Striiiiiiiiiiiiiike! The Teachers Are Out.

Why Hello Everyone J

 It’s a beautiful Friday and there are some things to blog about. I just want to put it out there right in the beginning that Peace Corps remains apolitical and I just want to inform you all on what’s going on here in Kenya but I’m not taking a side.

Tuesday started the teacher’s strike here in Kenya and as of this afternoon it’s still going on. There is a long history behind it and I’ve tried to gather as many details as I could. This is what I’ve learned from a few teachers at my school and the Daily Nation Newspaper.

Ok, so the majority of teachers in Kenya are under the TSC (Teachers Service Commission) and those are the teachers on strike. Way back in 1997 the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) talked to the government and basically had an agreement that the government would pay them higher allowances and a higher basic pay. The negotiation after the talk in ’97 was that teachers pay would be raised by 105% and 200%. They said 5 allowances would also be offered: medical, responsibility, special, hardship and commuter. The deal was to be implemented over a period of 5 years with effect from 1997 but only the basic pay was raised. So the government didn’t follow through completely and the allowances are now the basis for the strike going on. They are asking for a 50% increase on their allowances. There are 278,000 teachers on payroll that are now on strike and these teachers are demanding 47 billion shillings. The amount of learners hurt by this strike? “9 million pupils to be affected in more than 20,000 public primary schools and 1.8 million students to be affected in more than 7,000 public secondary schools”! That’s astounding! Speaking of astounding, in one article it said this was the 7^th strike to go on since ’97 all about this same agreement. I just hope it doesn’t go on very long and that the government actually follows through this time. Last year there was a strike in September, which lasted 3 weeks!

The other aspect of this strike goes to what President Kenyatta promised in his campaign. He told Kenyans that every child going into Class 1 in a public school would get a laptop. Now as you can imagine that would cost a fair amount of money. The teachers think that he shouldn’t spend the money on the laptops for the children because they are the ones teaching them and they need more money to get by/they were already promised the money a long time ago. The government is now stuck between keeping the promise of the laptops everyone is so excited about and stopping the strike and finally paying the teachers what they were promised 16 years ago. We shall see what happens.

How this has affected my life in Sipili? All of the teachers at my school are under the TSC. So they’re all at home or at least they’re not in school. However, our students are all still here. My headmaster was here on Wednesday and Thursday and thankfully my deputy has come in every day and will continue doing so. They know that if we tell the parents to come pick up their children, 2 things will happen to most of them. 1. They won’t get picked up and 2. Once they go home, they’ll stay home until Term 3 begins. So the kids stay. Since I am not on strike and I live on the compound so I’m here already, I have taught a few classes to keep their minds busy. The three of us (my headmaster, the deputy and me) decided to split up the school into 3 sections (little ones, classes 4 & 5 and classes 6 & 7) so that we could teach lessons here and there to them. I was assigned Classes 4 & 5 and we’ve been doing lots of spelling and sign practice J The high school next door to us is still in session because although the TSC members are at home, the BOG (Board of Governors) teachers are still there and have split up the work. The primary school on the other side of us is also still in session because they have assigned their PTA members to teach. I know a lot of schools have shut down because they’re not boarding/special schools and they are dominated by TSC members. It’s different for every school on the action they’re taking but since we’re a special school, at least one teacher needs to be around and they can’t stop us from teaching occasionally.

I will keep you all updated on how things turn out but hopefully this upcoming week, they’ll have sorted everything out and schools will be up and running again across Kenya!

On a different note, I found an interesting article in the paper the other day that I wanted to share. Kenya is listed among 8 sub-Saharan African countries with the least number of new HIV infections among children! The new infections have been reduced by more than 50%! The other countries include: Ethiopia, Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. They said (the new report from Geneva, Switzerland) that it was due to the fact that more pregnant women living with HIV were receiving ARV medication to prevent transmission to their children. The report said that Kenya doubled the numbers of children accessing treatment between 2009 & 2012. Botswana and South Africa reduced their HIV-transmission rates to 5% and below! Lastly, they said that there are 130,000 fewer new HIV infections in 21 African countries, a drop of 38% since 2009. I thought that was a pretty cool article J

I hope you are all having a fabulous June and have fun plans for the 4^th of July! I am hoping to travel up to Maralal to visit with 3 PCVs working there and 1 more that is traveling in like me. It should only be a 4-5 hour trip so I can get a solid nap in on the matutu ride next weekend. And I’m throwing it out there that my sister is now officially in KENYA!!!! I won’t see her for 2ish weeks since she’s working on the coast first but I’m super duper excited to see her!!!!

Kisses from Kenya,

Lizbeth

Painting, Puzzles and Deviled Eggs

Hello Friends!

  So it’s been about a month since I’ve updated my blog and I think it’s high time J Term 2 just finished week 5 and sometimes I forget it’s June since I’m in the middle of a term teaching. I’ve been busy making posters, running with the kids twice/week and having a pretty good time thus far. It was so good when school started and the compound had life in it again. I was starting to go a little crazy the week between IST and school beginning since I was stuck in Sipili with not much to do.

I am getting more into the swing of teaching but some days I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing or how to teach a lesson in a better way. I was excited when one of the teachers asked me to help make 8 social studies posters for Classes 6 & 7; the students appreciate them a lot and I think they help get the information across better. I also made one for a science class for a different teacher and a few vocab ones for my classes. The only trouble is that, especially in Class 4 & 5, the posters don’t always stay up for too long because the little kids like to tear them down but for now, they’re up there.

Last weekend I left Sipili and visited my first volunteer who had 2 volunteers already staying with her. It was really good to talk with other PCVs and see a new town. I traveled 5-6 hours to Nanyuki. It was a little wild in that since it was a colonized area there is a large mix of people living there. It was kinda mind-blowing after being in Sipili for so long. Nanyuki has a store called Nakumatt which I’ve been to in Nairobi and it’s kind of similar to a wal-mart. Nanyuki also has a few little cafes with free wi-fi and food that has cheese in it-2 things Sipili does not have. It was interesting being with other volunteers because they’re all in the same group, the public health/CED (Business) group that is done with their service in August so they’re view points on things were slightly different than mine. They have a totally different experience than the Education volunteers and they’re almost done. Strange stuff.

This weekend has been pretty awesome for me! I’ve been waiting to blog until I got this one project under way and since basically everything here happens at a slower rate, it’s taken awhile to get started. I got the a-ok about 2 weeks ago from my headmaster to paint a map of Africa on a wall somewhere. A week later we were supposed to buy paint together (so that I wouldn’t get ripped off) but that didn’t happen so Friday I went on my own (and didn’t get ripped off) and bought 4 liters of paint!! I was soooo exited walking home with that paint can in my hand. Saturday mid-morning we started painting. I had made a chalk mark along the border I wanted and the boys got to work. All of the kids were out there at one point or another watching/helping but the older boys did most of the actual painting. We are doing it on the outside of the boys dormitory. The kids and I worked for 4 hours on Saturday getting white paint on a first coat. It’s a hard surface to paint because it’s really rough and we only had one small paintbrush but it worked and we got it done. Then on Sunday while all but a few students were at church, 2 boys and I painted a 2^nd coat. I had a small can of blue paint that I’d used when I was painting the inside of my house and I decided to mix part of that into the white paint so it would look more ocean-esque as a background. The kids were super pumped to see it when they got back. And just so you all can picture it better, it’s about 100 inches tall and 90-95 inches across and a beautiful light/medium blue color. The next step is to draw a grid on it and then proceed to enlarge the map I have square by square onto the wall. That will probably be the hardest part but that’s something to worry about a different day since today was about a base paint job.

Other news in my life, hm. I had a sore throat maybe 2-3 weeks ago and it made me appreciate sign language even more!! It was fantastic and I think my throat healed the fastest it ever has because I only talked when I was talking to the teachers in the staff room but for all of my lessons that week it was totally fine and most of my students had no idea that I was even sick. They do however notice when I don’t bathe for a few days or when I do but I miss a spot on my ankle or neck hahaha. One Sunday recently in the afternoon when I was planning already on bathing in 2-3 hours, I hit record of having at least 8-9 kids tell me my neck was dirty within 30 min. I went into my house shortly after that and got my bath on, hakuna matata. They love to tell me when they see a rip in my skirt or a dirt streak behind my ear or anything like that, they keep me in line; it’s pretty mutual when it comes to that. Other exciting stuff is that I successfully completed my first puzzle ever!! I got one for Christmas from Danielle, 500 pieces, and I finally got up the umph to take it on! Usually with puzzles I get frustrated and don’t get very far. I like to do them with other people and then when I get up to go somewhere I know that most likely when I get back a little more will be done and it might be easier. However when you live alone and you want to solve a literal puzzle on your own before you do it with munchkins and lose pieces, it only gets done when youre working on it. But I did it and it felt great! That same night I attempted to make deviled eggs for the first time, in Kenya and, well, ever. I got the recipe from my Aunt Mille but when I looked at the recipe I realized I’d have to make some adjustments. I don’t know if you can call what I made deviled eggs exactly but they looked like them and tasted egg-cellent! and in case anyone is interested here are the American and Kenyan recipes to try-both super good!!!!! Thanks Millie!!!

Hope everyone is having a super duper luper summer and it’s off to a great start! If anyone travels anywhere cool, they’re more than welcome to send me a postcard ;) Hahaha and congrats to all the graduates this year!!!! Special shout-out to BekBekBekBekBek! Way to be a graduate of Solanco High School, and Anna, a graduate of Solanco Kindergarten, and to my parents for embracing both graduations J

American Aunt Mille Version:

6 eggs hard-boiled

¼ C. Mayo

1/8-1/4 tsp. salt

½ tsp. dry ground mustard

Paprika for garnish

Boil eggs, cool and peel. (Use 3+ wk old eggs because they peel easier).

Cut in half and place yolk in bowl.

Add salt, mustard to yolks and mix until broken up fine. Add mayo and mix well-may add more mayo or salt for taste.

Fill in egg white halves and sprinkle with paprika.

Refrigerate and enjoy!

Kenyan Peace Corps Version:

3 eggs hard boiled

1/2 medium avocado

Pinch or 2 of salt

Regular hot dog mustard

Boil eggs, cool and peel. (don’t get over excited and peel before cool, speaking from experience, it doesn’t work too well)

Cut in half and place yolk in bowl.

Add salt and the same amount of mustard you’d put on a hot dog if you put it on in a straight line (though that’s only a guess because I don’t actually put mustard on my hot dogs and I haven’t eaten a hot dog in a looooong time)

Mix well and add avocado gradually until you feel like you have enough. It will be a creamy mixture. You can add more mustard or salt for taste then fill in egg white halves. Eat right away and enjoy! Also, you can use the rest of your avocado to make guacamole with tomatoes, an onion, salt and lemon juice, voila, dinner is served!