Walk for a Bus Week!

Hello Hello Hello J

  This blog is an update on the latest biggest project happening at Sipili School for the Deaf!!! As some of you know, back in March, my school was planning a ‘Walk for a Bus’ to raise money for a school bus. However, 3 days before the event was to take off, some unforeseen issues popped up and we had to postpone it. But now we’re back in business baby!!

Some information on our school and the walk…we became an officially registered school in 2006. We are the only school for the Deaf in all of Laikipia County, which ranges from Nanyuki to Sipili, 240 km, about 4-6hours in length. We are a public boarding school with 80 students registered from infant class to Class 8 with an additional vocational class.

Every year we aim to attend Games, Music festival, Drama festival and field trips however, the transportation is difficult to arrange. Our students are such visual learners but sometimes they cannot attend festivals or trips because we don’t have the means to get them there and back. We are hoping to purchase a school bus so our students have an opportunity to see more of Kenya and learn about various topics while seeing them in person.

We realize raising money is difficult but we are hoping to apply for a Peace Corps Grant after the walk. The PCPP (Peace Corps Partnership Grant) is a grant that can reach $10,000 as the maximum and that is what we’re aiming for. The community must raise 25% of the total in order to receive the grant and that is why we’re doing the walk, as our community contribution. The grant is not like most grants as it gets the money from donations. My school has to apply for the grant with a variety of papers and budget lists. Then it will go through a review process done by other PC volunteers in the Grants Commitee. After it has passed the test, it gets sent to PC headquarters in Washington DC and if it is fine, then it will be put up on the PC website. Once on the website, it is up to any supporters in America to donate. I will have a short paragraph about our school and the project and how much money I am hoping to raise for the school. Anyone can support us. If you search ‘Peace Corps Partnership Grant’ the website will pop up and you can check out every PCV around the world who has a grant up. I will tell you all more about that once the walk is completed, we know how much we’ve raised and how the grant application is going but that’s the direction we’re hoping for.

The walk is now taking place from 26^th-30^th May. We will leave tomorrow afternoon for Nanyuki so that we are able to attend church the following morning. The learners and teachers that went to county Games in April had gone to one church while there, 2 months ago, and received a lot of positive response about our school. We hope to go back to the same church on Sunday and receive some donations to help our cause. We will sleep in Nanyuki again on Sunday before the walk begins on Monday morning. We hope to start the walk off and then walk around Nanyuki trying to get donations first before walking onwards. We are going to walk about 8km past Naro Moru where we will be spending the night at a school. We hope to do lots of walking and lots of collecting donations J The rest of our schedule goes as such, for those of you with a Kenyan Map who may be interested. Day 2 we leave from Naro Moru and go to Mwaiga to sleep at another school. Day 3 we’ll leave Mwaiga in the morning and go to Nairutia to sleep at our 4^th school. Then on Day 4 we’ll walk to Nyahururu, my banking town where we have informed a lot of businesses, banks and higher up people to let them know we’ll be arriving and we’re hoping to receive a lot of support in town. On Day 5, our last day, we’ll walk to Sipili past Kinamba. We are aiming to reach Sipili between 3 and 5pm and receive a big welcome from our town and school!

There will be 10 learners participating alongside myself, another teacher- Wairia, one of our cooks and a B.O.G. (Board of Governors) lady who wants to walk with us the whole way. Our principal will be there for the flagging off in Nanyuki and our deputy may meet us for a day on day 3 or 4. We have informed all of the high up people in Laikipia County, the police, the education officers and Peace Corps people.

While we are all on the walk, the learners and other teachers here will be doing their part to continue raising awareness and collecting any money from the community. Two teachers will be taking some learners to market on Saturday, since it is our market day which means there are tons of people in town, and telling people about what we’re doing. Then on Sunday a few teachers and all of the learners will attend the big Catholic Church they go to every Sunday and will make an announcement and try to raise more money. It is a continuous process.

I can tell you this has not been the easiest thing to plan with my counterpart. We’ve had our share of hiccups along the way and I will be glad when it’s over but I also am excited for the adventure. It will be a week of strictly Kenyan food-no pasta for my dinners, talking to as many Kenyans as possible while on the road, hanging out with the same 13 people every day and hopefully walking a lot of kilometers!

We are ready this time! The banner & posters are ready, the packing list is made, we have places to sleep every night, the learners are informed, Sipili town has posters everywhere and the schools/churches have had announcements made.

Lastly, I ask that you please send us your thoughts and well wishes that we may finish the walk, receive donations, stay safe, remain healthy and have a great time learning and walking together!!

Thanks and many kisses,

Zabet

Zany Zanzibar Trip: Part 1

Hey Hey Hey J

 Recently I went on a short vacation over land and ferry to the magical island of Zanzibar with 3 other volunteers: Caitlin, Eva and Deirdre and we had quite the adventure.

We all arrived in Nairobi the day before, slept at a nice hostel and our day began at 4am.  We hopped in the taxi, drove 30ish minutes to the bus stop and waited for our bus to leave at 6:15. The bus left and within 2 hours we came to the border crossing. We got our visas ($100 but it’s good for one full year multiple-entry) and headed on our way after about 1 and a half hours. We rode on that bus for the whole day; stopping here and there for bathroom breaks and saw the beautiful Tanzanian countryside. We were surprised because we rarely saw any towns or people, just a lot of open land and animals grazing. We arrived late in Dar around 10:45 and hopped in cab to take us to our hotel. We drove to a place right outside of center city that I had found online. After getting out of the cab and tried to pay the man 5000Tsh thinking that was enough; he quickly became very upset because it was supposed to be 5000/person. We were confused and very tired from traveling and the currency in Tanzania is in much higher numbers so it was harder to do conversions in our heads. (Really rough estimates for conversion: 2000Tsh=100Ksh=$1.20ish)We finally paid him the correct amount and his parting words to us were ‘you will fail’. Thank you kind sir. In fact, we think there is a possibility that he cursed our vacation. Witchcraft is much more prevalent in the coastal areas of Kenya and presumably Tanzania but we’re just speculating because we didn’t have great luck the rest of our trip hahaha twas quite humorous.

The next morning we took a taxi into center city to exchange our money and passed two exciting restaurants we knew we had to go to. Our first stop after the bank was SUBWAY! Yes, Subway. There is only one Subway in Kenya and it was built a few months ago but it is in a mall that Peace Corps Volunteers are now advised not to go to anymore. You can’t really find sub bread anywhere here and lettuce and cold cut meat are only available in large cities, expensive and I don’t have a refrigerator to keep them in. Therefore, we were all hardcore craving it and dove into our delicious subs for breakfast. We followed it up with a stop at Smooch, a frozen yogurt place-yum!! At last we were filled and headed to the port to hop on a ferry. We paid but the man took a while to bring us our tickets and so we ended up in this mad rush to get on the ferry before it pulled away but thankfully, we made it. We rode first class, I think that was my first time ever riding first class for anything, and made it to the island 3 hours later. We knew it would take longer because the cost was slightly less since we opted for the ‘slow’ ferry. We called our hostel on the ferry ride over and they offered to pick us up for free, we were ecstatic. So we get off the ferry and see a cute little old man holding a sign above his head with our name and the hotel name! Another first I believe! We started following him and after 5-6minutes thought he must’ve parked far away when he walks right to our hotel after only 10 minutes of walking, hence them being able to do it for free J We set our stuff down and went to explore Stone town. It’s a beautiful town on a beautiful island. We walked around for around 2 hours but we didn’t see what other people had been talking about. We didn’t see many door carvings, things to buy except the same stuff we could buy in Kenya and we didn’t see any super old buildings. We ended up eating at the little local place with delicious food including meat sticks, chapatti, fish, samosas and classic ugali. We went back to the hotel so some of the girls could shower since it was sweltering outside. It made me so happy that I live in Sipili at elevation, where it can get hot but never like that. The coast was hot like the kind that makes you sweat while just laying there and sticky all the time…and we went during the beginning of their ‘winter’! While back at the hotel we said hello to one of the guys staying there and we all heard an American accent. He left by the time we tried to knock on his door and see what he was up to that evening and so we asked management to tell him where we were hahaha. Perhaps a bit stalkerish but the possibility that he was a PC volunteer was high since we were there on the low season and staying at the most common place for backpackers and volunteers to sleep at. We also asked management if there were any bars or places to dance in town and they said they were all really far away except one. They led us past some winding roads and up to the top of a hotel where a bar did not await us, but a fridge with some beer in it did. It was cold though and the night was warm so we hung out there for a long time. And the guy from our hotel showed up with his friend and it turned out they were in fact both PC volunteers from Rwanda! It was so neat! I learned that Rwanda has the best roads in all of Africa, it is land of 1000 hills, it’s beautiful and they have about the same amount of PC volunteers as Kenya. The only other 2 main things I remember are that gorillas are their main attraction but it can cost over $500 to see them and that they don’t hear too much about the genocide in their villages although they don’t try to bring it up either. Oh and at the end they said they were leaving the island early to get a head start on their journey back but the main reason for getting a head start was so that they had time to stop at the Subway as they passed through Dar. Volunteers think alike J

The following morning, Easter Sunday, Caitlin and I got up at 6:15am to go on a run. We both put on tank tops and American running shorts, thinking that we would be ok in these outfits since we were in a more touristy place. No no no no. I’ve never felt more underdressed and scandalous during a run in my life. Suffice to say, if ever you go to a place that is populated by about 98% Muslims and you aren’t at a resort-it doesn’t matter how touristy it sounds in the books-you should cover at least your knees and don’t try to run early in the morning thinking you’ll skip the crowds because they get up very early to pray. It also helps if you know your way around and the language. The morning started out great. We turned left and suddenly found a few bars and a sweet park and old buildings that we’d been looking for! We ran through winding roads, past cool carved roads and so many gift shops that we couldn’t find the day before. Caitlin and I ran for 50 min and then tried to find our way back to our hotel. No dice. Thankfully Caitlin knows Kiswahili because surprisingly, my Kenyan Sign Language doesn’t do any good in Tanzania-especially when you don’t meet anyone who is Deaf. We kept asking people where the port was and we kept getting directions…to a different port we didn’t know existed until we showed up across from it. So there we were in a totally different part of town-very dehydrated-and at a total loss. Thankfully the people were very trusting and we managed to get a ride on their version of a matatu for about 20 minutes back to a place closer to town even though we had no money on us. We had no money and no cell phone. We hopped onto the open bed truck type vehicle (their version of a matatu) with a long connected bench along the perimeter and a roof on top and no windows, just the open air. Picture two Caucasian girls with very white skin from the knee up wearing running shorts and tank tops, sweating, and sitting in this open truck as children continue to pile in the back wearing head to toe garments as they go to school. These kids are the cutest things and they all kind of just stared at us with a bit of confusion on their faces as they check out our outfits and us in general. We finally reach the end point and realize we still don’t know exactly where we are but we manage to make it back to the hotel, a total of 3 hours after we had left! Quite the way to start our morning. The rest of the day we sat on the beach after traveling to North Coast, only an hour matatu ride. The beach was lovely but everyone’s health was not. One girl got sick in the morning but was feeling better and then the other two girls felt sicker than they had the day before. Giardia had hit and chosen its victims. We still managed to relax and just hang out which was the best option for everyone in their state of health anyway.

Zany Zanzibar Trip: Part 2

Monday was a fully relaxing day on the beach. We took a walk and collected shells and just soaked in the sun. We also talked to guy about snorkeling the following day. And fun fact, that Monday was my 2.5 year anniversary with Nathaniel J Can’t hardly believe it!

Tuesday we met up with some other people at the beach at 8:30 ready to snorkel and relax on a boat all day. We had booked a day on the water, 8:30-3:30, boating out to an island to snorkel, eating lunch and returning to the beach. It was beautiful out and after a few stops along the coastline at other beaches; we had 20 tourists on the boat ready to roll. At 9:30 our luck ended that day. It started to rain and only let up for about 45 minutes the whole day until 5pm. And 2 of our girls were still pretty sick. As I said, luck was not on our side. We spent the first 2ish hours of rain on the top of the boat with only 2 tarps to cover us and the couple sitting near us. It was us against the elements hahaha. It rained pretty hard for maybe 30-45 min at one point and we were all convinced it was going to start hailing and we were only wearing bikinis, light tank tops and short shorts. Oy. We arrived near the island and everyone jumped off with our goggles and breathing thingies. It was my first time ever snorkeling and my experience only added to the laughter. I am blind as a bat without my glasses and I don’t have contacts with me here in Kenya so as I put the goggles on, I was fully relying on my friends to watch out for me. They were nice and did keep an eye on me but guess how many fish I saw in the one hour of snorkeling? Now before I tell you, I did hit a PR (personal record) since it was my first time and maybe I could convince you that I tried to see that many so that the next time I go, I’ll also get a PR…but the number I saw? A whopping TWO. Hahahaha oh the ridiculousness of sitting on a boat in the pouring rain all day to see two fish was not lost on us and we laughed about it the whole way home as we continued to get wet. We did enjoy a lovely lunch prepared by two of the Tanzanian men, of a large fresh fish, a vegetable salad type thing, oranges and rice-quite good! The night ended with a big game of Farkle that Deirdre had brought and cold showers since the hot water was out haha.

Wednesday Caitlin and I got up early to run on the beach and it was fun and good since we didn’t feel scandalous this time. However, beach running is still one of those things that always seems cool at first and then it fastly loses the appeal in my opinion….and I am definitely getting worse at English since arriving here. It took me about 5 minutes and a few rereads of that last sentence to figure out what was wrong and realize that the word ‘fastly’ does not exist haha. We hung around Stone town, got some souvenirs and ate ice cream. I also learned while roaming around town that Freddy Mercury once lived in Zanibar and now there is a restaurant named after him and plaque on the door of the house he used to live in. The ferry left at 3:30 and guess what movie they played-the fact that one was playing at all was crazy already-but they played ‘The Italian Job’! My brother loves that movie so much and because of his love for it, I have seen it a million times and love it as well. I was the only one who had seen it and so since the volume was turned completely down, I became the narrarator for my friends. Normally I try to only do that for my students but since the ferry felt like it was flying (we took the fast one back that only takes 1.5 hours instead of 3) and we were all sort of feeling a little bit seasick, it actually took our minds off of the ferry ride and we enjoyed the first half of the movie. That evening we had bad luck again. We had seen a discount thing in a magazine for the city on our way through town a few days before and all of us were excited for the deal. It said if you came in as a table of 4 ladies on a Wednesday night, you would each get a free glass of wine and 20% off if you got an entrée. We were hooked. It ended up being about 15 minutes outside of the city but we sat down at our table and asked our waiter about the deal. He asked the manager and it was a no-go. He claimed it should’ve been taken away from the magazine a few years ago and that it was originally made for their restaurant but they moved a few months ago and the deal doesn’t exist anymore. Same restaurant-just a different location-and it was in the most recent magazine and yet, nothing. We ate there anyways since we had gotten a taxi there and there weren’t really any other restaurants around. After paying we decided it didn’t matter, we were going to dance in a club or bar and have fun. We walked across the street a club that PC/Tanzania had suggested and there was only a large screen playing futbol. No dancing. No music. No nothing. We weren’t going to give up just yet. We found a taxi and asked him to take us to the best club in the city and after talking it through with a few of his taxi friends, they all suggested the same place. We arrive and the person at the door says there is an 8000Tsh cover charge (about 400Kenyan shillings or a little less than $5) but it was only  Wednesday night and after we looked in we saw maybe 10 people in there…with slow chill music playing! No dancing to be had. So we went back to our hotel and passed out.

Thursday was my day to get sick. Thankfully no giardia but similar symptoms. We walked around the city for an hour as we waited for the Subway to open at 9am hahaha. We had our priorities. With Subway bags in our hands we climbed aboard yet another bus. It was 10:30am and we didn’t leave until 12:30…and didn’t stop for a restroom until 6:45pm. All I have to say is thank goodness for Pepto Bismol. We didn’t arrive in Arusha until midnight but our hotel reception was very thankfully awake and could let us in which was all we wanted and were worried about. We got a little less than 6 hours of sleep before waking up to get ready to ride another bus. This was the point where we split up. Deirdre and I went on a bus to Nairobi while Caitlin and Eva were going to Eastern Kenya so they opted for a different route. Smart move. Our bus left at 8 and was smooth sailing until we reached Nairobi. Even the border crossing was fine. We also rode the bus with a English guy who was in the midst of traveling from South Africa all the way up to Kenya/Uganda/Rwanda, pretty cool. Then we hit Nairobi. Freakin’ Nairobi. We sat in traffic for maybe an hour and a half-at 2pm-partly because there is ALWAYS traffic and partly because they are cracking down on foreigners and were doing random passport stops with everyone on certain roads. Nairobi is getting worse and the police are trying to crack down on things there. We got off the bus around 2:30ish, hopped in a taxi to take us to a matatu stage going towards Nakuru. We just couldn’t get enough of transportation this vacation ;) We hit traffic again going out to Nakuru which rarely happens and it ended up taking an hour longer to get there than usual.

Saturday was the last day of our travels. We got breakfast at one chain coffee house they have there and I treated myself for my Birthday that was in two days. I got a slice of warm apple pie, a mocha milkshake and a bagel with CREAM CHEESE! I don’t even think I ate cream cheese when I visited the USA last year for 2 weeks, which means it’s been over 1.5 years since I’ve eaten a bagel or cream cheese and it was amazing. Our waitress gave me a bit of a funny look bringing me pie and a milkshake at 9am but it was sooo worth it! We hit up the clothing piles next and Deirdre and I got some good deals/finds! She ended up with a bunch of cute dresses she can wear at school and I found a pair of hot pink corduroy trousers for only 500Bob ($5ish) as well as dark red trousers with black polka dots on them for the same price-whabam! And I’m not sure if my sisters know yet but recently I found one of my best finds yet-a pair of hot pink heels that are actually my size and were only 900Bob!! I’ve been on a search for these heels for years and I always think I’ve found them to bring them home and realize they are too small and I have to give them to my sisters. Well worry no more, they’ve been found J After shopping I left Nakuru and made it home at last. It felt so so so good to be back in Sipili.

That was one thing Deirdre and I talked about-how good it felt to back in Kenya. Yes, Tanzania and Kenya are neighboring countries and yes, they have many of the same tribes and speak Kiswahili, but they’re different and Kenya feels like home. It felt right.

That’s the end of my traveling story and here we are at the end of break. School officially starts on Wednesday, tomorrow, and the students will start slowly rolling back in. It is also the rainy season though it doesn’t feel like it as we are in deep need of rain. W have gotten two itsy bitsy sprinkles in the past 2 and a half weeks and we would really appreciate it if you guys would spread some of the rain love since according to Facebook pictures, it appears there is plenty on the east coast, USA right now. Thanks guys. The last thing is that this weekend I get to go to Nakuru where I will meet up with all of the Deaf Education volunteers and a counterpart from every school to start planning for Camp Uwezo. This will be my first year attending and I’m very excited to hear what it’s all about. All I know is that it is a Camp strictly for the Deaf and we will each bring 1-4 of our students to attend the Camp later in Term 2. It’s going to be great!

I’m sorry for this post being so long and I hope you are all off to a great start in May!!

Many kisses from Kenya,

Zabet

Ps. For any volunteers reading this past, present, future or if you want a glimpse in our lives, here is a funny link that is being spread around right now: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/26/signs-you-served-peace-corps_n_5023578.html

Mail Day

Today I got the mail. I know you all might be thinking, oh, hey, me too, but getting the mail is a bit different here. It’s an adventure in itself. During the school year the deputy principal checks the mailbox most Mondays and Thursdays. She’ll bring me the mail since she lives in Kinamba and it’s easy for her to check. However, during breaks, it’s up to me to go to Kinamba if I want mail during the month long break.

I woke up, checked my email, drank my 2 cups of hot delcious porridge and decided that I would check my mail today. It had been 15 days so I was hopeful there would be some to collect. At 9:30 in the morning I left my house and went to the matatu stage. Loud Kikuyu music was blasting from the matatu as I climbed in and sat next to an elderly lady on my right. I sat and waited on that matatu for one hour before we started to head out of town. We were already full but as we left town we kept stopping to pack more people in. I ended up with a 4 year little boy on my lap whose mother was 2 women to the left of me with her daughter on her lap. That is one thing I love about matatu rides here. If you have more than one child, you automatically just put them on whatever stranger has an available lap, no questions asked. We ride in bumpy silence for maybe two thirds of the way before the lady directly to my left looks at me and starts laughing. She apparently can’t hold it in any longer. She begins telling the mother that her boy is sitting on a mizungus lap and the mother starts laughing and tells her son. Her son we realized at that point, also hadn’t noticed he was on my lap yet because he had on one of those winter caps that has a pom pom on top, covers your ears and ties under your chin, thereby hindering his peripheral vision. He comically turns around very slowly and his eyes got very wide. He smiled with only his mouth and then slowly turned back around, unsure of what he wanted to do. He kept half turning back for the next 5 minutes to ever so slyly glance at me before he decided he was ok with sitting on my lap and went back to enjoying the ride. We arrive at Kinamba, only 8 kilometers away from Sipili, but 30 minutes later and tumble out like clowns stuffed in a Volkswagen. I walk to the Posta, only a 5-7min walk, and hear at least 15 ‘Hey mizungu!’s along the way. Thankfully when I got there postmaster Ann was able to retrieve my mail for me and hit me up with some stamps. She’s great; we’re on a name-to-name basis and she helps me out since I lost my mail key. So I’m happy with my mail and I head back to wait for another matatu. I am suddenly surrounded my men offering me a ride on their motorcycle (piki piki). I turn them all down, one because Peace Corps doesn’t allow us to ride them and two, because the boy who asked me the most looked to be only about 15 years old. Not someone I was willing to trust my life with just yet. Thankfully, I did’t have to wait too long at the stage. I had just finished telling them all my name and that I was from America as a matatu pulls up. Once again we are shoved in like sardines. It’s odd to think how normal this has become for me to have half my body squashed underneath the person sitting on either side of me like we’re pringles while someone else has their legs pushed in my back because I was stuck in the seat where there is no seat (aka the small open space that is where people walk to get to the back two rows but when the matatu is moving has a small wooden plank to sit on). I think one person got out at the Kinamba stop but 4 of us got in, including a man carrying a live chicken in a biscuit box. Yes, you read that right. Normally when people here carry chickens, they just have their legs tied together and then hold them on their laps or put them under the seat…which can cause much shock in a person when they move their legs and feel a flutter of feathers and a loud squawk in the middle of a journey. Nope, not this guy. He had this box that was a bit thinner and maybe an inch longer than your average shoebox, with twine tied around like a Christmas present and a little hole in the front where the chickens head poked out. Entertaining yet effective. We rode home with at least 5-6 people (1-2 kids were piled on top) in every row (of a normal, supposed to have 3 people in each row) van. We finally make it back to Sipili and after picking up some bananas, I was on my walk back home. I turn the corner where there is maybe 300 meters before I reach my school when this guy catches up with me. I thought he was one of the workers working on building the kitchen/dining hall when he started a conversation with me. He looked to be in high school but maybe he had just entered college and was on break? He asked my name, if I was American and if I worked at the school. Then he was out of questions. We make it to the school when he stops and I find out he isn’t a worker. He wants my contact info. I told him I didn’t have a phone. He says he wants us to be together. I tell him sorry, I’m married. He says he needs me. He wants me. Literally all I know about him is his first name. I tell him sorry. He looks at me and tells me that if I find any other white Americans who are looking for a husband to find him and he’ll be their guy. I nod and say ok. It’s now noon, I left my house 2.5 hours earlier and now one thing can be checked off for my day: get mail. J What a morning.

It’s weird to think about how easy it is to get mail or even stamps in the U.S. If I want my mail here, I either have to travel to Kinamba or wait for my deputy to bring it. If I want to mail something, I have to remember to buy my stamps when I go to Nyahururu. I can give mail to my deputy to send but only if they’re pre-stamped because by the time she makes it back to Kinamba at night, the post is closed. The Kinamba Posta is open only Mondays-Fridays, 9-5 with a lunch break of an hour or hour and a half. So going during the school year is pretty much impossible. Then in Nyahururu I can buy stamps but the Posta is closed on Sundays as usual and on Saturdays they are only open from 9-12.

I’m not writing this for sympathy or to make you feel bad for having your mailbox so close or whatever, I just wanted to tell you about my mail day. I find it interesting how different little things can be sometimes between here and in America. The big things are easy to notice and hear about like the food, or transportation or the weather but it’s the little things and way of living that I find intriguing. If you would’ve told me before I came to Kenya that it would take me a good part of my morning to get the mail, I’d have told you, you’re crazy. And yeah, sometimes the ways things take time can feel bothersome but it’s what needs to happen and it’s the way things go so you just gotta roll with it J I wish you all a happy Tuesday and mail day! I’d also like to wish you a Happy (almost) Easter, a Happy (almost) Earth Day next Tuesday and a Happy (almost) World Malaria Awareness Day on the 25^th of April!

Many Kisses from Kenya,

Elizabeth

A Sheep, a Rat and an Umbrella

Hello Hello Everyone!

    It’s high time I filled you all in on the latest happenings here in Sipili and I hope that you are all doing fabulously this fine April day. Ok, so first off, I wanted to tell you all that the walk has been postponed. There were many things that came into making the decision but it was decided that it would be best to postpone it and now we are hoping to do it in May. And it really has to be done in May if I’m going to have enough time to fill out the grant so fingers crossed it all works out!! It’s good that we have the majority of the leg work done and we mainly just need to work on raising more awareness and fine tuning some details.

   School has officially ended for Term 1 and I am on break! On our last day, Wednesday, our headmaster bought a sheep to celebrate a great term. He brought in a little basket on the back of his motorcycle, how most animals here are carried long distances, and we ate it and it was great! He, along with a few of the students and the cook, did all of the slaughtering while all of the students watched. It was really neat at one point when all of the innards were out and he did a science lesson. I mean it was a bit more ‘practical’ than most anatomy lessons I’ve heard/seen but overall good. At one point he was blowing into the ventricle of the heart so the students could watch it rise and fall and then one of the students got a chance to do it too. It was still bloody, veryyyy fresh and not cleaned at all but they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. They cooked it and we ate it with ugali for lunch. Then later that evening the boys housemother knocked on my door with some more sheep for me to try. I looked under the plate and basically saw the skull and then dropped my jaw. Hahaha nah but it was not what I was expecting when she asked if I wanted some more meat to eat. She then cut me off a piece of the tongue which was a fetching color of recent death but was surprisingly sweet. Then she cut me off a piece of the head which was pretty good considering I was eating it while staring at the head of an animal I’d just heard baa-ing a few hours earlier hahaha oh man. It was an interesting but tasty day.

Here’s a short story for you all: So a few days ago I woke up and went into my kitchen and found things strewn about. My spice bottles were knocked over, a cup was on the ground, the plastic bags I buy my eggs in were everywhere-basically, it was not the way I left it the night before. I didn’t want to admit it but I knew it was one of three things: a lizard/gecko, an unusually giant bug or a mouse/rat. Seeing as I’ve only seen super sized bugs on the coast, I figured it probably wasn’t one of those (thankfully!) and it had been colder that day and I hadn’t seen many lizards so I’m doubting it was one of those. I start questioning where this mouse is…is it in my bed? Is it on my head? Is it on the chair? Did he come in as a dare? Oh man, I didn’t know. I knew how it had gotten in because there is a water pipe leading from the outside to my bathroom to my kitchen and then through my wall to the boys dormitory bathroom and they made the hole for the pipe a bit larger than it needed to be….big enough for a small mouse/rat to easily climb through. I needed a plan. I knew I wasn’t going to get a cat like some volunteers do when they have rat problems, because, well, then I’d have a cat problem seeing as I don’t like cats at all. So I scratched that idea. Then I decided to attempt to nail 3 pieces of cardboard to the wall. Well, my nailing skills are pretty awful and every time I’d think I had a piece up and start on the next one, the first one would fall down. I decided to just cram the cardboard into the hole. I’m pleased with myself at this point with my genius idea. I go sit down at my computer and start watching Friends when after an episode or two, I hear the sound of gnawing and cardboard being eaten. I look up and see the bug spray and start spraying the cardboard like it’s nobodys business. I feel like that’ll do it but I’m not as sure anymore since my first plan was such a bust. That’s when I came up with my last and final plan. I made maybe 8 trips out my door to find rocks and started piling them up in the corner to block the water pipe hole. I felt like a really bad architect because I ended up redoing the pile at least 4 or 5 times cause it kept falling down or it wouldn’t go high enough to actually serve a purpose. But I won in the end because the tower is built, the bug sprayed cardboard is still intact and there are rocks on either side so no little mouse can get into my house…at least through that entrance. Whabam! Peace Corped!

Speaking of buildings and how they’re built, kind of at least, there is a new being built on our school compound. The nice Italian man who sponsors our school in various ways with his church from back in Italy has sponsored our school to have a new kitchen and dining hall built. We don’t have a dining hall now and our kitchen is pretty old so this is fantastic. It’s also pretty cool for me to watch. I’ve seen plenty of buildings being built, but only when passing by. This is the first time I’m seeing a building start from scratch and I get to see the progress every single day. I just find it interesting to watch.

This break I’m very excited for my little vacation I’m taking with 2 friends. In a few weeks I’m heading down to Zanzibar with 2 girls from my group for the week. Well we’ll be on a bus for 16hours on two of those days plus an hour and a half long ferry ride to get there but I’m crossing my fingers for beautiful scenery along the way. I’m not really sure what we’re doing/where we’re going on the island but exploring and beach-going at the two main things. It’s going to be fabulous J While I’m not in traveling, I’ll be hanging around my town just doing whatever. I hope to do some arts and crafts, puzzles, hang out with MC and his family and read a lot. And speaking of arts and crafts, the other day I started and completed my first project. I bought an umbrella in Nyahururu and made a skirt! I cut off all of the fabric from the wiring. Then I spent maybe a half hour attempting to follow the direction I found on wikiHow on how to make an umbrella skirt but I couldn’t figure it out so I just cut up all the pieces and sewed them back together. There is a drawstring and a tiny button at the top and it goes to my knees. I’m excited because I’ve wanted to make one for a while now but never got around to it until now. And the cool part is that it doesn’t look like it used to be an umbrella, you can really only tell when you feel the fabric or hear it swish when I walk. I love it and I would suggest anyone of you trying it if you are looking for a fun pretty easy project or if you just want a new skirt. And the best part is that I only paid 300shillings for the umbrella and 25shillings for the thread, which equals about 4ish dollars for a skirt!! I got an umbrella-ella-ella-ey-ey-ey!

Lastly, I would like to give a HUGE shout out to Angie and the 8^th graders at Swift Middle School!!! In case any of you were unable to make it last Friday evening, there was a big poetry blow-out! I missed it sadly, but I heard there was poetry you could look at and walk by to read as well as a poetry concert where poetry was made into songs and read aloud. They raised money through donations and all of the money is going to help our school raise money for a bus!!!!! Once the grant is on the Peace Corps website then the money will go onto it as the grants money is raised strictly from overseas donations and so now we are a good chunk along the way! Thank you to everyone who was able to attend and donate and give their blessings!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!

Well that’s about all I can think of right now but I think you should all write me an update with what’s going on in your lives! I’ll even give you my address again in case some of you forgot J

Elizabeth Linde

Sipili School for the Deaf

Box 199

Kinamba-20320

KENYA babyyyyy!

Kisses from Kenya,

Zabet

Walk for a Bus Intro

Hello Friends and Family!

It’s been a while since I’ve written and I wanted to update you all on my latest project! For the past term a counterpart and I have been working on a fundraising idea for our school. We want to raise money to purchase a vehicle, yow-zah!!

We are planning to do a walk across the county to raise awareness of our school and raise money from individuals and companies across the way for a vehicle. Sipili School for the Deaf is the only school for the Deaf in Laikipia County and we want people to know who we are. We will be walking from the town of Nanyuki, 240 km, along the main highway to Sipili town. There will be 16 learners, 2-3 co-teachers and a few volunteers as well as myself. We will be walking between 35 and 40 km a day and sleeping at various schools along the way. It will be the experience of a lifetime to say the least! We are hoping to raise a fair amount of money locally so that we can apply for a Peace Corps Grant soon after the walk using the money we raised as our 25% community contribution. It is a large undertaking and I’m hoping it works out. I will definitely let you all know how the walk goes in a few weeks when we've completed it and gotten the contributions!

Our students are such visual learners but it can be so tough to take them places and see parts of Kenya. They have heard about lots of places and things but have hardly seen them. They often only see the school compound and their homes but rarely get the chance to see things outside of those two places. We are lucky to be heading to Games this April that will be taking place at Muranga School for the Deaf. The students have been working hard at practice and I think they are much better prepared for Games this year than last year.

We have one full week of school left although we will be busy getting things ready for the walk and Games. I can’t believe how fast time has been flying by. We have a week of school; a week for the walk and then on the 2^nd of April, school officially closes. The students who will proceed to Games will stay at school and then head to Nanyuki for counties before Regionals in Muranga. And then before we know it, it’ll be mid-April and break will be in full swing! Bring on relaxing summer days in the rainy season J

Hope everything is going well for all of you in the States!

Kisses from Kenya,

Zabet

A Field Trip and More!

Happy Valentines Day Eve to All my Friends and Family J

I hope everyone is doing well and chowing down on chocolate and sweets for me! A fair amount has happened in the past little bit since I last blogged  that I wanted to share but it is all pretty random so get ready.

Let me start with the field trip I went on two Thursdays ago. In one word it was: surreal. I was lucky and got to go on the trip with all of Classes 7 & 8 as well as 2 other teachers because of a last minute change with another teacher who couldn’t make it. I was told at 7:15 that morning…they had told me they were hoping to leave at 7 when I’d talked to them the day before. I changed in a hurry and we left an hour and half later. J  We arrived at Mugie Ranch in the bus that had picked us up and started seeing animals! We started our morning seeing a herd of impalas, graceful animals! We also saw a few giraffes far off in the distance and then we saw an animal that made me ecstatic! We drove pretty close to maybe 10 elephants including a baby!! It was fantastic! I can now say I saw elephants-plural! Whoop whoop! We kept traveling on and lucked out hardcore. Our guide tracked the lions to a dead buffalo, which we learned the lions had killed the night before. We drove around the area for maybe 20 min since they knew the lions would be close and we were lucky because we got to see lions!!! Before that I had only seen a lions ears at the Maasi Mara but on the field trip, the kiddos and I got to see a mama and papa lion. It felt so crazy to be so close, not be in a zoo, just checking out the king of the jungle! The guide told us there were actually 14 lions (2 males, 6 females & 6 cubs). They killed the buffalo the night before and were relaxing-they rest and don’t eat for 20 hours before going back for seconds. My mom told me this is the newest diet fad in the USA-I don’t know how people or lions do it. After that we saw some buffalos that were alive, a zebra, more impalas, some cool birds and waterbuck. After seeing the animals, we sat down for our packed lunch before moving on to visit the tracking dogs. They have quite a few dogs at the Ranch who have been trained to track poachers and they’re really good at it. They showed us how the dogs do it and had one of our girls hide somewhere a bit off the beaten road and pretty quickly, the dog found her. The students were very impressed and had a great time there. Lastly, we visited the farm on the ranch where they grow miraa. It’s a large debate right now whether miraa is a drug or a medicine but they let our students taste a little bit. Yep, this was definitely not an American field trip. It was a fun day and the kids had a great time and learned a lot. They were looking out the windows the entire time and practicing the signs of all the animals, it was fabulous! J

So funny story, the next day we got rain for the first time in probably a month or so. It was a bit cooler-perfect running weather-I’d venture to guess high 60s or maybe low 70s. I was out on my run, turned the bend and saw a 7 year old decked out in a…wait for it…snow suit!!! Hahahaha it cracked me up. He had the zipper pulled up and boots on and everything. I instantly thought of you all in ‘Merica living in below 30 degree weather all winter and constant snow-especially this year-and yet, Kenyans and Americans alike are dressed in snow suits…even with the 50-60-70 degree difference J

And speaking of the crazy weather in America, I saw a lot of people’s statuses on FB about power outages recently. I am sorry to hear about them-particularly for those with who it affects their heat-that just sounds awful! I cant fathom the snow and cold right now and not having heat during it does sound pretty bad-hats off to those who survived without the heat. But it was interesting hearing about it on my computer while my electricity flickered on and off and had been completely off the night before. I am one of the lucky ones here who has electricity but even with it, it still goes out at least once/week-sometimes more. And there are volunteers living along with many Kenyans without any electricity at all or running water. I don’t know, before I came here I very easily could’ve posted the same status but after living here with random electricity, running water that sometimes doesn’t run and no refrigerator or any other kitchen appliances except a gas stove, it makes me rethink things.

Ok another note, happy Olympics to everyone! So far in the Kenyan paper, there has been 2 articles about it. One was about the conditions in Sochi without any mention about the actual athletic events. The second one appeared today about Shaun White getting 4^th and it being a big shock. Funny. Usually all I read about in the Sports section is about futbol, rugby, maybe golf and athletics. Kenyans are getting ready for the big XC meet in Kampala, Uganda next month and it has been all the talk.

Last Monday-Wednesday I was in Nairobi for a routine medical check up that we all have to get halfway through service-all is good, no worries. And it was fun because I got to hang out with 2 other Deaf Ed girls and I will get to see them as well as the rest of the Deaf Education people this weekend! We haven’t all been together since last April for training. There are only 7 of us left in Deaf Ed but I’m very excited!

It was crazy when I came back to school on Wednesday afternoon and found out there were 2 new changes. We had gained a new little girl and a new teacher! Say what?! I had met her 1 week ago but it sounded like she wouldn’t be back to start for a month, alas, she started teaching today. She is going to teach the littlest munchkins because there are now probably around 15 in the one class so now they’ll be able to split it into two classes -much more manageable since all of those kids are at such different levels! I think it will be a good thing for our school to add another teachers. We are now more balanced with female/male teachers at 4 and 5 respectively and she taught at a school for the Deaf somewhere else in Kenya for a while before coming here. I’m excited to get to know her. It makes me laugh at the speed of things here. I think they go at one of two speeds. Things happen at either the leisurely speed that Kenyans walk-a.k.a.-‘Kenyan Time’ or they happen at the speed of Kenyan athletes a.k.a. ‘World Record Pace’. Developments in town like a new building or a new teacher can happen so fast but then sometimes just opening an account or mailing a letter can take days upon days. It’s peculiar.

Today we had exciting news. We had visitors from the Kenya Power branch in Nyahururu (1 hr&30 min away) come to our school today. They talked to our headmaster for a while and then the older students performed a song then dance for them. The cool part was that they donated quite a few new mattresses, maybe between 60 and 75 I’d guess, as well as mosquito nets and some blankets! It was like Christmas come early for our kids. They were very excited!! 

And two short things that you may have read before if you have FB and saw my statuses but I find them funny and wanted to share them again J

A week or two ago, after much giggling, I found out that the question some of my Class 6 & 7 girls were wondering was if my poop is yellow or white cause theirs is brown. Tis a good question. I love living and working with primary school kids J

Today I was told I pronounce Pennsylvania wrong. By a Kenyan counterpart…who has never been to the United States of America.

Hope you enjoyed the post and I hope you feel extra loved tomorrow J

Sending lots of pink kisses from Kenya!

Elizabeth