Back home to Kilifi and a paka :)

After I jumped off a 135-ft tower over the Nile it sorta felt like everything I've done since then has been rather mediocre, but numerous people have asked where the next blog post is. So I'll just write about boring old Kenyan Peace Corps things :)

So after Uganda we all headed back to Nairobi together for our IST (In-Service Training). The place in Uganda where we stayed, though absolutely fantastic in every way, only served fish n' chips, or pizza. So for four straight days that's kinda all we ate. I was really craving some decent Kenyan food when we got back, and unfortunately later paid for my day-long binge on it with a night full of food poisoning. Awesome. Thankfully it didn't last too long, and thankfully I was in Nairobi where Medical is super close and handy. They are absolutely right that you always get sick when you travel. Anyhoodle, I definitely wasn't the only one to get sick during IST either, so we spent MANY evenings at the local malls getting deli sandwiches and chocolate. We also had really good Indian food, Ethiopian food, and Thai food too. If Nairobi had a Target and Starbucks it would be just as good as America.

IST is meant to be the time when all us education volunteers get back together and talk about how much we screwed up teaching our first term, and compare notes on how we can improve. Being with everyone else from my group again was definitely the most useful part. We learn so much from each other it's crazy. It's also just fun to share ridiculous stories about our individual sites. In fact the first day of IST was dedicated entirely to "Volunteer Report-Outs," which essentially stands for get-up-and-vent-sessions. It was awesome to hear how everyone else is doing, and get ideas for ourselves for different teaching methods and projects to work on. I now have a very long list of things I want to accomplish in two year's time. I know some of them, no matter how hard I try, will never get done, so I will always fall back on my two continuous goals for Peace Corps: to keep my kids happy, healthy, and free of HIV.

BUT, that doesn't mean I won't try and get some other things done. Here's a few things I have in mind (maybe posting about them will motivate me more to get them rolling):

• I want to do the World Map Project up at my school, since it's brand new and has nothing exciting to look at, inside or out. I might have to wait till the rainy season is over and will definitely need help from my kids, but 2 years should be plenty of time.
• I want to get through the red tape of taking my kids on a field trip and bring them to the Kilifi VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing, where you can get free HIV tests). It's EXTREMELY close and shares a compound with KEMRI (Kenya Medical Research Institute) which is an awesome facility and hopefully something I can take the kids to also. I know for a fact that some of my kids' parents are HIV+ and though it will rip my heart in two to find out any of them are, it's something that needs to be done.
• Some of the other deaf-ed volunteers in Kenya have started teaching KSL to their communities, and though Kilifi is really big for Peace Corps standards, and there's already an adult KSL night class at my school, I want to get involved in this somehow. I think it's super important that people other than the deaf themselves know they exist and can communicate with them. Since their English is so poor and Kiswahili is a lost cause, AND since KSL is now the third official language of Kenya, it only seems suitable that more people start picking up a few signs here and there.
• I signed up at IST to have some tree seeds mailed to me. What kind or how many I'm getting I'm not sure, but hopefully they'll come with instructions and what not. If this all follows through we'll have some super cool little tree seedlings planted.
• Another thing I mentioned before but haven't gotten started yet is getting a signboard made for our school. We need something to tell Kilifi there's a secondary deaf school. Not sure whether I need to get wooden or cement or what, and pretty sure there's going to be a bunch of red tape with this one too, but at least it's a thought.

On another note, while I was in Uganda I got word from some other volunteers staying at my house while on the coast that the mice in the house had shredded some of my scarves and multiple couch cushions and I assume were eying the rest of my closet as well. So I called a friend of mine in town, Felix (the man who sells me juice and didn't believe homeless Americans existed) and told him I needed to get a cat when I got back to Kilifi. The day after I got home I went to town to run errands and get groceries and while I stopped to say hi and get juice, Felix opened a little door in back and a precious little paka walked out. I finished my errands super fast and ran back to pick her up and take her home. She was a little traumatized by the bumpy tuk tuk ride, but she got over it pretty quickly. She's super cute, about 5 weeks probably, seems very healthy, loves chasing beetles and mosquitoes, and has already spotted the notorious house mouse, though hasn't caught him yet. She loves tuna and banana bread, and screaming when she can smell either one. I even found some really expensive commercial kitten chow at Tusky's! Who knew! She only gets it for dinner though, since I can't afford to buy too much. My kids love her too, and they think it's quite hilarious how I don't treat her like a goat or a cow or every other animal in Africa, and they laugh at how much I love her. Oh well, I'm already white and crazy; this is just another thing to add to the list of weird things mzungus do. ANYWAYS, I've just been calling her paka, which in America might sound cute, but in Kenya it just means I'm calling her "cat." So I need help with a name. Check out the pics and let me know if you have any ideas!

Ok moving on. Today at school was mostly just a hang out day for me, since about half the teachers were there and many of my kids haven't even shown up yet. So whether I should have or not I basically just chatted with my students all day long. We got a little planning in of projects for the term, but mostly I just wanted to enjoy their company; which I surely did. And I want to give you a little taste. At one point I took my computer out to show my Form 1's the video of me bungee jumping. They went a little crazy for a bit but conversation soon turned into other things. Here's how it went down, translated from sign of course:

Deaf Kid: "Did they pay you to bungee jump?"

Sarah: "No I had to pay myself."

Deaf Kid: "How much was it?"

Sarah: "70 in America, 5,600 in Kenya."

Deaf Kid: "You ARE rich, you just keep lying to us."

Sarah: "If you people tell me one more time that I'm rich I'm going back to America!"

Half the class: "No no! We were just kidding, stay."

The other half of the class: "OK! We're coming to America with you!"

Sarah: "I wish you could, guys."

Deaf Kid: "Let us see some pictures of you in America again."

(So I show them pictures I've shown them a million times of me in college and stuff)

Deaf Kids: "You used to be so pretty. Why did things change when you came to Africa? What are those little red bumps all over your face now and why is your hair so different? You definitely don't look the same."

Sarah: "Thank you all so much. I feel great."

Deaf Kid: "How much money is your computer?"

Sarah: "200 in America, 16,000 in Kenya. But I didn't buy it, my dad did!"

Deaf Kid: "So your parents are rich. But that must mean that you're rich too."

Sarah: "Seriously, I'm gonna punch you."

Deaf Kids: "How 'bout you lend us your computer for the night?"

Sarah: "Absolutely not."

Deaf Kids: "We promise we'll give it back."

Sarah: "If you give me 16,000 shillings I will give you my computer."

(They all start trying to see if their pocket money combined would be enough. It wasn't.)

Deaf Kid: "I'll give you all my books and clothes and wash your clothes for the whole term."

Sarah: "No. And don't be silly I can wash my clothes by myself."

Deaf Kid: "I'll give you my dad's car!"

Sarah: "Nope."

Deaf Kid: "I'll give you a kitten."

Sarah: "I already have one! You just saw it!"

Deaf Kid: "No no, you definitely need more than one. I'll give you as many kittens as you want."

Sarah: "Tempting, but no."

Deaf Kid (settles everyone down because his offer is going to win, and completely and totally seriously says): "I will give you 10 cows."

Before I fell over laughing I finally got out: "Are you trying to buy my computer or marry me?"

At this point I exploded in giggles and couldn't handle it anymore and had to walk out. My kids make me laugh SO much. Even Alyssa, my Beach Corps buddy up in Lamu, says that when she comes to Kilifi her face is always hurting because she smiles so much. So I will happily leave you with a hilarious photo of Emmanuel and Ali, pretending to do some big drama, but not able to keep straight faces.

Love 'em.

And I love everyone that reads this blog!! Cheers to you guys.

Miss you bunches,

~ Shub :)

One-upping myself

So I know it's been A LONG time since I've last posted, and I sincerely apologize, but I've been traveling like crazy doing all sorts of fun stuff. So this will be a nice big post :)

Just after school finished at the end of March (and after I finished grading a million papers and a million more because I'm the class teacher for Form 2 and didn't realize that meant calculating all the kids' final grades for the term) I met up with another volunteer Alli on the coast and we traveled north to Lamu. It's about a 6-hour bus ride up north coast, and definitely one of the bumpiest ones I've ever been on. But we made it and met up with Alyssa (another volunteer and my partner-in-crime on the coast) and after visiting her school in Mokowe for a little bit, made our way over to Lamu island. Peace Corps has this thing where anytime within the first year of service if you have 4 volunteers or more, they will pay for 5 days of intensive language immersion. So that's why we went to Lamu.

First off, as far as the language goes, I think I only learned just a little bit. My pre-service training was entirely focused on KSL, so the Kiswahili I knew before is just what I had picked up. But what the non-deaf-ed part of my group learned in the 8 weeks of training is what was smushed into 5 days in Lamu. So "intensive" was certainly the name of the game. I tried as hard I could to smash it all into my brain but I really think I didn't pick up much more. But it did give me a good basis of sentence structure and all that, so I can introduce myself and say where I'm from and tell people the correct words in Kiswahili for 'deaf' and so on. When I get back to site I'm gonna try to study a little harder on my own and we'll see where that goes. It's funny because there are actually some words and phrases that are really hard for me to say in English. The Kiswahili is what comes out first. Maybe that's a good thing? Who knows.

Ok, moving on to Lamu. Lamu is about as far north as PCV's are allowed to go because of the proximity with the Somali border. But because of the Somali influence the vast majority of Lamu and the surrounding islands is Muslim. Lamu island itself is sort of a cross between Kenya and Venice. Buildings are like 12 inches away from each other, it's just a maze of cement alleyways, there are zero cars, only boats, TONS of donkeys and stray cats, and lots of awesome people. Peace Corps doesn't pay for room and board during language immersion so we stayed with some friends on the island and many nights only had banana juice for dinner. Language class every day was on the rooftop of our trainer's hotel, which made for some beautiful views. Check it out!

And here's our rooftop classroom

After Lamu we made our way back down the coast to Kilifi. I had to see my kids one last time before I left for the month, and since they were in Mombasa for the for the National Deaf Games we went back and forth from Kilifi to Mombasa about 3 days in a row. It was a lot of un-fun matatu rides and shillings but it was worth it to spend time with my kiddos before leaving. Never in a million years did I dream I could get this attached to so many people so different from me so quickly. I didn't want to leave the coast because I knew how much I'd miss them. They are the best part of Peace Corps, and probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. Here's a bunch being their normal goofy selves:

Solomon, Amir, and John

Solomon, John, Jamal (another teacher), and Julius

Clearly I'm a gangster

Also, my wonderful fantastic host family from Loitokitok had to go to court for a few days in Mombasa so I had the amazing opportunity to see them :) I didn't realize how much I actually missed them until I saw them again. Surrounded by my kids and my host Mama and brother Paul, I could not have been happier. I only wish all 7 in the family could have come.

Alyssa, Mama, cousin Gladwell, Paul, and me.

I then had to tear myself from my kids' sides to head back to Kilifi one last night. Alyssa and I caught an early matatu on a Saturday morning to Mombasa and from there jumped on a bus to Nairobi. Mombasa to Nairobi is about 8 or 9 hours, and if you don't pay enough for a decent bus, it'll take 11 or 12. Fortunately we got a good bus and made it to Nairobi safe and sound. There we met up with two other volunteers for 2 nights and left for Kisumu to pick up even more friends. I had never been west of Nairobi before so it was pretty cool seeing how different the landscape can be from one end of the country to the other. I will forever be partial to the coast but I do have to admit that western Kenya is beautiful.

Then after a night in Kisumu we continued west into Uganda. With only some minor issues at the border, we crossed over and hopped off the bus in Jinja, a town before Kampala where the Adrift Rafting company is located. If you ever get a chance to go to Uganda, you MUST go to this place. It's an awesome location right on the Nile with a bar overlooking the water, the bungee tower close by, and rafting trips that leave just about every day. We even got discounts because Peace Corps volunteers have been using the company for so long. They have all kinds of lodging situations and we (being very poor) picked the cheapest dorm-style one we could find. It worked out quite well. The food at Adrift was delicious, the beer was even better, and the late-night dance parties were the cherry on top. Not to mention the actual rafting and bungee jumping parts.

So all 10 of us got up the next day, had a $5 buffet breakfast, and hopped in the bus for rafting. Thankfully 10 was the maximum number of people allowed in one raft, so we just made the cut. Our guide was a hilarious Canadian named Josh, who was patient enough to deal with my group's redonkulous antics the whole way down the river. At this spot on the Nile they used to raft 11 rapids in one day, but with the new damming they lost 3, so we did 8 total; 4 before lunch, and 4 after. White water rapids are classed on a scaled of 1-6, and we did all 4's and 5's I think. It was absolutely terrifying and the coolest thing ever. Here's proof!

Well here's the view from the bar at Adrift

Here we all are, very happy about the rapids coming up

And here we are very UNhappy about the 15-ft

waterfall we're about to plummet down

And for my final performance, I went bungee jumping. I knew that if I had the opportunity to bungee jump over the Nile in Uganda and didn't, I'd kill myself. So I did. And it was, by far, the most terrifying thing I have ever done. Before it was just joining the Peace Corps, but I've definitely one-upped myself with this. The jump is 44 meters, about 135 feet, straight over the Nile. The bungee master Tony spent the last 5 minutes before I jumped telling me that bungee jumping and thinking do not go well together, the best thing to think about is nothing, oh and also, DON'T LOOK DOWN. Apparently I screamed too, but I don't remember anything coming out of my mouth at all. The screaming in the video is from the girl who's taking it.

First here's the guys who kept me from dying: Isaac and Tony

And here's the real deal:

So I think that should just about wrap up all the major travels this month. We are back in Nairobi now for our two-week In-Service Training, and we'll all head back to site at the end of the month. It's great to be with all my other volunteers again, but it will also be good to go home to Kilifi. I hope everyone in America is doing wonderful and hope you all have a happy Easter/Passover holiday.

Miss you A LOT.

~ Shub :)

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 :)