Hello Friends J
I realized it’s been about a month since
I last wrote a blog and wanna fill you all in on the happenings of Sipili.
The biggest news
in Kenya right now is the terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall. Thankfully no
PCVs were there that day and all are safe. It’s a true tragedy what happened
and the police are still investigating though some suspects have been caught
and some died in the attack. I don’t want to comment on the actual attack
because I wasn’t there and don’t want to give false information. However, if
you want more details on it there are plenty of articles online. If you want a
Kenyan perspective you can check out the Daily Nation Paper website
(nation.co.ke) which I prefer. The part I do want to comment on is to say how
incredible it is hearing and seeing Kenyans have come together. They’ve been
showing pictures on the news of Kenyans lined up in super long lines to donate
blood all over in Nairobi particularly but also across Kenya. The Red Cross
made a plea for blood with so many people injured and Kenyans reacted right
away. More acts of kindness were shown with people who came out to offer free
chai, lunch or snacks for the volunteers in the rescue missions. It really
brought the people together. You can see ‘#WeAreOne’ just about everywhere and
the Kenyan colors on everything. Everyone is and has helped out in whatever way
they could. The President announced a 3 day mourning period after the attack
stopped and the healing process has begun. We live in a crazy world where
horrible things can happen but seeing what people do afterwards and during is
the intriguing part. It is so cool to see all the Kenyans coming together,
wearing their national colors and helping each other. Kenyans are one!
Speaking of
coming together, school is back in session! I finished the Africa painting with
a second coat on everything except for the title. I don’t particularly like
ladders to begin with but being on the one at my school without the kids was
not on my list of things I’d like to do. Thankfully I have a sweet boyfriend
who is willing to do the second coat when he comes to visit and than it will
officially be complete! Term 3 is maybe 3 weeks in by now and things are
rocking and rolling. We lost 5 students to transferring but we gained 5 new
students I believe. All of the new students are in the Classes 1 or 2 so I
don’t have any of them but they’re all super cute! Only one of the little boys
knows a little sign whereas the others mostly just mimic what you sign to them
or nod and smile at whatever you say. They’re adorable and most are missing a
few teeth which only adds more to their cuteness J
The most exciting
thing so far for me this term actually happened with running. There is a boy
named Moses but his nickname is Bean and he’s in Class 4. He is hearing but has
other mental disabilities. He doesn’t write or sign much though he will respond
to Kiswahili. He is always running around and has a fascination with doors and
locks and has many a time locked me into my house. Thankfully there is a window
by my door that I can stick my hand out of and open the door J He has an immense amount of energy and I
wasn’t sure how I could best help him. Every day I run with the kids though now
it’s a main group of about 5-8 girls from Class 2,4 & 5. Last Wednesday the
girls took off and Bean started running off too. He’s done this before but
normally we turn him around and he goes back but not Wednesday. He’d gotten
about a minute into the run and we decided what the heck, let him come along
and we’ll see how long he lasts. 3 of the girls in Class 5 ran with us and held
is hand around turns to make sure he went the right way. It was awesome. The
loop usually takes us 15-20 minutes to do and Bean ran the whole time! The
girls wanted to do 2 loops so I took Bean back to school and told the other
teacher there what he had done and after a high five he told me to take him
again if I was going to do two loops anyways and see if he could do it. So we
left the school again and went for lap two. Bean blew me away! He walked maybe
a minute the whole two laps!! And he kept a pretty even pace, which is more
than the girls I run with every day can say. I mean they’re all elementary
school age so even pace is rarely found but he just laughed the whole way and
kept on truckin’ J It was
sooo amazing, made my day!
The big news from
today is baptism! I went to church with my students, three of the other
teachers as well as the two housemothers around 9:30 this morning. The service
itself was long (10-1:30) but I was happy to see my headmaster and the sister
interpreting this Sunday. We have a sister who comes every Tuesday to teach a
class called PPI, which is basically teaching them about Catholicism since we
are a Catholic-sponsored school even though we’re still a public school.
Anyways, we had all but 5 students from Classes 5,6 & 7 as well as a
vocational student and the our Deaf mother/workers baby get baptized. It was by
far the largest group I’d ever seen and my first time seeing a Catholic
baptism. It was really neat! 30 of my students got baptized in front of the
church they go to every weekend while at school and it was awesome to witness.
They had water poured on their heads, a necklace put on; oil anointed on their
foreheads and the candle they were holding was lit. A cool experience and I’m
so happy for my students!
On a
totally different and not happy note, I wanted to share this article from the
Daily Nation that I read this week about Uganda. It’s utterly outrageous. The
gist of it is comments made while talking to youth from the Ugandan Youth
Affairs Minister Ronald Kibule on rape. “Addressing youth in Kajara County,
Ntungamo District on Saturday, Mr Kibule said the police should instead charge
the victims with inviting the crime. The minister said the police must
scrutinize each rape case reported to them to establish the dress code of the
victim. He added once it is established that the victim was indecently dressed,
the suspect should be set free.” Gah!! Don’t worry; he continues with his
thought, it gets better. “When journalists called him Tuesday evening to verify
these reports, the minister reiterated his position, noting that indecent
dressing was “an open invite to rapists”. Say whatttt?! C’mon now! He stuck by
his answer! I mean props I guess for sticking with what you said but of all the
things to stick with, jeez louise!
He goes on to say that “Most women currently dress poorly especially the
youth. If she is dressed poorly and is raped, no one should be arrested. Asked
to define what amounted to indecent dressing, the minister listed mini-skirts,
bikinis and tight jeans.” Well there’s the dress code for basically all the
youth in America and what I’m imagining is quite a few youth in Uganda.
Thankfully a female Prime Minister stepped up and said “I don’t support wearing
of miniskirts but on the other hand a man who is normal cannot go and rape a
woman because she is putting on a miniskirt. He should have self-control,” said
Mbarara Woman MP Emma Boona. And another lady was quoted, Ms Rita Aciro, the
executive director at Uganda Women’s Network who said “It is unfortunate that
we have such leaders in this country. Does he know that there are laws in this
country against rape?” she said. “He is obviously misleading many men by saying
that it is okay for them to go ahead and rape women who put on short skirts.
“Mr
Kibule should come out and issue an apology to the people of this country. We
live in a civil society that respects people’s rights”. You go girls! It’s hard
for me to fathom someone-especially the Youth Minister-telling youth that if
they’re raped and wearing clothes that might seem scandalous; the rape is their
fault! What kind message is that?! I don’t understand one bit and I hope he
makes a statement clearing things up in the very near future. That cannot be
what the youth need to hear and I can’t see it helping anyone except the people
getting away with rape. And if you want to read the whole article (though I’ll
tell you I ended up copying most of it) it’s here:
(http://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/-/1066/2006934/-/90jek4z/-/index.html)
Lastly, to end
this blog on a happier note, I wanted to give a shout out to Lindenhof Farm!
Dad recently got a call from a chef at LiveNation who said that Jack was doing
a ‘greening tour’ and wanted only locally-sourced, sustainably-raised meats for
dinner before his show in Philly. They talked and bought 25lbs of our chicken
to make dinner for Jack freakin’ Johnson and his entourage! Just wanna throw it
out there that you can enjoy the same kind of meat that Jack Johnson ate this
Thanksgiving or any day you want, with a delicious turkey from Lindenhof
Farm…just sayin’ J I mean I
might be a little bias towards it but it’s pretty tasty stuff and after only
cooking tofu at my house and occasionally eating meat that’s been hung without
refrigeration, it’ll probably taste even better when I get back to the states!
Happy Almost
October to everyone! Wanna know something nuts? In 4 days I will have been in
Kenya for exactly one year-how crazy is that?!!!! SO COOL AND CRAZY!
Lots and lots of
kisses from Kenya,
Zabet
