Bootcamp and District Hospitals

Well, it's the end of my third week of real teaching, and I think things are going relatively well. My kids seem to like me well enough, but that might just be because I'm actually a little bit crazy. Boarding school here is somewhat reminiscent of boot camp (so says my father) so they are constantly exhausted and barely have any time to just be kids.

They get up at 4:30 so they have enough time to get their things ready and down their porridge in time to be at school by 6:15. Except for tea break and lunch time, they sit in the same classroom all day long and watch the teachers come and go. Teachers spend their time writing notes from the book on the board, and the students copy, even if they have no idea what they are writing. Most signs in my vocabulary have one or two English words that help me make the connection from one language to the other. But their only fluent language is sign, so these words on the board they don't know look to them like Chinese looks to me; it's just a bunch of symbols. But they know I want to help them, so they consistently bring me lists of English words they don't know, and ask me for their meaning. And since I don't know a sign for most of them, I do a lot of acting things out. It's like a constant game of charades and can get pretty funny sometimes. Last night I did "seemingly," "alienate," "isolation," "flatter," "wandering," "devoted," "coaxed," and "arousing" to name a few. When school gets out at 5:00 they have just enough time to play a little soccer before their ugali and cabbage is ready, after which they spend the rest of the evening in "Preps" where they sit and recopy the notes they never understood in the first place. Bedtime at 9:30 just to get up and do it all over again the next day. Ugh. No wonder they fall asleep in class all the time! They are such good kids and like I said, they have no time to just be kids. For this reason I try my best to keep class as exciting and engaging as possible. I think me bouncing off the walls is a common occurrence. Whatever it takes though. They're curious, they're really smart when the use their heads, they're patient and polite and they totally deserve the best.

Thursday afternoon one of my kids fell through a small wooden bridge we have on the walk up to school. He messed up his knee really bad and I didn't see it until Friday morning, but as soon as I did I knew I couldn't just leave it. It was swollen beyond belief, if he wasn't black it would have been extremely red, and he was in a lot of pain. The other teachers seemed to not really care, which actually didn't surprise me, so I gave my classes some work to do, put him in a tuk tuk, and took him to the hospital. Kilifi District Hospital is certainly not like the hospital in Mombasa or Nairobi, I'm sure, but it wasn't a total disaster, I guess. We waited for a bit to go into the "Plaster Room," where a man squeezed and poked and prodded poor David's knee until he was trembling with pain. Apparently it was "necessary" to see if anything was broken. Right. He said we needed an x-ray, so we moved to another waiting area, where I learned I had to go to another building to pay for the x-ray. Two more lines and 360 shillings later (about $4.50), I was back and waiting again. We finally got into the x-ray room, which I was super surprised they even have. The man who takes the x-rays poked and squeezed all over again, and while I was cringing watching David in agony, the guy starts telling me about how men don't feel pain, how they are stronger than that, and how I would not make a good doctor. I've never wanted to go to med school, but if I ever did, it would be to prove this guy wrong. He was telling me I was in more pain than my kid, who of course was trembling from the pain he actually was feeling. We waited a bit longer for the pictures to be done, which afterwards we had to take back to the horrible man in the Plaster Room. He told me the bone was not broken, and I believed him cuz the x-ray looked ok, and that he needed to plaster the knee anyways. For 3 weeks. This seemed a little extreme for an unbroken knee, so while I was in town running around trying to find pain meds for David, I called mama yangu katika Amerika (Momma at home in the States). Though it was the middle of the night she happily advised me that the plaster thing was a bad idea, which I had an inkling of in the first place. Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation, and some ibuprofen. So I bought him the meds, a couple bananas since we missed tea break, and stuck him another tuk tuk back to school. I wrapped the knee in an ace bandage, told him to stop walking to and from school, and gave him a bag of cold water from my fridge; ice doesn't really exist here. I think throughout this whole process what surprised me the most was not the lack of decent medical care but the fact that everyone was so astounded when they realized he was deaf and we could still communicate. It blows people's minds that you can talk without talking. "You mean, you know his language?!" Yes, I do. Or least I'm working on it.

Anywho, something tells me that won't be my last adventure to the Kilifi District Hospital in the next two years. Otherwise, things here are good. I teach Life Skills in a couple hours which I think the kids usually enjoy. Last week we ended up talking about abortion and vasectomies. If I can't teach them anything else in the next two years I want them to at least learn to use condoms, and not sleep around, and how bad HIV actually is. If I can keep any of these kids from dying young, I will have done my job.

I hear the snow storms at home on the east coast are making life difficult, but just know how jealous I am. My kids love hearing that snow actually exists, and I really wish I could be there to help shovel your driveways :) Hope you all are doing well and remember, if you're ever in Kenya, you should stop by Kilifi and visit. Ha!

Okie doke, miss you miss you miss you.

Love always,

~ Shub :)

First day of school! First day of school! -Nemo

School has officially begun, but we haven’t really started to teach anything. I guess that’ll happen week 2. Things here seem so backwards I get a little frustrated sometimes. BUT, the good thing is I love my kids. Granted it is only the first week, but for now they are basically awesome. Every second I spend with them helps my signing, and helps me understand more how they think. When I sign, I am thinking in English, so I have grammar and stuff like that. But when they sign, they are thinking in sign, which in Kenya really has no grammar. So there is a big disconnect. So sometimes it takes a second for me to get my point across, or for me to understand what they are asking me, but eventually it’s all worked out. I also have to spend time explaining a lot of English words, which is harder than it seems, especially for things like “although” and “affect” and “exist.” My explanation of “exist” led to talking about dinosaurs, which led to Godzilla and then King Kong. Needless to say we were a little off-topic, but as long as I’m patient and repeat myself in multiple ways, they usually seem to get the gist. And like I said, the more time with them, the better things get.

So since the students sit around in their classrooms while the teachers have meetings about what to teach them, I spent a lot of this week doing Life Skills, which is always super fun. We’ve done a lot of team building exercises, and talked a lot about HIV/AIDS. It’s funny because they are so bright with certain things, and so lacking in what to me is common sense in other things. Today we played a game involving truths and myths about HIV and AIDS. The majority of my classes were absolutely convinced that white people are more susceptible to AIDS than black people, and that deaf people cannot get HIV. Another very prominent belief throughout Africa is that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS. Not only is this entirely and completely untrue, it just makes the problem worse. I also had to explain to them today that boys can be virgins too, and the word is not associated only with girls. I’m pretty sure they believe me when I tell them what’s true and what’s not, but I think it’s going to take a bit longer for them to fully understand the impact of all this. They are so curious and ask such good questions I have to keep telling them I’m here for 2 years and we have plenty of time to talk about things.

Anywho, it is only the first week, but (other than the slow and frustrating start-up of schools) I think I’m really going to like it here. Turns out I’m teaching math to form 2 and 3 (sophomores and juniors), teaching computers to all 3 forms, and since there’s no time during actual school, we’ve moved Life Skills to the weekend. Right now however, there is no English teacher, so Life Skills has been happening during that time too. Hopefully the organizational stuff will fall into place soon enough, and I won’t have to worry about whether or not anyone is actually going to teach, or the kids are just going to sit for a few hours. So besides the fact that I have 7 Math books for about 70 kids, things are going ok.

Another issue is that Kenyans have like 3 different names, which is a lot to remember, plus everyone here has a sign name too. AND they all wear the same uniform and have VERY similar hairstyles (or lack thereof). Maybe in two years time I will know all of my kids by name and sign name. I just tell them I’m stupid and I’m from the village and can’t remember everyone yet, so they think that’s funny.

OH, speaking of names, I’ve been given a local name. The local tribe here in Kilifi is Giriama, and the other teachers at the school have named me Kasichana, which means little girl. Fitting huh? Oh well.

So for the next two years I’m also participating in a Peace Corps connection program called the World Wise Schools Correspondence Match Program. This basically means that all the Peace Corps Volunteers in the Education sector get their classes around the world connected up with a classroom somewhere in the states. Luckily for me, my best friend from forever ago, Angie, is a new AP US History teacher in Florida. Since Angie started teaching last fall, her classes got a head start on the connection process. I’ve already received a wonderful packet of letters from all of her students, asking all sorts of questions about the Peace Corps and about Kenya. I have told my kids here that there are classes in America that want to meet them and since their English is so poor, internet is not readily available, and I still don’t trust the Kenyan postal service, we started with some pictures. They love seeing themselves in pictures and they LOVE knowing that people in America can see them too.

These are my Form 2's: bunch of goofballs.

And these are my Form 3's; also goofy.

Form 1's have not shown up yet because they miss the first few weeks of school due to the selection of them for each secondary school. So whenever they come I will photograph them too and hopefully post.

OK, hope life is good in America, it's certainly chuggin' along here in Kenya. I miss you all SO much, but am still rather certain that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now.

Say hi to the snow for me! Love love love from Africa!

~Shub :)

Picture time!

Hi Everyone! So I have FINALLY made it to the thriving metropolis of Mombasa where they have free high-speed wireless :) It's awesome. I'm uploading TONS of pictures to facebook and am posting a bunch here too. I start teaching on Monday, though after days of staff meetings I'm still not sure exactly what I'm teaching, or which forms, or when. So I guess I'll figure it out when classes start on Monday? Oh well. As always, I would recommend going to facebook for the full slew of photos from the last few months, but I'll put some highlights here. Enjoy!

This is me with part of my second host family. Ann, Henry, Margaret, Me and Mama. Monicah is taking the picture, Trizzah was still at school, and Paul was not home from work yet.

This is the super cute baby paka (cat) at my homestay that I loved. He has no eyeballs cuz children have poked them out. After I left paka would pace around my room looking for me.

This is my entire training group in Kibwezi when we went for our HIV/AIDS sessions. Best group I could have ever asked for :)

Me and Mark with our Thanksgiving dinner :)

Me with all of my kids for Model School

Studying language at the waterfall in Loitokitok after hiking.

My room at my homestay.

My host family in Loitokitok. Henry (10), Margaret (5), Me, Mama, Monicah (7), Ann (13), and Trizzah (18).

OK peeps gotta run! Miss you like crazy!

Love you bunches,

~ Shub :)

Happy Belated Holidays!

Happy belated holiday season from East Africa! And happy 2011! Hope you all had a good one. Mine was not all that exciting. Just kinda made me miss home a little more.

Christmas was good: I had visitors here (some from my group, some from other education and public health groups) and we basically just spent the day at a resort. 800 shillings gets you a day at the infinity pool of Mnarani Club, which overlooks the ocean, and a fantastic buffet lunch complete with real steak and fresh salad and chocolate sauce and everything. So I got a decent sunburn and a delicious meal for Christmas. Things could be worse :)

New Year's was a little less exciting. We took a dow boat ride around Kilifi creek in the afternoon and had some really good fish and coconut rice on a super secluded beach. I went with a bunch of VSO volunteers who were in Kilifi on the coast for holiday vacation (VSO is sort of like an international Peace Corps, so there's always lots of fun accents). People in Kilifi are really nice and I'm happy there are other people like me around. So everyone met up at the bar afterwards for the countdown and stuff, but I was super lame and decided to just call it a night. It's a 100 shilling tuk tuk ride back to my house, another 100 back into town, and another 100 back after midnight. Also, when I get home late, the main gate to my compound is often locked with the guard nowhere in sight. So I have to trek through some woods to the other side of the compound, and jump another locked gate. It's just a hassle. And I was tired. Oh well. Just another year right?

Back to Christmas for a sec. I thought it would be worth mentioning that my 26 year old brother's favorite Christmas present was a Star Wars Lego set. What a dork. And his present to me was just as hilarious, but you need a little backstory: Since my brother doesn’t have a bedroom anymore he stays in mine when he comes home to visit. It’s the most out of the way, and has the most privacy in the house. Anyways, it’s my childhood bedroom, so I still have a lot of things in there from when I was little, including my American Girl doll, Molly. One time (I don’t remember when) I told Morgan to be careful because Molly likes to watch him sleep. I continue to remind him every now and then just so he’s on his guard. So he and my family, in their infinite weirdness, made this: http://mollywatchesyousleep.wordpress.com. I think everyone had just as much fun making it as I did viewing it. Thanks bro :)

So the holidays are over and I have to start teaching soon. I still don’t know what I’ll be teaching or what level, or exactly when school even starts. But I’ll figure it all out. Just takes some time. I finished painting the main room of my house and it almost looks like a real home now. My sofas came, I have pretty cushions for them, I have a real bed, and I’m getting a fridge in a few weeks. Things are slowly coming together. I am SO thankful that classes start soon and that I get to have a schedule. There is another sector of Peace Corps, Public Health, that I don’t think I could ever do. They basically have to figure out what they’re community is lacking, and fix it. I guess I’m a little self-motivated, but the thought of having to make my own schedule for 2 whole years is super scary. Thankfully I’m a teacher and don’t have to worry about that.

So I think that’s about all that’s going on right now. I sit by my fan most of the day, and spend the other parts of the day killing cockroaches and chasing toads out of my house. I hope everyone had an awesome holiday season and that you are enjoying the cold weather for me.

Miss you all like crazy.

~ Shub :)