Science is FUN!

In my form 2 class we are currently studying gaseous exchange. Last week we learned about the respiratory system in insects and after talking in class about spiracles we went out into the field and caught grasshoppers so the students could observe the spiracles in action. This week we learned about gaseous exchange in fish and in amphibians. So we did a lab where the students cut out the gills of fish to observe them and we also went on a "frog safari" where we caught frogs so we could observe them breathing (mostly the movement of the buccal cavity). Here are some pictures, proof that science in fun!

On our "frog safari" we were able to catch a few frogs and the girls got to observe the way the floor for the frogs mouth moves up and down to facilitate inhalation and exhalation.

Prime "frog safari" terrain was around the taps from the water storage tanks

Giving notes to the class about gaseous exchange in fish after our gill observation lab

Students in my class taking notes

The girls in the lab awaiting the lab instructions. These are my form 2 students, you may notice Diana, an albino student who joined Bande Girls' this year. I'll be talking more about her in an upcoming blog.
Outside the lab, looking in
Showing my students where the operculum is located and how to remove it to expose the gills

Observing the gills in water to see how the differ than when observed out of the water

Identifying the gill bar, gill rakers and gill filaments with Maureen.
Yum Samaki (fish)

Checking to see if the skin of frogs is really moist and thin like I told them it was for gaseous exchange to take place
Frog safari success!
Observing the gills
Finding the operculum and counting the number of gills

Getting ready for the fish lab

Kenya Education Fund

When I came to my school one of the first things that I did was to ask my principal about the main challenges that the school and the students face. The very first thing that she told me was school fees. In Kenya, primary school education is free, but secondary education is only minimally subsidized. This means that many students are not able to access a secondary education. It is even harder for girls to access secondary education due to the cultural institutions which place an emphasis on educating boys, while girls are often seen as merely future dowry opportunities for the family. Girls’ education has recently become a priority of the national government but the funding is lacking to make an impact at the local level for girls education. In Nyanza province, where my school is located, especially in areas in close proximity to Lake Victoria, the issues of poverty and high prevalence of HIV/AIDS compounds the issue of education. Families often struggle to put food on the table and as a result education becomes a luxury. Families often also suffer the death of the main income generator in the family which forces them into further poverty or forces them to become dependent on extended family members. The students at my school often dependent on extended family members to pay their schools fees and when this person dies they are once again forced to drop out of school. A students ability to concentrate in the classroom is greatly affected by the anxiety of not knowing where their school fees will come from, if their families are eating or if their parents are going to live through the next year

In an effort to help my students with the challenge of school fees, I helped a handful of my neediest students apply for a scholarship through the Kenya Education Fund. Out of the girls that applied 3 were chosen for full sponsorship. Kenya Education Fund is a nonprofit organization that supports needy students in Kenya. Through donors in America it provides students with a full scholarship for their secondary education. Please check out their website www.kenyaeducationfund.org They are doing amazing work in Kenya and if you feel so inclined, you can donate through their website. You can even specify that you would like your donations to go to Bande Girls' School students and your donations are tax deductible.

The three girls who are now sponsored by KEF were invited to Kisumu last weekend for a workshop where they learned about leadership, entrepreneurship, how to succeed in their studies and a number of other topics. I went with the students and they were beyond excited to go and visit "the big city" and also to meet the other KEF students. They had a great time and it was such an amazing feeling to see these girls be inspired to continue with their education. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Viviance, Margaret and Salome at the conference.

The students and I with the director of KEF, Brad who was also a PCV here in Kenya

After a long day of workshop sessions, a visit to Lake Victoria and a trip to Nakumatt

Kenya Education Fund!!!!
When we got to Kisumu I took the girls to the shore of Lake Victoria and treated them to some sodas

We also visited the Jomo Kenyatta Grounds in Kisumu and explored the "big city"

The Many Contrasts of Kenya

There are numerous dichotomies here in Kenya. Some are small, some are glaring, some are comical while others are depressing. On my walk to the village this morning, to buy my weekly supply of veggies, I was struck by the many contrasts that I experience and observe here, especially the contrasts that are seemingly illogical. I ran through a list of these contrasts in my head:

-Using my laptop, but by candlelight, because my house doesn’t have power
-The joy of seeing my students learn and the horror of seeing them be caned
-Washing my clothes by hand but cooking with a gas cylinder burner
-The majority of Kenyans owning cell phones but lacking the income to pay school fees
-The Kenyans walking everywhere many without shoes while my principal drives her own car
-The fact that I learned to cook things like coconut curry and spaghetti sauce from scratch in a kitchen without a refrigerator or oven
-The luxury safari lodges and the makuti (palm leaf thatch) roofed houses in the village
-The wealth of Kenyan politicians and the squalor of Nairobi slums
-Eating sukuma wiki (kale) and ugali every day in the village and eating sushi, pizza and burgers in Nairobi
-Women in bui-buis and the outfits of prostitutes on the streets
-The connections of phone calls and emails to America and the isolation of living here

Kenya is an incredibly complicated country, as the dichotomies above illustrate. It is caught somewhere in between a third world country and a developed nation. There are incredibly motivated and educated individuals who are working for change in the country, but problems like impunity and corruption are still crippling the countries future. The population is aware of the standard of living in westernized countries and many strive to attain this is level of affluence while others fear the loss of Kenya's rich culture. It is an amazingly beautiful country with a multitude of natural resources, and after being here for the last year and a half, I have nothing but hope for Kenya's future.

My Peace Corps Experience By the Numbers

Just a quick, and hopefully fun, update for everyone back home.

An overview of my Peace Corps experience by the numbers:

Months in country: 19
Months left in service: 6
Christmases spent away from home: 2
Books read: 65
Scorpions found in my house: 2
Dead bats found in my house: 8
Classes taught per week: 25-30
Average class size: 45
Students at Bande Girls' Sec. School: 300+
Teachers at Bande Girls' Sec. School: 16
Teachers who have been at Bande longer than me: 4
Average wake up time: 6:30am
Average bed time: 10pm
Bouts of giardia and dysentery: 4
Malaria "scares": 1
Phones owned: 3
Languages spoken in a day: 3 (English, Kiswahili, Luo)
Kilometers to my village from school: .5
Hours to nearest paved road: 2
Proposals from Kenyan men: countless
Trips out of Kenya: 2 (Uganda and Europe)
Time spent having not a clue what is going on, especially when traveling: ~80%
New Cooking Skills Acquired: numerous
Electronics "sacrificed": 4
Times that the personal property insurance paid off: 2
Grad School Apps in progress: 3

Hopefully I'll be adding to the books read in the next 6 months. I have set a goal of reading 100 before I leave. That's what happens when you don't have electricity in your house and desperately need entertainment. Thanks for reading!

Adventures Out of Africa

After a year a half in Kenya, I finally got OUT OF AFRICA! During the August school holiday I left my small village in the middle of nowhere and headed to Barcelona. I got to meet up with Cydney and Courtney. We had a whirlwind adventure through Spain, Greece and Italy. I will write more about our travels later but here are some pictures to start.


Besties back together again! - some airport or train station


Starbucks! First time in 18 months! This is the same face I made when I saw Subway and McDonalds (very embarassing for Cyd and Court) - Barcelona, Spain


The Parthenon - AthensVatican City
La Sagrada Familia - Barcelona, Spain
Beach by Cydney's house - Spain

3C Reunion, our first night back together, celebrating on the beach in Barcelona with sangria - Spain



Trevi Fountain - Roma

The Colosseum - Roma

Leaning Tower - Pisa

Patron Saint celebration - Spain


At Cyd's apartment in Roquetas del Mar getting ready for our dinner out generously funded by Mama Boyer - Spain

Hell's Gate

After school closed for April holiday I was able to travel to Naivasha to meet up with some PCV friends and explore Hell's Gate National Park. Hell's Gate is unique because you can ride bikes through the park (or walk if you want), which means you are very close to all the animals. We rode around the park from 9am to 6pm and saw lots of zebra, including baby zebra, baboons, buffalo, warthogs and lots of impala. We rode out bikes for a few hours, during which time we decided on a bike gang name of Hell's Munchkins, to reach the gorge at the other side of the park and hiked through the gorge for a few hours. The gorge is absolutely beautiful, it has been shaped by volcanic activity and more recently by a river that flows when the rains are heavy. When you walk through the gorge the guides warn you about flash floods and they point of the "emergency exits" that take you to higher ground in case a flash flood is coming. The only downside to the day was that I had been really sick the week before so I hadn't eaten solid food in about 5 days and the biking left me utterly exhausted. But, it was totally worth the effort to see everything that we did that day. After Hell's Gate I headed to Nairobi for a few weeks to do some work in the office writing an annual stake holders report for the education project and then to see a physical therapist for my shoulder (which is doing ok, but washing clothes, carrying water and riding public transport make it very aggravated so it's nice to get some PT when I can). Then it's vacation time and I'm headed to SPAIN to meet up with Cydney and Courtney! YAY!

Here are pictures from our Hell's Gate adventure.

Science Congress 2011

This month was the zonal and district science congress competitions, and this year Bande Girls’ had 7 projects that competed at the zonal level. Of these 7 projects, 6 were chosen to continue and compete at the district competition. Because of this impressive showing Bande placed 2nd out of all the schools who competed at zonals this year. I was extremely impressed with the students work and the experience was beneficial to their education, especially in their development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Most of the students that presented this year also presented last year and they have made huge strides in their confidence and public speaking skills which also includes a huge improvement in their English. I was also impressed with the amount of responsibility that the teacher who is the head of the math and science department took on in preparing the students for the event. Last year was the first year our school competed, and most of the planning and responsibility fell on me, so this year it was great to see another teacher become invested in the activity and it makes me confident that the school will continue to place an emphasis on science congress even after I have left the school. Yay for sustainability!

Here are some pictures of my students preparing for their presentation and also celebrating afterward!

This years science congress was held at Rabwao Secondary School, where my PCV friend Chris works, and is not too far from Lake Victoria. After the students had all finished presenting the other teacher from Bande, Mr Akello, and I took the students to the lake. They had a blast playing in the water and some of them had never been down to the lake before. Aren't they hilarious? They always keep me entertained!

The students and I down at Lake Victoria

Susan and Salvera working on their posters for their push-pull method of pest control on farms project.

The night before the zonal competition, students working on their posters for their presentations.

Winnie and Engrede practicing their presentation on an alternative charcoal using sawdust.


Phostine and Nancy working on their coconut oil extraction project.

Nevina and Zerah who presented how to make glue using different trees and plants.


Clare and Trizah presented a biology talk about drinking fresh juice instead of buying concentrate or factory manufactured juice.

Veronica and Viviane with their homemade wart remover project

Mercy and Ephie looking through their write-up about an ammonium phosphate fertilizer made using all local materials.