Sarah is good at supermarkets!

So my power has been off for a week now, and I'm NOT happy about it. So not happy that I've been sleeping all the way across the bridge at the plantation, where they have power and hot showers and a washing machine and other glorious western amenities. I do miss being in my house though. And lord knows I miss my kittens. I think they miss me too, cuz they get all mushy and weird when I come home. Thankfully I think they're out terrorizing the chickens and ducks right now, so maybe they've forgotten that I leave them at night.

Anywho, school is opening today, and all my wonderful little deaf rays of sunshine are slowly returning to where I believe they're supposed to be: with me. We technically open school today but that means that many of them won't show up until this weekend probably. Fingers crossed the power is back on by then. Without power we can't have movie night, and that will be a disappointment to everyone. Plus I spent a lot of time over break stealing awesome movies from other people's hard drives for my kids. They are going to DIE for Transformers. If we ever get to watch it, that is.

Last week was another very successful Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) in which I, by pure happenstance, actually ended up being a counselor. I was not going to be a counselor before because I could not make the planning meeting in Nairobi (cuz I chose to be on a boathouse in Kilifi that weekend instead) but one of the counselors for the Deaf camp got kidney stones just before camp. I, being 10 minutes from where camp was held anyways, and having already done one last year in Kisumu, was the default volunteer to ask for help. Though it was SO much work last year, I still got my butt over to camp every morning and tried my best to teach lessons that I wasn't really prepared for (can't say I do a lot of serious lesson planning at regular school either, so no big deal).

I had signed up four of my girls, and one of my teachers, all of which came except for one girl, Lilian, who lives super far away and had some issue with her bus ticket and couldn't make it. Hopefully we can make it up to her by sending her to Kisumu in August. We'll see. My other girls that came were Nazi (pronounced with a long Z) and Lucy (both Form 3), Shukurani (Form 4), and Emily Adongo, our new wonderful English teacher who signs fabulously and is the niece of a very influential Deaf lady out west.

The week was a success, as we all figured it would be. Monday we started with communication and myself and Kidanga, a deaf teacher from south coast, lead the very first session where everyone was together and we taught the hearing girls a little bit about Deaf culture. Since it was the beginning of the week, and we had not separated the hearing and the deaf yet, I wasn't sure who could hear and who could not, other than my own girls. Deafness is not something you can tell by looking at a person right? So towards the end of my talk, I was asking the girls for questions, many of which were very good, and some of which were a little strange. A girl in the front walked up and handed me a piece of paper with a question on it. I read it to myself, and automatically assuming she was deaf, signed back to her "Do you want me to announce this to the whole group?" She looked at me like I was crazy, so I asked her again. Then she motioned for me to come over, pulled me down, and whispered in my ear, "I'm not deaf." Great job, Shub. Way to start off camp by trying to sign to a hearing girl. So I attempted to recover my dignity a little bit and turn it into a lesson about how deafness is not easily seen on a person, and how the only thing deaf people cannot do is hear. The rest of the volunteer counselors and I had a good laugh about it later, at least.

We also had a quick lesson on Monday about self-esteem. We took turns going around the room and saying things that we are each good at. Some girls were good at dancing, or math, or cooking ugali, or signing. When it came around to me, I barely had a chance to raise my hands to start answering before all my girls chimed in at the same time "Supermarkets! Sarah is good at supermarkets!" This got a huge laugh out of the rest of the PCV counselors and it made me realize how much I actually do go to Tusky's. If it's there, why not use it, right? So we even wrote on the board "Sarah is good at supermarkets." Awesome. That was another running joke for the rest of the week. I just can't catch a break.

Tuesday was a day all about women's reproductive health, Wednesday was all about HIV/AIDS, and Thursday was talks about the future followed by an afternoon at the beach. I live 3km from the beach and frequent it as much as possible with my schedule, and had obviously seen beaches before, stateside and elsewhere. But the look on some of these girls faces when they saw the beach for the first time was incomparable. Having spent their whole lives in the village, I don't blame them one bit. I think when I was little the first time I saw the beach I called it a 'big sandbox.' Pretty accurate I think. So the girls spent the afternoon playing in the waves, throwing seaweed at each other, drinking soda, and enjoying themselves like never before. It was spectacular to see such unbridled joy. I got a lot of questions too about where the water ends, does it just stop at the horizon, how far does it go. "India" I kept saying, and hopefully that was right.

We also spent an entire afternoon doing our usual Peace Corps condom games: condom demos, condom relay races, condom water balloon toss, and so on. So to say the least I think the girls had fun, and therefore the week seemed very successful. I said goodbye to everyone on Saturday morning, most of whom were going all the way back to Nairobi, or thereabouts, and tried to get back into my routine at home and at school. Like I said, there's no power though. So I'm writing this post as fast as I can before my dinky little Acer battery runs out since I won't be back to the plantation until tonight.

This term is going to be extremely busy, I can feel it. And next term is somewhat of a joke, since we have conferences and medical appointments galore to get us ready to come back stateside, all of which will be happening during school, and all of which will likely be in Nairobi or farther. So again, I need to be soaking up my kids as much as possible, enjoying every second with them, and taking far too many pictures. Speaking of which, here's a bunch from Camp GLOW and some from my previous picture-less post last month. 

My boys after they won their match at provincials in Mtwapa

Getting ready for their volleyball match next.

Getting prepped for the match at nationals in Nairobi!

Fajita night in Nairobi with the girls :)

Same tiny little kitchen in Loitokitok, and same wonderful food and family :)

Begin Camp GLOW photos:

Team-building with the human knot.

Teaching something...

Shukurani - Camp GLOW superstar

PCV counselors all get together for the Cha Cha Slide. Charlie Brown!

Almost time for condom water balloon toss.

Beach day!

My girls and Emily and I! :)

And then back home to my wimpy little front yard and my adorable pakas :)

So I'm at school now and praying for my power to be back on within the week (please help!). The kids are arriving though, so that makes the day better for sure. I do still miss America sometimes and I definitely miss all the people there. That means you!

No but seriously, thanks for reading and stay classy everybody.

Love and hugs from Kenya!

~ Shub :)

Break month travels.

I think in my last post I was lamenting the fact that it would be a whole month before I see my kids again. Thankfully the break months here always go rather fast, because I end up being so darn busy.

School ended earlier than expected (I shouldn't have really expected anything though) and I had to say goodbye to a lot of the kids, while about 40 of them stayed behind to go to games. They practiced by themselves at school for a while, then on the 9th they were bused down to Mtwapa, where the special school is where they were hosting deaf game provincials for Coast this year. Mom got here on the 7th, and though she wasn't prepared for the heat of the coast, she still followed me all the way to games one day while my kids were at provincials. They all played fabulously (as they always do, I think) and actually won a lot of their games. They were told before provincials that 30 of them would be going to Nairobi for nationals, but unfortunately when the it came time to pick the kids for the Coast national team, it was Kwale (a primary deaf school in south coast) who was in charge of the picking, so it was the Kwale kids who got picked. So some of my kids got to go to Nairobi, but definitely not as many as we had first thought, and a lot of my best players weren't chosen. Ah, the beauty of helping out only yourself and your people.

Anyways, so Mom and I hung around Kilifi for a week, even though it was way too hot for her, and I tried to take her to all the breeziest, coolest places in town. I also took her to Kate's village, Takaungu, and she bought lots of bags from the sewing ladies that Kate's NGO supports. We went snorkeling one day which ended up being very nice and refreshing and the next day jumped on a bus to Nairobi (the timing worked out because I had to be there for Peace Corps work, and Mom had just about had enough of the heat of the coast). Though I wasn't technically in Nairobi for it, it was the new Education group's IST, where they all come back after their first term teaching and talk about what went wrong and how to improve. It's crazy to think it's been a year since my IST, and even crazier to think I might actually be termed a seasoned veteran at this whole 'Peace Corps' thing.

Nairobi was cold as always, but we did manage to get some work done. Amanda and I and the other secondary deaf ed-ers are trying to work on a project to streamline signs for Math, Bio, Chem, and Physics, because true KSL doesn't really have signs for most words in those subjects anyways. We got done what we could and I will be working with my kids next term on signs for Math and Physics, taking videos and pictures of all the signs, and hopefully going back to NRB to continue the project at the office.

While in Nairobi I also got to go to nationals for deaf games, and see my kids who actually did get picked to play, even with all the favoritism that went on. Though we were only there for a morning before we had to get back to the office to supposedly continue work, it was fabulous to see my kids again, and even tons of other kids from other deaf schools this side of Nairobi who I'd met before at Model School or Camp GLOW or something. I recognized way more than I could put a name and sign name too, but they all recognized me right away, so I spent a lot of time getting reintroduced to everyone. Even so, it was still wonderful just to be with deaf kids again, and feel totally at home again, right where I'm supposed to be.

Mom didn't want to throw herself back into the heat again, so she changed her ticket to fly out of Nairobi and left on Saturday and got back safe and sound yesterday morning. I had told my host family from Loitokitok that I would bring Mom and come and see them this month, but since Mom left a little bit early, I resigned to go alone and see them. I've been away from Kilifi and my pakas for over a week now, and REALLY want to get back, but I made a promise to my host fam that I'd come back so I had to follow through. So I'm currently sitting on the little bed that I slept in all of training, while the wonderful kids I lived with are all still running around screaming like always. Everyone is a whole year and a half older now though personality-wise no one has changed. Mama is still the same, always laughing, Paul is still running Baba's old carpentry shop and just bought himself the oldest truck I have ever seen, Trizzah is married with a baby in Nairobi, Anne is still sweet and always doing house chores, Henry is still as cute as ever and still giving me a hard time about being mzungu, and Monicah and Margaret are still gorgeous and have thoroughly missed playing with my hair. Luckily for them it's grown out A LOT since training - even with a haircut at Christmas - so they have a lot more to work with now.

So today we're just relaxing and hanging out and much to Mama's dismay, I will leave tomorrow to head back to Kilifi. Assuming I get back ok (haven't traveled from Loitokitok to the coast in a LONG time) I'll have a few days to relax and hang out with my kittens until Camp GLOW starts on Sunday. Though I'm not technically a counselor this time (like I was last August in Kisumu) I've nominated four of my own girls and the camp itself is five minutes from my house in Kilifi. So whether they like it or not, Shub will be a regular presence for that week. Then the next week is when school is supposed to start and lo and behold my kids come back to me again :) Which also means I'm that much closer to saying goodbye to them :(

I have lots of pictures from this month off, and will definitely take more before the term begins again, but they are all on my camera and I unfortunately left the usb cable in Kilifi. So I'll post those a little bit later this week after I get home.

Hope everything is great stateside - missing everyone all the time.

Cheers and happy April!

~ Shub out :)

Four down, two to go.

Almost done with the fourth term in Kenya. Yikes! That means only two left, and they're quite a bit shorter than this last one. Egads!

It's exam week right now, and I'm duty, so I'm spending lots of time at school grading tests, and hanging with my kids. I always think, jeez, a break will really be nice and relaxing and I start looking forward to it. And then the second my kids leave I miss them. Lord help me come COS time.

So what's been going on? Let's see... as always it's the same old crap for me, but I guess not necessarily for everyone else. So I'll crank out a few relatively boring (for me) stories.

My head boy, Francis Buya, got sick again a few weeks ago, a recurrence of this weird ongoing chronic thing he's had since he started walking. He couldn't keep down food for a few days, had a blinding pain in his abdomen, and looked -and I'm sure felt- absolutely miserable.  Our medical treatment here at school happens like this: after assembly the kids who are sick or think they are sick line up to wait for one of three things - Panadol (a pain killer like Ibuprofen), year-and-a-half-old green cough syrup, or they get sent to Kilifi District Hospital where nobody knows sign language and since it's a public hospital, it's not as well equipped as it needs to be. Pain killers and cough syrup were obviously not going to help Buya; he had something much more serious and definitely needed more than a little attention. He had gone to the hospital already, where they did a rapid test for malaria, which had come back negative, so they sent him back to school. I was tired of seeing Buya suffer so much so frequently, and though it was a hard decision because it's not really a precedent I wanted to be setting, I decided to take him somewhere private, and cover whatever costs, just as long as he got better. I was worried he'd need a colonoscopy or surgery or something so I initially wanted to take him to the private hospital in Mombasa (of which there are three). Kate convinced me it was a better idea just to try the private doctor in Kilifi first, then go to Mombasa later if need be, so that's what we did. So I took him to the Dr. Njeri, where they did a blood and stool test and lo and behold, poor Buya had maralia and amoebiasis. I guess he had had these bugs in his GI tract since he was a baby (the reason it was chronic) so - as Mom keeps telling me, and I keep telling him - it's gonna take a while for his gut to heal itself. He spares no details though when I ask how it is when he goes to the choo (toilet). I spent a lot of pesa on the right meds this time from the private doctor, and now a few weeks later he's feeling almost totally himself again. Here he is just about 100% better, and happily watering the plants in his shamba (garden).

Buya has this uncanny ability to mimic people's walks and behaviors (in fact almost all deaf kids do, it seems - they can't hear anything so they see EVERYTHING). Without fail Buya makes me laugh so hard I cry, every time. He spent the afternoon on Tuesday doing impressions of as many people (teachers and students) as he could, and it was hilarious. His impression of Sarah is with her bag on her shoulder, her skirt flipping in the breeze, and her legs kicked up behind her as she walks. Hopefully I don't actually look as silly as Buya makes it seem, but either way it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

A couple weekends ago I spent all of Saturday and Sunday visiting some friends who were down from Nairobi and had decided a while ago that when they came back to Kilifi they would rent out the houseboat down at the boatyard. I think the Boatyard officially calls it "The Floating House," but we all just called it the boathouse. Look!

 

It's pretty expensive (for Peace Corps standards) but costs nothing if you already know someone staying on it and just want to play around and jump off the deck into the creek! It's gorgeous inside and out and just all-around fun. So we drank a lot of beers, had a lot of free oysters at the Boatyard, and spent the weekend just relaxing and swimming and enjoying being with each other. It was fabulous.

So it's exam week now, which means that the term is almost over, which means I'm that much closer to having to say goodbye to my kids forever. Still not sure how I'll ever manage it. I'm dreading my last day here like it's the day of my own funeral or something. Ugh.

But before that happens, there's still a lot to do! My mom is coming next weekend, and the closer it gets to her arrival, the more filled up our schedule is getting while she's here. She flies in on the 7th, to Mombasa, where a friend (actually a huge donor for school) has offered to pick her up at the airport with me, in exchange for us coming to lunch at his house. Pretty good deal I'd say! We'll spend that evening at school, hanging out with my kids who have not gone home yet. I think actually having them see Mom in person is going to blow their minds. I keep telling them they'll finally realize why I'm so short. Then Sunday we've planned a big Easter dinner at another friend's house on the plantation, where Mom will meet the other side of my life here - the ex-pats that I spend all my time outside of school with. Then the kids will go to Deaf Games in Mtwapa (might be changed to Mombasa) and Mom and I will go see them for a day or two there, probably mixed in with some shopping in Mombasa as well. At some point we want to go back to Loitokitok and see my host family there, which I've been dying to do for ages, but haven't had the time, and maybe hit a game park on the way back to the coast (Amboseli or Tsavo) for a day or two of safari. Then I'm probably gonna have to go back to Nairobi for the new education group's IST (for Deaf committee stuff and other deaf ed related things) for which Mom will happily (hopefully) tag along. Whatever time we have left in the middle of all this other stuff we'll spend relaxing on the coast - having pizza at Makuti Villas, oysters and burgers at the Boatyard, chapati and kachumbare at Members, snorkeling, swimming, Mnarani club, and whatever else we can think of. It's supposed to be a relaxing trip, but we'll see if that actually pans out or not. 

Last weekend Kate, Kelvin, another PCV Jennifer, and I all went to a really cool eco-camp up towards Malindi called Mida Creek. It was pretty awesome, and though I missed my fan for the night, we still had a really good time. They have phenomenal food and REALLY cold beer and lots of super expensive Giriama culture things that we didn't take part in because we're not actually tourists (I'm happy to say). 

Here's Kel and his Auntie Sarah :)

So I've wasted a lot of time and megabytes recently uploading all the videos I can to youtube. Hit this link to check out my kids :) http://www.youtube.com/user/sarahchubbard?feature=mhee. Most of the videos I could just watch over and over again, they make me laugh so hard. My kids here are the best thing ever. 

Alright, I feel like I started writing this post ages ago. It's now Friday evening and after a great night out and some really good rooftop BBQ, I have never been more excited to sleep in on Saturday morning. The boys have a football match with the hearing school next door, and that will happily be followed by movie night and then another night to sleep in on Sunday morning. Hooray!

So happy end of March to everyone, wherever you are, and cheers to anyone who has ever read this dumb ol' blog!

~ Shub :)