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!

1st Term Break...An Update :)

Happy May to all! I wanted to update you on my first event I held in Sipili along with a little bit on the 2 weeks before that J

Ok so after games I came home Saturday night and then left on Monday morning for my in-service training in Nairobi. We had 2 weeks packed full of sessions and activities. Now that we’ve completed one term at school we know more about our sites and communities, Peace Corps can now tell us more about starting secondary projects, how to be a better teacher and other good stuff. We also had our counterparts/headmasters there for 3 of the days to learn about teaching life skills and writing grants. My headmaster was super pumped to be there and I think it’s really good because hopefully he’ll be more open and willing to help me with projects.

Another exciting thing is that I was voted to be in VAC. VAC stands for Volunteer Advisory Committee and there is one person from each group and my Deaf Ed group nominated and voted me in! Basically we meet 3 times/year with the high up Peace Corps Staff to discuss things brought up by volunteers like policies and happenings around Kenya that concern us. The rest of the time we had a crash course in Kiswahili, different teaching method sessions, a coping/talk about our challenges session and we visited the International School of Kenya.

The school was really interesting and a total opposite extreme to all of the schools we’re working at. Presently 877 students attend the school but they have a 30% turnover rate! There are kids from all over that attend this school-90 nationalities are represented! We all got the chance to observe 2 classrooms and I was placed with Britni in a 2^nd and 3^rd grade. These kids with their adorable accents were so sweet and well behaved. The 3^rd grade class asked us a lot of questions (last year when PC came to visit they didn’t get the chance to ask questions and weren’t happy). We got asked about our favorite ice cream, favorite tv show, how life is different here from back home, how many countries we’ve lived in and more. When we said that we now live in houses that don’t always have running water/electricity and no tv, some of them were shocked. Two of the boys asked how we made it without Donald Duck and Roadrunner?! Then we went to the 2^nd grade where they were working in small groups so we chatted with 3 girls who were discussing books they’ve read like all of the Harry Potter books and many of the Roald Dahl books-say what?! I was impressed. The rest of the day we had a few sessions and talked about what we could take from the day. The whole experience was kind of mind-blowing. I mean these kids have traveled so much and seen so much but at the same time, some of them have only seen one side of things and as one of the teachers said, some of them lack street smarts. The school does do a lot with helping them broaden their cultural perspective though. They have to do a lot of hours of service work and then every year they take a big trip. In 8^th grade they take a week to visit the Maasi tribe and live like them. Then in 9^th grade they climb Mt. Kenya. It’s a cool school but so different!

So then after in-service I came back to Sipili on Saturday evening and have been hanging out at home since then. Sunday was my birthday and it was pretty great! I got a midnight call from my lovely boyfriend then woke up to find a newborn calf outside my window! It really felt like spring and home at that moment J The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, I got to plant some sunflowers that my family sent me so hopefully they come up. I also got to talk to my family and hear Anna read a Clifford book! My day ended eating fresh pineapple and watching one of the many Bring It On movies, reminiscent of my last birthday when I saw the musical. I just had so many people wishing me a happy birthday, it was so cool and I felt really loved! Thanks to everyone!!!!

The last thing I wanted to mention was about my World Malaria Day Event. Peace Corps partnered with the organizations PSI and USAID to host these events all across Kenya. We’re ‘Kicking Malaria Out of Kenya!’ I don’t know how many volunteers hosted events but out of the 115 volunteers it was more than 70 of us I think! Super cool! Basically they gave us t-shirts, a few futbols and messenger bags to hand out as prizes and we were to host an event as formal/informal as we wanted to bring awareness about Malaria. World Malaria Day is on the 25^th of April and so I planned my event for the 30^th since I was still at in-service on the 25^th. It was the first event I’ve ever really planned and I wasn’t really around in Sipili before because of Games and In-service so I wanted to keep it as informal as possible. I wouldn’t have been able to do without MC, a teacher at the HS next my school, whom Jenny, the previous volunteer, lived with on his family compound. He’s super awesome and helpful! He contacted 4 schools, to compete in the futbol games and told them about the 5K race I was planning. Tuesday morning I show up at the HS at 8:30 (it was supposed to start at 9) and there are no kids. But I’m getting better at running on Kenyan time (if only I could run as fast as some Kenyans and get their times haha J) and so although I was a little worried at 9:15 when not one person had showed up, at 9:30 kids started to arrive and all was good. The event started at 10:45 when we had a big enough group of kids J We had the 5K race at the HS then the futbol games moved to the community field. Overall I was pleased with the turnout because school had been out of session for 3 weeks and I didn’t know how many would remember and be able to come. We had 17 girls show up to race and 11 boys with 8 schools represented. I had mapped out a 2.5K course so everyone except the HS boys ran two laps and they did three. It was fun to watch but a little weird cheering them on since I had gotten so used to cheering on my kids with sign language haha J After the race was finished MC and I talked for a little bit about malaria prevention and took some pictures before walking to the futbol games. He had talked to a few schools to have one HS boys games, one HS girls game and one primary boys game. One of the girls teams never showed up so they got an automatic win but it was probably good they didn’t come because they then the day would’ve been much longer and probably have gotten rained out. I had a lot of fun watching the guys play; it was super intense and proved good practice for them. The whole day ended shortly before 4 with a little chat about Malaria prevention and the event as a whole. We were also lucky to have 3 girls show up that MC had talked to 3 weeks ago at the end of school about making a poem to read and they did great! I’m still waiting to pick up the prizes because there was some miscommunication but I should be able to get the stuff tomorrow and deliver it to the kids at their schools on Monday! Everyone else starts school on Monday but we start on Wednesday! Term 2 here we come! J Best of luck to everyone with end of school concerts, activities, tournaments and finals!!

Games! Games! Games!

I am presently at my in-service training but I wanted to write a post about last week and my adventures at Games! Last Tuesday at 7am 2 matatus rolled up to Sipili School for the Deaf onto which we loaded 30 kids and 5 teachers. We drove for a long time, stopping for 5 hours at a nearby school for the mentally handicapped where we had to wait for a school bus to pick us up and take us all the way there, but we made it to Kerugoya at 7ish pm. After a meeting with all of the teachers to discuss the next 3 days we were on our way to a hotel in town.

Day 1: Athletics (Track and Field) Day! Our day started out with all of the kids from the 7 Schools for the Deaf and maybe 5 Mentally Handicapped Schools in our region meeting up at a track just outside of town. We got all of the kids into a long line, some schools had banners with their school name on it, and we walked about 30 minutes through town to the high schools where we were competing. That was the last time we saw the kids from the M.H. Schools until the closing ceremony because they stayed at the Girls HS and our kids were at the Boys HS. We were trying to raise awareness for both of our schools by walking through town and it was really neat. When we arrived at school we had a short opening ceremony and then headed down to the track. They had all of the usual track events plus the 3 throwing events and the long jump. They also added speed walking, the 3K for the girls since only secondary boys ran the 5K.The other main addition was of the childrens events. There was a 100m and 50 m dash along with an obstacle course for kids under 10. The obstacle course consisted of running a 3-legged race for 30m then one kids untied the rope while the other had to fill a water bottle using the bucket and cup in front of them. Once the cap was tight, they ran 40m to a sack where they hopped in for a 40m sack race. Hilarious to watch! They were all so cute and so into it! Sadly my camera had run out of battery by the time they ran this race but it was great. Overall, it was just a great day! It felt so good to be a track meet, timing races and cheering on my kiddos! J They didn’t place too high but we had six 3^rd place kids and one girl who got 2^nd in the 3000 race, which was exciting to watch.

Day 2: Primary and Semi-final Ball Games. Thursday started bright and early with games. The girls played netball at the same time as the boys played volleyball and at the same time as the kids played 10 point. I kept time and recorded the score of the netball game so I missed the boys and kids but netball was a lot of fun. It was my first time watching an actual game. It’s similar to basketball and something else. I think it looked pretty intense but not my cup of tea because there was too much stopping and whistle blowing like an American football game or something. Our girls didn’t win the game but they tried really hard! The boys lost their volleyball game as well but said they had a good time. The kids under 10 play a game called 10 point. You have net similar to a badminton net and it’s 2 versus 2. They throw a hard circle Frisbee-esque disk across the net to the opposite person and it keeps going like that until it’s thrown out of bounds or it’s not caught. I never heard the results on that but I did hear one of our boys missed his turn because he was in the bathroom. Hahaha reminded me of when I missed my first XC meet because I was in the bathroom J Then later on in the day our girls played volleyball, best of 3 and we won the 1^st game but lost the next two. They played hard but didn’t make the cut. Lastly, our boys played Futbol. They got into position on the field and looks-wise it already looked like it might be a bit rough. We were in mismatched jerseys with some in sandals and some in flimsy shoes playing against a team in matching orange jerseys with shin-pads, socks and cleats. We also were a lot smaller in stature. The game started and we just couldn’t get it down to their side. They played a 15 minute first half and the score was 5-0. The second half was only 10 minutes long (I think the referee felt bad for my team) because the final score was 11-0. The worst part was when 5 minutes into the 2^nd half when they were up maybe 8-0 and the other coach yells to his team (not sarcastically) to his team to score 30 points. Thank goodness the ref cut the game early. It was a good day to watch and my kids did look like they had a lot of fun even if they didn’t win any of their games.

Day 3: Finals for Ball Games. Since today was finals and we didn’t make it past primaries, we kinda just hung out and watched other schools play all day. I rather enjoyed it. It was very relaxing and I met a lot of kids from other schools as well who would just come over to hang out with the kids from my school or they wanted to meet me. It was pretty awesome. In the afternoon I hung out a little bit with Jay who stopped in for the day to see his kids. He is a teacher at a Rev. Muhoro Secondary School for the Deaf. He could tell me signing had improved and it was one of the best compliments ever. Our day at Games ended with a closing ceremony in the rain. We got the 2^nd Most Competitive Team trophy. Hahaha my kids were excited, as was I, though I still haven’t figured out how we got awarded that seeing as we didn’t make it past primaries in any rounds.  After the ceremony all of the teachers went for a delicious feast served by the host school.

Overall, it was great experience but very tiring. I also got a lovely tan with my choco-type sandals, Capri spandex and a t-shirt every day. I loved talking with my kids and meeting so many cool kids from other Deaf schools as well. It was just awesome to be surrounded by so many people in Kenya and be able to talk to all of them! 

Easter Weekend

Another holiday blog post….Happy Easter to all J I hope everyone had a fabulous day and enjoyed the weather!

My Easter was different than most Easters I’ve celebrated though more similar than Christmas or Halloween was. The weather feels exactly like spring at home, it rained yesterday so the ground is damp and the birds are singing loudly. The air is warm but with a slight chill that comes rustling through every so often and the sun is shining brightly. I even painted 3 eggs J The strange part was that I didn’t go to church this morning which felt very odd.

Last Sunday I went to church for the first time since arriving in Sipili. The kids had asked me to go a few times but they attend a Catholic Church weekly and I wasn’t sure how I felt about going. Last week I decided to attend since it was Palm Sunday and I thought it would be a good service. I left my house at 9:30 and went with the kids to wait outside the gate while we watched tons of people enter the gate to the hearing school next to ours. The service started differently in honor of Palm Sunday. The Catholic Parish had the 4 churches that make up the parish all meet at the school before going to church. At 10:00, they started praying and singing with palms up in the air and then at 10:30 we all started to walk to town. This was the coolest part for me. Everyone had come with palms or olive branches they had gotten from their gardens or off the side of the road and when we walked, everyone had them up in the air. Now I’m realllllly bad at estimating amounts of people but I’d say there were between 500 and 800 people all walking the 30 minutes to the church by way of the town with their branches raised high. Some people were singing and some just catching up with friends but it was really neat. It felt much more real than any Palm Service I’d attended since those all consisted of palms bought from a store and held in the air while standing in our pews. After we arrived the church around 11, the service started. It lasted 3 hours and was all in Kiswahili. The worst part was there was no interpreter! I don’t know how often they have one because I’ve heard the teachers talk about rotating each Sunday but I’m pretty sure it rarely happens. They had asked me to interpret for the service but there was no way that was possible. They wanted to whisper the English into my ear so that I could then interpret from that. Besides my signing not being strong enough to fully interpret in the first place, so much would be lost from that system and it would be exhausting to do for 3 hours. I couldn’t believe there was no one there for the kids; it would’ve been helpful for me too since I can understand KSL but not Kiswahili. I just found it ridiculous.

A few days later I find out that Wednesday there are no classes because they kids go to church for an end of term service with maybe 6-7 other primary schools, all hearing. This was a school day and other teachers showed up at school before we left for church. We left at 10 but only the two housemothers, me and one other teacher actually went. I thought the other teacher would interpret, silly me. We got there and listened to a Kiswahili sermon for 45 minutes, then waited for 10-15 for the priest to show up only so we could have a 2 hour and 15 min church service…with no interpreter! The teachers say they don’t want to interpret because they aren’t Catholic. When I told them I’m not Catholic but I went they said ‘oh, but it was a good experience for you, huh?’ and when I told them there was no interpreter, they said ‘Oh. Really? That’s too bad’ and then went back to reading the paper. That’s 6 hours sitting in a church not understanding anything all within 2 days. So long story short, going to church has only pressed my buttons and I haven’t gotten anything out of it since I cant understand a single word so my Sundays are now for long runs and self-reflection on those runs J

Other than that, things are going well. I worked on an art project with my kids on Saturday which was a little crazy but fun for all! My headmaster had given me a paper about this project called ‘MASK Art Prize’ that any Kenyan kid could enter. He asked me to work with the kids on it. The theme of the drawing/painting was supposed to be on ‘What Makes You Proud of Kenya?’ and so I helped them talk about out what they loved about Kenya and made them proud and then tried to a rough copy out of the ones who were interested. I got about 12 rough copies and so on Saturday I wanted them to work on the final piece. I called the 12 kids out and naturally, all of them wanted a part in it so after they showed me a rough copy, they were allowed to do their own. I think in the end I got 25 papers. Some just looked at their friends papers and did what they did-I got a lot of churches drawn which I found a little ironic since they usually don’t have an interpreter. However, they do have 4 Christian classes each week and on Tuesdays a sister comes in and teaches them about the Catholic Church for an hour and a half. I think overall they just liked being able to draw with markers, colored pencils and paint, which I love too so it all worked out! I now will pick the best ones to send pictures of to the contest and then hopefully all of them will be hung up somewhere in our school. I plan on posting pictures on facebook during my in-service training in mid-April so you can see some of them.

The election news is that the petitions were denied and Kenyatta will be president. Swearing in for him is on 9^th April I believe.

Lastly, exams are this week, starting tomorrow and then Games start the following week. I’m really excited to see how my kids do and what exactly happens at these Games. It should be a lot of fun I hope!

And I wanted to say a BIG CONGRATS to my cousin Rachel who was recently nominated for El Salvador doing Economic Community Development!!!!!!

Kisses from Kenya J

p.s. if anyone fooled anyone/was fooled by someone really good yesterday, please share!

A Cultural Learning Update ☺ (Part 1)

Happpppy St. Patricks Day to all! J Whew, it has been a while since I’ve written to you all and it’s high time for an update.

Well the biggest news, as most of you might know, is that Kenya had their elections on 4^th March. They voted for president, Member of Parliament (MP), governor, senator, women’s representative and county rep. It was their 4^th election for president and everyone was wary of how the results would be accepted. There was a fantastic voter turn-out and I believe there are comments on it being a world record now but I’m not positive about that. It does say a lot about the people here because they were willing to stand in the hot sun for hours and hours to vote. I don’t know how many Americans would be willing to stand for 6-8-10 hours in the sun just to vote. I believe there were around 14 million registered voters and around 12 million of them voted!!! There is one big difference in that in America once you register you’re good to go unless you move or leave the country but here they register a few months before the election to specifically vote this year. This promotes more voting because if you’re willing to spend the time to register then you’re much more likely to take the time to actually vote later on. Ok, I don’t want to comment too much on anything more election-related since this is an open blog but I will say the NY Times and some other newspapers are covering the election and results if you’re interested.

I can say that while the elections were happening I was bonding a lot with all the other Peace Corps Kenya volunteers! They had us all in the same place just as a precautionary measure and it was great to be able to meet the other volunteers and hear about their experiences while getting to know them. I also was able to meet some business and public health volunteers who are only 3-4 hours from me so now I have new people I can visit!

I am now back in the land of Sipili and it’s so good to be back here. I had missed my kids and it was extra hard because I knew they were all still at school without any activities to do or class to attend. Nation-wide, there was a week off of school so everyone could go to their homes to vote where they were registered. Most students I found out from other volunteers went home but mine did not for some reason. They just hung out and basically had recess 24/7. But now school has resumed and the learning is back in motion though we only have a month or so left before the first term ends.

This weekend was a very culture-filled weekend for me! I successfully mopped my cement-floor house Kenyan-style (with a bucket and a rag on my hands and knees) though I don’t know if I was actually successful because it looks very similar to how it did before I started….hmm.

I also went to explore the market for the first time on my own. There is a food market every day but on Saturdays in Sipili it is market day. This means you can buy clothing-1^st and 2^nd hand, pots & pans, shoes, a wider variety of food and other good stuff. I had been shown the 2^ndhand section back in January but had yet to venture there again until Saturday. I now have one section that is officially my favorite…the secondhand clothing section. Back in America I loved going to thrift stores and digging through bins or moving hanger after hanger to try and find that one ridiculous but awesome article of clothing and now, it’s like Goodwill moved next door to me and is open every single Saturday! Jackpot!!! But seriously, a lot of the clothing actually did come from Goodwill and similar stores and the market is a mere 5 minute walk from my house, how awesome is that?! I was mostly browsed (though I did snatch one cute dress-shoulder pads still intact) and I think in the future when I know how much I should pay for everything, I can find some first-rate classy stuff. I plan on leaving the majority of my clothes behind that I brought with me but if I can find some keepers and help the Kenyan economy a bit then by all means, bring on the Bill Cosby sweaters, the shoulder pads and the outrageously colored outfits!

In addition to that on Sunday I used my jiko stove for the first time. It is a small maybe 10-15 inches in diameter stove that sits a few inches off the ground and it lit with charcoal. I still have some things to learn with it because it took me 45 min or an hour to just light. I baked a loaf of banana bread-the first bread I’ve ever made myself-with green bananas in honor of St. Pattys Day. Sadly, the bottom half inch was burnt to a crisp. I followed that up with 4 small muffin type tins filled with homemade brownie mix…these also burned a lot on the bottom. They ended up tasting similar to a hard chocolate candy. But it was chocolatey so I was happy J All in all, I was sitting next to my jiko for about 3 hours just to cook bread and brownies! Thankfully I had a good book and the kids would come over and chat too. It ended up being a relaxing Sunday activity since I wasn’t in any rush and knew the outcome would be tasty!

A Sad New Experience (Part 2)

On Friday and Saturday I experienced a new cultural event that I wish I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to experience. One of my fellow colleague’s first-born sons died last Friday. He was shot in Nyahururu while coming back from Nairobi to be at home. He was only a 2^nd year University student-21 years old. He died a week ago but because he was farther away from home the arrangements took a bit longer which is why he wasn’t buried until a week later. Usually the church service and burial are on the same day but the priest wasn’t able to be there on Saturday and the body couldn’t be brought to Sipili until Saturday morning and so it was 2-day event.

Friday morning around 11am one of the staff asked me if I would like to go to the ceremony at 12. I was unsure of the unknown but I wanted to be supportive and so we headed off at noon for their house. He came from a Catholic family-as most families are in Sipili-and so they had a Catholic Mass on Friday. We all went to my colleague’s house, only a 10 minute walk from the school, and waited for the priest to arrive. The teacher I walked with over with had said the priest was coming at 2 or earlier…that was the first time I’d heard a time that was followed by ‘or earlier’. Though strangely enough, the priest showed up later than expected but early by most Kenyan standards. At 2:30 he arrived and at 2:45 the service began. We all sat under a medium sized tent (you could probably fit 8 of our market tents underneath) and then they also had benches lined in the back.

This was all set up in their front yard. Their compound has 2 parts-the gate opens and to the right you have their garden with maybe 5 rows perpendicular to the gate at about 20 feet each. Then the garden and the house have a hedge between them.

The service was 2 hours long and all in Kikuyu/Kiswahili. The tent was full of people and maybe 1-2 out of the 6-7 benches in the back were full. There were no hymnbooks or service handouts but plenty of words were spoken and songs were sung. It was neat to listen to the songs and some of the long phrases that were said I felt like I knew from the rhythm and hearing the same sort of rhythm every Sunday at church. I may not be Catholic but Lutherans are close in some ways. The other cool thing was how many teachers were at the service. I mean in some ways it wasn’t cool because that meant all of those classes had no teacher in the afternoon-like the one I was supposed to be teaching. However, the fact that there is such a strong community in general and between all of the teachers is awesome.

Saturday morning I was uneasy again about going to the burial because the teachers said it would start between 10 and 11 and so I had no idea when to head over because I didn’t want to miss it. They said it would just be a few short prayers and then the body would be buried since the mass was done the day before. I don’t know why I believed any of that. I was very happy when I walked out of my house at 10:30 and saw all of the older kids (Class 5 and up) waiting together. I found out they were waiting for the gate key so they could all go to the burial-I don’t know how all of the teachers forgot to mention the students were going-but either way I had the gate key and company to go with and with that we were off. We arrived and there were people waiting inside but the family hadn’t come from Nyahururu yet. They had had a caravan of people leave Sipili at 6am for Nyahururu to pick up the body and drive it back. After only 10 minutes, 4 matatus rolled up followed by a hearse then a regular car that had the family inside. The hearse looked like a matatu (a 14 passenger van) but with a higher top, lights on top, HEARSE written on the back and inside there were only the 1^st two rows and then empty space for the coffin.

A lot more people came on Saturday and it was hot. The service lasted 2 hours –all in Kikuyu so once again I don’t know what was said. Six people stood up to talk, hymns were sung and then someone gave a sermon to end the service. At the end everyone stood up and moved to the garden. In the far back corner of their garden, their son was being buried. I was told that some people without the land are buried in cemeteries but most everyone in Sipili, a land of farming, was buried at their home. Up until then it didn’t really feel like a funeral. No more people than usual were wearing fancy or dark clothing, no one was weeping that I could see, I couldn’t understand what they were saying and on Saturday when the coffin was there, I seated on bench further back so I couldn’t really see it either.

The heart wrenching part came at the end. Everyone moved to the garden where a hole had been dug. I was standing near the back and couldn’t see the actual burial happen but I saw the boy’s mother, my fellow teacher, at the end. The whole burial process was very speedy; it was over in about 7 minutes. Everyone walked over, a song was sung and the casket was placed in the ground and covered. Then all of a sudden we all heard his mother crying. Eight women were carrying her out horizontally as she sobbed and wept for her boy. It made it all very real, very fast.