Iten Adventures (part 2)

Throughout our time in Iten, many runners approached us to chat...simply wanting to know why we were visiting and wish us well on our travels. They smiled, joked with us, and wanted to know about America. It was so incredible to witness their modesty and genuine character. I mean, we were in the city where almost every runner runs a sub 2:15 marathon, and they weren’t the least bit interested in broadcasting their accomplishments. So refreshing!

p.s. We met and chatted extensively with Henry Sugat, a 2:06:58 marathoner and winner of the Vienna Marathon—twice. He didn’t mention any of that while in conversation…

Back to Robert:

I asked him what his marathon time is, and he exclaimed “it’s SO slow!!!....2:17!! His half-marathon time? 62 minutes. That’s 13.1 miles at roughly a 5:10/mile pace. So naturally, my next question was: “Hey, want to take us for a run in the morning?!”

We met Robert at 6:50am and ran a good 56 minutes with him. He told us “I’ll go your pace.” Thanks, Robert. If you want us to go more than 100 feet, you’d better go our pace J He’s a 28 year old who has been running competitively since 10^th grade. Such a sweetheart. He took us back to his “training center” after his run. A one room house with a bed, 3 or 4 outfits, a charcoal jiko stove, a few pots, dishes, & a gorgeous garden out back. He wanted to make us tea as a recovery from the run, so he ran to his Guernsey cow and fetched some fresh milk. It took about 45 minutes until the tea was ready, because the jiko took forever to catch fire. He has a degree to be a chaplain, but is focusing on professional running at the moment. He’s been at it for 3 years, and his days consist of eating, sleeping, and running. REPEAT. After he walked us back to where we were staying, he was off to run another 30K with his friends. No big deal.

Yesterday we joined 14 of E’s students at the National Music Competition, held in Nakuru. It’s similar to our national music competitions, in that you have to go to counties, districts and regionals before you can go to nationals, but unlike the US system, the students go in groups from their schools. It is a 10-day event, where each school performs in many different categories. You can sit in some of the sessions, so E and I saw many deaf schools performing local tribal dances. It was super impressive to see how well they were choreographed, considering their hearing is impaired.

We took a matatu home with 20 people crammed into the matatu, including a large man who pretty much sat on E’s lap. We arrived home after dark with no power, so unlocking the room was a challenge…especially since the kiddos had stuck a stick into our lock, making it impossible to unlock. Thank goodness for safety pins—after about 20 minutes, we were safely inside.

Clarissa comes to visit from Zambia on Thursday! We’re taking 7 days to travel around Kenya, since E is sort of on break. She won’t be with C and I for the whole trip, but she’ll join us when she can. It works out beautifully that she has to be back in Machakos for her VAC meeting so we can meet and stay with her host family from PC training!

Tonight is dinner with MC and his family---MC has the most impressive garden collection of fruits and vegetables I’ve ever seen. No wonder---their growing season is 12 months long! Dad, don’t worry—I took lots of pictures J Dinner is always collected from his organic and sustainable garden, so I’m beyond excited. Plus, his wife, Mama Reidy, is teaching me how to make Green Grams and ugali tonight.

A funny sign on the road to Eldoret: “Clean toilets make life fun.”

Love you – see you soon! 

Strike Ended and FGM Information (part 1)

(I split this blog into 2 parts cause I realized it was too long. Here is part 1)

Sasa?! Or rather, wazzup? J Time for an update and some information of FGM…

Update on Sarah here and future happenings:

Sipili is grand and things are going well. The school term is finishing up and we have one more full week before exams. I cant believe term 2 is so close to finishing up! Sarah and I hung out in Sipili this weekend and got a lot of relaxing in. We went for a long walk around town, visited the market, did some laundry and watched some chick flicks while eating fudge. I must admit, it was very nice and I’m ready for class now!

Next, a strike update: The strike ended at the end of last week however, it was not without confusion. The strike ended an hour after the government said all public primary schools were closed indefinitely. So, on Thursday and Friday some teachers went to school and the students stayed home and in other places, it was in reverse with students in school but no teachers. Friday they officially reopened the schools and on Monday everything was supposed to return back to normal. The government also decided to extend this term by one week and term three by one week to make up for 2 of the 3.5 weeks missed. The other 1.5 weeks teachers are supposed to just make-up by teaching more efficiently. So we’ll see if that happens. The poor Class 8 kids who have to take their big national exam which will say if they get to go to secondary school and if they score high enough-which school they can attend-that’s a lot of missed class time for them! Now at Sipili School for the Deaf, since our kiddos were here during the whole strike we’re only extending until Friday, the 9th (since we normally end on Wednesdays). We’ll start up again in 3-4 weeks after close. We only have 2 more full weeks left-so strange!

The topic I wanted to mainly discuss was about was an article I read in the paper a few days ago on an awful practice still done in many places in Africa and the Middle East: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). I did some more research after reading the short article and I want to share what I learned. It’s a serious issue still going on in many countries and I feel that people need to be aware of what’s going on. This is some information I found on it…

A brief background/understanding of FGM that I gathered from Wikipedia, the Daily Nation newspaper, a National Geographic article, a BBC article and information I found on the UNICEF website.

FGM is practiced mainly in 28 countries across Africa, particularly Egypt and Ethiopia, and in parts of Asia and the Middle East. The WHO estimates that 140 million women and girls around the world have experienced it, including 101 million in Africa. FGM is typically carried out between four years old and puberty, although it may be conducted on younger infants and adults. It may take place in a hospital, but is usually performed without anesthesia by a traditional circumciser using a knife, razor or scissors. In communities that practice it, both women and men typically support it.

Miriam Martinelli and Jaume Enric Ollé-Goig write that reasons for the practice can be divided into five categories:

• Hygienic and aesthetic. The external female genitalia are considered dirty and "unsightly" and should be flat, rigid and dry
• Sociological. Identification with the cultural traditions, as a rite of passage of girls into womanhood, and for the maintenance of social cohesion
• Psychological. Reduction of sensitive tissue and thus to curb sexual pleasure in order to maintain chastity and virginity, to guarantee women's fidelity, and even to increase male sexual pleasure

• Myths and false beliefs. To enhance fertility and promote child survival

• Religious. FGM/C has been practiced in a range of communities with different religions: Christian, Muslim and animist. Muslim communities often have the false belief that FGM/C is related to teachings of the Islamic law. 

Strike Ended and FGM Information (part 2)

(I had to split it into 2 parts and I’m putting part 2 first-so read the part above this before J)

Kenyan History on FGM:

In Kenya in the 1920s and 1930s there was a lot of controversy on the issue. Top colonial folks tried to stop FGM however they only stirred things up and created a lot of anger within the people. Christian missionaries, according to Wikipedia, forbade people from practicing it for two reasons. Number one because of medical concerns and number two because they saw it as ‘highly sexualized’. The Kikuyu (the main ethnic group) did not appreciate it to say the least. One missionary woman was murdered in 1930 after speaking out against it. In Kenyan history, 1929-1931, this period is known as the female circumcision controversy. It is interesting to look at it from the Kenyan perspective. Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya’s 1^st Prime Minister) wrote in 1930 that “ The real argument lies not in the defense of the general surgical operation or its details, but in the understanding of a very important fact in the tribal psychology of the Kikuyu – namely, that this operation is still regarded as the essence of an institution which has enormous educational, social, moral and religious implications, quite apart from the operation itself. For the present it is impossible for a member of the tribe to imagine an initiation without clitoridoctomy. Therefore the ... abolition of the surgical element in this custom means ... the abolition of the whole institution” (wikipedia). Support was also coming from the women themselves. A missionary in Meru, Kenya said it was an entirely female affair where the women’s council saw the girls become women. They saw it as a necessary tradition in the rite of passage to becoming a woman.

In 1956, under pressure from the British, a council of male elders in Meru, Kenya, announced a ban on clitoridectomies. This was followed by more than 2,000 girls charged over the next 3 years with carrying out the procedure on each other with razor blades. This was done in defiance and in protest against the interference with women’s decisions for their own rituals. Since 1994, several countries have enacted legislation against FGM. President Moi of Kenya issued a decree against it in December of 2001.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated in ’97 that 168,000 girls living there had undergone FGM or were at risk. Something I found really interesting was “Fauziya Kasinga, a 19-year-old member of the Tchamba-Kunsuntu tribe of Togo, was granted asylum in 1996 after leaving an arranged marriage to escape FGM; this set a precedent in US immigration law because it was the first time FGM was accepted as a form of persecution. Performing the procedure on anyone under the age of 18 became illegal the following year with the Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act. The Transport for Female Genital Mutilation Act was passed in January 2013 and prohibits knowingly transporting a girl out of the country for the purpose of undergoing FGM. Khalid Adem, who had moved to Atlanta, Georgia, from Ethiopia, became the first person to be convicted in the US in an FGM case; he was sentenced to ten years in 2006 for having severed his two-year-old daughter's clitoris” (Wikipedia).

Here are some statistics on FGM and an update that I read in the Kenyan paper, The Daily Nation:

UNICEF said there was a dramatic reduction in cases of FGM in the 29 surveyed countries. Among the 29 surveyed countries, Kenya and Central African Republic have the steepest decline. It is now rare among the Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Meru tribes but at the same time, 95+% of Somali and Kisii girls are still being cut. “Practice is becoming less common in slightly more than half of the 29 countries studied” UNICEF reported. In Kenya and Tanzania, for example, women aged 45-49 are approximately three times more likely to have been cut than girls aged 15-19. They said the prevalence has dropped by about half in Benin, CAR, Iraq, Liberia and Nigeria but then there are countries where there is no discernible decline such as Gambia, Mali, Senegal, Sudan or Yemen. Somalia has the highest percentage in the world at 98%.

Since 2003 the United Nations has sponsored an International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, held every 6 February.

If you want to read more on it, here are 3 good articles I found:

• National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130726-female-genital-mutilation-united-nations-unicef-report/
• BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22186436
• Lastly, one from UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58002.html

It’s school time for me in 30 minutes in fact; I wish you all a very happy end of July and I leave you with a quote sent to me by another PCV that I really enjoy:

“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a time. Sometimes it makes planning my day difficult” –EB White

Kisses from Kenya,

Zabet

Sarah Is In Da House

Hello friends J

I am sitting here blasting ‘Stronger’ by Britney Spears for my sister who is taking her first cold shower in Kenya. It’s cracking us both up but she’s surviving it I think J

It’s so wonderful and different to have a visitor…my sister…here with me in Kenya!! She arrived here on Saturday after a long day of traveling. I met her in Nyahururu and we traveled back to Sipili together. We have been together for 4 days already and it’s fantastic! She looked up a lot of recipes to try and dinner is always delicious. Yesterday we went to school together and introduced her to all of my students. Sarah now has 65+ first names, last names and sign names to learn J They are all super pumped that she is here and that they have someone new to show all of their tricks and tell all of their stories to! We went running in the afternoon and I got the highest attendance in running since it was last made mandatory! Hey, whatever it takes J She also got her whole head in braids and practiced some of her gymnastics in the afternoon with them! Sarah is picking up sign language really quickly and they were teaching her new signs all day yesterday. It was an entertaining day and I know they’re all happy she’ll be here until the end of term, just like me!

Strike update:  KNUT teachers have now officially been on strike for 3 full weeks and we’re entering the 4^th. Sunday there was a meeting where everyone thought they would settle the agreement between KNUT and the government but it was not to be had. The government said they’d give them the money in 3 segments but KNUT doesn’t think they’ll follow through so they said no thanks, try again please. So we will just keep on waiting to see what happens this week-everyone cross your fingers that they find a happy ending to this all so everyone wins and it can get settled soon! J

Update on my life since the 4^th, I traveled to Maralal for the first time last weekend and it was awesome. It took me 5 hours to get there and 6 hours to get back to Sipili but it was worth it. I saw my first camels in Kenya as well as some zebras & antelopes. I also tasted the best ice cream I’ve had since arriving in Kenya!!! That was the first stop we made and I fell in love. It’s a youth business initiative and the ice cream is homemade and utterly delicious ;) I saw the sunrise, climbed a hill called ‘Big Rock’, hung out with 3 other PCVs living in the area and had a great 4^th of July picnic! Overall it was a short but fun trip and a great break in the strike.

The other exciting thing that happened recently was that my students and I finished painting the first coat of paint for all of the countries on our map!!!! I was literally jumping up and down and waving my hands around when we got it completed! Now we have to write all of the names of the countries in, paint a 2^nd coat on all of the countries, make a compass as well as paint ‘Africa’ on top of it. But at least when people walk past they can see all of the countries and it has taken shape. My favorite part of the map is that I had each student from Class 4, 5, 6 & 7 (minus 3 students) as well as 4 of the 6 vocational students paint at least one country. They looooved painting it and were so excited to learn which country was theirs to paint. The map is now theirs and they can take ownership of it. It will be here for a long time and it’s something they can look at, learn from and remember. I’m incredibly excited about it all!

Lastly, a sports update. I don’t know how much running related news you all read or how much running news has been in the paper recently but the front page of the Sports section yesterday was all about the World Youth Championships in Ukraine. And since I’m guessing most of you don’t hear too much news on athletics, here ya go! Kenya finished second overall at the Championships only to Jamaica! Jamaica got 8 medals but they won since they got more golds. Kenya scored a gold in the womens 3000, mens 800, womens steeplechase and mens 1500! Ethiopia was 3^rd with 8 medals and USA scored 5^th. Another cool part about the meet was that Biwott who won the 1500 broke the Championship record by .01 seconds at 3:36.77. Isaack had the record of 3:36.78 since 2001 when it was in Hungary and it was finally broken. I was very excited to read about all the track news in the paper and it always makes my day. Next month in the middle of August are the World Championships in Russia and so we’ll see what Kenya, Ethiopia and the USA bring to the table.

I hope you all are having a fantastic July, a sensational summer and you’re enjoying not going to school like me, oy.

Many many kisses from both Sarah and me J

Zabet

A Wonderful 4th of July to All!

Happpppy American Independence Day to everyone!!!! I hope everyone is having a fantastic day J I would just like to start this post off with a short snippet from our country director that was in the monthly newsletter that Peace Corps Kenya sends out.  Martha says “quality of life, by definition, must be founded on liberty and personal freedoms, as well as the simple pursuit of happiness.  We have all acquired that privileged birthright as citizens of the United States, inalienable rights that sometimes let us slip into an entitlement mode – taking our good fortune for granted. …The majority of people in the world do not enjoy a daily existence based on these three pillars:  the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. … When I did my Peace Corps service in rural Ecuador in the high Andes, widespread poverty ensured that personal liberties were scarcely evident.  People in my community hardly had any interest in free press and freedom of speech with such basic human rights such as potable water, health care and education eluding them. …As you celebrate this Independence Day, count yourselves among the fortunate ones.  You are here because you need not worry about these basic rights that should be the birthright of all humans on the planet.  You are living the dream:  presented with choices and pursuing your path. … Remember:  To whom much is given, much is expected.” I just thought that a really good note to remember today. We are so lucky to live in America and have so many privileges right from the start.

Ok, we are now officially 10 days into the teachers strike here in Kenya. It’s been a stressful week but thankfully it’s almost the weekend and I’m visiting friends! I’ve been buying the newspaper every day but there hasn’t been much new news related to the strike. On Monday or Tuesday the court ordered the teachers to go back to school. KUPPET (the union for secondary school teachers) ended their strike on Tuesday or Wednesday following court orders but KNUT (the primary teachers union) didn’t comply. They’re waiting it out to get the money they were told 16 years ago was theirs. It makes sense to me but it’s tough on the kids everywhere in Kenya and for their sake (and my sanity) I hope it ends well soon! We’ll see if anything happens tomorrow or over the weekend.

There wasn’t much to update about the strike but since I’ve been buying the paper and now have a lot more time to read it, I found two interesting articles I’d like to share with you wonderful people J

The paper recently has been filled to the brim with stuff about Obama’s trip to Africa and many Kenyans were upset when he didn’t put Kenya on his list of places to visit. However, they still followed his every move and gave us all the details everyday on where he was/where he was going next/what he said. He made a promise to Kenyans that he would visit before his 2^nd term was up and most seem to be excited about that. One thing he said that didn’t go over well among the leaders of Kenya was about something he said while in Senegal pertaining to gay rights. (The following quotes are all from ‘The Daily Nation’ newspaper). The article says “at least 10 Jubilee Coalition MPs have condemned Barack Obama for advocating for gay rights in Africa. The MPs said it was not only un-African but also unacceptable for the US President to call on African countries to give gay people equal rights when he was aware that African culture abhorred same sex relationships. The lawmakers said they would fight against any attempts by America and other Western countries to impose un-African culture on the continent”. Those first few lines alone threw me for a bit of a loop. I didn’t realize equal rights to everyone were ‘un-African’. Huh. But wait, it gets better. A Mr. Sudi, one of the lawmakers, was quoted asking “How can President Obama defend gay rights when he himself has two beautiful daughters who would wish to be happily married when they come of age”? That was followed up shortly with a question by a different lawmaker, Mr. Korir who asked “Who will marry our daughters if men start looking for fellow men as partners”? Right, because that’s how it works. Once Kenya is ok with gay rights, all of the men will immediately start looking for other men and all of the women will be left in the dust. The article ended with some more enlightening quotes. “A group of elders, while terming homosexuality un-African and evil, said it was wrong for Mr. Obama to rally Africa in supporting same-sex relationships. The group said there was no way Africans could support or accept gay relationships”. Then came the kicker at the end with a quote from the leader of the group saying “Indeed, we are very happy that Mr. Obama declined to visit Kenya after his tour of Senegal where he spoke about gay rights. He would have brought a ‘curse’ on our land. We condemn Mr. Obama’s sentiments that we in Africa accept gay behavior, the behavior is evil and wrong”.

A few days ago I read some articles online about DOMA begin defeated and Prop 8 and how things were moving along for gay marriages and rights in America. It’s exciting that many more states have recently changed their laws so marriages of love can happen for everyone because as we all know, love actually is…all around J I have many good friends who are gay and thinking about them not being able to marry the one they love is incredibly sad. I love getting updates on equality happenings from my wonderful friend Walky telling me about stuff going on in the USA! And then I buy the paper here and read things like this. I know that the laws are currently against gay rights in Kenya, and other African countries but hearing high people in the government say that gay rights are ‘un-African’ still took me by surprise. I also know that things seem to take longer to get here and sometimes I feel like we’re in the 80s or 90s with fads or things occurring, I mean I hear a loooot of Celine Dion, Shania Twain & Shaggy. It took a while for gay rights to get their foot in the door of the law in ‘Merica and I know that good things take time. I have faith that change will eventually happen. It’s a cultural perspective that I’m trying to understand.

Lastly, I leave you with something awesome to end this post J In the paper today I read about a bicycle called ‘XploreAir- Paravelo’. It’s a bike that can fly!!! Have you all heard of this? It can take off from anywhere and once in the sky it can go “25 mph for up to 3 hours and it’s propelled by a fan using a biofuel 249cc motor and parachute. Yannick Read and John Foden’s XploreAir X1 can reach altitudes of 4,000 ft but doesn’t require a special licence to operate.” How sweet is that?! A flying bike powered by biofuel! I want to see them make tandem bikes that fly next and then have a carpool lane in the sky! Hahaha and then maybe all we’d need is for them to create a flying VW Bug and I’d be set J

Many red, white & blue kisses to everyone,

Lizabeth

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!