Party in Mombasa

I finally made it to Mombasa with a big group of Peace Corps volunteers. I met a few volunteers who I still hadn't met (good thing, since some of them are going home soon).

The morning started off fun. I just missed the other volunteers in Voi, so I wound up traveling alone. I got to Mombasa in the morning and went to Paul's (one of the deaf education volunteers) school. A few other volunteers were there and we did some computer stuff and swapped stories for a while. Then we grabbed some Chinese food for lunch (delicious!) and then hit the beach.

This was my first time at the Indian Ocean. We got there in the afternoon and it was low tide. Very, very low tide. The water was beautiful and warm and transparent. Probably one of the most gorgeous scenes I've ever seen. We wanted to go out so that the water would come up past our knees. We were pretty far out, and the water felt like it was getting shallower. I noticed that I had cut my hands on a few things at the bottom (it was pretty hard to swim without scraping the bottom). They were pretty irritating, what with all of the salt water. Then, a few small cuts were the least of my issues.

I took a step and my right toe really started hurting. I was trying to figure out what happened, and then I felt a lot of thorns in my right leg. After yelling quite a long stream of profanity, some of my friends helped me get back to safety (I've been very restrained with my language around Kenyans, but there were none near us in the water, so it was quite impressive). We looked at my leg and realized that I had stumbled into a nest of sea urchins. Ow. Two friends helped tow me to the shore. I was in complete agony (I think 10 thorns in my toe and 30 in my shin). We miraculously had tweezers and a sharp knife (these things get in there really deep and leave nice purple welts). However, I thought it would be better to call Peace Corps medical and they said that the best thing to do is to rub papaya on the sites because there are enzymes that will dissolve the spines. I was very grateful to not have people digging around my lower appendages and extremities with a knife.

While someone went for papaya my friend Jackie and I (she only had one urchin) sat on the beach and talked. She's been working in Nairobi for almost two months now, and is about to finish up her work in Kenya. We discussed networking things that we need to do for one another and follow-up work that I can do from this end. Not nearly enough time for everything we had to say and I was trying not to think about all the purple spots on my leg. After thirty minutes of searching, we were told that there are no papayas on the beach this late in the afternoon. At that point, we all decided to pack up and go to the supermarket (more like mega-market) and get some papaya and other supplies. We applied the papaya, and it was glorious. Still a bit painful, but much, much better.

After that, we had a delicious dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant (shawarma=delicious) and then met up with a lot of volunteers at a club called Il Covo. We had a lot of fun drinking and dancing the night away. My foot sent me painful reminders over the course of the night and it didn't help that several people stepped on it on the dance floor. Still, I really enjoyed all the people there and met some really interesting ones, the lights were nice at the club, although the music could have been a bit better. Once it was sufficiently late, we headed to another volunteer's house and crashed. I think we all slept really well.

Most importantly, always keep papaya on hand for those sea urchin encounters. :)

Communication of all sorts

I have become somewhat notorious with my second year students for saying very bizarre sentences in Swahili during class. The word zero sounds like cooking pot, so now, seven minus seven equals cooking pot. There is also a greeting "U mzima?", which pretty much means, "are you complete?" or "are you still in one piece?" Originally, I would give them a different fraction everyday (hapana, ni nusu = no, I am half). However, one day, I decided to invent a new word based on Swahili grammar rules. (-ote means the entire if it has a singular prefix and all if it is plural. I applied it to the first person singular pronoun, which is not done normally. Mimi mote.) Now, most of the students and some of the teachers have adopted my new word.

One of the students was discussing the conduct of the students this week at the weekly assembly and she announced "I want to congratulate you on being very co-operative this week." That's a pretty typical announcement if there haven't been big discipline cases. Then she continued "I also want to congratulate you on so many students coming late. Let's not have that next week." Hmmmm, I don't think congratulate was the word she was looking for there. Well, they need to build their English vocabulary and I need to build my Swahili vocabulary. I'm sure if they kept blogs they would make fun of the words I use (e.g. when I was sick, I told them that my stomach was a house of bacteria).

I got a really nice email from Dr. Patty, who recently left Peace Corps Kenya staff and is now working in Boston. She will be meeting with the IDDS organizing staff, so we exchanged a few messages. She is really wonderful, and we were sad to see her go. Still, it sounds like everything is going very well for her. Her email made me really happy.

In sadder news, one of my favorite puppies (well, she's 12, but still a puppy in my book) from back in the States is being put down. She was definitely a sweetie.

I got a few emails that I had been waiting on for a bit longer than I would have liked. Still, the responses were positive, so I was very happy to get them. I had another email where someone was concerned that I was spreading myself too thin. As usual. I should probably figure out a way not to do that. Eventually.

I had a phone call this week that made me very anxious. I hate waitng. Too vague? Probably. Well, that's all I will say for now.

I even started using facebook on my phone. I'm not terribly thrilled about it, but I know that for some people it is the only way that I'll be able to keep up with them.

I found out that one of my friends is in the hospital. It sounds pretty serious, but he is always really upbeat about everything. I just have to hope that this all passes soon. Scratch that. Two friends. :-(

This weekend, I will finally go to Mombasa. Very excited about that! Should be a blast.

Paper is a Vegetable

My teaching methods have always been a bit odd. In order to keep the students' attention, I usually have to be very animated. Verrrrrrrrry animated. Sometimes this means walking or running into walls. Other times, I have to slam various parts of my body with the door. I even started eating the leaves of various plants around the school compound last week (I'm still alive, so it can't be too poisonous). And in nearly every lesson, I shout and stomp to add emphasis to the main points (I think I learned that one from Jessica Young). Over the course of this week, my methods have probably become increasingly unorthodox.

On Monday, one of the students did not want to go to the board and demonstrate a math problem. I knew this would set a bad precedent, so I said that if she wouldn't help me, I would cry. This is quite a contrast to many of the other teachers who like to use (usually empty) threats. I then proceeded to kneel on the floor next to her and wail until she slid out of her chair to try the problem. The second year students tend to require me to be a bit more animated, otherwise, they really lose focus.

On Tuesday, a student in agriculture asked a question and I proceeded to explain, "No. Paper is not a vegetable. You see..." Then a student interrupted me. "Sir. Not paper. Paper." Well, actually, they were asking about pepper. It turns out, "paper" is a vegetable.

On Wednesday, we did a lab. My first one in a while. We were mixing acids and carbonates. I opted to use one of the unlabeled acids. Also, we're pretty low on distilled water, so I decided to use a relatively high (though unknown) concentration. A student asked "Sir, is this sulfuric acid?" I responded the only way I could: "Maybe." No casualties of this lab, although the acid made a few small yellow spots on my hands and turned one of my fingernails yellow. (That means they're healthy, right?) Anyone who has ever seen me in a chemistry lab would be shocked to hear me say this, but, I wish I had gloves and goggles.

On Thursday, my topic in physics was types of forces. In order to cover both tension and centripetal force in the same topic, I threw a rope over one of the roof beams and proceeded to do a flip (it turns out that they are in fact able to support my body weight). Good thing the bell rang just then, otherwise they would have had me doing flips for the rest of the lesson. At least I gave them a "don't try this at home."

On Friday (today), one of my agriculture students was asking about the difference between cereals and vegetables (I probably added to his confusion by saying that potatoes and cassava are vegetables, but I corrected that quickly). As the discussion went on, he wasn't entirely sure how to ask, so he asked don't some cereals cause people to and then gestured a bit wider in their midsections. I decided to end the lesson talking about how energy is stored, and then using the phrase "matako kubwa sana." I'll let you look that one up on your own, but the students laughed for the next five minutes.

Also, I nearly uttered a few profanities during a lesson when I realized that I was relying on the agriculture book to explain a topic to the students, and it completely contradicted itself. To the point where I had no idea whether either statement was remotely correct. Good work as usual, Kenya Literature Bureau. Speaking of the KLB, I have a strong suspicion that their agriculture books are not written by farmers. In fact, it seems pretty clear to me that to be an author, you must be part of the industrial fertilizer lobby. Makes for really good textbooks. And a really good education system.

On the plus side, the napier grass is actually looking pretty healthy. I'm really happy about how that has been turning out. Let's hope it continues that way. The compost is not going so well, but I haven't had any time to make the necessary corrective measures. At least it probably provides a more valuable lesson to the students.

I finally convinced my principal to give me a small posterboard. It is now my periodic table that I can hang up in different classrooms. Kinda hard to teach chemistry when the students don't have a periodic table to refer to. I am hoping that this will convince him to buy more posters so that we can make lots more for different subjects.

30 lessons is exhausting. It's even more exhausting when I see a certain colleague of mine who has only 10 lessons and only goes to about 5 of them. And then try to borrow money from me. Well, "borrow", since I don't expect I would ever see it again.

Random Thoughts

So I am about to slightly modify my post Faux Pas. My class council has asked me to submit a blog post for the alum newsletter, so I figured I'd go with that one. I just need to make it a bit more friendly to first time readers.

Also, I am currently trying to upload pictures. Still to no avail.

This week my lessons went well, but my mind was a bit preoccupied. I probably didn't help things by reading a novel about war in Sri Lanka. The bright spot of the week was definitely an email from another volunteer who feels my pain. He said that he would murder a baby panda for a can of Cherry Coke.

I ate lunch with my students one day. I was a bit hesitant to do that too early, because I wasn't sure if the other teachers would be upset by such an informal action. At this point, I think their used to my disdain for most formalities. We had a nice time, and the students asked me lots and lots of questions. I think the best part was the roaring laughter as I waited in the students' lunch line instead of waiting in the staff room to be served. We had a good time, and I may have arranged my sister's marriage. Lucky her.

Also, I found myself keeping up with people really well this week. I had a nice long email conversation with my sister about irrational numbers, grammatical errors and other miscellany. Towards the end of the week, it really seemed like things were falling into place. Let's hope that keeps up. Especially this week.

Introducing a New Crop

So, I imagined that this napier grass project would be fraught with difficulties, I just didn't think that so many of them would be of my own making.

Last week, my headmaster made arrangements for me to go to a nearby (25 km away) school and collect some of the napier grass that they have growing there. Since the school is in a much more moderate climate, they have many crops growing very well in the area. Well, when I went there yesterday, I was sitting on the matatu and I realized that I hadn't brought enough money for my return trip. That meant that I had to go up to Voi (an additional 25 km) to find the nearest ATM. (I had also forgotten water, which I was able to buy in Voi. That came in handy later.) That made finding matatus a bit more complicated, but on the plus side I got some grocery shopping done. (They have generic Pringles in the supermarket now too!)

Anyway, after getting to the school about 3 hours later than I had intended, I managed to find the Deputy Principal, who is also the agriculture teacher. We talked a bit about teaching agriculture, and she made arrangements for me to harvest some "splits" (I had wanted to grow from cuttings, but they had just harvested, so that wasn't possible). She had one of the groundskeepers (their school has a bit more staff than ours, though it is also much bigger and more established) come with me to collect a sack full of grass. We worked for about 10 minutes, and then I started my return journey. As I was leaving, I saw several students and teachers who recognized me from science congress. How many names did I remember? One.

The school is 6 km from the main road, and though vehicles go by throughout the day, I would have had much better luck catching one earlier in the day. I wound up walking the whole way, but I was very glad that the path was downhill. I just wish it hadn't been in the noon-time heat. I made sure to stop by the polytechnic (basically trade school), and made some connections there (I'm pretty sure that you'll hear a lot more about that later). Anyway, after a little wait in town, I found my matatu and made it back to school in time to teach my afternoon lessons. Phew.

Then after school, we planted the grass. I gave them some advice on techniques and so forth. I spent most of my downtime during travel reading books on agriculture (see Books 5.0 at the end of the month) and trying to absorb as much as I could. Let's hope they survive. The soil is pretty nutrient deprived and we are going through a pretty serious drought. No reason to be pessimistic, though. Actually, my optimism really comes from the fact that my students are really hard workers, and they are really excited about the project.

Adventures in Agriculture

I explained to my students this wekk that instead of growing kales for their agricultural project (part of their score on their national exam) we would be growing napier grass. Kales are commonly grown in this area, even though the oppressive sun means that in a good season, the crop will only be somewhat wilted. Napier grass is not grown in the area even though it is a drought tolerant crop that is good for controlling erosion (a big problem in the area) and makes good livestock feed (big concentration of livestock in the area).

At one point, one of the other teachers at my school tried to explain to me that I should just have them grow kales. Since he is the english teacher and the debate coach, you might have expected him to have the edge in the argument. Nope, I explained to him that I was going to make sure that the students were going to learn something from the project (another one of my radical innovations at the school) and outlined the advantages above. It silenced him pretty quickly. I think our record in debates is something like Me: 27, Him: 0. I almost feel bad for him, but really, I just feel bad for the students who he coaches in debate.

Anyway, the project sounds good, except I don't know how to grow napier grass. My students don't know how to grow napier grass. I don't know of anyone in the community who has raised it before (although it is grown in nearby communities). I hope that this succeeds somehow. (I already betrayed my lack of knowledge when I asked a teacher to go get seeds. The plants are grown from cuttings apparently.) Still, if it fails, hopefully the students will take some good lessons from that (and if it succeeds, I can take credit for introducing a productive crop to the area). Most of the time, failure is swept under the rug, instead of used for learning. Of course, they have their exam scores at stake. As I understand it, since the government just takes everyone's word for it, there is a lot of sweeping under the rug on these projects.

Sweepity-sweep-sweep.

A Relatively Unexciting Week

Relatively is the operative word. Certain things may or may not have been set in motion. Stay tuned, I may elaborate further later. Or maybe I won't.

Anyway, my lessons went pretty well this week. The headmaster is talking about buying more textbooks for the school which would be fantastic. I just need to figure out which study guides I should ask him to get for me. Hopefully that will help with performance. I want to mention one of my students named Agnes who is a very sweet girl, but has really struggled in school. She rocked at least 2 (out of 6) of her exams this term. I am really proud of her and I expect big things from her.

I moved my desk from the staff room to the lab (still under construction, but it is coming along), so that has been nice. I share a room with the physics teacher and people come visit us, but it gives me a nice refuge from that colleague of mine. Mr. Godwin brings a radio some days and the FM only sometimes works, so when he switches to shortwave, we usually end up with an odd collection of 70s, 80s and 90s music. I sing along a little bit when my students aren't around (I think it is obligatory to sing along when We Built This City on Rock and Roll comes on).

I set the schedule for the term this week. I included some pretty radical moves. Instead of having lessons in no particular order, the schedule will be more predictable (like having chemistry first lesson every day). Neither the teachers nor the students are as excited about this as I am. Still, I hope that the consistency will help the students to get a better rhythm at school. And also prevent a certain colleague of mine from skipping as many of his lessons. That might be too much to hope.