Wednesday morning was full of rain and clouds.
Thankfully this was the day we were planning on starting a bit later because
the students had washed their clothes and they needed to dry. We had an hour-long
assembly with all of the students and it was really great. Everyone learned
something including a lot of new signs! We left around 10:30 and went to sell
tickets in Mweiga town. We walked for about 2 hours afterwards towards Kiaware
town. The walking in-between towns was my favorite part-so relaxing and
enjoyable to hang out with the students. I had two interesting experiences in
Kiwara town when we reached. We split into group again, as usual, and I ended
up making a small child scream bloody murder. He saw me coming and immediately
wanted his dad to pick him up and then when I was a little bit closer, I’m talking
about 20feet away, he starts screaming his head off! He was terrified!!! I walk
past him and am about 5 feet past him and he’s calmed down until he lifts his
head a little bit to look at me and screams again-he repeats this cycle about 3
times before his Dad walks away. We are now back to being 30 feet apart and at
one point he couldn’t see me which was great until I was in his line of vision
and he loses it again. Hahaha I couldn’t win, first white person he’s seen
somehow and he wasn’t a fan. I was more surprised because this town is right on
the tarmac and I would’ve though they would have more exposure that way. The
other interesting person I came across was an older man, probably 65 or 70, who
started asking me a one or two questions about the ‘Walk for a Bus’ like why
couldn’t I just buy the bus myself? This was right before asking if I was
married or not. I told him I was and he asked why my husband couldn’t just buy
us a bus. He also said if my husband wasn’t with me in Kenya, I should just
marry him. Man, he really knew how to charm me ;) I said no thanks and we had a
repeat of the same convo once or twice before he left. Then 20 minutes later we’re
walking down a street when he passes by. He tells me point blank that I should
really just come and live with him. I tell him I’m working and will be for a
while and that his plan won’t work, he asks why not, it’s easy. I just have to
stop working and live with him. That I can easily move-in. Wow, well, as hard
as that was to resist, I did and as he walked away, I told Jane, the student
who was watching the whole interaction go down, what he was asking/my reaction
and she burst out laughing hahaha. Oh my. We finished the town, walked for a
bit before hopping into the matatu to go to our next school. We slept at
Mugunda Secondary School for Girls. We ended up having a pretty late assembly
with them that lasted from 9-10:30pm but they all really enjoyed it. The girls
became fast friends with our students and it was a great time. After the
assembly Wairia wanted all of the girls to get leg massages so I was in charge
of that which I did but the girls thankfully weren’t too enthusiastic about
getting them. They, like me, wanted sleep more. I’d had a temperature that
morning and I could tell it had gone down but it was still there a little bit
so after some quick massages, it was lights out.
Thursday came and after breakfast and a photo, we
were on our way around 9am. We started in Nairuita town quickly followed by Jikazi
then Mario4 with some walking in between each. It was a good start to the day.
And it was also good because my fever was basically gone give or take! Around
noon we arrived in Nyahururu and met up with our reinforcements! The students
were so excited because 5 more learners from our school were there and 2 more
teachers! There were so many stories to tell! So we quickly ate lunch and
started around on the town. Splitting into groups worked well again although 2
of the 4 learners were from Nyahururu and so as excited as they were, sometimes
they’d get carried away and forget to keep me in eyesight but overall, it was a
great afternoon. It was nice for me and the students to finally be back in a
town that we all knew. The students also were able to see some friends and
story a little. That evening we took public transportation to the Muthengara
Special School where we’ve been before and it about halfway between Nyahururu
and Sipili. We traveled with the 5 learners although Madam Beth went back to
her house in Kinamba and Nelly stayed in Nyahururu so I was the only female
teacher again. It was totally fine though, we all ate ugali and kales and
started to watch the movie ‘Knowing’ in their dining hall but it was too
suspenseful and scary for me and I soon went to bed with some of the other
girls who felt the same way.
Friday morning we got a call from our driver who
had stayed with us up to Nyahururu and was going to help us again, saying he
had vehicle problems. We weren’t sure what we wanted to do so we stayed and had
a short assembly with the hearing school next door. The special school used to
be a unit until they broke away and have their own school but they still share
a fence like we do with the primary school next door to us in Sipili. We taught
them some new signs, introduced ourselves and showed them how similar they are
to the kids there before we were on our way. Right after the assembly was
finished and we got back to school, the vehicle showed up and all was well in
the world. One group went to Karandi town while my group did Muthengera and
then Tandare town with a bit of walking before we all met up in Kinamba town.
We met up with Madam Beth at this point and we took on the town with force. We
ate a quick lunch since people from Sipili kept calling us wanting to know
where we were and to hurry up. The closing ceremony was to start around 2pm…which
is when we left Kinamba via the matatu that we had. We drove 3/4ths of the way
before getting out to walk. After about 10 min of walking we met up with
Gikunda (headmaster) and Kirumba (Senior teacher). Around the next curve we met
up with all of the learners from class 4-8 who weren’t able to go on the walk
with us. It was soo cool! There was so much excitement in the air and so many
greetings and story telling going on everywhere! Then in addition to all of our
kids greeting us and starting to walk with us towards town, there were a lot of
hearing kids lined up with them and they started walking with us too! We had
started to accumulate quite the large mass of people. Around the next curve 5
or 6 motorcycles were waiting for us and a few learners got to hop on the back.
Also Gishoki and our night groundsman got on the back of the first two
motorcycles to hold the banner and we took a loop around town following the
motorcycles while they beeped their horns the whole way. There were so many
people and so much noise; it was just so so amazing!! Sipili School for the
Deaf was the popular school for the day, it was nuts! J We ended our
Sipili tour at the main little intersection in town opposite the matatu stage. Awaiting
us was Wainina, the last teacher in our staff who had been putting the ceremony
together, and maybe 5-6 other main important people. There was a short hour-long
ceremony in which the main people spoke including the MP, one of the education
officers, a few principals from nearby schools and our headmaster. A lot of
kids were standing around listening as well as a lot of people in town who had
come out of their shops to listen. At the end they asked for donations and we
ended up raising 7,800ksh from the ceremony alone! And thus, the walk was over.
I went back home for the first time in 7 days, cooked myself a dinner that didn’t
include ugali or kales, looked in a mirror for the first time in 7 days and saw
how tan my face had gotten. I also checked my email/FB for the first time in a
week and it felt so good to see the support of my friends and family! Thanks
everyone for rooting for my school and me on through this crazy time! We ended
up earning roughly 100k so we’re around halfway there which seems a bit nuts
but, to quote the song ‘Burn’ by Ellie Goulding “We don’t have to worry bout
nothing cause we got the fire and we burning one hell of a something…”. At
times since then I’ve started to freak out about how we’re going to get the rest
of the money but I have faith and I think it can happen. We started the fire
burning and we’re going to keep going until we’ve got a bus on the compound
that we can call our own!
Please keep your prayers coming as my school
figures out a way to get the rest of the money for the 25% of the grant. I wish
you all a happy Madaraka Day (todays holiday) and I hope your new month is off
to a great start! Personally I can’t believe it’s already June-I have nooo idea
how that happened. I was reminded on FB that today I’ve officially been in
Peace Corps for 20 months and have 6-7 left before my service is over! Say
whatttt?!
Happpppy June!!!!
Xoxoxoxox
Zabet
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