Ninety goofballs.

October is ticking away, probably faster than I would like, and before I know it I'll be back in the U.S. Ack!

We're back in school (thank goodness! - I was going stir crazy without my kids and with nothing to do) and it keeps coming up in conversation what my kids are going to do without me, and more selfishly, what I am going to do without them. I always knew the day would come, when I'd have to say goodbye, but actually living through it is going to be real tough. These kiddos of mine have now, and will forever have, changed my life for the better. They are some of the most fabulous people I've ever met and I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world to have had two full years with them. I just wish I could pack them all up with my kitties and bring them back to the States.

Alas, such is not the case.

Just about every single one of them is back at school now, and I'm just trying to make the most of the short time I've got left with them. I've been getting into a very heavy conversation with a bunch of my Form 4's this week that started with "The Bible doesn't tell me why there are black people and white people, can you tell me?" and went all the way through "Where did life come from?" and "Am I supposed to believe religion, or evolution?" and "Do you think people have souls?" Clearly the topics were loaded, and after about an hour of me explaining everything I could in the best way possible, including drawing things like vestigial organs, pangaea, and the development of a tadpole, they still hadn't had enough. Another teacher wanted to come in and teach, so we had to postpone the rest of the conversation for later. What I did attempt to make them take away from all of this was that it's good to ask questions. I told them I was proud of them for wondering why things are the way they are, and for being so curious. I told them to never stop asking questions, and never stop trying to get answers for things they don't understand. I told them science isn't perfect and neither is religion but they're adults and humans and therefore have a right to as much information about life as possible. This conversation about the meaning of life has been restarting and continuing for the last few weeks or so, and hopefully will until we all have to leave school at the end of the year.

This week also my Form 4's started their KCSE (Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education - the national exam after secondary school). The first subject in the big long list of test papers they need to complete is KSL. The one we started this week was Paper 3, the practical portion. Thankfully, being deaf, most of them are pretty fabulous at sign language so hopefully this part of the exam wasn't that difficult. They all seemed relatively happy when they came out of the interview room, so I'll take that as a good sign :)

The KCSE is a nation-wide thing as well, so it's not just my kiddos who are doing the exam. All Form 4's across the country have to take it. The deaf ones, however, are the only ones that do KSL. But there are these things Kenyans love called success cards, that they send their schoolmates, or to Form 4's they know, to wish them luck on their exams. Almost always, these success cards have a little musical box thing inside that plays while the card is open and stops when you close it. And almost always the high-pitched whiny sound coming from the cards is a horrible screachy version of Fur Elise. There's also a tiny little light that comes on when the song plays. The tough part about this is that I can unfortunately hear those damn things, whereas none of my kids can. The noise gets into my brain and makes me cringe, and my kids have realized that now. So the Form 4's, in the last classroom on the block, will open their cards and keep them open, hidden in a desk somewhere, while Sarah has to leave her lesson in another room and run down to Form 4 to search and destroy those stupid cards. They obviously think it's hilarious when I'm all in a tizzy following that incessant noise. I've asked a few of them to ram a pen into my ear and make me deaf, something I would much prefer in situations like this. Alas, such is not the case and I have to deal with being a boring old hearing person.

This week we also had a visitor come to school from the UK, a lady from an organization called Sound Seekers (http://www.sound-seekers.org.uk/), who were the ones who helped fund the initial building of the school - two of the four classrooms and the boys' dorm. She's the new project manager for a lot of the things they've got going on in Africa and came to Kenya and Kilifi specifically to check up on school. Unfortunately for her things have not been going necessarily the way they planned when the school was first built in 2009, but that's a whole 'nother issue that I needn't write about on the internet. Ask me if you'd like to be more informed :) Anyways, we had an afternoon meeting with her and the kids (me interpreting, because even though she knows a little sign language it's only British Sign Language, which is worlds away from ASL or KSL) and we talked a lot about  improvements the school needs, things that we like already, and their plans for the future. She was most concerned about the latter. When they finally decided to open up and explain their worries about what's in store after school, the Form 4's voiced a lot of concerns. Many of them are worried about passing the KCSE (only a small percentage of hearing students pass the national exam, and they've had teachers that speak their language all throughout school), they're worried about getting into college or university with terrible test results, about paying tuition if they ever do get in, and about even finding a decent job if none of the former options work.

When my kids talk about this stuff my heart breaks. It's been breaking for two years, knowing that I can't give every single one of them the brightest of futures, but I have to keep reminding myself there is only so much I can do. I've attempted to give them what I could in the past two years, and though I haven't always given it my all, for one reason or another (could be the heat of the coast or the incredible amounts emotional stress I've been under, or both), I'd like to think that we're all better people for knowing each other. Although again, I know and will keep saying for the rest of forever that they've made more of an impression on me than I have on them. I just hope they've learned a little something from me.

Speaking of things they've learned from me, one of those is just how exactly to get Sarah all riled up, and it's without a doubt my Form 4's who have gotten exceptional at it. We know each other so well and unfortunately for me they've been having a lot of fun using that against me. Remember a while back there was a huge joke about Sarah looking like a chicken that's been plucked but not cooked yet? Well that's come back recently, as well as "can you just grow a little more so you can start writing at the top of the chalkboard instead of the middle?" and "we really wanna see you with makeup on because we don't much like the way you look right now" and also the "ha ha you can hear these stupid success cards and we can't!"

However after all of this, all of the torture I've received, the making fun of and everything, I still don't know what I'm going to do without them. These kids make me laugh SO hard.

In other news, I've got lots coming up in the next few weeks. Next weekend we're celebrating our good friend Mark's 50th birthday. Mark teaches water sports at Mnarani Club and the boatyard here in Kilifi, and even though he'll be twice my age next Saturday, we still love him (most of the time) and are going to cook him an amazing meal. Then next week I think I've got three of the new Peace Corps trainees coming to Kilifi for the 'shadow week' portion of their training. They're going to be teachers at primary schools, so they'll mainly just be sleeping at my place and then going up to primary for the actually school-shadowing portion. Though I'm sure my kids wouldn't mind if I brought them up to secondary to visit for a bit. We'll see :) Then the next week I might have to go back to Machakos for a deaf-ed committee meeting. Then the end of November I head back to Nairobi one last time to close out with PC, and then mid-December I'll leave! Granted I still need to buy my ticket...

Whew!

I'll leave you with some pics of the 90 goofballs I get to hang out with everyday. Thanks for keeping me happy guys :)

Redonkulous.

Opiyo being silly and not letting me see his face

Yum!

Chengo doin a little dance in Form 4

The whole school! 

Dinner - ugali and beans and cabbage.

And last but not least, aside from my own kids at school,

this little man is also one of my own here :)

As always, thanks for reading, miss you all like crazy, and can't wait to see everyone again!

Love and hugs from Kilifi!

~ Shub :)

And apparently, so is September.

Yup, that's right. We're more than half way through with September and still haven't gone back to school yet, thanks to the nation-wide teacher strike demanding a 300% salary increase. I definitely agree teachers deserve to be paid more money, but 300% seems a little unreasonable. Although I know virtually nothing about those kinds of politics so maybe it's like bargaining (which I now am fabulous at) - start high and end up meeting in the middle. Either way, this is the third week of the strike and my school compound is still completely empty. I walk through it on my way into town sometimes and it just makes me sad. I miss those kids somethin' awful.

Thankfully, however, if I wander around town long enough I always seem to see a few them, who have come back into town from home, because they're eager to get back to school, or just eager to get out of the village. Usually when they come back into town they end up staying with another one of my kids' families, which means at least they have someone to talk to now. A lot of the Form 4's have come back and have been going to Kilifi library all day everyday to study for their exam. They biggest exam of their life is next month, the KCSE, and they're trying to make up for the lack of school. They're so dedicated! Granted they haven't had the best education their whole lives, so the realistic chances of them passing are pretty slim. But that's a morbid way to look at it. Maybe some will surprise me! Who knows.

So the last time I wrote I was in Nairobi at the Peace Corps office, and we were all just about to leave for our COS (Close Of Service) conference. Boy was that FUN. I'll get there. First let's talk about animals! Before the conference started I met up with Anna and Josh, other deaf ed-ers, and we biked around Hell's Gate for a good number of hours. As tired as I got biking (I don't exercise much around Kilifi because it's too bloody hot) we did see some cool stuff, and MAN was it beautiful! Here's some of that evidence: 

The crew for the morning :)

Almost hit these dudes with the bike!

Zebra butts.

Pumba.

The conference was held at this really cool camp thing just outside Naivasha, which is about an hour or two outside Nairobi. The night we arrived we were told we had to do medical stuff that evening, so we needed to be on time. Little did we know "medical stuff" actually meant a free happy hour, thanks to our fabulous country director! And obviously once you get a group of Peace Corps volunteers near some free alcohol, madness ensues. Those pictures are on Facebook ;)

We spent the mornings and afternoons learning about life after Peace Corps - how to write a good resume, how to present yourself in an interview, all the benefits of being a returned volunteer. And when we weren't in the conference room we were spending as much time as possible soaking up each other's company, which consisted of a lot of ultimate frisbee and jumping in the pool with our clothes on. I've said it before and I'll say it again: my group here is the best, most eclectic and wonderful bunch of people I could have ever asked for. I'm gonna miss everybody.

THE GROUP - Even though Shub isn't really looking at the camera, this is still a wonderful picture :)

The last night of the conference was basically just a big party for us. Before the ridiculously fancy dinner we had a gathering of our whole group, plus our training manager Joseph, one of our directors John, our Education boss Enos, and our incredible Medical Officer Lisa. We all got presented with nifty thank you certificates signed by all the PCKenya staff, an envelope of letters from each other, and then we did a fun Peace Corps Kenya tradition (though I'm not sure how far back the tradition goes). With all of us in a circle, one long spool of ribbon was wrapped around each of our wrists, symbolizing how connected we are now, and then Enos went around the circle and cut each of us free, since Peace Corps is just about finished and we all need to go get a real life now! The kicker is that we have to keep the ribbon on our wrists until we successfully make it back to our homes in the States. Cool huh?

The ribbon stuff was followed up by an absolutely AMAZING meal, a gorgeous Peace Corps cake, and finally lots and lots of dancing and hugging and picture-taking.

All of Deaf Ed!!

Myself and Amanda - my partner-in-crime, and one of the best people I've ever known.

And I didn't get a shot before they cut into it, but you can still see how pretty it is :)

While at COS conference we finally got our actual Close Of Service dates, as well. I will be officially finishing Peace Corps on November 30th, 2012. Once I get all the paper work done in Nairobi and say goodbye to everyone there, I'll head back to Kilifi (private citizen and everything!) to say my goodbyes here, square things away with the new volunteer who's supposed to be moving into my house, and pick up the kitties. No tickets are bought yet but the plan is to fly out sometime around the 15th of December. I'll keep you posted on that stuff as it unravels.

I'll definitely be back to Kilifi August of next year, for a very important and exciting wedding, so I'll be able to see all my friends here again. My kids, on the other hand, will not be so easy to find when I get back. So keep your fingers crossed that school actually does open this term, so I can at least see my kiddos one last time before I leave. I wish I never have to say goodbye to them. Another post will probably follow in the near future about how much they mean to me, since I think this one is long enough.

One last quick shout out to my CRAZY WONDERFUL brother, Morgan, and his newly engaged fiancee, Ala! I love you guys! Congrats and make sure you get married while I'm in the country :)

Loads of love and hugs to everyone from Kilifi!

And happy Autumn!

~ Shub out :)

August is for relaxing!

Another term gone and now only one more left!

Ack!

I'm currently in Nairobi sitting in the lovely resource room at the Peace Corps office, typing this post with the available free internet :) Hooray! It's been a crazy month off, and only getting crazier by the minute.

We closed school early which means it's been even longer since I've seen my kids. Thankfully, though, the month is almost over, which means school opening, and my last term in Kenya, is right around the corner. I spent the first part of the month in Kilifi, doing a lot of sitting around on beaches and boats, lots of cooking and bbq-ing, and a lot of relaxing. Usually the months off are the times when volunteers want to get out of their site (the village!) and go travel and do stuff. I, on the other hand, live in a vacation spot, so I don't need to go anywhere to do all those fun vacation-y things. Everyone just comes to me :) I do get sort of bogged down in the laid-back lifetsyle of the Kenyan coast, so I'm glad to be up and out and feeling useful again.

I've been in Nairobi since Monday, and will be here until the weekend. Myself and the three other volunteers who are secondary deaf-ed have come here to the main PC office to work on our KSL technical signs project. Kenyan Sign Language is a very new language, and being so young, there are not signs for a lot of words that come up in the subjects we teach, namely Physics, Math, Bio, and Chem. So we (the four of us) and some of the Peace Corps language trainers spent some time this past term working with our students to develop signs for words like "square root" and "factorize" and "electron" and "mitochondria." We've come to Nairobi this week to compile the videos and pictures we've taken of our kids doing the signs so that we can eventually make more of a standardized lanugage for the math and science subjects. It's been a slow and tedious process, but it at least seems like we're getting things done, so we're just going to focus on that.

After doing some more serious shopping and other errands around Nairobi, most importantly buying cat crates and seeing the vet here, I head out Sunday to meet up with some other volunteers in my group in Naivasha. We are going to go to Hell's Gate (a game park) and bike/hike around on Monday and hopefully see some really cool animals. I still to this day have not been on safari in Kenya, which is a little embarrassing. How can I return from two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya and not have been on safari here? I have been on a wonderful safari in South Africa, but not in my own country yet. I plan to remedy that this weekend. Since the Hell's Gate game park is super close to where we will be staying for our Close Of Service conference, we will just head straight from safari to our hotel in Naivasha, and meet up with the rest of our group there.

Crazy to think that the last time we were all together as a group was IST, last April of 2011. Eek! I can't wait to see everyone again. Even though I've made so many wonderful friends in Kilifi over the past two years, my Peace Corps peeps were my initial coming-to-Kenya crew and they'll always have a place in my heart :) I love my PC group so much and I can't wait until we're all together one last time, before we all head our separate ways after Kenya.

After COS conference we head back to Nairobi in groups for our final doctor and dentist appointments while we're here. Then next weekend I'm supposed to head back to the coast. Though right now there are lots of crazy things going on in Mombasa so I don't know if I'll have to take a bus back, or if they will fly me. Fingers crossed! Either way I should be back in school next week sometime, though it's still up in the air whether school will officially open or not anways. We've had issues at school last term, that may or may not carry over to this term, AND all the teachers in Kenya are sayng they are going to go on strike at the beginning of this term too. Ack! So much craziness.

I'll leave you with some pics of the Kilifi part of my August holiday, and will post more from Hell's Gate after we finish all our stuff here and I get back to Kilifi.

Karaoke night at Members!

Private beach down on the plantation

Getting ready to head to Watamu for the night!

Kinyonga Adventure Camp at Kivukoni School :)

Sundowners on Ross's boat.. typical Kilifi evening. 

Mark the water sports instructor doing what he does best. 

G'night Kilifi sun! See you kesho. 

Path down to George's beach on Sunday morning

Katembo (dorm father at school) and his family at their home.

Sometimes it's nice to get away from town every once in a while..

Festus, Oliver, and Jessica- cutest kids ever.

And then back home to MY family. They clearly miss me when I'm gone. 

Ok e'erbody. As always, it's now a few days after I began writing this post. So now we gotta head out to the Peace Corps office one last time today and finish up the work for the week.

Much love and hugs to everyone.

~ Shub out :)