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 :)

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 :)