On Friday I taught my chemistry lessons during tuition (one of my colleagues decided to double my workload at the last minute and then started harassing me for needing extra time) and headed to the bus stop in town. I wound up waiting almost two hours, but the wait was worth it, since I managed to catch a bus that was going straight to Mombasa (Taveta-Mombasa buses are rare, so I think this qualifies as a jackpot). I arrived in Mombasa in the afternoon and headed straight to Nakumatt (a wonderful grocery store here in Kenya) only to find that they were out of Macaroni and Cheese (my first instinct was to buy enchiladas, but I wasn't going to have an oven to use, so I had to put that on hold). Instead, I bought macaroni, and I bought cheese and other ingredients to make it from scratch. Then I headed to Jonathan's house (an ICT volunteer; read more about him here). We miraculously managed not to injure ourselves or fall violently ill in our pursuit of macaroni and cheese so we considered it a success. Our night also consisted of reading the wikipedia article on stick figures (I blame Randall Munroe) and other miscellany before crashing.
We headed up the coast on Saturday (the first time for either of us to travel to North Coast) where we met up with Ari (a business volunteer who works on an eco-tourism project a.k.a. taking people snorkeling in the gorgeous seas near his village) who was just about to head out on an excursion. We tagged along and saw some beautiful coral and all kinds of exotic fish and an indescribably beautiful area. We joined another Peace Corps volunteer named Sarah (she is a deaf education volunteer whose site is near Ari's, and she is deaf) who was bringing her deaf colleague who was visiting Kenya along for the ride. We had a lot of fun although I wound up drinking a lot of saltwater (apparently I need to improve my snorkeling technique) and getting a stunner of a sunburn (kinda glad I don't have pictures of this one; I put on sunscreen, but this is still excruciating). I took the opportunity to practice my sign language, but I wish that I had more opportunities to improve it.
After snorkeling, we grabbed a quick snack before Jonathan, Ari and I headed off to Ari's house so that we could slaughter a goat for dinner. Ari was very excited about his new skinning knife that he brought from the states, but we decided to let one of the neighbors do the honors (personally, I'm still squeamish about the slaughtering and my meat consumption has declined considerably here). We spent a while playing with Forgus, a dog who stays near Ari, and had a nice time while the neighbors enjoyed all the work associated with turning the newly slaughtered goat into a meal. It was also at this point that I realized the extent of my sunburn and have been moving around tenderly ever since. We spent the evening in Ari's living room talking with the neighbors and eating some delicious goat before crashing pretty early (I think the snorkeling took more energy than any of us realized).
The next morning, Jonathan and I woke up early to travel to Malindi for our 9 AM meeting (the entire purpose of our excursion was to meet with our other teammates about our HIV information hotline). We brought in two of the new public health volunteers (they definitely have relevant expertise) named DeAnne and Mitch and a deaf education volunteer named Erin (since we also want to figure out considerations about disabled Kenyans as well; check out her blog here). The two Kenyans on our team had uncovered a wealth of information since our last meeting, so we had a productive discussion and the meeting lasted two hours.
After the meeting, we went out to explore Malindi a bit. We found a nice juice place and enjoyed drinks there before heading to a fantastic restaurant called I Love Pizza. We found the service a bit slow, but the food was excellent, and it gave all of us a chance to chat a bit more (just the five volunteers at this point, the two Kenyans had other engagements). The conversation was mostly funny, and it was nice to get to know some of the new volunteers. One of the most memorable moments was when they were talking about the Peace Corps Kenya flash disks they had received at the end of their training. We received nothing of the sort (we also found out about some other privileges they had enjoyed during training which were marked improvements over what our group endured) so we grilled them about their toys and grumbled a bit (soon we'll be the longest serving active volunteers in Kenya, so I guess we're developing into old curmudgeons). After enjoying my Mexican Chicken pizza (I also tasted Erin's ambrosia-like passion fruit juice to which they add a hint of cinnamon) we had to go our separate ways.
Jonathan and I hopped a matatu back to Mombasa (we went back and forth owing each other money the whole weekend, and since he paid for the last ride, I am still in debt to him 200 shillings). The matatu made it in record time, so we headed back to his place to recoup before I went home. Jonathan's place is actually just south of Mombasa, so we had to cross the Likoni ferry (always an adventure) to get there. After eating a tasty stir-fry and watching some Arrested Development (one of my favorite shows) I had to hop on a matatu and head back to site (I needed to put breaks in between my matatu rides since the sunburn was killing me; fortunately, Jonathan had some aloe that I applied).
The whole purpose of the weekend was to just go with the flow and see where things took us. All in all, I have to say that it was a huge success. Now I have to get back to school, where I fear life will become incredibly stressful very soon, so I am glad that I was able to unwind completely this weekend. The other funny note was that at the matatu stage some hawkers (any place matatus are waiting, you will be accosted by people selling everything from soda to socks) selling razors labeled ALSHABAB (for those of you not up to date with your Somali news, they are the main rebel group trying to bring down the government these days). I thought about buying one for one of the volunteers who was arrested by the Kenyan police under suspicion of being al-Shabab, but the hawker moved away before I could flag him down. I'll try to get one for you next time, Abdul.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Another day in the lab
Today I set aside a chunk of time for students to do a lab. I took the
opportunity to use up some excess solutions from previous labs.
Unfortunately, due to a spill in the lab, we ran out of ammonia. I
wasn't sure of the original concentration (the purpose of the lab was
for students to determine that), so I decided to approximate based on
smell. At first, I found it was too choking, so I added more water,
then I found it too tolerable, so I added more ammonia. Finally, I
felt content with the level of noxiousness and let the students
continue with the lab.
opportunity to use up some excess solutions from previous labs.
Unfortunately, due to a spill in the lab, we ran out of ammonia. I
wasn't sure of the original concentration (the purpose of the lab was
for students to determine that), so I decided to approximate based on
smell. At first, I found it was too choking, so I added more water,
then I found it too tolerable, so I added more ammonia. Finally, I
felt content with the level of noxiousness and let the students
continue with the lab.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuition
Right now the school is open for the third and fourth years. It's the
final push for the fourth years and an opportunity for catch up for
the third years. The sessions are theoretically mandatory, but since
several students cannot afford their school fees, they are not allowed
to attend the lessons. The program is called remedial tuition; I agree
with the remedy part, although this is not exactly what I think of
when I hear tutoring. Also, some of the staff are not coming back for
this, which is increasing my workload more so. (I've even started to
describe it as being hosed again, since I feel as overworked as I did
in university.) Still, things are much more flexible right now, so I'm
trying to use that to my advantage.
final push for the fourth years and an opportunity for catch up for
the third years. The sessions are theoretically mandatory, but since
several students cannot afford their school fees, they are not allowed
to attend the lessons. The program is called remedial tuition; I agree
with the remedy part, although this is not exactly what I think of
when I hear tutoring. Also, some of the staff are not coming back for
this, which is increasing my workload more so. (I've even started to
describe it as being hosed again, since I feel as overworked as I did
in university.) Still, things are much more flexible right now, so I'm
trying to use that to my advantage.
I finally decided to give a lesson about the birds and the bees to my
students. I made it completely optional and only vaguely defined the
subject matter. Four girls came, so I started talking for a bit until
they felt comfortable and the questions started flowing. "Is it true
that you can't get pregnant if you have sex with an uncircumcised
man?" "How many types of virginity are there?" "I heard that if a man
doesn't shave his pubic hair, it will give the woman cancer." The
small group made the students feel more comfortable about asking
questions, but I hope that this information will spread to more
students.
Also, last night I went to the nearby restaurant and taught the cook
there how to make peanut soup (Ghanaian style). He really liked it,
and is considering putting it on the menu. I'm hoping to encourage him
to plant some peanuts, since I think they'd do well in this area.
(Don't I always have an ulterior motive?) I've been told variously
that the crops are threatened by the goats, squirrels or rats in the
area. Sounds like I need to learn a bit more about fences now.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
I regret nothing
Definitely had a fun weekend. I started off by going to see
Katharina's site on saturday. She stays with a very friendly family,
so I enjoyed their company. Then, I went to see the blauhaus, which
was a nice bit of construction. It was a dome shape covering an area
of about 10 feet by 10 feet with a max height a bit over 5 feet. She
had planted some potatoes inside. In spite of the careful
craftsmanship, I could see that it didn't meet the specifications for
a greenhouse. We talked a bit about lessons learned and improvements
for the next blauhaus. Then we set out to wait for the greenhouse
expert who was supposed to come. We went to the well to bring back
some water for the family. I'm pretty sure that Katharina just wanted
to see how many marriage proposals I would receive at the well. The
family was kind enough to give us 10 liter containers so we were each
carrying 22 lbs of water back a mile and a half to the house. We
carried the water back to the house and arrived for lunch. They served
a very delicious meal and I cannot be sure what meat was served, but
it may have been illegally caught. After that, we played with the baby
a bit and watched the family making blocks that will soon be tree to
make a small room separate from the house. Katharina and I talked
German and Swahili a bit and she even showed me her German-Swahili
phrase book, which was pretty interesting. Then the father came up and
asked me to revise a proposal he had written for a solar system for
the local hospital. It seemed like a nice proposal and I only had a
few suggestions. At this point, I started to fear that the greenhouse
man wasn't going to come, so I excused myself and began my trek from
the village to the main road.
Katharina's site on saturday. She stays with a very friendly family,
so I enjoyed their company. Then, I went to see the blauhaus, which
was a nice bit of construction. It was a dome shape covering an area
of about 10 feet by 10 feet with a max height a bit over 5 feet. She
had planted some potatoes inside. In spite of the careful
craftsmanship, I could see that it didn't meet the specifications for
a greenhouse. We talked a bit about lessons learned and improvements
for the next blauhaus. Then we set out to wait for the greenhouse
expert who was supposed to come. We went to the well to bring back
some water for the family. I'm pretty sure that Katharina just wanted
to see how many marriage proposals I would receive at the well. The
family was kind enough to give us 10 liter containers so we were each
carrying 22 lbs of water back a mile and a half to the house. We
carried the water back to the house and arrived for lunch. They served
a very delicious meal and I cannot be sure what meat was served, but
it may have been illegally caught. After that, we played with the baby
a bit and watched the family making blocks that will soon be tree to
make a small room separate from the house. Katharina and I talked
German and Swahili a bit and she even showed me her German-Swahili
phrase book, which was pretty interesting. Then the father came up and
asked me to revise a proposal he had written for a solar system for
the local hospital. It seemed like a nice proposal and I only had a
few suggestions. At this point, I started to fear that the greenhouse
man wasn't going to come, so I excused myself and began my trek from
the village to the main road.
They warned me that it was far and that I might see elephants on the
way, but since there were no matatus leaving until the next day, and I
was supposed to arrive in Mombasa by nightfall, I said my goodbyes and
scurried for the road. Well, I was pretty tired when the matatu had
dropped me off, so the distance seemed a lot shorter. I wound up
walking about 7 miles just to get back to the main road and another
three before I found a matatu to take me the rest of the way to Voi.
The first three hours (the walking part) were a pleasant journey where
I saw some nice birds and plants and had nice conversations with
people walking in the same direction. The last 10 minutes (the matatu
part), I also covered 10 miles and was glad to arrive in Voi. I
hurried to the cyber cafe where I had forgotten my keys again before
grabbing some apple juice and hopping on a bus to matatu. The
conductor tried to charge me 400 for the ride before I insisted in
Swahili that the price was 250. He was taken aback and let me climb on
the bus. (I'd had a similar experience in the morning with someone
trying to overcharge me from Maktau to Voi and I nearly had to get off
the bus before the guy realized that I knew what I was talking about
and allowed me to pay the correct price.)
I made it to Mombasa only to find that the hotel where other
volunteers (the main reason for this trip was to get to know some of
the new health volunteers who had just sworn in) were staying had
already filled and was out of water. I walked half a block to a much
cheaper place that had water (the only trade off is that the bathroom
is shared) and took a glorious shower (I was pretty gross after
everything that had happened throughout the day) before meeting the
other volunteers for some pizza (mediocre seems a charitable
description) before heading to a club for the evening.
The club is in a parking lot, which was actually pretty cool. We drank
and danced and I met some of the new volunteers and saw some volunteer
I hadn't seen since April. Fortunately, we had had a bit to drink by
the time the rain started so we kept dancing and held chairs over our
heads, which were not very effective as umbrellas. It was a lot of
fun, but it was getting pretty late, so we went back to our hotels.
Sunday morning we walked around a bit. Several places were closed
since it was the start of ramadan and Mombasa is heavily Muslim.
Still, we saw some of Old Town Mombasa before grabbing some ice cream
and heading to an Indian buffet for lunch. After that, we knew it was
time to part ways.
The trip back to site via Voi was rather uneventful. The problem with
Sunday afternoons is that most of the stores in Voi are closed. I
found one open supermarket and grabbed some groceries before heading
home. I found another teacher from my school on the bus so we chatted
the whole way home. When I arrived, I decided that I would make myself
some garlic toast for dinner. I had noted with a chuckle as I read the
ingredients on the bread that it contained raising fruits. I assumed
that was a creative way to say yeast. Then on my second piece, I
understood what the intended message was. I continued unperturbed and
found my garlic-raisin toast surprisingly pleasant.
As I said, I regret nothing.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Day trip to Mombasa
Yesterday, I decided to go to Mombasa to see if it makes sense to try to make the roundtrip in one day.
I left at sunrise, and had some matatu delays getting to Voi. I grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to Mombasa. We hit some traffic, but I managed to make it to my meeting only somewhat late. This was my follow-up with the blind group that I met last week. They're office turned out to be a room made out of corrugated iron sheets in one of the poorer areas of Mombasa. I spoke with three of the officers for a long time. Initially, they were saying that their biggest problems were financial, however I made it abundantly clear that I was living on a volunteer salary. We brainstormed a bit about some things that I could do to help them and then we sat talking for a while. They had lots of questions for me on all topics ranging from Kenya's education system to my travels to general culture. I learned a lot of interesting things from them too. The chairman plays bass guitar in a band, while i member who is only blind in one eye works as a cameraman. They explained to me the rules of goalball, which is a popular sport in the blind community and sounds like a lot of fun. I told them that they could blindfold me and I would play with them sometime. It even sounded like a fun game to try at my school some day. It really amazed me how much they do in spite of the fact that most of their materials are printed and they don't have any equipment for writing in Braille other than a stylus. They also don't have a computer, which could really make a huge difference in some of their projects. The conversation was very nice, but I realized that I was already running late for my next appointment.
I arrived to find that the man with whom I was meeting was even later than I was, so I read a bit. This meeting was with an NGO that works on HIV-related projects, and he had agreed to meet with me about the hotline project (we should probably come up with a catchy name for this). I gave him a general outline of our thought process and asked him some questions. He seemed impressed with our current direction and provided a lot of useful information and some important tasks, then he encouraged us to follow up with him. I guess we're doing something right.
I had to cut our meeting short to catch a matatu in time. I managed to make it just in time for a terribly unpleasant journey. As we were leaving Mombasa, the other passengers were speculating whether the blood spattered on the asphalt in front of a truck where a crowd had gathered was that of a person or a cow. Alas, I'm pretty sure that it was the former, I can only hope that it was quick and painless :-(. We drove on without event for a ways before we arrived at a poorly marked police checkpoint. Many vehicles were trying to figure out which lane was correct, and just as we approached the checkpoint a car drove into us. No one was injured (it looked like mostly superficial damage to the vehicles), but the police found it necessary to keep us sitting there for an inordinate amount of time. We weren't sure why we had to wait, and the police seemed completely indifferent to the children in
the matatu who were hungry and just wanted to go home and eat. We were all relieved when we were released to hail another vehicle back home, and I was just grateful to make it home in time.
In conclusion, making a day trip to Mombasa may be more hassle than it's worth. Still, I am very glad that I had those two meetings.
Also, my apologies for the erratic blogging. I think that I should be
able to post a bit more regularly for the foreseeable future. I posted Books 7.0 and I finished all the posts from my training last week (there's also a new section at the end of Training Day 1) and I added a comment to A New Project with one part of that post that I had missed. Lastly, I've added a few frills to the sidebar on the blog, and I hope to update them a bit more. You can check out other volunteer blogs as well as my friend Jackie. This has sadly attacked the formatting a bit. Apologies.
I left at sunrise, and had some matatu delays getting to Voi. I grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to Mombasa. We hit some traffic, but I managed to make it to my meeting only somewhat late. This was my follow-up with the blind group that I met last week. They're office turned out to be a room made out of corrugated iron sheets in one of the poorer areas of Mombasa. I spoke with three of the officers for a long time. Initially, they were saying that their biggest problems were financial, however I made it abundantly clear that I was living on a volunteer salary. We brainstormed a bit about some things that I could do to help them and then we sat talking for a while. They had lots of questions for me on all topics ranging from Kenya's education system to my travels to general culture. I learned a lot of interesting things from them too. The chairman plays bass guitar in a band, while i member who is only blind in one eye works as a cameraman. They explained to me the rules of goalball, which is a popular sport in the blind community and sounds like a lot of fun. I told them that they could blindfold me and I would play with them sometime. It even sounded like a fun game to try at my school some day. It really amazed me how much they do in spite of the fact that most of their materials are printed and they don't have any equipment for writing in Braille other than a stylus. They also don't have a computer, which could really make a huge difference in some of their projects. The conversation was very nice, but I realized that I was already running late for my next appointment.
I arrived to find that the man with whom I was meeting was even later than I was, so I read a bit. This meeting was with an NGO that works on HIV-related projects, and he had agreed to meet with me about the hotline project (we should probably come up with a catchy name for this). I gave him a general outline of our thought process and asked him some questions. He seemed impressed with our current direction and provided a lot of useful information and some important tasks, then he encouraged us to follow up with him. I guess we're doing something right.
I had to cut our meeting short to catch a matatu in time. I managed to make it just in time for a terribly unpleasant journey. As we were leaving Mombasa, the other passengers were speculating whether the blood spattered on the asphalt in front of a truck where a crowd had gathered was that of a person or a cow. Alas, I'm pretty sure that it was the former, I can only hope that it was quick and painless :-(. We drove on without event for a ways before we arrived at a poorly marked police checkpoint. Many vehicles were trying to figure out which lane was correct, and just as we approached the checkpoint a car drove into us. No one was injured (it looked like mostly superficial damage to the vehicles), but the police found it necessary to keep us sitting there for an inordinate amount of time. We weren't sure why we had to wait, and the police seemed completely indifferent to the children in
the matatu who were hungry and just wanted to go home and eat. We were all relieved when we were released to hail another vehicle back home, and I was just grateful to make it home in time.
In conclusion, making a day trip to Mombasa may be more hassle than it's worth. Still, I am very glad that I had those two meetings.
Also, my apologies for the erratic blogging. I think that I should be
able to post a bit more regularly for the foreseeable future. I posted Books 7.0 and I finished all the posts from my training last week (there's also a new section at the end of Training Day 1) and I added a comment to A New Project with one part of that post that I had missed. Lastly, I've added a few frills to the sidebar on the blog, and I hope to update them a bit more. You can check out other volunteer blogs as well as my friend Jackie. This has sadly attacked the formatting a bit. Apologies.
Ups and downs
On Tuesday, I decided to finally climb the large hill behind my house
(I imagine several of my relatives cringed at that split infinitive).
It has always called to me, but I'm always so exhausted during the
school term, so this was perfect timing. As I started climbing, I
noticed the scrub was increasing a lot. Soon, the path vanished
altogether and I was just wending my way as best I could. About
halfway up, I realized there might be introverted snakes in the rocks
and made a mental note that next time I do this, I will wear my hiking
boots instead of my sandals. I felt reassured when I saw some goats
foraging, since it meant the snakes are accustomed to visitors. As I
climbed higher, the scrub gave way to rocks and I was grateful the
hill wasn't steeper. When I reached the top, I concluded that I was
perhaps 200 meters high (a bit over 60 stories) but then, my
estimation skills have never been great. I could certainly feel the
change in pressure. I admired some half finished stone structures that
showed many visitors had preceded me. I climbed on top of them and
admired my view. I was able to pick out my house from up there. It was
also amazing to see the brown area of drought ridden farms in Mwakitau
surrounded by a green layer of scrub and brush. I also marvelled at
the expanse of Tsavo Park and how I could see several kilometers of
the park from my vantage point. Finally, I noted a nearby hill that is
a bit taller and resolved to make that my next project.
(I imagine several of my relatives cringed at that split infinitive).
It has always called to me, but I'm always so exhausted during the
school term, so this was perfect timing. As I started climbing, I
noticed the scrub was increasing a lot. Soon, the path vanished
altogether and I was just wending my way as best I could. About
halfway up, I realized there might be introverted snakes in the rocks
and made a mental note that next time I do this, I will wear my hiking
boots instead of my sandals. I felt reassured when I saw some goats
foraging, since it meant the snakes are accustomed to visitors. As I
climbed higher, the scrub gave way to rocks and I was grateful the
hill wasn't steeper. When I reached the top, I concluded that I was
perhaps 200 meters high (a bit over 60 stories) but then, my
estimation skills have never been great. I could certainly feel the
change in pressure. I admired some half finished stone structures that
showed many visitors had preceded me. I climbed on top of them and
admired my view. I was able to pick out my house from up there. It was
also amazing to see the brown area of drought ridden farms in Mwakitau
surrounded by a green layer of scrub and brush. I also marvelled at
the expanse of Tsavo Park and how I could see several kilometers of
the park from my vantage point. Finally, I noted a nearby hill that is
a bit taller and resolved to make that my next project.
I came down and caught my breath before heading to school for the next
activity of the day. I never followed up on here about the compost
project, but after we started the pile, I didn't have the time for
upkeep, and it stopped decomposing because it needed more manure. I
resolved that this term, we would do the project correctly, so I would
dig pits in order to retain moisture better and so that it could be a
more formalized process. Well, digging holes can take some time,
especially with the soil we have here, so I only finished half of the
first one before the sun was starting to dip, so I packed up and
headed home. Just 3 1/2 more to go.
Tuesday evening, I was talking with a friend from college who asked if
I ever feel homesick. I told her that I really don't have that
feeling. She replied that she'd probably feel the same way if both of
her parents decided to give her their last names. :-)
Monday, August 17, 2009
Capitol FM
Since the radio just quoted me, I have to post about it.
My favorite Kenyan radio station (98.4, Capitol FM,
http://capitolfm.co.ke) is starting a tree planting program here. I
emailed them to say that my students would love to participate (they
always get excited when I can bring things like radio references into
my lessons). The host, Eve, read part of my message on the air and
sent me some information. I want to see if I can convince them to
bring some nice drought-resistant trees this way.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Training Day 5 (Good-byes)
Well, training ended without much fanfare. The session actually ended a bit early because we were supposed to hear from Peace Corps's IT staffer, but his flight from Nairobi was delayed because the airline was having a "go-slow" (it's a form of protest where workers show up, but do their jobs even more exceedingly slowly than they do on a normal day). This was pretty unfortunate because Peace Corps relies on a piece of software to send information to us, even though we haven't really had any exposure to it :(. We heard a brief speech on the abhorrent volunteer reporting tool that we have to file 3 times a year. We tried to raise some issues, but there's no way that our feedback would ever reach the level of people who have the power to change this. So it goes.
Before going to lunch, I managed to wrangle everyone from our conversation on Wednesday for a quick meeting. Five of us decided we were willing to commit to this project, so we assigned initial tasks and set a date for a follow-up meeting. I'll be researching the counseling process in Kenya, so that should keep me pretty busy :). I think we have a good direction and some good momentum on this project, so I'm optimistic that we'll have some good ideas at our next meeting.
The afternoon was pretty relaxed. I went to the pool and then played some volleyball. I need to improve my volleyball skills a lot, apparently. (Just remember, slap Jack!) The afternoon was a pretty lazy day, which was nice. I moved around talking to people the whole time and just taking in the day.
After dinner, we decided to head out. We drank a little wine at the hotel (yep, we even pre-game in Kenya) before hitting the beach. We found a little joint with only semi-exorbitant beers and good music (but no dancing) and took over the place for a little while. I found myself sitting with three of the deaf ed volunteers and talking a bit with them. At one point, another volunteer yelled at me (from all the way across the bar) for pretending like I knew what they were signing to one another. Since one of the deaf volunteers was there, they were translating what I had just said for her, but thankfully, I wasn't drunk enough (yet) to shout that back across the bar. Then we decided to head to a club near our hotel called Il Covo. It's a nice place and we were all looking forward to it. Jonathan and I walked another volunteer back to the hotel because she wanted to pass on Il Covo. When we arrived, we found that some of the Kenyans that we were hanging out with (counterparts and Peace Corps staff) had been turned away at the gate. Apparently, to maintain the atmosphere of the club, they charge all Kenyans a one time fee of 500 shillings to enter. The purpose of this is to reduce the number of prostitutes and beach bums wandering in there (we encountered plenty on the beach all week). However, they never charge white people this fee. Jonathan and I were particularly dismayed that a deaf counterpart had been turned away (most prostitutes do not dress in such a conservative manner). He started arguing a bit and demanding to see the manager. The word discrimination was thrown out there a bit. Jonathan managed to bring her and the sign language interpreter into the club, but it left a bad taste in our mouths. Then I went down and found that several Peace Corps staff had been told the same thing. I kept telling them it was bad business, since this was clearly not the clientele they were trying to avoid (I promised myself at the start of this week that I would be less confrontational, so I avoided words like discrimination). They grumblingly let us in, but one staff member decided that he didn't want to enter some place just because he had an American friend, while another decided that he wanted to talk to the manager a bit as well. After a short time, we all just decided to abandon the club and go back to the hotel. We were a lot happier that way, since we could actually be with our friends (the Austrians even brought out some speakers so that we could listen to music while we drank at the bar). I'm glad the night ended well, but it was still a rather appalling episode. The next morning, the word racist was bandied about a bit (mind you, the bouncer was Kenyan, although the owner was European) and we managed to calm ourselves a bit.
Well, now training is over. I don't even know when I'm going to see most of these volunteers and counterparts again (to say nothing of the ones who weren't at the training). It was nice to relax a bit, and now I feel pretty energized. I'm also excited about some of the projects that I picked up, and the fact that I will probably visit a few people's sites this term for more projects. There were some really amazing counterparts, so I hope that I will see them again next August. Maybe.
Before going to lunch, I managed to wrangle everyone from our conversation on Wednesday for a quick meeting. Five of us decided we were willing to commit to this project, so we assigned initial tasks and set a date for a follow-up meeting. I'll be researching the counseling process in Kenya, so that should keep me pretty busy :). I think we have a good direction and some good momentum on this project, so I'm optimistic that we'll have some good ideas at our next meeting.
The afternoon was pretty relaxed. I went to the pool and then played some volleyball. I need to improve my volleyball skills a lot, apparently. (Just remember, slap Jack!) The afternoon was a pretty lazy day, which was nice. I moved around talking to people the whole time and just taking in the day.
After dinner, we decided to head out. We drank a little wine at the hotel (yep, we even pre-game in Kenya) before hitting the beach. We found a little joint with only semi-exorbitant beers and good music (but no dancing) and took over the place for a little while. I found myself sitting with three of the deaf ed volunteers and talking a bit with them. At one point, another volunteer yelled at me (from all the way across the bar) for pretending like I knew what they were signing to one another. Since one of the deaf volunteers was there, they were translating what I had just said for her, but thankfully, I wasn't drunk enough (yet) to shout that back across the bar. Then we decided to head to a club near our hotel called Il Covo. It's a nice place and we were all looking forward to it. Jonathan and I walked another volunteer back to the hotel because she wanted to pass on Il Covo. When we arrived, we found that some of the Kenyans that we were hanging out with (counterparts and Peace Corps staff) had been turned away at the gate. Apparently, to maintain the atmosphere of the club, they charge all Kenyans a one time fee of 500 shillings to enter. The purpose of this is to reduce the number of prostitutes and beach bums wandering in there (we encountered plenty on the beach all week). However, they never charge white people this fee. Jonathan and I were particularly dismayed that a deaf counterpart had been turned away (most prostitutes do not dress in such a conservative manner). He started arguing a bit and demanding to see the manager. The word discrimination was thrown out there a bit. Jonathan managed to bring her and the sign language interpreter into the club, but it left a bad taste in our mouths. Then I went down and found that several Peace Corps staff had been told the same thing. I kept telling them it was bad business, since this was clearly not the clientele they were trying to avoid (I promised myself at the start of this week that I would be less confrontational, so I avoided words like discrimination). They grumblingly let us in, but one staff member decided that he didn't want to enter some place just because he had an American friend, while another decided that he wanted to talk to the manager a bit as well. After a short time, we all just decided to abandon the club and go back to the hotel. We were a lot happier that way, since we could actually be with our friends (the Austrians even brought out some speakers so that we could listen to music while we drank at the bar). I'm glad the night ended well, but it was still a rather appalling episode. The next morning, the word racist was bandied about a bit (mind you, the bouncer was Kenyan, although the owner was European) and we managed to calm ourselves a bit.
Well, now training is over. I don't even know when I'm going to see most of these volunteers and counterparts again (to say nothing of the ones who weren't at the training). It was nice to relax a bit, and now I feel pretty energized. I'm also excited about some of the projects that I picked up, and the fact that I will probably visit a few people's sites this term for more projects. There were some really amazing counterparts, so I hope that I will see them again next August. Maybe.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Training Day 4 (A day at the fair)
Today was our field day. Although the hotel where we are staying is incredibly glorious, it was nice to get out a bit into Mombasa. I travelled with the education volunteers and most of the Small Enterprise Development counterparts to an Irish NGO called Camara. They train people in refurbishing computers and using them, then they sell the refurbished computers to schools at highly subsidized rates. They are huge proponents of free-ware, so they immediately uninstall Windows from all machines and set them up to run Linux (an incredibly smart move considering the prevalence of viruses here). They gave us a brief spiel and then they weren't really sure what to do with us for the rest of the morning (I don't think they expected us to be there for three hours) so we ended up sitting around a bit. I considered trying to pitch this to my school, but it would be quite a logistical headache, and I am fairly confident that I don't want to be the point person on this one. Still, I will take a general survey and see if people are willing to do what is necessary to make this happen.
After that, we went to the Mombasa Trade Show (it's a huge agricultural fair and it made me think a lot of a state fair). Our first stop was at a tent where they were selling water purification supplies (chlorine for lightly contaminated water, and stronger stuff for more heavily contaminated stuff) and also doing an HIV and malaria awareness campaign. They put on a skit for us and then sent us out to try to sell some of their products. I teamed up with Nick's counterpart and we made a pretty formidable chlorine selling team. Actually, this part was pretty disorganized and most people couldn't figure out what was going on, so it was something of a relief when we moved on to the next tent.
Next we went to the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) tent. They gave us a little background information and encouraged us to explore their tent. They had various advocacy groups with booths. Most of them didn't grab my interest, but then I saw a group of blind people. I met with their chairman and we talked a little bit about their work in providing awareness to the blind community in Kenya. I really enjoyed speaking with them, so I made sure to grab their brochure and I promised them that I would visit their office the next time I was in Mombasa.
At this point, we were given free range to explore the fair for a few hours. I wandered around to the back of the tent and found a few volunteers who had decided to donate blood there. I realized that I hadn't donated in over two years (that's what I get for travelling to malarial areas; however, I imagine that the Red Cross is probably still calling my disconnected phone in the states asking me to donate blood in spite of the countless times that I've explained to them that they won't accept it presently) and decided to join the party. I stepped on the scale and found that I had put on 5 pounds this term (I consider that an accomplishment!) and then proceeded to the table. I filled in the survey (much shorter than what I'm used to in the states) and then they did the iron test and took my blood pressure with a gadget that was pretty fancy. They even tested my blood type in front of me, which I'd never seen before (don't worry, I'm still O+). Then I went over to the chair where they covered my arm in rubbing alcohol, but they didn't use any iodine (that stuff is always such a pain to wash off) and after searching a bit for my vein, they found it and put it in with no problem. I filled the bag pretty quickly and was impressed that even in a country on the metric system, they stopped the counter at 453 mL (that's a pint). Then they let me rest for a minute and gave me some cookies and soda before letting me go on my merry way. While I was sitting there, I talked with a few of the other volunteers and joked a bunch with Chris (a business volunteer from my language group with a great sense of humor). In conclusion, donating blood in Kenya is a much better experience than doing it back home.
Afterward, I wandered into a room where they were doing free HIV testing. They matched me with a deaf counselor, which was pretty neat, and he took me to a back room to conduct the test. We had to wait five minutes for the results, so we talked a bit in the mean time. He has worked with a few Peace Corps volunteers, so we talked about them a bit (he can read lips and speak flawless English and we even wrote in a notebook a bit to communicate; alas, the 20 or so things I can say in sign language weren't very practical in this conversation). Then he gave me my result and I proceeded to wander about the fair.
I was trying to collect some useful information to bring back to my school, but I didn't do very well on that. Most of the tents really wanted to sell me something rather than give information or answer questions. The woman at the coconut oil tent was very persistent in trying to sell me a jar of the stuff. In spite of the fact that it is apparently over 90% saturated fat, she kept extolling the nutritional virtues of it. However, the most persistent salesman was in the Chinese herbal supplements tent (so much for my attempt to get nutrition handouts) who wanted me to buy anything from them. After I evaded his first four attempts, he handed me a bottle of zinc and tried to whisper that it would "help the libido." I was very glad that we had learned some crass language on Monday, so I made a crude joke in Swahili that he laughed at a lot and used that as my opportunity to escape.
I noticed that it was approaching the end of the day, so I hurried back to the gate to catch a Peace Corps vehicle back to the hotel. While we were waiting, Louis (what a great guy!) mentioned that he had been unable to find the information on small-scale bio-gas plants. I laughed and told him that I had brought an informational DVD on just that from an Indian NGO (my friend Jagdish from IDDS is quite the hero) and offered to let him borrow it. We talked a bit more about that and other development topics, and I think Louis was pretty happy to get the information. I hope it helps. I hope I can work on a bio-gas project next term, but I seem to have a pretty full plate already.
Only one day of training left. I'm going to be sad when this ends.
After that, we went to the Mombasa Trade Show (it's a huge agricultural fair and it made me think a lot of a state fair). Our first stop was at a tent where they were selling water purification supplies (chlorine for lightly contaminated water, and stronger stuff for more heavily contaminated stuff) and also doing an HIV and malaria awareness campaign. They put on a skit for us and then sent us out to try to sell some of their products. I teamed up with Nick's counterpart and we made a pretty formidable chlorine selling team. Actually, this part was pretty disorganized and most people couldn't figure out what was going on, so it was something of a relief when we moved on to the next tent.
Next we went to the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) tent. They gave us a little background information and encouraged us to explore their tent. They had various advocacy groups with booths. Most of them didn't grab my interest, but then I saw a group of blind people. I met with their chairman and we talked a little bit about their work in providing awareness to the blind community in Kenya. I really enjoyed speaking with them, so I made sure to grab their brochure and I promised them that I would visit their office the next time I was in Mombasa.
At this point, we were given free range to explore the fair for a few hours. I wandered around to the back of the tent and found a few volunteers who had decided to donate blood there. I realized that I hadn't donated in over two years (that's what I get for travelling to malarial areas; however, I imagine that the Red Cross is probably still calling my disconnected phone in the states asking me to donate blood in spite of the countless times that I've explained to them that they won't accept it presently) and decided to join the party. I stepped on the scale and found that I had put on 5 pounds this term (I consider that an accomplishment!) and then proceeded to the table. I filled in the survey (much shorter than what I'm used to in the states) and then they did the iron test and took my blood pressure with a gadget that was pretty fancy. They even tested my blood type in front of me, which I'd never seen before (don't worry, I'm still O+). Then I went over to the chair where they covered my arm in rubbing alcohol, but they didn't use any iodine (that stuff is always such a pain to wash off) and after searching a bit for my vein, they found it and put it in with no problem. I filled the bag pretty quickly and was impressed that even in a country on the metric system, they stopped the counter at 453 mL (that's a pint). Then they let me rest for a minute and gave me some cookies and soda before letting me go on my merry way. While I was sitting there, I talked with a few of the other volunteers and joked a bunch with Chris (a business volunteer from my language group with a great sense of humor). In conclusion, donating blood in Kenya is a much better experience than doing it back home.
Afterward, I wandered into a room where they were doing free HIV testing. They matched me with a deaf counselor, which was pretty neat, and he took me to a back room to conduct the test. We had to wait five minutes for the results, so we talked a bit in the mean time. He has worked with a few Peace Corps volunteers, so we talked about them a bit (he can read lips and speak flawless English and we even wrote in a notebook a bit to communicate; alas, the 20 or so things I can say in sign language weren't very practical in this conversation). Then he gave me my result and I proceeded to wander about the fair.
I was trying to collect some useful information to bring back to my school, but I didn't do very well on that. Most of the tents really wanted to sell me something rather than give information or answer questions. The woman at the coconut oil tent was very persistent in trying to sell me a jar of the stuff. In spite of the fact that it is apparently over 90% saturated fat, she kept extolling the nutritional virtues of it. However, the most persistent salesman was in the Chinese herbal supplements tent (so much for my attempt to get nutrition handouts) who wanted me to buy anything from them. After I evaded his first four attempts, he handed me a bottle of zinc and tried to whisper that it would "help the libido." I was very glad that we had learned some crass language on Monday, so I made a crude joke in Swahili that he laughed at a lot and used that as my opportunity to escape.
I noticed that it was approaching the end of the day, so I hurried back to the gate to catch a Peace Corps vehicle back to the hotel. While we were waiting, Louis (what a great guy!) mentioned that he had been unable to find the information on small-scale bio-gas plants. I laughed and told him that I had brought an informational DVD on just that from an Indian NGO (my friend Jagdish from IDDS is quite the hero) and offered to let him borrow it. We talked a bit more about that and other development topics, and I think Louis was pretty happy to get the information. I hope it helps. I hope I can work on a bio-gas project next term, but I seem to have a pretty full plate already.
Only one day of training left. I'm going to be sad when this ends.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Training Day 3 (Another new project)
Today was interesting. Leif, who has already returned to Madagascar lobbied to budget time for Open Space Technology (if I were a proper blogger, I would have links, but you'll just have to google it. The website is interesting, for lack of a better word) so that was the whole plan for the day. The description sounded a bit hokey, it's just a lot of conversations with a planned topic, but without a general direction. Really, it sounded like a party, but with more structure and no food. As the setup started dragging, music started coming through the speakers rather loudly in the room where we were meeting. Peace Corps staff started running in all directions to fix the speakers and complain to the management. After a few minutes, it was discovered that one of the counterparts had stolen the extra microphone and was holding her mobile up to it and playing songs. I was impressed by the cunning of this and the non-plussed expression the guilty party maintained the whole time.
As the topics were listed, I decided I wasn't actually interested in most of the AIDS related topics. We broke off and I opted to go to a discussion on corruption. It was mostly volunteers in the circle, with a teacher from Nick's school as well. Louis (a wonderful member of Peace Corps staff) also joined up for the conversation. Most people felt pretty powerless against corruption, while I kept insisting that we could all do something and tried to bring in examples from Iran and Sudan (and in spite of this, other volunteers criticized me for thinking of things too much as an American). I was glad when Louis provided the quotation: "No snowflake in an avalanche feels responsible." Louis is actually a walking Bartlett's and usually has an inspirational quotation for every situation. Still, the conversation was dwindling, so I decided to wander and find the conversation on using mobile phones to fight AIDS.
I arrived just as they were about to start. There were only about 8 of us and it was perfectly balanced between Kenyans and volunteers. Jonathan (an ICT volunteer who is known for his outspoken tendencies, but since I often agree with him, I like to hear what he says) was leading the discussion and started talking about some introductory ICT4D (information and communication technology for development) work going on in Kenya. Then we started talking about ways of finding information, and we realized that there is no HIV/AIDS information hotline in Kenya of any kind. In fact, there are a lot of misconceptions about AIDS because there is so much stigma, and most existing channels to find information are rather public. As we talked, we realized that this should not be terribly complicated to organize. We sketched out a few thoughts and then we sought out the PEPFAR staff who were at another session to ask why this was not in place. The staff member explained that they had been working on this for some time (we were aghast at the figure she gave) and explained the bureaucratic process. We were dismayed by all the channels and expressed our desire to see if we could work in parallel and get some things done faster by avoiding much of the red tape. At this point, we decided to break for lunch and then reconvene.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch again and then returned to our discussion. Unfortunately, the post lunch coma set in and we had much less energy. A few new people had joined and we explained our general idea to them, but without nearly as much passion. We jotted down a few notes and then went our separate ways. Then I wandered into a talk on religion, but found myself mostly watching the soccer match in the background. The most interesting part was when we were talking about prostitution and Jeff was explaining how it was regulated in the states while Erin (the business volunteer) was trying to say something, so his sentence came out as "In some cities, prostitution is completely illegal and in other cities, there's -- Erin?" We all had a pretty good chuckle about that slip-up. After the session, I wandered out to the volleyball court with some volunteers, counterparts and tourists. I found myself speaking 5 languages on the court (English, Spanish, Swahili, French and German ranked in exponentially decreasing order of proficiency), which was lots of fun. At one point, I found myself on a team with four French tourists and a British tourist, so I got to practice my French a bit more. I started talking with them a bit after the match (mostly apologizing for being such a handicap to the team, though I attracted a large cheering section) and they encouraged me to practice speaking French with them. I practiced a little, and then I went back to cheering (and maybe taunting a bit) some of the volunteers and counterparts in Swahili.
In the evening, a few people came to my room for scotch and cigars (courtesy of Harmony, thanks Harms!). It was my first time consuming either one of these, and I wasn't thrilled about either one. Still, we did have lots of fun. Harmony had to stand on the balcony and sing "It's My Life" to the monkeys who live at the hotel (they're lots of fun, actually). She also rapped a bit, which was pretty impressive. Tom (another education volunteer) joined us for a bit, and managed to say one of the most awkward sentences I've ever heard in my life (does not bear repeating). After that, we just talked a bit more and became tired pretty quickly, so we called it a night. This training is going by so quickly!
As the topics were listed, I decided I wasn't actually interested in most of the AIDS related topics. We broke off and I opted to go to a discussion on corruption. It was mostly volunteers in the circle, with a teacher from Nick's school as well. Louis (a wonderful member of Peace Corps staff) also joined up for the conversation. Most people felt pretty powerless against corruption, while I kept insisting that we could all do something and tried to bring in examples from Iran and Sudan (and in spite of this, other volunteers criticized me for thinking of things too much as an American). I was glad when Louis provided the quotation: "No snowflake in an avalanche feels responsible." Louis is actually a walking Bartlett's and usually has an inspirational quotation for every situation. Still, the conversation was dwindling, so I decided to wander and find the conversation on using mobile phones to fight AIDS.
I arrived just as they were about to start. There were only about 8 of us and it was perfectly balanced between Kenyans and volunteers. Jonathan (an ICT volunteer who is known for his outspoken tendencies, but since I often agree with him, I like to hear what he says) was leading the discussion and started talking about some introductory ICT4D (information and communication technology for development) work going on in Kenya. Then we started talking about ways of finding information, and we realized that there is no HIV/AIDS information hotline in Kenya of any kind. In fact, there are a lot of misconceptions about AIDS because there is so much stigma, and most existing channels to find information are rather public. As we talked, we realized that this should not be terribly complicated to organize. We sketched out a few thoughts and then we sought out the PEPFAR staff who were at another session to ask why this was not in place. The staff member explained that they had been working on this for some time (we were aghast at the figure she gave) and explained the bureaucratic process. We were dismayed by all the channels and expressed our desire to see if we could work in parallel and get some things done faster by avoiding much of the red tape. At this point, we decided to break for lunch and then reconvene.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch again and then returned to our discussion. Unfortunately, the post lunch coma set in and we had much less energy. A few new people had joined and we explained our general idea to them, but without nearly as much passion. We jotted down a few notes and then went our separate ways. Then I wandered into a talk on religion, but found myself mostly watching the soccer match in the background. The most interesting part was when we were talking about prostitution and Jeff was explaining how it was regulated in the states while Erin (the business volunteer) was trying to say something, so his sentence came out as "In some cities, prostitution is completely illegal and in other cities, there's -- Erin?" We all had a pretty good chuckle about that slip-up. After the session, I wandered out to the volleyball court with some volunteers, counterparts and tourists. I found myself speaking 5 languages on the court (English, Spanish, Swahili, French and German ranked in exponentially decreasing order of proficiency), which was lots of fun. At one point, I found myself on a team with four French tourists and a British tourist, so I got to practice my French a bit more. I started talking with them a bit after the match (mostly apologizing for being such a handicap to the team, though I attracted a large cheering section) and they encouraged me to practice speaking French with them. I practiced a little, and then I went back to cheering (and maybe taunting a bit) some of the volunteers and counterparts in Swahili.
In the evening, a few people came to my room for scotch and cigars (courtesy of Harmony, thanks Harms!). It was my first time consuming either one of these, and I wasn't thrilled about either one. Still, we did have lots of fun. Harmony had to stand on the balcony and sing "It's My Life" to the monkeys who live at the hotel (they're lots of fun, actually). She also rapped a bit, which was pretty impressive. Tom (another education volunteer) joined us for a bit, and managed to say one of the most awkward sentences I've ever heard in my life (does not bear repeating). After that, we just talked a bit more and became tired pretty quickly, so we called it a night. This training is going by so quickly!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Training Day 2 (Adventures in Mchangastan)
Today was a pretty action packed day. Yesterday we met Antony, who works for Peace Corps and PEPFAR, so he is facilitating a lot of the training. He seems like a pretty cool guy, and it's nice to have a facilitator, since a lot of our training sessions in the past have dwelt on less useful information because there was no one to steer the discussion. The first person to talk was a woman from PEPFAR. She gave us a lot of data we had seen before, but she still managed to stay engaging as she thoroughly detailed the present state of HIV in Kenya. We also got interesting perspectives from all of the Kenyan counterparts throughout the session. Still, I think we were all glad when we could stretch our legs a bit.
Medical was also there in the morning. Mary and Sylvia are absolutely wonderful people. I talked a bit with Mary (Sylvia wasn't there this morning). Conversations with Medical are always incredibly therapeutic. They really sympathize with us a lot and try to help us in whatever way they can.
After a delicious lunch, we went out to learn some games and activities we can try in our community to start a discussion about HIV. We were generally enjoying just being on the beach. I know I would have to improvise a lot of equipment to make these activities work, but I may try them once I get back to site, if I can find time. The session was dwindling a bit, so I went over to where Paul (one of the deaf education volunteers) was building a sand castle (or temple). All of a sudden, this became our top priority for the remainder of the afternoon. The session was ended pretty abruptly when one of the games involving slingshots nearly resulted in a tourist casualty.
Antony finished the session shortly after, so we all just stayed there building. It became quite the village, centered around the temple. The temple became much less glorious after Virginia (a counterpart who teaches outside Mombasa) started kicking sand onto it and into my mouth (she was just playing, but she seems to be a bit mischievous). Paul remained the creative genius behind our whole effort building roads, bridges, farms, canyons and anything else you can imagine while I took on roles like Moat Deepener. Jeff (my charcoal buddy) came in and built a staircase (a surprisingly challenging feat with sand) leading to the infinite abyss (a deep trench to slow the imminent destruction of the incoming tides). Then Erin (another deaf education volunteer, but not the Erin who I visited during my Kamba weekend) started helping to build the well where the villagers could throw their gold. We made her queen of the village after she put a spiral staircase into the well so that the people could retrieve their gold if they ever needed it. I started working on a ladder to help people cross the infinite abyss while Saidi (a Kenyan counterpart who works as a drug rehab counselor) built the railway. As the tide started to come in (the water came all the way to the edge of the beach, so there was no safe place to build; besides, it's more fun to watch the waves wash over the immense efforts), we worked on building more defenses around the town. Jeff came back and started building heads to place around the town to watch over the citizens and protect them. Our queen named the city Mchangastan (mchanga is sand, so it seemed like a good name) and we watched with satisfaction as the water slowly filled the infinite abyss and were deflected away from the queendom by our cliffs. Eventually, the water drowned all our citizens, but we stayed and watched until the last head was washed away. Our queen even symbolically through herself into the well to sacrifice herself for her subjects. All in all, it was a pretty enjoyable experience (and even a pretty good cultural exchange).
After a delicious dinner (pretty much all the meals are amazing; I don't think I would be eating this well if I were in the states), a few of us volunteers had some drinks at the hotel. The conversation turned progressively more absurd as the evening went on. Still, it was nice to kick back a bit and joke with everyone.
Medical was also there in the morning. Mary and Sylvia are absolutely wonderful people. I talked a bit with Mary (Sylvia wasn't there this morning). Conversations with Medical are always incredibly therapeutic. They really sympathize with us a lot and try to help us in whatever way they can.
After a delicious lunch, we went out to learn some games and activities we can try in our community to start a discussion about HIV. We were generally enjoying just being on the beach. I know I would have to improvise a lot of equipment to make these activities work, but I may try them once I get back to site, if I can find time. The session was dwindling a bit, so I went over to where Paul (one of the deaf education volunteers) was building a sand castle (or temple). All of a sudden, this became our top priority for the remainder of the afternoon. The session was ended pretty abruptly when one of the games involving slingshots nearly resulted in a tourist casualty.
Antony finished the session shortly after, so we all just stayed there building. It became quite the village, centered around the temple. The temple became much less glorious after Virginia (a counterpart who teaches outside Mombasa) started kicking sand onto it and into my mouth (she was just playing, but she seems to be a bit mischievous). Paul remained the creative genius behind our whole effort building roads, bridges, farms, canyons and anything else you can imagine while I took on roles like Moat Deepener. Jeff (my charcoal buddy) came in and built a staircase (a surprisingly challenging feat with sand) leading to the infinite abyss (a deep trench to slow the imminent destruction of the incoming tides). Then Erin (another deaf education volunteer, but not the Erin who I visited during my Kamba weekend) started helping to build the well where the villagers could throw their gold. We made her queen of the village after she put a spiral staircase into the well so that the people could retrieve their gold if they ever needed it. I started working on a ladder to help people cross the infinite abyss while Saidi (a Kenyan counterpart who works as a drug rehab counselor) built the railway. As the tide started to come in (the water came all the way to the edge of the beach, so there was no safe place to build; besides, it's more fun to watch the waves wash over the immense efforts), we worked on building more defenses around the town. Jeff came back and started building heads to place around the town to watch over the citizens and protect them. Our queen named the city Mchangastan (mchanga is sand, so it seemed like a good name) and we watched with satisfaction as the water slowly filled the infinite abyss and were deflected away from the queendom by our cliffs. Eventually, the water drowned all our citizens, but we stayed and watched until the last head was washed away. Our queen even symbolically through herself into the well to sacrifice herself for her subjects. All in all, it was a pretty enjoyable experience (and even a pretty good cultural exchange).
After a delicious dinner (pretty much all the meals are amazing; I don't think I would be eating this well if I were in the states), a few of us volunteers had some drinks at the hotel. The conversation turned progressively more absurd as the evening went on. Still, it was nice to kick back a bit and joke with everyone.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Training Day 1 (ish)
So, I suppose I should give some background on this training. Whenever we have Peace Corps trainings, we are always reminded of those cuts to the Peace Corps budget, which tend to constrain things a bit (e.g. lower quality of speakers). However, when there is funding from PEPFAR, things become a lot less constrained. This training was about HIV and AIDS, so we received a grant from PEPFAR. Now, all of us still haven't fully taken in the beautiful hotel we are staying at in Mombasa. We bask in our air conditioned rooms with refrigerators and amazingly comfortable beds (they assigned us roommates this time, so I'm not with Nick :-(, but Nemo is a pretty cool guy, so I can't complain). We are right on the beach (gorgeous ocean view, especially from the bar where they have swings instead of seats) and the hotel has two pools (one has a waterslide as well) and volleyball, ping-pong and other games. The beers are 210 shillings (a little over $2.50) which is pretty extravagant on our salary, but other than that, it's amazing.
The purpose of this training is mainly to work with a counterpart from our community to figure out what kind of interventions we can work on related to HIV/AIDS in our community. I am one of two volunteers who did not bring a counterpart. Most of the teachers at my school just wanted to rest a bit, so I wasn't going to push anything on them. Also, this is only half of my training group (well, a little more than half) and the rest of them will have their training in less luxurious conditions closer to their sites in central Kenya two weeks from now. We've all been catching up a lot and bonding over everything. Lots and lots of laughs :-)
So far, we have been working mostly on language. They initially wanted to give us some formal training in our local languages (in my case kitaita) but they decided that it would be better to focus on Kiswahili only. (With one group learning their local language, called Kikamba. We've all stopped asking at this point, but I bet we would have been told about the budget cuts if we had asked why local languages had been cut.) The groups were self-selecting, and I think that I found myself in the group that feels most comfortable speaking Kiswahili. The four of us (myself, Jonathan, Chris and Harmony) grabbed a wonderful teacher named Evans to be our language tutor. He asked us where we wanted to start, so we began with bad words. That lesson was actually a lot of fun. We spent most of yesterday and then part of today just working on language. It was mostly grammar stuff, which was useful, though I need more work on my vocabulary. Still, we came up with some interesting lines (I can now say in Kiswahili: We should have breakfast tomorrow. When I wake you, should I call your phone or nudge you? [lovingly borrowed from the movie Sneakers]) and actually learned a lot about both language and culture. Now, the counterparts have arrived, so language is pretty much over (we won't get another Kiswahili lesson from Peace Corps for a very long time). I'll definitely miss Evans, although I'm sure that at times, Jonathan and I were a bit much for him.
After our session, several of us headed to the beach. In fact, most of the math/science education volunteers were there (well, actually only 50%, but most of them weren't at the training) so we played and joked for a while in the beautiful ocean water. Then, we went over to the diving platform and did some dives there. After an hour or so, I went to the pool to swim there a little bit. Then, we went to dinner (continuing the trend of amazing food) and went back to the lounge where we found the entertainment for the evening would be bingo. We all became very excited about this. The man who was running it was a Kenyan, though he gave the instructions in flawless English and German (at least it sounded flawless to my ears) since the resort is run by Germans and attracts a lot of German tourists (we've befriended some Austrians who are also staying here, though I think they don't enjoy it when I try to speak German). The only challenge for the emcee was when we asked him to give the instructions in Swahili (kinda reflects the clientele to be found here). Chris (one of the business volunteers and an all-around funny guy; he was in my language group earlier) won the first round, but the Austrians managed to win the next two rounds. The third round was especially close, and led to a showdown after the Austrian (Volcker) tied with a British kid who wore a cape and seemed like he was just coming from a Harry Potter convention. After all that excitement, it seemed better that the prize went to Volcker, as it was a large bottle of alcohol, and this kid was probably twelve years old.
I haven't met many counterparts, but they seem nice so far. I'm having a really great time!
The purpose of this training is mainly to work with a counterpart from our community to figure out what kind of interventions we can work on related to HIV/AIDS in our community. I am one of two volunteers who did not bring a counterpart. Most of the teachers at my school just wanted to rest a bit, so I wasn't going to push anything on them. Also, this is only half of my training group (well, a little more than half) and the rest of them will have their training in less luxurious conditions closer to their sites in central Kenya two weeks from now. We've all been catching up a lot and bonding over everything. Lots and lots of laughs :-)
So far, we have been working mostly on language. They initially wanted to give us some formal training in our local languages (in my case kitaita) but they decided that it would be better to focus on Kiswahili only. (With one group learning their local language, called Kikamba. We've all stopped asking at this point, but I bet we would have been told about the budget cuts if we had asked why local languages had been cut.) The groups were self-selecting, and I think that I found myself in the group that feels most comfortable speaking Kiswahili. The four of us (myself, Jonathan, Chris and Harmony) grabbed a wonderful teacher named Evans to be our language tutor. He asked us where we wanted to start, so we began with bad words. That lesson was actually a lot of fun. We spent most of yesterday and then part of today just working on language. It was mostly grammar stuff, which was useful, though I need more work on my vocabulary. Still, we came up with some interesting lines (I can now say in Kiswahili: We should have breakfast tomorrow. When I wake you, should I call your phone or nudge you? [lovingly borrowed from the movie Sneakers]) and actually learned a lot about both language and culture. Now, the counterparts have arrived, so language is pretty much over (we won't get another Kiswahili lesson from Peace Corps for a very long time). I'll definitely miss Evans, although I'm sure that at times, Jonathan and I were a bit much for him.
After our session, several of us headed to the beach. In fact, most of the math/science education volunteers were there (well, actually only 50%, but most of them weren't at the training) so we played and joked for a while in the beautiful ocean water. Then, we went over to the diving platform and did some dives there. After an hour or so, I went to the pool to swim there a little bit. Then, we went to dinner (continuing the trend of amazing food) and went back to the lounge where we found the entertainment for the evening would be bingo. We all became very excited about this. The man who was running it was a Kenyan, though he gave the instructions in flawless English and German (at least it sounded flawless to my ears) since the resort is run by Germans and attracts a lot of German tourists (we've befriended some Austrians who are also staying here, though I think they don't enjoy it when I try to speak German). The only challenge for the emcee was when we asked him to give the instructions in Swahili (kinda reflects the clientele to be found here). Chris (one of the business volunteers and an all-around funny guy; he was in my language group earlier) won the first round, but the Austrians managed to win the next two rounds. The third round was especially close, and led to a showdown after the Austrian (Volcker) tied with a British kid who wore a cape and seemed like he was just coming from a Harry Potter convention. After all that excitement, it seemed better that the prize went to Volcker, as it was a large bottle of alcohol, and this kid was probably twelve years old.
I haven't met many counterparts, but they seem nice so far. I'm having a really great time!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
A New Project
While I was doing some shopping in Voi the other day, I met a German volunteer named Katharina. We talked for a while about all kinds of topics (school had just closed, so I think that I was pretty scatterbrained) and she mentioned that she was interesting in building a greenhouse in her community. We started focusing on that, and decided that I would join in this project and figure out if I could provide any useful technical advice.
We met in Voi on Thursday and looked at the model she had made. Then we talked with a few people to get price quotes for equipment. I think that one of the most interesting parts was when we were running around the cyber-cafe, using the size of floor tiles to appreciate the scale of the model. While we were doing this, I met Doreen, her best friend in Voi, who runs a small shop for beauty products. Doreen invited us to go back to her home for dinner, so we spent the evening there. As it happens, Doreen stays with her aunt and uncle, and they know Mwakitau very well. They even sponsor one of my favorite students (I know we're not supposed to have favorites, but since he's the only other Daniel in the school, he earns major bonus points) so we had a lot to talk about that evening. We also promised that we would come back and teach them how to make pizza. After that, we went to the main club in Voi and discovered that Thursday night is not a very happening night on the club scene. We had fun, but we left after only an hour or so.
Yesterday, one of the inquiries I had made led to a local greenhouse expert named Joseph coming to give some advice on the best way to make this work. We talked a bit, but this conversation was a bit more challenging because Katharina's english is pretty good, but in the Gymnasium (German version of secondary school) I don't think that vocabulary for building a greenhouse is emphasized very strongly. Still, after a pretty short time, we were able to understand one another and he started talking about putting up shade netting to conserve moisture (I think when most people think of a greenhouse they think of polythene or plexiglass to conserve heat; however, heat is not a problem in most of the area surrounding Voi). We closed the meeting by agreeing that he would come visit her site and try to make some concrete recommendations in about two weeks when he is less busy.
Katharina is a bit impatient, so she wanted to try building a smaller scale greenhouse in the meantime to see what she could learn. Now that we had specific needs in mind, we were able to get quotes and make some progress. We actually wound up visiting nearly every hardware store in Voi (there are probably about 20) and even a fabric store (we wanted to explore the prospect of making a cheaper version of shade netting using wedding veil material and mosquito net material). I had to do a lot of mental math, since all the material was different dimensions to figure out where she could get the best deal. In the end, she opted for some blue mosquito net material at a rather reasonable price. We spent the rest of the day joking about the blau-haus (German for bluehouse, since this one won't exactly be green).
Katharina went back to her site, so she will be working on her blau-haus, and I will visit her at some point before Joseph comes to brainstorm a bit more. We talked a lot, so I actually got to learn some more German (most of which I know from listening to German music) and she got to practice her English. I also got to introduce her to some other volunteers in the Voi area, including one of the new Public Health volunteers (my group are now sophomores, as a new bunch swore in last week) who lives near Voi. He seemed really cool and it sounds like their initial training went somewhat better than ours, which is nice to hear. One of the strangest moments was when the Indian man who ran one of the hardware stores (where we spent a lot of time) happened to be at dinner with us, and then he was behind the bar at the club in Voi (presumably running that club as well).
Now I'm off to a training in HIV/AIDS awareness that Peace Corps is giving us in Mombasa. I'm always excited to spend time with the other volunteers and also to see Peace Corps's training staff, so I am excited about this.
We met in Voi on Thursday and looked at the model she had made. Then we talked with a few people to get price quotes for equipment. I think that one of the most interesting parts was when we were running around the cyber-cafe, using the size of floor tiles to appreciate the scale of the model. While we were doing this, I met Doreen, her best friend in Voi, who runs a small shop for beauty products. Doreen invited us to go back to her home for dinner, so we spent the evening there. As it happens, Doreen stays with her aunt and uncle, and they know Mwakitau very well. They even sponsor one of my favorite students (I know we're not supposed to have favorites, but since he's the only other Daniel in the school, he earns major bonus points) so we had a lot to talk about that evening. We also promised that we would come back and teach them how to make pizza. After that, we went to the main club in Voi and discovered that Thursday night is not a very happening night on the club scene. We had fun, but we left after only an hour or so.
Yesterday, one of the inquiries I had made led to a local greenhouse expert named Joseph coming to give some advice on the best way to make this work. We talked a bit, but this conversation was a bit more challenging because Katharina's english is pretty good, but in the Gymnasium (German version of secondary school) I don't think that vocabulary for building a greenhouse is emphasized very strongly. Still, after a pretty short time, we were able to understand one another and he started talking about putting up shade netting to conserve moisture (I think when most people think of a greenhouse they think of polythene or plexiglass to conserve heat; however, heat is not a problem in most of the area surrounding Voi). We closed the meeting by agreeing that he would come visit her site and try to make some concrete recommendations in about two weeks when he is less busy.
Katharina is a bit impatient, so she wanted to try building a smaller scale greenhouse in the meantime to see what she could learn. Now that we had specific needs in mind, we were able to get quotes and make some progress. We actually wound up visiting nearly every hardware store in Voi (there are probably about 20) and even a fabric store (we wanted to explore the prospect of making a cheaper version of shade netting using wedding veil material and mosquito net material). I had to do a lot of mental math, since all the material was different dimensions to figure out where she could get the best deal. In the end, she opted for some blue mosquito net material at a rather reasonable price. We spent the rest of the day joking about the blau-haus (German for bluehouse, since this one won't exactly be green).
Katharina went back to her site, so she will be working on her blau-haus, and I will visit her at some point before Joseph comes to brainstorm a bit more. We talked a lot, so I actually got to learn some more German (most of which I know from listening to German music) and she got to practice her English. I also got to introduce her to some other volunteers in the Voi area, including one of the new Public Health volunteers (my group are now sophomores, as a new bunch swore in last week) who lives near Voi. He seemed really cool and it sounds like their initial training went somewhat better than ours, which is nice to hear. One of the strangest moments was when the Indian man who ran one of the hardware stores (where we spent a lot of time) happened to be at dinner with us, and then he was behind the bar at the club in Voi (presumably running that club as well).
Now I'm off to a training in HIV/AIDS awareness that Peace Corps is giving us in Mombasa. I'm always excited to spend time with the other volunteers and also to see Peace Corps's training staff, so I am excited about this.
Once in a lifetime opportunity
Today, I was enjoying the company of many people, both Kenyans and
volunteers from around the world. Then, I looked up and realized that
we had an interesting seating arrangement. To my left were five people
from Italy, Germany and Japan. Sitting nearest to me were Americans
and Brits (I couldn't find any Russians, and I don't know where it
would have been best to seat the French). Anyway, rather than display
any sort of tact, I decided that the best course of action was to turn
to the German girl and start talking about the Anschluss. Most people
missed it, but the people who figured it out started laughing pretty
hard.
volunteers from around the world. Then, I looked up and realized that
we had an interesting seating arrangement. To my left were five people
from Italy, Germany and Japan. Sitting nearest to me were Americans
and Brits (I couldn't find any Russians, and I don't know where it
would have been best to seat the French). Anyway, rather than display
any sort of tact, I decided that the best course of action was to turn
to the German girl and start talking about the Anschluss. Most people
missed it, but the people who figured it out started laughing pretty
hard.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Closing the School
Today was school closing. I've now completed 2/3 of a school year (if I had the energy to stand, I might actually do a happy dance). I made a promise to myself at the start of this term, and I only just managed to keep it. We'll be closed for most of this month, but not really, since I actually have to come back in 2.5 weeks to teach lessons for the third and fourth years. It will be nice to catch up with the syllabus a bit, but I really need a proper break.
Today was a bit frustrating. My day started at 4 AM when I woke up to finish grading exams (I had stayed up pretty late grading them too). I spent a large fraction of the weekend grading them as well (the scores were only rewarding in a few subjects, though some of the responses definitely made me smile). This weekend was the first migraine that I've had in some time. Then, a few of the teachers didn't bother to show up today. They were the ones with the least work, so I guess they figured it wouldn't be that inconvenient if they didn't come. They were wrong. I was also annoyed because the other teachers were harassing me about how long it was taking me to finish my grades. The main reason it was taking so long was that I was helping them with their work and getting things done that the absent teachers had left behind. Then they started telling me that I was lazy because I wasn't doing even more of their work.
Still, I finished, gave back some graded exams and report cards and imparted some inspirational words (or at least trying to be inspirational, though my coherence may leave something to be desired) to my third years before they went home for break. I also made sure to have one-on-ones with a few students (had to discuss cheating with a few of them, and general behavior with some others) before they went home. I still have to track down my leatherman (letting a student borrow that may not have been my brightest idea).
I'm just about to head to the local bar with a couple of teachers. I'm getting the first round. My plan after the bar is to sleep for the next 4 days or so. Hopefully that will be enough for my brain to recover. On the plus side, my stomach has recovered nicely. (I decided to omit the details of the stomach problems I had most of last week. You're welcome.)
Also, I should put up a post about books later this week (once I finish writing it), though it will be posted on July 31 at 11:59 PM, to keep up with my formatting. Thanks for being patient with all these posts from the last week.
Today was a bit frustrating. My day started at 4 AM when I woke up to finish grading exams (I had stayed up pretty late grading them too). I spent a large fraction of the weekend grading them as well (the scores were only rewarding in a few subjects, though some of the responses definitely made me smile). This weekend was the first migraine that I've had in some time. Then, a few of the teachers didn't bother to show up today. They were the ones with the least work, so I guess they figured it wouldn't be that inconvenient if they didn't come. They were wrong. I was also annoyed because the other teachers were harassing me about how long it was taking me to finish my grades. The main reason it was taking so long was that I was helping them with their work and getting things done that the absent teachers had left behind. Then they started telling me that I was lazy because I wasn't doing even more of their work.
Still, I finished, gave back some graded exams and report cards and imparted some inspirational words (or at least trying to be inspirational, though my coherence may leave something to be desired) to my third years before they went home for break. I also made sure to have one-on-ones with a few students (had to discuss cheating with a few of them, and general behavior with some others) before they went home. I still have to track down my leatherman (letting a student borrow that may not have been my brightest idea).
I'm just about to head to the local bar with a couple of teachers. I'm getting the first round. My plan after the bar is to sleep for the next 4 days or so. Hopefully that will be enough for my brain to recover. On the plus side, my stomach has recovered nicely. (I decided to omit the details of the stomach problems I had most of last week. You're welcome.)
Also, I should put up a post about books later this week (once I finish writing it), though it will be posted on July 31 at 11:59 PM, to keep up with my formatting. Thanks for being patient with all these posts from the last week.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Books 7.0
Books 7.0
***** Rainwater Harvesting by Adrian Cullis and Arnold Pacey. This book is a very rich analysis of rainwater harvesting techniques for domestic and agricultural uses. Also the book draws on experiences in Kenya, which made it especially relevant. I think my school will be putting on gutters shortly to collect water. That is a pretty gratifying turn of events. The writing is a bit dry, but since the information is so useful, I was able to get over that. The book is a bit dated (not that 1986 is so old :) ) because it appears that plastic water tanks which are now abundant and a decent price option were not really available when the book was written.
**** Creating a World without Poverty by Muhammad Yunus. In spite of the title, this book is not simply some utopian manifesto written by someone who is rather out of touch (though towards the end, it wanders a bit in that direction). Rather, Yunus has plenty of field experience and looks at many things through a realist lens. He certainly makes a compelling case for the social benefits of micro-credit and social business and is able to highlight many successful examples. He also talks of some failures and the lessons to take there. He is foremost an economist and is using economic and business arguments to sell his product. Still, it was especially interesting to read in The Economist about a study that seems to refute several of Yunus's claims about the benefits of micro-credit. It seems that since people who seek out micro-credit are usually entrepreneurs and often pull themselves up whether or not they have access to micro-credit (that's not the best summary, but you'll have to cope). Most interestingly, this study was conducted by MIT's Jameel Poverty Action Lab, which is run by a good friend of Yunus. Now, that is not to say that the work of Grameen has not been extraordinarily beneficial and produced some remarkable programs. It is simply suggesting that micro-credit does not work in a vacuum, but Grameen is much more than a micro-credit organization.
??? The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. I let this one marinate for a while, but I still can't decide how I feel about the book. It was a very easy read (only a couple hours) and I certainly enjoyed reading it, though I'm not sure how I felt about the underlying messages. Still, it is a good narrative and I certainly like the message at the end about fate having a sense of humor. I guess I would recommend this book. I think.
Very sorry for how long it took me to get this post up here. It's been busy, and I need to write these in a cyber. Books 8.0 shouldn't be nearly this much trouble
***** Rainwater Harvesting by Adrian Cullis and Arnold Pacey. This book is a very rich analysis of rainwater harvesting techniques for domestic and agricultural uses. Also the book draws on experiences in Kenya, which made it especially relevant. I think my school will be putting on gutters shortly to collect water. That is a pretty gratifying turn of events. The writing is a bit dry, but since the information is so useful, I was able to get over that. The book is a bit dated (not that 1986 is so old :) ) because it appears that plastic water tanks which are now abundant and a decent price option were not really available when the book was written.
**** Creating a World without Poverty by Muhammad Yunus. In spite of the title, this book is not simply some utopian manifesto written by someone who is rather out of touch (though towards the end, it wanders a bit in that direction). Rather, Yunus has plenty of field experience and looks at many things through a realist lens. He certainly makes a compelling case for the social benefits of micro-credit and social business and is able to highlight many successful examples. He also talks of some failures and the lessons to take there. He is foremost an economist and is using economic and business arguments to sell his product. Still, it was especially interesting to read in The Economist about a study that seems to refute several of Yunus's claims about the benefits of micro-credit. It seems that since people who seek out micro-credit are usually entrepreneurs and often pull themselves up whether or not they have access to micro-credit (that's not the best summary, but you'll have to cope). Most interestingly, this study was conducted by MIT's Jameel Poverty Action Lab, which is run by a good friend of Yunus. Now, that is not to say that the work of Grameen has not been extraordinarily beneficial and produced some remarkable programs. It is simply suggesting that micro-credit does not work in a vacuum, but Grameen is much more than a micro-credit organization.
??? The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. I let this one marinate for a while, but I still can't decide how I feel about the book. It was a very easy read (only a couple hours) and I certainly enjoyed reading it, though I'm not sure how I felt about the underlying messages. Still, it is a good narrative and I certainly like the message at the end about fate having a sense of humor. I guess I would recommend this book. I think.
Very sorry for how long it took me to get this post up here. It's been busy, and I need to write these in a cyber. Books 8.0 shouldn't be nearly this much trouble
Exams Day 5 (The last day)
First I want to talk about the highlights of last night. I decided I had earned a breather, so I made myself pancakes for dinner. Actually, banana pancakes. Delicious. I've concluded that things like measuring cups are pretty overrated. While cooking them, I read the new issue of The Economist. It was a pretty nice evening. Too bad it didn't shrink my stack of exams. I came to those a bit later in the evening (I also had to spray those wasps again).
Today was another hectic day. A few teachers came late, so I had to start exams for them. :(. Exams finished in the afternoon and aside from my overwhelming exhaustion (I couldn't even feign coherence for my students) the day was mostly uneventful. I am helping the teachers with the calculations associated with their final grades (a.k.a. showing them how to use Excel), which has put me further behind in my grading. That's partially my own fault, though, since I am primarily avoiding the agriculture papers. Also, the lab hasn't been cleaned yet since the big session on Tuesday. I should make sure that happens soon.
The other big deal was that we had to say good-bye to our two student teachers. That was sad, because they were both really nice teachers. They definitely livened up the staff room, and set a good example for some of the veteran teachers. The students were very excited because we had a special lunch for the send-off (lamb pilau, which is pilaf Kenya-style, but with fewer spices and no vegetables), but they were also sad to see them go.
Now, I'm looking forward to an intimate weekend with my large stack of exams.
Today was another hectic day. A few teachers came late, so I had to start exams for them. :(. Exams finished in the afternoon and aside from my overwhelming exhaustion (I couldn't even feign coherence for my students) the day was mostly uneventful. I am helping the teachers with the calculations associated with their final grades (a.k.a. showing them how to use Excel), which has put me further behind in my grading. That's partially my own fault, though, since I am primarily avoiding the agriculture papers. Also, the lab hasn't been cleaned yet since the big session on Tuesday. I should make sure that happens soon.
The other big deal was that we had to say good-bye to our two student teachers. That was sad, because they were both really nice teachers. They definitely livened up the staff room, and set a good example for some of the veteran teachers. The students were very excited because we had a special lunch for the send-off (lamb pilau, which is pilaf Kenya-style, but with fewer spices and no vegetables), but they were also sad to see them go.
Now, I'm looking forward to an intimate weekend with my large stack of exams.
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