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 :)