End of Term 1, plans for April, and Happy Birthday Bro :)

So it's just about the end of my first term teaching. WHEW. Who woulda thought I'd make it through? Here's some things I learned in the first 3 months:

1. There are few things more frustrating for me than the Kenyan Education System.
2. I LOVE that I can actually communicate with my students.
3. As far as Peace Corps standards are concerned, Kilifi is like, the best town ever.
4. Patience truly is the only way to maintain sanity out here.
5. If I want something done, I need to do it myself.
6. I could not have asked for a better group of students.
7. I need to budget my money more carefully.
8. I am SO thankful to be teaching secondary school.
9. I am SO thankful to be teaching deaf kids. Seriously. The hearing kids here bug the crap out of me.
10. I LOVE apple mangoes.

Life in Kilifi is chugging along, and most days, is pretty awesome. Like I said before, I love my kids more than anything. They are the only reason I want to keep going. They keep me grounded and they keep me happy. In return, I'm not only their teacher, but I've also become their doctor, their tailor, and hopefully someone they can come to when they need advice, which many have already taken me up on. I am never lonely, I always have company to walk to town, someone always offers to carry my books, and my favorite days of the week are when I eat dinner with all of them. I'm even starting to crave ugali now. Uh oh.

So this term I taught Math to Form 2 and Form 3, Computers to all three forms, Life Skills to all three forms together on the weekends, and unofficially English, because an English teacher did not come for about 11 weeks. I've tried to spend this term (like a good new volunteer) learning the ropes and hanging in the background and staying patient, but I have so many ideas for things I want to work on while I'm here. One big thing that's already gotten started is the wonderful people at my church in Rockville, MD have started a sort of fund for my school here in Kilifi. They give money to my mom, who sticks it into my bank account, I can easily pick it up from the ATM in town, and voila! new textbooks and calculators for my kids! Before I purchased more with these donations, my 20 Form 1's were sharing 1 book, my 27 Form 2's were sharing 3, and my 19 Form 3's were sharing 2. Granted the Kilifi book shops don't have enough to supply my whole school just yet (I've told them to order more), but 14 books for 47 kids is better than 2 total. As my Momma always says, "It's a process!" So from the bottom of my and my kids' hearts, thank you thank you THANK YOU Christ Episcopal :)

Anywho, since Term 1 is just about over, I get to head back to Nairobi next month for IST (In-Service Training)! But before I do, I'm meeting up with some other volunteers and doing a little traveling. Hooray! Here's the plan: The first week of April I'm going north coast to a town called Mokowe, right by the island of Lamu. There are 2 other volunteers there, and Peace Corps is going to pay for us to have 4 days of intensive Kiswahili training. Other than having to avoid the Somali pirates on the water, I'm pretty excited. Then we'll meander back down to Mombasa and hopefully stop at the National Deaf Games, where my kids will be playing football till their toes fall off. Then we make the long trip to Nairobi, pick up our passports and yellow cards, and continue west to Kisumu. Why do we need our passports you say? Well because after a few nights in Kisumu, we're heading all the way over into Uganda. We'll hopefully be there for about a week; we're going to raft the Nile, and I realllllyyyyy want to go bungee jumping. This all needs to happen in the first half of April because we have to be back in Nairobi by the 17th, for our IST. I am utterly thrilled about this as well, because I get to spend 2 wonderful weeks with the other volunteers I miss so much. Yay! IST will finish just in time for us to all get back to site and start up our second term in-country. Whew. Sound like fun?

I have mentioned that I love my kids right? Another thing they are really good at, aside from being goofy and making me laugh, is keeping tabs on me. If for some reason I don't come back at night, or I go somewhere and don't tell them where I'm going, I always hear about it when I get back. They also know that I go out on the weekends and hang out with friends, and when I don't go out, that concerns them too. "Aren't you going out with your friends tonight?" They notice the tiniest changes in anything I do, and always make sure to tell me. A bobby pin could be in a different place, and someone would probably comment. It's hilarious. So my front door has an outside metal-type door, and an inside wooden one. My kids know that when the outside one is closed, I'm usually not awake. But as soon as I open that outside door, the visitors come a-runnin'. This morning is Sunday, and I have nothing to do except make tests and wash clothes, so I slept in. Till 10:00; the longest I've slept-in in Kenya yet. I woke up, opened my door, and not 2 minutes later, there was Dennis who said "Man Sarah! You slept for a long time!" What am I going to do in two years when they're not around to check up on me? I know there's this whole cliche about changing lives in the Peace Corps and stuff, and everyone keeps telling me I'm making a difference in my students' lives, but the reality is they're the ones changing me.

I just posted an album on Facebook, and most people who read the blog have already seen them, but just for the sake of repetition, I'll post some again. But please, check out the FB for the full run.

This is my schoolhouse: Pwani Secondary School for the Deaf!

These are my girls right before a football tournament they had.

Me and a bunch of them looking super gangster.

Sometimes I spoil my kids with sweets and cold water.

Amir is enjoying both of those here.

This is my brand new group of Form 1's (9th grade). They're fitting in quite nicely :)

Three of my favorite Form 3's: Thomas, Chengo, and Julius.

Ali stole my camera. I do teach occasionally.

Before I go, a big shout out and Happy Birthday to my wonderful WONDERFUL big brother. He turns 10, I mean 27 today. "What have we always said is the most important thing?" "Breakfast." "NO. Family!" Love you bro. Hope you have an awesome day and enjoy your Legos :)

Well that's all I can think of now, but I think I'll be taking my computer when I travel, so I should be able to update along the way. I hope America is good, my thoughts go out to everyone in Japan affected by the earthquake/tsunami, and have a fabulous rest-of-March!

Love you all,

~Shub out :)