An Ex-Pat Halloween (Week 8)

Week 8 of the term was packed with lab activities for my students. I think all my poster making and lab activity flaunting in the staff room has finally started to pay off because one of the other biology teachers came to me and wanted to plan a fairly complicated lab activity with the students. I was really excited by this, so this week we had all the form 2 students dissect a liver (which we just finished studying) lungs (studied them last term) and then tested the tissue for the presence and concentration of catalase (enzyme) by placing them in hydrogen peroxide and watching the catalase do its magic as it changes the hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water. The next day in class we discussed the practical as a class and it was one of the first times that my students have really been able to synthesize their observations into biological conclusions and I was so happy to see their critical thinking skills improving. Then, after a long week of teaching, practicals and secondary project work, I headed to Kisumu to celebrate Halloween with a bunch of PCVs and some other ex-pat friends who are in the area. It wasn't all fun and games though, I did do some work on the sessions that I am going to be teaching at the new education groups training when I head back to Loitokitok in a few weeks, but more on that later. Here are some pictures from the halloween party, Mike and I dressed up as the Green Monkey from the Nickeloden tv show Legends of the Hidden Temple, and if you don't get the reference to one of the best shows of my childhood than I don't know if we can be friends. Mike and I actually won the costume contest at the party!

Happy Halloween

Jenny in her Jack-O-Lantern costume that she sewed herself!

Jenny, Me and Whitney the cavewoman

Green Monkeys! We're going to take the grand prize and go to SPACE CAMP!
(big shout out to Whitney for drawing our monkeys and making the lovely medallions that will save us from the temple gaurds)

Neil as a mzungu (white person/tourist), Rich, Amber the flapper and the jack-o-lantern

Week 7: Teacher on Duty

Every week there is a “teacher on duty” or TOD. The TOD is responsible for all the activities at the school for that week, including supervising preps, manual work and being responsible for disciplining any students who are caught breaking the rules during the week. This means that the TOD gets to wake up at 4am and make sure the students are in morning preps on time and then staying late into the evening until the students go to sleep at 10pm. It’s a lot of responsibility and no teacher likes to be the teacher on duty. This week was my week to be the TOD and it left me exhausted every evening when I finally got home. I had some issues with caning on Monday, a number of teachers were caning students for various reasons and it was just too much for me to handle so I had to go home for the day and try to calm down, we had a staff meeting that evening where I was able to bring up the issues that I continue to have with how caning is used in the school as a form of discipline. I understand that caning is deeply ingrained in the culture here and I know its not going to go away over night but together as a staff we were able to make some progress toward moving away from caning as a first live of punishment. We also decided that next week the Guidance and Counseling department will meet with the entire school to come up with alternative forms of punishments and then the discipline committee is going to meet and come up with guideline of what punishments should be administered for the various rules when they are broken by a student. This will give the TOD a clear guideline of how to discipline the students which will making being TOD easier and it will also provide some consistency in the punishments which our school is currently lacking. So, although Monday was a fairly traumatizing day for me, I think a lot of good was able to come out of it. Wednesday was a holiday: Kenyatta Day. So there were no classes after 10:30 and the students went to the field to play volleyball, football, handball, netball and the rest of the students played with the frisbees that my parents had brought them. It was fun to be out in the field with the students and it was also nice to see the students getting a break from the usual demanding class schedule. There are only about 3 more weeks of classes left in the term and that has put stress on the staff and the students to get through the remainder of the syllabus before school ends for the year. This week in my form 2 class we dissected a kidney and the students worked in groups and presented on the various kidney diseases, both of these activities turned out really well and I continue to be amazed at the change that I see in my students from how they were when I first arrived. Their public speaking skills have really improved and I can tell that they are more confident when they stand in front of the class, this is one of my small victories that I cherish. Now it's the weekend and I am off to meet with the LALMBA association. The director of LALMBA is in the country and 2 American volunteers just arrived at their clinic so I am going to go and welcome them to the area and talk about ways we can collaborate on projects in the future. Here are some pictures from our weekly Guidance and Counseling sessions that are held on Wednesdays, some pictures are from when Diana, a form 3 student, presented on drugs and drug abuse and some are from when Mr Mugesani, the assistant to me in the Guidance and Counseling department, talked about decision making. I also included some pictures of how I spent last weekend - washing all my clothes, and of the second scorpion friend that I have found in my house. Enjoy!

Term 3 cont.

Week 4: Girls Education

During the week a Girls Education meeting was held by the Nyanza Womens Group for Girl Child Education. All the schools in the district brought their female students to St. Gemma Girls' Secondary School. A number of important guests were in attendance and gave speeches to the girls encouraging them to stay in school, to achieve in the sciences and to put their education before marriage. The District Education Officer (DEO) gave a speech during which he said "Marriage before career is slavery". He said the same thing when he visited Bande, but I just love that quote. This sentiment may not be true for women in the States, but it is definitely true for women here. If a woman is not educated and has no way to support herself than she is totally dependent on her husband. This can mean she has to ask permission to leave the house, has to ask for money to buy even the most basic things and in essence, becomes a slave to her husband. This can put the woman into a situation where she is abused but has no resources to leave her husband. Or in a country where the HIV rate is about 8%, if her husband dies, she has no way to support herself or her children. There were also a number of important female business women who came from Nairobi who spoke at the event including the manager of the Kenya Literature Bureau (the company that prints all the text books in Kenya) who is from Nyanza. The whole day was inspiring and the students really enjoyed hearing from all these important people who encouraged them to do well and made them feel like people care about them and their future.

Week 5: World Vision / Ruma

When I first came to Bande I asked the principal what the major issues facing the students was and one of the things that she told me was that the students have an extremely hard time buying sanitary pads and this can lead them to use unsanitary measures during their period or they simply do not attend class when they have their period. In the worst case scenario, female students will go to extreme measures to try and earn money to buy pads, which does not exclude sleeping with men for money. So, since that time I have been working to try and get reusable pads donated to the school to help with this problem. This week all my hard work paid off when World Vision came to my school and brought 50 packs of reusable pads for my students. The students who received the pads were a list that my principal put together of the 50 girls who could use them the most. The students were so grateful and happy to receive the pads and I was so touched by the thank you speeches they gave. The students talked about what a huge difference this is going to make in their lives and what a relief it is to them that they no longer have to worry about how they will buy pads every month. There was also a form 4 (12th grade) students who talked about what a big difference this is going to make for her when she takes the KCSE, the national exam that starts in a few weeks, because now she will be able to focus on the exam instead of how to attend to her period. The whole day made me really happy and also reminded me of all the little things that we take for granted in the States. Here are some pictures from the day: The representatives from World Vision talking to the students, a student giving a thank you speech, me with the students and then a group picture (not all of the students who received pads were in the picture).






Over the weekend I went to Ruma National Park with Chris, Dom and Mike. Ruma NP is the only major NP in Nyanza and it is known for the herds of Roan antelope that can only be seen here. The park is outside of Homa Bay and we had some difficulties getting out there, but when we finally made it, it was so worth the trouble! We camped in the park which was absolutely beautiful and it was so much fun to go camping again, I don't think I realized how much I missed camping until we went. We had a good time trying to get a fire started and finally had to get help from one of the KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) employees. The view from the camp site was amazing and it was nice to relax, hang out and drink some wine with friends. In the morning we set off walking in the park, we saw giraffe and a ton of Roan but on our way back to the campsite we were intercepted by some KWS officers who informed us that walking in the park is illegal... oops. So they drove us back to the campsite and oversaw our packing up of camp and then us leaving the park, but at least we didn't get a fine (or arrested as Dom suggested to the KWS officer). The whole weekend was a blast and it was a nice break from the school routine. Some pictures from the park:


















Week 6: Stima! + prayer day

I GOT STIMA (electricity) IN MY HOUSE!!!!! After months of being told that electricity was coming to the school, it finally happened. The classrooms, staffroom lab and the dorms were all wired about a week ago but it took longer to get all the houses on the school compound hooked up. When I signed up for Peace Corps I never expected to have electricity in my house, but now that I have it I am so happy! It is so nice to be able to charge my phone and computer anytime I need to, instead of having to rely on the solar panels at the school. It has made it so much easier to do work on my computer which has made me more productive and more connected to the outside world. It also means that I stay up later since I have light to cook and read by, and its a lot easier to flip a light switch rather than lighting a lantern every night. The power still goes out fairly often so I'm not getting rid of my lantern and candles, but electricity is AMAZING! Here are some pictures of the demolition (kind of) that went on to wire the house and my new outlets and light bulbs in my house. It may not be as exciting for those of you at home but I can tell you that many a PCV over here is now jealous of me!







Sunday the school held a “prayer day” for the form 4s in preparation for the start of the KCSE. The KCSE is the national exam that students take at the end of form 4 and covers all the subjects that students have studied and all the material the students have covered from form 1 all the way to form 4. The exam is given over two weeks and the results basically determine the rest of the students life. The scores are used to determine entrance into universities, colleges, technical colleges and are also used for hiring in all job positions. Even when a Kenyan is in their 40’s and applying for a job they still have to provide their KCSE score and many job openings give a minimum grade that applicants have to have obtained in order to be eligible. So, you know, no pressure or anything. I really don’t think there is any way that I could have passed an exam like the KCSE, the exams are hours long and many subjects have multiple papers and each one takes hours to complete. For example, in biology there are three different papers, or exams, that make up the total biology exam. The first paper is all short answer, the second paper has graph questions and essays and the third paper is the practical paper where the student is given a lab experiment that they have to carry out and then answer questions about, its a tough exam to say the least. I do not envy the students who have to take the KCSE. Prayer day was a chance for the parents of the form 4s to come and pray that the students perform well in their exams. All of the teachers and students attended the event and the form 4s performed a number of songs and parents and guests gave speeches of encouragement to the form 4s. Here are some pictures from the event:

Term 3

I haven't written in a long time and for that I apologize, so here are some updates on what I've been doing in the term so far, and there will be more to come.

Week 1: Parents visit!

My parents were here for the first week of school, they were able to meet my staff, students and see my lovely house! They were real troopers and barely complained about the facilities. My parents visited all of my classes to talk with the students and also brought a Frisbee for each class that they can use during their PE classes. We had a fun time playing Frisbee with the neighbor kids (that is, until I rolled my ankle swinging the little boy around). It was great being able to show my parents where I live and work, it makes it so much easier for them to understand what my life is like here, which helps me out since it is so hard to describe my experience here. Other highlights of their trip to Bande: washing clothes by hand, making guacamole for my staff – which they loved, and seeing the fishing boats on the lake at night lit up by their lanterns.

Here's a picture of my parents on the bus back to Nairobi to catch their flight. I think I wore them out!




Week 2: Nairobi

After taking my parents to Nairobi and to the airport for their long long long flight home, I had to stay around because of my sprained ankle… RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation) is not easy to accomplish when you live in remote Kenya – I can’t exactly not walk or not stand when I’m at my school, especially if I want to buy food from the market or do my job and I have yet to see an ice machine in my village. So, Nairobi it was until my ankle got better. I did some physical therapy which helped, got a brace and then headed back to school.

Week 3: Catch-up

I spent the week grading exams and calculating grades for my students, catch-up from when I was gone in Nairobi when the opening exams for the term were taking place. Saturday the school was host to a large Christian youth rally with over 20 schools in attendance. Each school's choir performed a few songs and guests from all the churches in the area came and gave speeches to the students. Chris came for the day and after the main sermon of the event Chris and I headed to Migori for good food, good internet connection and to stock up on necessities from the grocery store. Here are some pictures from the event: