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 :)

Ugali feels like home.

What I've been told, and what I'm slowly figuring out for myself, is that some weeks in the Peace Corps are harder than others. Most weeks I don't even feel like I'm in the Peace Corps. I just live and work in Africa. Nothing special really. But there are some days that I get so pissed off at people I just want to scream. But I can't, cuz I'm not that kind of person, and that's not what they taught me in training. They taught me to focus on teaching and the things I can change, work on changing them slowly, and most of all to be patient about it. I'm not sure what sort of crucial changes I'll make in two years time, if any at all, but for now I know I just need to remain patient.

Aside from learning more patience, I'm also constantly being reminded what a homebody I am. I've lived in my house on this compound for a little over two months and, surprisingly enough, I miss a lot of things when I spend a night away. I miss my ugly front door and my overstocked bookshelf and my understocked pantry, but most of all I miss my kids. Last night I had the pleasure of being taken out to dinner at the fanciest of fancy resorts in a town called Watamu, close to a bigger one called Malindi. It was more white people than I'd seen in a long time, and definitely a lot more money than I'd seen in a long time too. Dinner was an exquisitely lavish four-course meal, complete with salad that didn't have me worrying about giardia, an extremely decadent brownie thing, and even a gin n' tonic. It was marvelous. But the whole time I felt so out of place, and so much like I didn't belong.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly appreciated every second of it, and savored every bite, but it just didn't feel like home. I know people live like that all the time but I'm not sure I could, even if I did have the money. So coming back home felt good, and it felt right. Back to the house full of mice and frogs and termites and ants and spiders and giant millipedes, back to the chickens and ducks that live next door, and the cows that drink my laundry water, and best of all, back to my kids.

For some reason, today at school was super frustrating, or maybe it just got to me easier than most days. I suppose I'm easy to read, but my kids all notice when I'm not myself, and always ask what's up. I tell them "Eh, don't worry, I'll get over it," which I do, in time. Today one of my boys, Amir, looked at me and slowly finger-spelled "c-h-a-n-g-e h-a-p-p-y p-l-e-a-s-e." So I spent the afternoon reading and chilling out, instead of grading tests, and around 6 went outside to watch the boys play football. And since last night was so unusually extravagant, I decided I needed dinner with my kids again. The dining hall on the compound is huge and old and dirty and at mealtime is filled with hundreds of little deaf kids all scarfing down their ugali as fast as they can. When I first ate dinner there they all were super shocked to see a mzungu eating ugali and eating with her hands and actually enjoying it. But now it's no big deal since they see me all the time. So I got my ugali and watered down stew made of some sort of meat, sat down with my secondary students, dug in with my hands as always, and finally felt like I was home. For some reason, even the tasteless consistency of ugali is something I miss.

So I walked back home with Amir and tried to explain to him why just being around all of them makes me happy. He smiled big so I think he got most of it. I can't even fathom how much I'm going to miss them in two years, so I won't even think about it. I have a long ways to go.

I wish there was a way I could explain each and every one of my kids, but I think that would be super boring to read. I spent a lot of yesterday laughing about how some of them try to say my name. There are kids of all levels of deafness here; some who are deaf kabisa (completely) that you could blow a fog horn into their ear and they wouldn't hear it, some who hear a little bit without hearing aids, some who do have hearing aids, some who speak fluent Kiwashili and pretty good English, and everything in between. They know that I'm hearing so when they want to get my attention they just make whatever noise they can, and just like their signing, each one sounds different. The few kids who can hear pretty well giggle with me when they hear the others try to call my name. It's definitely one of my favorite things.

It's 9:30 and way past my bedtime, so the moral for myself from today's story is to just chillax, enjoy the company I have, and appreciate home.

I hope my other homes in America are doing well. Not a day goes by I don't miss everyone like crazy.

Happy almost March!

~ Love, Shub :)

The recent goings on, and happy 50th!!

As a PCV, every couple of months that I'm at my site I have to fill out a volunteer report form, about what I've been up to, how I've been integrating into my community, and what's been recently challenging at site. What I wrote about this time was how all of the things that in America I was worried about adjusting to have just become a part of life, and I don't even think about them. But SO MANY other things that I never even imagined would be issues have proven extremely hard.

I've been teaching for about 6 weeks now, and every week presents something else I never expected. The more time I spend with the kids the more I get to know them and their individual personalities. At first I was so worried about remembering all their names and sign names and what not, and now I don't think I could ever forget them. Each one has a different ridiculous sense of humor and a different way of signing too. Just like everyone's voices are different but distinguishable, so is how they each sign. It's pretty cool. Some of them sign so beautifully that I get caught up in how pretty it is to watch, and I stop understanding what they're telling me. It's kinda like how you can see some stars better if you don't look directly at them.

I asked them this week too about their homes and families. I was curious if they were the only deaf ones. All but about 2 or 3 said "Yes, me deaf alone." Some have some deaf friends nearby, but not many. Then I asked if their families sign with them; 'not really' was the answer. "So what do you do when you go home and who do you talk to?" Answer: 'I sit and watch and don't talk to anyone.' Poor kids. Granted some have parents and families who have made an attempt at learning their language, but going home must be bittersweet for so many of them. They get to see their families, but who do they talk to? People need food and shelter but they also need companionship and stories. Just another thing to make me want to stuff them all in my suitcase and take them back to the States with me (which many have totally agreed to btw).

So lots of other things have been going at school:

• The new boys dormitories are nearly finished and they have already moved in. The secondary boys love that they have their own spot just for themselves, but hate that they have to walk farther to the dining hall now.
• Next month a bunch of people from the Army (the US Army) stationed in Djbouti are supposed to come build a new latrine block for the school. Hope it happens!
• I made it into a Kenyan newspaper; the Nairobi Star. It's nothing special, just a short snippet of what I'm doing here, why I like it, and even what my favorite car is. I tried to find it online but I don't think it's there. I'll certainly save it though.
• My school, Pwani Secondary School for the Deaf, is brand new. It just opened in 2009, which is why the dorms and latrines and everything else are still being built. Partial funding for all of this apparently came from The Commonwealth Society for the Deaf, an organization based out of London that I think is now called Sound Seekers. There's a brief thing here: http://www.sound-seekers.org.uk/our-work/projects/kenya-2009-2012/ but it's extremely outdated. Anyways, some lady from this society is coming next month to observe for 2 weeks, and see if we possibly can get more funding. Cross your fingers!
• Since Pwani is so new, we don't have any official sign boards or anything to show that we're here. So I've decided to try to have the kids help me build a couple to put out on the roads and let people know that yes, there is a secondary deaf school in Kilifi! School pride here we come!

The Peace Corps was started way back in the dark ages; 1961 that is. Meaning that this year is the 50th Anniversary! Hooray! 50 years of thousands and thousands of volunteers in hundreds of countries doing all kinds of cool work. Check this out: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=about.fiftieth and this: http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/50/ for a glimpse of all the fun things going on throughout the year. So in honor of these 50 wonderful years, each volunteer, at least in Kenya, is being given 50 tree seedlings to plant. I think I might have to go to Nairobi to pick them up, but if I can bring them back to Kilifi and have my kids plant then, it would be awesome. They are called Moringa trees, or miracle trees and are supposed to be super easy to take care of and super good for the environment. Also, in commemoration of 50 years of awesome PCV's, they've issued a "Live like a PCV challenge" to Americans on the homefront. If you want, you can pick a week sometime this year to give up some daily conveniences and try to live like a real Peace Corps Volunteer. This is the website explaining the challenge: http://www.livelikeapcv.org/. This document is specific to Kenyan volunteers and the challenges we face, and this document is about how to actually participate. Have fun!

The Peace Corps' second official goal is to "help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served." With this in mind, I cannot tell you how many times a day I have to tell people that just because I am white does not mean I am filthy rich. It actually gets kind of exhausting. On my usual walk into town the other day I stopped to chat with a friend of mine named Felix who has a little juice bar. He is a very nice man, gives me free juice all the time, and is not horribly insistent about me marrying him, which is a relief. So mid-conversation it came up again that no, I am not rolling in millions of shillings and no I am not paid to be here. I told Felix that we have poor people in America too, and this came as a complete shock to him. Kenyans think America is like heaven; no one is every sad or unhealthy or poor or struggling. It took about 15 minutes of me angrily explaining homeless shelters and how people sleep on the street, and the concept of middle and lower class for him to finally believe me. Kenyans like to think in extremes, all black and white. Africa is dirty and bad, America is clean and good. I think my passion in explaining everything made him realize how true it is. Los Angeles is filled with billionaire Hollywood celebrities, but also with slums and thousands of people living in poverty. It's true in many major cities, if not all. Similarly, Nairobi has some of the richest people in Africa, but also some of the biggest squatter's camps too. So yes, America is of course a wonderful place, but it's not perfect, nowhere is.

On a funnier note, last week while I was sleeping a mouse -who I have seen before running around- somehow made his way inside my mosquito net, attempted to burrow himself into my pillow, found my thumb instead, and decided gnawing it would be a good idea. This of course woke me up and, save for some blood stains on my pillow case, it wasn't a big deal. But I called my medical officer the next morning anyways, just in case. She said that to be on the safe side I should go to Mombasa to get rabies shots. This was an adventure too, but a week later I'm all shot up and healthy and haven't started foaming at the mouth. Yet. This also led to some good conversations with my kids about rabies and vaccinations and doctors and hospitals. One thing always leads to another and sometimes we never even get to an actual math lesson. Oh well!

Whew! I think that's all the updates I have for now. Kilifi is still hot, my kids are still awesome and I of course still miss home.

Ninakupenda sana sana sana! I love you all very very very much!

~ Shub :)