?) who is a German volunteer in the area working in a primary school for a year. He is originally from Wurzburg, and seems like an interesting fellow. In the afternoon, we met up with Tori, a health volunteer who has been in the area for almost a year now. She took us to a bar for dinner. Nyama choma is basically grilled meat, and it is delicious. We also met up with Chris for dinner. He is from VSO (basically the British Peace Corps) and he is working in the same organization as Tori.
Nick and I crashed in Tori's guest room (she has pretty sweet digs) and on Sunday morning we did some shopping (I now have chairs!!!) before heading home. After waiting two hours for the matatu to come, I finally got a ride home. When I arrived, I found out that the headmaster of my school had just died. He had been sick since my arrival and I never had the chance to meet him. I heard he was a very nice man; he taught Christian Religious Education (CRE) at the school, and they always had their best marks on the exams in CRE. We are still figuring out the funeral arrangements so that we can get his body back to his home in Western Province.
Yesterday, we traveled to Wundanyi, which houses the district offices. The schools are on strike right now, so Peace Corps has banned us from going to school for safety reasons. I traveled with Bwana Boniface, the head of the Board of Governors (think schoolboard), to meet the District Education Officer (DEO). It was nice to meet him and see the offices in the area. Bwana Boniface also explained to Bwana DEO (and a few people in that office) that our school now only has 3 teachers employed by the government, and one of them has not even had his paperwork filed, so he is having some troubles. The 3 government teachers are supplemented by myself and one teacher hired by the Board of Governors (so that's 5 teachers, with no headmaster or deputy headmaster). But there are eleven subjects in the school, so hopefully we will have some teachers transferred here soon.
Nick and I crashed in Tori's guest room (she has pretty sweet digs) and on Sunday morning we did some shopping (I now have chairs!!!) before heading home. After waiting two hours for the matatu to come, I finally got a ride home. When I arrived, I found out that the headmaster of my school had just died. He had been sick since my arrival and I never had the chance to meet him. I heard he was a very nice man; he taught Christian Religious Education (CRE) at the school, and they always had their best marks on the exams in CRE. We are still figuring out the funeral arrangements so that we can get his body back to his home in Western Province.
Yesterday, we traveled to Wundanyi, which houses the district offices. The schools are on strike right now, so Peace Corps has banned us from going to school for safety reasons. I traveled with Bwana Boniface, the head of the Board of Governors (think schoolboard), to meet the District Education Officer (DEO). It was nice to meet him and see the offices in the area. Bwana Boniface also explained to Bwana DEO (and a few people in that office) that our school now only has 3 teachers employed by the government, and one of them has not even had his paperwork filed, so he is having some troubles. The 3 government teachers are supplemented by myself and one teacher hired by the Board of Governors (so that's 5 teachers, with no headmaster or deputy headmaster). But there are eleven subjects in the school, so hopefully we will have some teachers transferred here soon.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
My site placement
Sigh. This is the second time I am writing this blog post this afternoon. That is the problem with using desktop computers and unreliable power sources. The moral of the story is to save early and save often, I suppose.
Anyway, here is my overdue post on my site placement. I am stationed in a village called Maktau (or Mwakitau) which is an hour or so west of the city of Voi in Coast Province. I can still see Kilimanjaro, but now it is in the west. I like my community. The people are very nice and they have helped me with the adjustment. A lot of people raise livestock, but the area is going through a bit of a drought, so I may explore some other activities.
My house is very nice. I have lights and electricity and two rooms. I haven't bought furniture yet, but my kitchen has a gas cylinder and some buckets, while my bedroom has a mattress and my suitcases. Hopefully I will get furniture this weekend. Just outside, I have my own bafu (the room where I can take a bucket bath) and my own choo (the room with a hole in the ground and lots of flies and cockroaches).My house is located near a main road that leads from Tanzania to Mombasa (I think), so there are a lot of trucks that pass through. I think the town gets a good amount of business from trucks during the day. That works out well for me, since the cafe and shops are placed right next to my house. My house is actually about 2 km from school, but I walk to school before the hot part of the day and I come home when the heat is going down.
The school is only a few years old, and has about 100 total students. I am working as a chemistry teacher, which is a bit of a challenge, since chemistry is not exactly my specialty. (Of the 9 science teachers who swore in, none of us had chemistry as our primary specialty. You may be noticing a discrepancy between how many teachers we originally had, but alas I am not at liberty to discuss that on my blog.) I am very grateful to my mother and the chemistry department at OPRFHS for helping me to get a comprehensive chemistry textbook to fill some gaps I have here. The students take subjects for four years in high school here and have exams at the end of four years. They have to do very well on exams to go on to university (very small percentage manage that). I have to adhere to a strict curriculum, and I worry that it lacks are some fundamental topics that would help students to succeed on their exams (e.g. dimensional analysis). The students are energetic, so hopefully we can work together and really solve the KCSE (Kenyan Comprehensive Secondary Exam, I think). The teachers (I think we have 4 others, but we need to cover 7 subjects...) and staff have been helpful with everything so far. I was sick (see next paragraph) earlier this week, so Thursday was my first day teaching. Then on Friday (today), I found myself as the only teacher in the school. When that happens, I have to sit in the office (where there is a computer) so that students don't realize that there is no other teacher in the school (hence the blogging). The curriculum calls for a lot of memorization, so when there is no teacher, the students are usually well disciplined and work on their own. Hopefully this won't be a regular occurence.
So after arriving on Saturday, I was feeling somewhat sick. I will spare you the symptoms, but I will say that I love my cipro. I think that between Saturday and Wednesday my total calorie intake was less than 2000 (Medical, if you're reading this, it's really nothing you need to worry about). Now I am almost up to full strength, and eating meals again, so that is exciting. When I was sick, I had a lot of time to stay at home and read, but it feels good to be in the school now. I should be 100% soon.
No more posts for two weeks, probably. But I think they'll come in a fury then. Feel free to email me in the meantime.
Anyway, here is my overdue post on my site placement. I am stationed in a village called Maktau (or Mwakitau) which is an hour or so west of the city of Voi in Coast Province. I can still see Kilimanjaro, but now it is in the west. I like my community. The people are very nice and they have helped me with the adjustment. A lot of people raise livestock, but the area is going through a bit of a drought, so I may explore some other activities.
My house is very nice. I have lights and electricity and two rooms. I haven't bought furniture yet, but my kitchen has a gas cylinder and some buckets, while my bedroom has a mattress and my suitcases. Hopefully I will get furniture this weekend. Just outside, I have my own bafu (the room where I can take a bucket bath) and my own choo (the room with a hole in the ground and lots of flies and cockroaches).My house is located near a main road that leads from Tanzania to Mombasa (I think), so there are a lot of trucks that pass through. I think the town gets a good amount of business from trucks during the day. That works out well for me, since the cafe and shops are placed right next to my house. My house is actually about 2 km from school, but I walk to school before the hot part of the day and I come home when the heat is going down.
The school is only a few years old, and has about 100 total students. I am working as a chemistry teacher, which is a bit of a challenge, since chemistry is not exactly my specialty. (Of the 9 science teachers who swore in, none of us had chemistry as our primary specialty. You may be noticing a discrepancy between how many teachers we originally had, but alas I am not at liberty to discuss that on my blog.) I am very grateful to my mother and the chemistry department at OPRFHS for helping me to get a comprehensive chemistry textbook to fill some gaps I have here. The students take subjects for four years in high school here and have exams at the end of four years. They have to do very well on exams to go on to university (very small percentage manage that). I have to adhere to a strict curriculum, and I worry that it lacks are some fundamental topics that would help students to succeed on their exams (e.g. dimensional analysis). The students are energetic, so hopefully we can work together and really solve the KCSE (Kenyan Comprehensive Secondary Exam, I think). The teachers (I think we have 4 others, but we need to cover 7 subjects...) and staff have been helpful with everything so far. I was sick (see next paragraph) earlier this week, so Thursday was my first day teaching. Then on Friday (today), I found myself as the only teacher in the school. When that happens, I have to sit in the office (where there is a computer) so that students don't realize that there is no other teacher in the school (hence the blogging). The curriculum calls for a lot of memorization, so when there is no teacher, the students are usually well disciplined and work on their own. Hopefully this won't be a regular occurence.
So after arriving on Saturday, I was feeling somewhat sick. I will spare you the symptoms, but I will say that I love my cipro. I think that between Saturday and Wednesday my total calorie intake was less than 2000 (Medical, if you're reading this, it's really nothing you need to worry about). Now I am almost up to full strength, and eating meals again, so that is exciting. When I was sick, I had a lot of time to stay at home and read, but it feels good to be in the school now. I should be 100% soon.
No more posts for two weeks, probably. But I think they'll come in a fury then. Feel free to email me in the meantime.
2nd post about Nairobi
I have been told that I should have more frequent blog posts that are shorter. I will try to write a few each week and then update several at a time every few weeks (that's the best I can do, Christina). I will post them with dates corresponding to when they were written, so don't be surprised if 6 appear at once. Also, I now have email on my phone, so if that is easier, you can keep in touch with me that way.
Also, this week I read a transcript of the last speech that E.F. Schumacher made before he died. It is completely amazing and you should google it and read it. Schumacher wrote the book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, which shaped a lot of development work in the last 35 years.
In any case, here is the rest of what happened in Nairobi. It is a bustling city and I can understand why the sign in KSL (Kenyan Sign Language) for it means "don't go there." Also, I now have a sign name, and it was legitimately given by a deaf person (sign names aren't kosher if they come from hearing people). I found a restaurant and got a hamburger and a chocolate-banana milkshake, but I never ate cheese while I was there. They brought in more currently serving volunteers so that we could talk with them and learn about their experiences. As well as get to know them a little better. On Wednesday night, we brought some drinks back to the hotel and really unwound after training. (I was Mr. Classy with an impressively tasty box of wine.)
The swearing in happened on Thursday. The 35 of us (that is 16 who are sworn in and 19 of us are "provisional". Remember when it used to be 42? Actually, it was as high as 39 when we got to Nairobi...) got to meet with representatives from Kenya's government and the U.S. Embassy. There were some speeches, but the best was the one made by the volunteers (Paula in English, Charlotte in sign language and Eckhart in Swahili). They did an amazing job.
After swear-in, I shared another box of wine with two of the most remarkable volunteers in our group. Paula is a business volunteer, who, after a successful banking career, decided to travel the world for 8 years and then join the Peace Corps. She was born during the Eisenhower administration, but she is probably the most energetic volunteer. Pat is also a business volunteer and she gives Paula a run for her money in energy level. She has also done some work in Ghana and she was born during the Truman administration. The three of us talked a lot about training, and it is really inspirational to see their energy and attitude towards life. It was good to have one last hurrah before saying goodbye to everyone. We will have a training together in April, but it was still hard to go.
More to come soon...
Also, this week I read a transcript of the last speech that E.F. Schumacher made before he died. It is completely amazing and you should google it and read it. Schumacher wrote the book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, which shaped a lot of development work in the last 35 years.
In any case, here is the rest of what happened in Nairobi. It is a bustling city and I can understand why the sign in KSL (Kenyan Sign Language) for it means "don't go there." Also, I now have a sign name, and it was legitimately given by a deaf person (sign names aren't kosher if they come from hearing people). I found a restaurant and got a hamburger and a chocolate-banana milkshake, but I never ate cheese while I was there. They brought in more currently serving volunteers so that we could talk with them and learn about their experiences. As well as get to know them a little better. On Wednesday night, we brought some drinks back to the hotel and really unwound after training. (I was Mr. Classy with an impressively tasty box of wine.)
The swearing in happened on Thursday. The 35 of us (that is 16 who are sworn in and 19 of us are "provisional". Remember when it used to be 42? Actually, it was as high as 39 when we got to Nairobi...) got to meet with representatives from Kenya's government and the U.S. Embassy. There were some speeches, but the best was the one made by the volunteers (Paula in English, Charlotte in sign language and Eckhart in Swahili). They did an amazing job.
After swear-in, I shared another box of wine with two of the most remarkable volunteers in our group. Paula is a business volunteer, who, after a successful banking career, decided to travel the world for 8 years and then join the Peace Corps. She was born during the Eisenhower administration, but she is probably the most energetic volunteer. Pat is also a business volunteer and she gives Paula a run for her money in energy level. She has also done some work in Ghana and she was born during the Truman administration. The three of us talked a lot about training, and it is really inspirational to see their energy and attitude towards life. It was good to have one last hurrah before saying goodbye to everyone. We will have a training together in April, but it was still hard to go.
More to come soon...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Happy 2009! A big post to start off the year.
So training is pretty much over. We had our final Swahili exam last week, and they told me that I need to practice more (certainly true, but I hope to have a different examiner next time). Last night we had a big shindig at the training center, Nemo (one of the other teaching trainees) pulled out his guitar, and played all manner of requests and suffered through our tone-deaf attempts at singing (there are some good singers in the group I'm sure, but they were pretty well drowned out by those of us who remembered more lyrics and felt like belting them out). I guess I won't be tossing a frisbee (sahani ndege means bird plate, so that's how we translate it) for a little while until I'm settled into site, so I will miss that part of training (it was our ritual during breaks to play catch).
A teaching volunteer who has been in Kenya for a year now came to talk about her experiences and answer our pressing questions. Kelly has been wonderful, and we were all very grateful to talk with someone who knew what we were going through and who could assuage most of our fears. I'm also really excited to meet a current business volunteer who has been working on some kind of recycling project (perhaps a chance to pick up on where I left off with the water sachet project, in which case I will probably be talking to Jackie, Aparna and Pastor George).
We have just made it to Nairobi (the stress of the 8 hour bus ride was eased by several long games of Contact) and soon I will know where I am going. I have my suspicions, but I don't want to jinx anything. I talked to a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) who started in Kenya 5 years ago, and she was talking about her experiences using acronyms that mean nothing to me and she was very confused about the fact that we still don't know our site placements. Hopefully I will have a nice long post about my site, my project and my supervisor at the end of this week.
In a lot of ways, I feel pretty relieved that training is over (most importantly, no more sessions on the 8-4-4 system in Kenya [8 years primary school, 4 years secondary school and 4 years university] which is a point that our technical trainer heavily emphasized along with other bureaucratic tedia). I had gotten pretty comfortable living independently, and I lost a whole ton of that independence staying with a family in here. They were very nice people, but in a lot of ways I found some of the transitions difficult (for example: I was always the youngest child, and in my Kenyan family, I was the oldest). I also had a rather uncomfortable situation during the good-byes (I've never been a huge fan of good-bye), so I still have mixed feelings about returning.
Of course, I will come back, because I have a lot of work to continue. After all my talk about charcoal, I could never get a kiln, so people are very intrigued about it, but skeptical because I still haven't been able to demonstrate it. I helped a man named Damian build a greenhouse, and if I want to build one at my site, I will want to get some info from him (training was a ways up in the hills of Kilimanjaro, but we always made really long walks down to his farm [shamba] and Kilimanjaro looked much taller from down there). There was also a man named Alpain Kimani who was the one trying to start a greenhouse movement, and he is a really remarkable man. My friend Fire was great, and I look forward to visiting him, but I never knew if he was actually interested in what I was talking about or if he was just humoring me.
I would love to come back during the training for Public Health volunteers in a few months. I left on pretty good terms with their technical trainer, and I talked to him about some HIV/AIDS projects (mostly using information coming from LearnTB and Project MILK), so he may try to invite me back for some technical demonstrations (this time I will arrive with an oil drum in tow). I also want to visit Abbas again. He was a good Swahili teacher and a creative man, and I am really hoping that I will see him in Ghana in a few months. I also talked a bit with some of the teachers at a secondary school here in Loitoktok about income-generating projects, so I hope I will be able to do some follow-up work if I come back while school is in session.
Speaking of school being in session, the new schoolyear in Kenya started today. You might think that that would imply that I would be working in a classroom or at a school in some capacity. Nope, that comes next week. There are some bureaucratic details to handle this week, so I'm leaving Nairobi Friday afternoon and diving in head-first. No idea what subjects I will be teaching, where I will be going or who will be my colleagues. I have told some of the staff here about my frustrations, and we knew that we were part of a very experimental training, so hopefully it will be a lot better next time. I should say that Joseph (our training manager), Kibet (the culture facilitator), Nancy (the technical supervisor) and Charles (the training assistant) did outstanding work, and I hope that they keep up the good work and improve training for next time.
The Peace Corps is set up so that my supervisor from their end is the Associate Peace Corps Director (APCD). Enos will hopefully match me to a good site. Timothy is the APCD for Public Health and I have talked to him several times and I really like him and hope to collaborate with him on some cross-sector projects. Louis is the APCD for Small Enterprise Development/Information & Communication Technology (SEDICT), but previously he worked for Practical Action, so I would really like to work with him on projects too.
I forgot to list books in my last post, so here goes. I discovered they had a library at the training center, so I started taking as many books as I could get my hands on. Farm and Community Forestry (one of the more current books in the library, written in 1983) provided some really good insight into successes and failures of forestry programs around the world (as a testament to its age, the authors were beginning to suspect that data provided by China about reforestation during the Cultural Revolution, while in Haiti, initial reforestation efforts were described as promising). I only got to read half of a book titled The Wind Power Book by Jack Park. The book was about 30 years old, and mostly talked about his attempts to build windmills in California, but there were a lot of practical applications, so I may try to use some of the information in the book, but I had to return it to the library when I was only halfway done, so I still have a lot to learn before I try to construct my first windmill. We were assigned a book called The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong. I found it to be one of the most useless books I have ever had the misfortune to read. Periodically, he would make good points, but then he would use abhorrent evidence to support his ideas. Generally, the book was more appropriate in the elementary school setting (and the American setting), so it was even more disappointing that they wanted us to read it to prepare for our work in a high school. (Harry also thought he made good points about high school education. He was pretty much universally wrong.) I got to start the book titled Rainwater Harvesting, which is a pretty standard technical manual, and I really liked it, but I also had to return that one before I could finish it (an outstanding book that I hope to finish soon). Finally, I couldn't resist my nature, and borrowed Electricity and Magnetism by David Griffiths (8.07 Textbook if that means anything to you) from another trainee (from Thursday, I will have to stop saying trainee and start saying volunteer) and brushed up on my E&M. The man is a really good writer, and offers such clear examples that you forget that you're reading a textbook. Depending on what books I find in Nairobi, I might finally get back to that Supreme Court cases book, but it seems doubtful for now.
For those of you from MIT who are about to go on D-Lab trips or IAP fellowships, have a safe and productive trip, and be sure to say Hi (or Hola) to people who know me. I woke up Katy (sorry Katy, that revenge was about 3 years in the making) to try to pass this on as well. I even got a text message response from Amy Smith, so I know that D-Lab Ghana will be amazing this year.
Take it easy for now.
A teaching volunteer who has been in Kenya for a year now came to talk about her experiences and answer our pressing questions. Kelly has been wonderful, and we were all very grateful to talk with someone who knew what we were going through and who could assuage most of our fears. I'm also really excited to meet a current business volunteer who has been working on some kind of recycling project (perhaps a chance to pick up on where I left off with the water sachet project, in which case I will probably be talking to Jackie, Aparna and Pastor George).
We have just made it to Nairobi (the stress of the 8 hour bus ride was eased by several long games of Contact) and soon I will know where I am going. I have my suspicions, but I don't want to jinx anything. I talked to a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) who started in Kenya 5 years ago, and she was talking about her experiences using acronyms that mean nothing to me and she was very confused about the fact that we still don't know our site placements. Hopefully I will have a nice long post about my site, my project and my supervisor at the end of this week.
In a lot of ways, I feel pretty relieved that training is over (most importantly, no more sessions on the 8-4-4 system in Kenya [8 years primary school, 4 years secondary school and 4 years university] which is a point that our technical trainer heavily emphasized along with other bureaucratic tedia). I had gotten pretty comfortable living independently, and I lost a whole ton of that independence staying with a family in here. They were very nice people, but in a lot of ways I found some of the transitions difficult (for example: I was always the youngest child, and in my Kenyan family, I was the oldest). I also had a rather uncomfortable situation during the good-byes (I've never been a huge fan of good-bye), so I still have mixed feelings about returning.
Of course, I will come back, because I have a lot of work to continue. After all my talk about charcoal, I could never get a kiln, so people are very intrigued about it, but skeptical because I still haven't been able to demonstrate it. I helped a man named Damian build a greenhouse, and if I want to build one at my site, I will want to get some info from him (training was a ways up in the hills of Kilimanjaro, but we always made really long walks down to his farm [shamba] and Kilimanjaro looked much taller from down there). There was also a man named Alpain Kimani who was the one trying to start a greenhouse movement, and he is a really remarkable man. My friend Fire was great, and I look forward to visiting him, but I never knew if he was actually interested in what I was talking about or if he was just humoring me.
I would love to come back during the training for Public Health volunteers in a few months. I left on pretty good terms with their technical trainer, and I talked to him about some HIV/AIDS projects (mostly using information coming from LearnTB and Project MILK), so he may try to invite me back for some technical demonstrations (this time I will arrive with an oil drum in tow). I also want to visit Abbas again. He was a good Swahili teacher and a creative man, and I am really hoping that I will see him in Ghana in a few months. I also talked a bit with some of the teachers at a secondary school here in Loitoktok about income-generating projects, so I hope I will be able to do some follow-up work if I come back while school is in session.
Speaking of school being in session, the new schoolyear in Kenya started today. You might think that that would imply that I would be working in a classroom or at a school in some capacity. Nope, that comes next week. There are some bureaucratic details to handle this week, so I'm leaving Nairobi Friday afternoon and diving in head-first. No idea what subjects I will be teaching, where I will be going or who will be my colleagues. I have told some of the staff here about my frustrations, and we knew that we were part of a very experimental training, so hopefully it will be a lot better next time. I should say that Joseph (our training manager), Kibet (the culture facilitator), Nancy (the technical supervisor) and Charles (the training assistant) did outstanding work, and I hope that they keep up the good work and improve training for next time.
The Peace Corps is set up so that my supervisor from their end is the Associate Peace Corps Director (APCD). Enos will hopefully match me to a good site. Timothy is the APCD for Public Health and I have talked to him several times and I really like him and hope to collaborate with him on some cross-sector projects. Louis is the APCD for Small Enterprise Development/Information & Communication Technology (SEDICT), but previously he worked for Practical Action, so I would really like to work with him on projects too.
I forgot to list books in my last post, so here goes. I discovered they had a library at the training center, so I started taking as many books as I could get my hands on. Farm and Community Forestry (one of the more current books in the library, written in 1983) provided some really good insight into successes and failures of forestry programs around the world (as a testament to its age, the authors were beginning to suspect that data provided by China about reforestation during the Cultural Revolution, while in Haiti, initial reforestation efforts were described as promising). I only got to read half of a book titled The Wind Power Book by Jack Park. The book was about 30 years old, and mostly talked about his attempts to build windmills in California, but there were a lot of practical applications, so I may try to use some of the information in the book, but I had to return it to the library when I was only halfway done, so I still have a lot to learn before I try to construct my first windmill. We were assigned a book called The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong. I found it to be one of the most useless books I have ever had the misfortune to read. Periodically, he would make good points, but then he would use abhorrent evidence to support his ideas. Generally, the book was more appropriate in the elementary school setting (and the American setting), so it was even more disappointing that they wanted us to read it to prepare for our work in a high school. (Harry also thought he made good points about high school education. He was pretty much universally wrong.) I got to start the book titled Rainwater Harvesting, which is a pretty standard technical manual, and I really liked it, but I also had to return that one before I could finish it (an outstanding book that I hope to finish soon). Finally, I couldn't resist my nature, and borrowed Electricity and Magnetism by David Griffiths (8.07 Textbook if that means anything to you) from another trainee (from Thursday, I will have to stop saying trainee and start saying volunteer) and brushed up on my E&M. The man is a really good writer, and offers such clear examples that you forget that you're reading a textbook. Depending on what books I find in Nairobi, I might finally get back to that Supreme Court cases book, but it seems doubtful for now.
For those of you from MIT who are about to go on D-Lab trips or IAP fellowships, have a safe and productive trip, and be sure to say Hi (or Hola) to people who know me. I woke up Katy (sorry Katy, that revenge was about 3 years in the making) to try to pass this on as well. I even got a text message response from Amy Smith, so I know that D-Lab Ghana will be amazing this year.
Take it easy for now.
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