Vacation pictures!

Here are some pictures from my vacation!!

The first one is from our dhow trip when we went snorkeling in Lamu, this is us on the island where we had lunch. From L-R Whitney, Jenny, Jon, Me, Margaret.

A picture of Nicole, Whitney, Me, Jenny, Margaret, and Mary when we went snorkeling between Mombasa and Malindi.

One of the best meals I have had in Kenya! We went to this place twice to get the delicious shwarma!

Lamu = paradise!!! A traditional dhow boat at sunrise.

Vacation!

Since I last updated I went on an amazing vacation with some other Peace Corps volunteers from my training class. Jenny, Margaret, Whitney and I went to the coast of Kenya and enjoyed a week of warm weather, beautiful beaches and relaxation! It was a nice reward for having completed our first term at our schools and it was really great to get to see and explore a different part of the country (all four of us are posted in the Western portion of Kenya). I must say that the majority of the time we were on the coast I did not feel like I was in Kenya, or Africa at all for that matter. The streets of Old Town Mombasa make you think you are somewhere in the Mediterranean, Malindi is basically a little Italy plopped down on the Kenyan coast, and the influence from India as well as Muslim influence makes for a culturally diverse experience all along the coast, but is especially strong in Lamu. Right now our whole training class is back in Nairobi for our IST (in-service training). We are still 25 strong!!! We’ve been told multiple times how unusual it is that we are all still here! If you remember it was a big deal that all 25 of us were sworn in after training and no one went home during that time and now we still haven’t lost anyone from the program for any reason! (We are beating the odds left and right). IST has been a week of workshops, guest speakers, and sharing ideas/frustrations/successes with one another. Next week I will head back to site and have a few days of down time before the second term starts up. Now, mostly so I can brag, here is a general run-down of our vacation:

• April 9th: Nairobi to Mombasa
o We met up in Nairobi and took the overnight train to Mombasa. The train experience was really fun and interesting! Our second class tickets included: dinner, bedding and breakfast. The train runs through Kibera (the second largest slum in Africa) on its way out of town, and it was interesting to see the structures/people/living conditions, and it went on forever, it’s huge. We also went through beautiful landscape on our route. Starting off with the urban landscape of Nairobi then changing to drier more dessert climates and going through/around the Tsavo National Parks, and then finally the slow change to a tropical, humid, palm tree landscape.

• April 10-11th: Mombasa
o First of all I have to say that the coast is HOT and HUMID!!! And we weren’t even there during the hottest part of the year, but we were extremely happy that the hotel we were staying at had A/C. It’s amazing how the little things become such exciting luxuries when you are used to living in a house without electricity let alone A/C! We spent our time in Mombasa exploring the Old Town, hitting the beaches and checking out Fort Jesus. We ate delicious food (coast = spices) and even went bowling! The beaches are incredibly gorgeous and we enjoyed just lying around with nothing to do, then heading to a beach café to have a Tusker or two. I have pictures on my facebook and there is a link on the sidebar if you want to check it out!

• April 12th: Road to Malindi
o On our way up the coast we stopped in a small town where there is a small business PCV who is working with a community organized conservation center to develop eco-tourism. We went snorkeling with the program he is working with, and it was a really great time. We were also joined by two other PCVs from our training class and had a fun day out in the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean by the way feels like a warm (very very salty) bath. I was shocked by how warm the water was, especially since we were looking forward to getting some relief from the heat in the water, but no such luck, the water is not much cooler that the air temperature. We saw lots and lots of colorful fish and other under the sea creatures. When we finished our snorkel adventure we headed about an hour up the coast to Malindi, by the time we arrived it was late so we just went for dinner and gelato (yesssss gelato! We almost passed out when we entered the shop. Like I said, it’s the little things!).

• April 13th: Malindi
o Gedi ruins! We spent the majority of the morning exploring the Gedi (or Gede) ruins which is just outside of Malindi. I took lots of pictures, so check those out on facebook! The ruins are from the 13th century and are of a Swahili town. The town has multiple mosques, a palace complete with public courts, houses, and tombs. The portion of the ruins that we were able to explore, the part that has been extensively excavated, is the town center. They have found a number of artifacts that show that this establishment was involved in extensive trade during its peak, including beads from Venice, vases from China, a lamp of India, and scissors from Spain. After our ruins exploring we met up with another PCV from our training class who works in a school outside of Malindi. We spent the rest of the day exploring Malindi with her and eating more delicious foods.

• April 14th – 17th: Lamu
o After a long bus ride we arrived in Lamu! Lamu town is located on an island in the Lamu archipelago and it is absolutely gorgeous, I described it as paradise a number of times! The town of Lamu is Kenya’s oldest town and was one of the original Swahili settlements along the coast of East Africa. The town is almost entirely Muslim and has a very rich culture and a really interesting history. One interesting fact about Lamu: there are only 2 cars on the whole island, so the main form of transportation (other than walking and carts) is by donkey. The island even has a donkey sanctuary that we visited when the donkeys can retire after a life of hard work in such a hot climate. There is a PCV from our training class who works in a deaf school on the mainland close to Lamu island who was able to meet up with us and show us around, it was great have a personal tour guide for the time we were there. We enjoyed exploring the small streets, shopping in all the little boutiques all over the place and eating all the delicious food. We had one day where it rained most of the day, so we took that day to check out the Lamu museum and Fort Lamu. The next day we had absolutely gorgeous weather and we were able to take advantage of that and take a dhow trip. A dhow is the traditional sail boats used by the Swahili people. Our dhow trip first took us through a mangrove forest and then took us out into the Indian Ocean to snorkel and fish. The snorkeling was fantastic, and it was amazing to be able to look in any direction and we were the only other people within our view. We fished from the boat with a set up like a kite string spool. The spool had the fishing wire on it, we tied weights at the end and then a hook above that and put a little bait, so in a nutshell it was fishing without a pole. We were able to catch our lunch and then our crew took us to our own private island where they cooked our fish and other delicious food for our lunch. Our meal included coconut rice (a local legend), our fresh (fresh, fresh, fresh) fish fried, a vegetable curry sauce and copious amounts of fresh fruits! The atmosphere, the view and the food made this by far the best meal that I have had since coming to Kenya. Our trip took most of the day, so when we got back to the town we rested up and then had a night out on the town!

• April 17th: Pit stop in Mombasa
o After another long bus ride leaving Lamu we arrived in Mombasa. The trip is too long to make it from Lamu to Nairobi in one day, so we had planned to stay one night in Mombasa on our way back. With all of the coast volunteers (Coast Corps) also headed to Nairobi for training there were lots of PCVs in town that night. It was also a veteran volunteer’s birthday so a lot of other volunteers not from our training class came into town for the night. We did our last minute vacation shopping in town, and then headed out to celebrate the PCVs birthday and to end our vacation with a bang. We ended up at a night club which is basically a parking lot with a few bars around the perimeter and lots of plastic tables and chairs and then people dancing to AMERICAN music wherever there is room. By this time there were about 15 PCVs out and we had a lot of fun taking over the dance floor. You can imagine dancing for a few hours in a hot climate so we were all excited when it started raining on us, so while the Kenyans were all running for cover from the rain, all the wazungu stayed and danced in the rain. Some of us hardcore fun seekers stayed out dancing until 5am, which also included a swim in a nearby pool before we headed back to our hotel. It was an excellent way to end our vacation, and a good time is always had when PCVs get together! Work really really hard, and play hard every once in a while, might be a good way to describe our philosophy.

• April 18th: Back to Nairobi, time for IST
o The downfall to staying out until 5am was having to be up early to catch our 8am bus to Nairobi. We all caught our bus though and then caught up on our sleep on the long ride to Nairobi. Our group was among the last from our training class to arrive at the conference center and it was great to get to see everyone and all be back together again. Like I mentioned before, no one from our training class has left PC/Kenya, and we really are like a second family, so it has been great to be back together after 3 months apart!

I hope I have successfully made you all jealous with the account of my vacation! And I must say that we found it quite humorous when we were snorkeling in the Indian Ocean or having a cold beer on a beautiful pristine beach or dancing all night in Mombasa that this is something we were getting to enjoy during our time in the Peace Corps. I’m sure you picture (just like we did) life more along the lines of mud huts, and modest living… but everyone deserves a vacation right??

Cheers!

Pictures!

I was told that some people were having problems using the link to view my pictures on facebook. I've updated the link and put it in the sidebar right under my disclaimer. Hope this works!

Here it is one more time too:

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045872&id=27501679&l=02d9df7ee7

Just for Fun

We are still in the middle of our end term exams, but I'm in Migori running a few errands and getting some paperwork typed and printed for my school. I thought I would share some random stories just for fun!

A Luo Name

When I arrived at Bande I was given a Luo name, and I realized I had never included it on my blog. Being given a Luo name was a very nice and welcoming gesture on the part of my community! In Luo tradition children are given names based on the time of day which they were born. Children can also be named after relatives, or for the kind of weather during which they were born, but by far the most common is to be named for the time of day you are born. Children are also given a "christian" name, which is usually what they go by in school since there are so many students with the same Luo name. It is also much easier for me to pronounce these names, so thats a nice advantage for me! So, since I was born in the morning my Luo name is Akinyi (female names start with A and male names start with O). It is pronounced so that is rhymes with bikini, with the A sound like in awake. So, when I go to the center I am known not at Christine, but as Akinyi!

Laundry

I've decided that doing laundry in Kenya is just like washing your car in America... Some days washing your car is fun and you have a good time, getting soaking wet and being outside in the sunshine. But, other days, washing your car is another annoying chore which takes a lot of time and effort, and you end up soaking wet... Washing clothes in Kenya is exactly the same way for me. I usually do my laundry on Saturdays in the late morning, washing a weeks worth of clothes can take me 2-3 hours from start to finish (depending on how dirty my clothes are, and how clean I want them). Sometimes I really enjoy being out in the sun, I listen to some music and sometimes some students stop by and keep me company. I usually end of fairly soaking wet from the process, but all in all its enjoyable. Other weekends, washing my clothes is the last thing that I want to do, it takes a lot of time and by the end the clothes I'm wearing are wet and I'm sweaty and tired from the process. So, there you have it, washing clothes in Kenya!

Going Green

Oregonians will be very happy with this post! My life is very green here in Kenya. All the water I drink, cook with, use to wash clothes, bathe with, is all from water catchments around the school. The water catchments catch all the water off the roofs of the classrooms, houses and kitchen and store them in giant tanks. In addition to these tanks I can also set out my buckets in a downpour and fill them up that way. The other day there was a huge rain storm and I filled all my buckets (about 30 liters of water) in only 20 minutes! Also in the green department, my school has a solar panel which is what I use to charge my phone, ipod, etc during the day. My house has no electricity, and since my parents were nice enough to send me an LED lantern I now use that to light my house at night, it runs on batteries which are rechargeable, which I can charge from the solar power at my school. I feel so green I could hug a tree!

Entertainment

Since my forms on entertainment are pretty limited, I spend a lot of time reading in the evenings and on the weekends. Thought some of you might enjoy seeing a list of the books I have read since arriving in Kenya.

Say You're One of Them
The Glass Castle
Educating Esme
Water for Elephants
Three Cups of Tea
Under African Skies
Atonement
Staggerford
The Gate Crasher
Remember When
Nine Hills to Nambonkaha
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Survivor
Handle with Care

So, since November I have read a total of 14 books! Its amazing how many books you can read when you don't have TV to distract you. Which reminds me, if anyone feels the desire to send me something, BOOKS!!!! I would love any novels you have laying around!!!

Hope this was at least a little entertaining!

Cheers
-Akinyi

Science Congress/Games/End Term Exams

The term is coming to a close. Sometimes its hard for me to believe how long I have been here in Kenya (going on 5 months), but at the same time it feels like the months are flying by. Kenya's school calendar is year round and has three terms, this first term will end on the 2nd of April and then we will have a month of vacation before the second term starts on May 2nd.

I'm sorry to admit that it has been a very long time since I have updated my blog... In my defense I have been keeping very busy! So, here is a rundown of the things I have been involved with since I last updated.

Science Congress

Science Congress is basically the Kenyan equivalent of what we would call a science fair, with a few differences. Students come up with a project which fits the theme of the year and then present their topic or their project at a meeting with other schools, which are then judged by teachers who have been trained to judge. This years theme was Science and Technology for Economic Recovery. Students can compete in any of the following categories: biology, chemistry, physics, math, technology, computers, home science or agriculture. These categories are subdivided into talks and exhibits.

This year Bande presented 8 projects at the regional competition (not bad considering this is the first year we have participate). Some girls gave talks about genetic engineering of crops, others made charcoal from alternative and locally found materials, one group made a plastic plate from discarded plastic and another tested the concentration of vitamin C in fresh fruit versus store bought juice. My role in the projects was advisor, proof reader and practice audience for all of the groups. All of the project were excellent and it was really great working with the students to improve their projects. I was able to see my students really learning and also saw their self confidence and public speaking skills improve. I was also asked to be trained as a judge in the biology category, so I also served as judge on the day of competition. At the regional competition the top 3 projects from each project move on to compete at the next level. 4 of the projects from Bande were in the top 3! This also placed us 4th overall among the 15 schools that competed from our region.

The sub-provincial competition was last week, and we used every minute of free time, or preps, to prepare the students and their projects. Once again I was asked to serve as a judge, which unfortunately meant I did not get to watch my students present, but it was interesting to see how the other schools performed. In the end, the students did an excellent job with their projects, but none of them will be moving on to the provincial level. The girls should all be very proud of themselves, especially since all the students that had projects advance are only in form 2, meaning they have 2 more years to compete, so this was a great first exposure for them!

Games

Games, or sports, was held a few weeks ago. Even though I am not coaching any of the teams that compete this term I was asked to go along to watch the competition. This term the teams competing were: handball, netball and athletics (track and field). All of the schools from our region compete on the same day, so the day runs more like a large tournament. Bande had an excellent day! Our netball and handball teams won all of their games, which means they will advance to the next level of competition which will be held at the beginning of next term. All of the girls who competed in athletics were among the top 3 in their event and will also be moving on to the next level.

End Term Exams

This week Bande is having our end term exams. I co-wrote the exam for my form 2 biology class (with the teacher who teaches the other form 2 class), and then wrote the form 1 biology and chemistry exams. Over the last couple of days I have been playing review games with all of my classes. This has not only (hopefully) helped my students prepare for exams, but it has provided me with endless entertainment! The concept of playing a game show type game is somewhat foreign, and has been an interesting concept to try and teach my students. They have pretty much gotten the hang of it, except for wagering or betting in the final round. It took my at least 10 minutes to try and clarify this idea, and when I thought I had finally gotten the idea across to all the students and asked each group for their final bet they all bet 50 points (the other questions had been between 100-500 points). I found this incredibly funny and had a good laugh. My mom has since commended me on introducing the concept of gambling to my students, but I maintain that its an important math and reasoning skill!

This more or less brings us to what I'm up to right now. I've made the trip into Migori today in order to do some research on scholarships to help some of my students pay their schools fees. A full year of secondary school at Bande (including room, board, uniforms etc.) costs about 25,000 Kenyan shillings, or about $300. The level of poverty in this region of Kenya is staggering, and even this amount of money is a struggle for the majoirty of families in the area. Some students are sponsored by various organizations, relatives or other individuals. A few of my brightest and most promising students have had recent deaths in the family which have taken their fee-paying relatives, or parents. In an attempt to help them stay in school I am trying to network with any and all NGOs and Kenyan non-profits. As I am unfortunately finding there are many many students who need financial assistance and very few resources out there. But, I will continue to work to try to help these students stay in school.

Random Moments

A few random moments which I hope can bring you some laughs and smiles

Locks in Kenya are almost all padlocks. I have a padlock to lock my front door and another that I use to lock my bedroom door. A major downfall of padlocks is that you can lock them even when you have NO IDEA where the keys are. I had a lovely run in with this fact. The other morning I woke up and got ready for school as usual and then headed off to school, I locked my room and then froze, realizing too late that I had just locked my purse, phone and keys in my room. I contemplated scaling the walls of my room since they dont reach my roof (there is no ceiling between my walls and tin roof), but first I attempted to reach the keys through my bedroom window. All my windows have bars on them so this was no east feat, but thanks to another teacher who happened to be walking by, we were able to get a branch from a tree and scoop up by purse from the window... crisis averted.

Transportation is a constant source of entertainment here in Kenya. I've described matatus previously on my blog, but matatus are rare between Migori and my village of Bande. Instead, there are station wagons which are called olwendas (cockroach in Luo). All these station wagons are in some sort of disrepair, whether its cracks in the windshield, spares on the tires, duct tape holding parts in place, and none of them have doors which you can open from the inside. Now, when you think about a station wagon you are probably thinking that they seat 4 passengers plus a driver. Well, you are mistaken. These olwendas can carry 16 adults if the need arises (and the need seems to arise on every trip). How is this accomplished you might ask? Well, the driver routinely shares his seat with another passenger, two more passengers share the front seat, 5 adults cram in the middle seat and 6 are in the trunk. Oh, thats only 15? I must have forgotten to mention that the tout is sitting on the window sill of the front seat, legs in the car but with his body outside while he holds onto the roof. There are also numerous combinations of adults and children that can cram into the olwendas, and dont forget the chickens and yes, even goats, which occasionally also make the trip!

Trousers vs pants. Friends vs coworkers.

Oh cultural differences and the never ending language barrier that inevitably turns into an embarrassing moment for the mzungu. Here in Kenya when you talk about pants you are actually talking about underwear, when you want to say pants you have to say trousers or you have just made a rather embarrassing social blunder. Also, there is no such thing as a man and a woman being friends here. If you are just friends with a person of the opposite sex you say they are your coworker, classmate or some other descriptor which explains how you know them. If you say that you are friends with someone of the opposite sex it means you are having a love affair with them. During our cultural training all the trainees were told all of these things, but that doesnt mean its not easy to slip up here. During my first life skills class I had my form 1 students ask me all the questions that they had about America. The questions that I get asked are always entertaining (maybe I'll include a blog listing all those questions), but one was about whether students in America wear uniforms to school. I answered with most dont, but schools have a dress code. When they asked what I used to wear to school I say just pants and a shirt... OOPS! I meant trousers and a shirt, but it was too late the class had already burst out laughing at my mix up! The students also wanted to know about the 2 other Peace Corps volunteers in the area, both of which happen to be male. I told them what schools they work at and their names, then a student asked if either one of them was my friend. I answered, without even thinking about it, "Of course! They're both my friends!" OOPS!!!! No, I meant they are both my coworkers, we get along well... but, too late the class was already in stitches again!

Being a mzungu in rural Kenya for awhile now, I am no longer phased by being stared at, poked and prodded by interested children or by making a fool of myself, it all comes with the territory! Just like we were told in training, our sense of humor will really come in handy over there 2 years!

A Kenyan Birthday

Last week I celebrated my 23rd birthday! Being in Kenya made my celebration very different from what I am used to, but I was able to celebrate with some fellow Peace Corps Volunteers in Kisumu the weekend before, and on my actual birthday the teachers and students at my site were great and I had an amazing day.

First I will start with a recap of my trip to Kisumu. The trip from my site to Kisumu took about 7 hours each way. Luckily I was able to travel with Chris, the PCV who is in Muhuru Bay, not far from Bande. We met in Migori and then traveled from there together. Most of the 7 hours is spent waiting. Waiting for a car to drive through my village that I can take to Migori, waiting in Migori for the matatu to fill with passengers so we can leave, waiting while passengers get off and board the matatu at various intervals along the route. But, all in all, the trip to Kisumu was fairly painless. When Chris and I arrived in Kisumu we met some PCVs from the public health sector as well as 5 other PCVs from our training class. It was great to see the people from our group and also great to meet some new faces. It has been hard going from seeing the other people in my training class everyday to being so far apart (so I must note that when Margaret, Jenny, Whitney and I all saw each other for the first time we ran to each other and hugged and laughed.. all very strange things for any Kenyans witnessing this happen, but we were just soooo excited!)

This was my first time in Kisumu and I have to say I absolutely love it! It offers a lot of amenities but is a little smaller and therefore a little safer than Nairobi. Kisumu was majorly affected by the post election violence though, and there are still many burned out buildings and piles of rubble. It was such a contrast to see tall, new, shiny buildings next to burned out shells of what used to be super-markets, banks, hotels etc. Most of the city is being rebuilt or cleaned up, but you can still see signs of the violence on almost every street. There are also a lot more tourists in Kisumu, which was kind of bizarre, I am used to being the only mzungu (white person) within many kilometers. And it is rare to see even another mzungu in my main banking town of Migori, and most of them are here working with NGOs, missions, and orphanages, not tourists…

While in Kisumu I was able to eat pizza, hamburgers, ice cream, Chinese food, and had the most amazing brownie for dessert one night. These are all foods, with the exception of ice cream which I can buy in Migori, which I cannot get anywhere near my site, and haven’t had since last time we were in Nairobi. We also went and saw two movies while we were in town, went swimming at one of the nice hotels in Kisumu and watched the Superbowl!!! We also went out to a few bars which was fun, but the guest house where we were staying also had a roof-top balcony where we spent a lot of the evening, drinking wine, talking and catching-up on each other’s lives.

Watching a movie was an interesting experience. I walked into the theatre and felt like I had been transported back to America! The theatre was empty expect for me and the other PCVs and it was air conditioned!!!! We all got popcorn and soda, and both of the movies we saw were excellent! We watched Sherlock Holmes and Avatar! I had heard so much about Avatar from people back home that I felt somewhat connected to American pop-culture by seeing it! The movie was breath-takingly gorgeous, and all of the PCVs had to laugh at the similarities between the movie and our lives. If you’ve seen the movie, think about when the main character is trying to learn to live in Pandora, and that was and sometimes still is our lives here. Learning a whole new language, eating different foods, new customs etc etc. Swimming was another excellent amenity that I was able to enjoy. Since Lake Victoria and other fresh water here in Kenya can give you Schistosomiasis (a lovely disease that affects your liver, and can have complications for the rest of your life if not treated) we are told to stay far away from swimming in these places, so even with the temperature soaring, we get to enjoy only the view. So, being able to actually swim was amazing, in fact, I think it was my favorite part of the whole weekend! I had planned to only be in Kisumu for the weekend, and to return to my school to teach on Monday morning, but Peace Corps had informed us that we needed to be in Kisumu on Wednesday morning in order to receive that H1N1 vaccine, so I stayed in town for a long weekend instead of traveling all the way back to site just to turn around. This is what made is possible for me to get to watch the Superbowl! Since we are so far ahead of US time we had to stay up until 3 in the morning just to watch kick-off, but it was fun to watch some American football (actually TV at all) for a change. Unfortunately, we did not get the commercials, which are almost the best part, but we made some delicious nachos, pizza and drank some beers and really enjoyed.

Then on Monday, since I needed to stay around Kisumu anyway, I travelled with Jenny to her site. It was really fun to get to see someone else’s site. Her house is really nice and she has electricity, unlike me, but she also has a 45 minute walk from her house to her school. It was great to meet her students and we spent a lot of time answering questions about the US. The students seemed shocked that Jenny and I didn’t look anything alike… Then in the evening we ate dinner with her neighbors, an elderly couple, and they were great to talk to, and the woman is an amazing cook! The next day Jenny taught her lessons and then we once again headed to Kisumu for one more night before I headed back to Bande.

Since our medical officers were traveling from Nairobi they were able to (finally) bring me the package that my parents had sent me for Christmas! I’m excited to have some movies to watch, a book to read, and more pictures to put up in my house, among other things that I got from my amazing family for Christmas! Traveling from Kisumu to Bande once again took 7 hours, so by the time I arrived I was exhausted.

The day after I returned to site was my birthday! My day started with a phone call from home (where it wasn’t my birthday yet) and it was great as usual to get to talk to my family. I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to be able to communicate relatively easily with my family and friends back home. The rest of the day was spent teaching my classes, including the form 1 students who had reported to school the week before, so it was my first time teaching them. The teachers in the staff room also sang me the happy birthday song, which I didn’t think they would know, so that was a fun surprise. After school I took a nap and tried to recover from all of the traveling and then cooked myself my birthday dinner. I decided to make the most American food I could with what I had in my house, so I ended up eating tunafish and guacamole sandwiches for my birthday dinner.

This post has become very very long, so I think I will stop there, and I’ll write more the next time I head into Migori, and I will also upload more pictures then. Thank you to everyone who sent me a happy birthday message!

Cheers!