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.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!!!!!

March 8th marked the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and I organized a number of events at my school to celebrate the event.

Working with the English department, I organized for an essay writing contest for the students. Students were asked to write an essay on the topic: What Being a Woman Means to Me. The essays were limited to 100 words and the winning essay writer was given 100 shillings in order to emphasize the anniversary. The English department, along with myself and a few other teachers, chose the top 5 essays, which were all presented at an event held at the school on March 7th.

The event at the school was organized with my principal, other teachers and the local office of child and gender development. The event included a female guest of honor who is from the area, and has worked as a university professor in Nairobi and a number of prominent women from the community who addressed the students. Students also presented various entertainment pieces, all of which related to issues of women and gender empowerment. The event was attended by students from 2 neighboring schools, as well as by the entire staff and student population of my school.

In addition, In each of my life skills classes we also marked IWD by constructing paper chains. Denae was visiting to help with the IWD events and helped out a lot with this activity. The paper chains were constructed by students writing an adjective that describe women on a strip of paper, each class made 100 of these strips of paper that were then connected to make a paper chain. These chains were used to decorate the event that was held at the school and then hung in the classrooms. And, finally, a group of students and teachers attended an IWD celebration on March 8th at the nearby school of St. Gemma Girls, where a group of my students presented poems and songs to the guests of honor, the area MP, and members of the national council for child and gender development.

A group of my students presenting their songs and poems for the MP at the big IWD event on March 8th.

Denae and I hit the dance floor with my students at the event and I have to mention that people from other schools still comment on how well the white girls were able to dance.

At the big IWD celebration held at a nearby school.

Students preforming at the IWD event at our school

The top 5 essays from the essay contest presented at the IWD event

One of the form 3 classes after making and decorating their class with their paper chain

The other form 3 class and their paper chain

The form 1s showing off their crafting skills

The announcements that were put up in all the classes for the essay contest. We got over 50 entries!

The other form 2 class and their handy work

Decorations for the the IWD event at the school
Decorating Denae for the event at the school....

The form 4s who helped make the poster for the event at the school

One of the form 2 classes after making the paper chain.

Putting together all the links for the chain

Life Skills Week with Denae and Lizzie

A few weeks ago some PCV friends, Denae and Lizzie, came and visited my school for the week. Both Denae and Lizzie are public health volunteers so while they were here they taught my life skills classes, taught the weekly guidance and counseling session and met with my health club to do some activities. It was great to have guests for the week and we had a lot of fun cooking and watching movies in the evening and then working all day with the students.

In life skills class we taught decision-making skills and how to say no to sex. To do this we gave the girls different scenarios and they had to decide what to do and the steps they might take before making a decision. Then we gave them pressure lines that boys may use to convince them to have sex and asked them to write responses. The students worked in groups and then presented their choices and their responses to the pressure lines as a skit for the whole class. Some of the girls got really into playing the parts in their skit and it was really entertaining. We also discussed all the consequences of having sex to encourage them to delay sex. Of course we didn't want to ignore the fact that not all students will choose to say no to sex, so during the health club meeting we taught them all about condoms. We played games to get them comfortable talking about condoms and sex and get them use to touching condoms, then we did a condom demonstration and then taught the girls how they can do condom demonstrations for their classes. And finally, during the weekly guidance and counseling session for the school, Denae and Lizze talked about rape. They told the girls the steps to take if they are raped, strategies to minimize the risk of being raped and the emotional and physical impact that being raped can have on someone. All of these topics are subjects that are not usually openly discussed in Kenyan society, so it was an incredibly educational and useful week for the students and they really enjoyed having more "mzungu" (white people) around to interact with. Lizzie, Denae and I also played volleyball with my team in the afternoons and we had them do a relay race so we taught them the three legged race, the crab walk and wheel-barrow racing. So, basically, it was a blast! Lizzie and Denae also sat in on my biology classes and Lizzie was nice enough to take some pictures of me teaching, so now you can see what I do here everyday! Here are the pictures, enjoy:


Lizzie and Denae with some of my students after they taught guidance and counseling to the whole school.

Teaching about rape at guidance and counseling
The condom water balloon toss game with the students in my health club
A student from the health club demonstrating how to do a condom demonstration for class mates.

The condom hot potato game with the health club. The condoms were blown up as balloons and contained questions related to sex and condoms. Whoever had the condom when the music stopped had to break the condom and answer the question inside to get a candy.

Making condom water balloons for the health club games.

Me teaching my form 2 biology class. This is what I do everyday!

Doing a relay race with my volleyball team, they had never done the crab walk or wheelbarrow before.

The students presenting their skits of how to respond to pressure lines with Lizzie and Denae in life skills class.

It's been way too long

I have not written an update in way too long, so first let me try and give you a brief overview of what I have been up to in the last few months, some complete with pictures.

December:

-Traveled to Uganda to go white water rafting on the Nile and bungee jumping

This was one of the most amazing adventures that I have had in my life. Myself and 3 other PCVs, Jenny, Rachel and Nik, traveled to Jinja, Uganda by bus and stayed at Adrift. Adrift takes people white water rafting on the Nile and also has a 40m bungee jumping platform that is directly over the Nile. The rafting was an all day event with up to class 5 rapids. We flipped the raft a number of times, went down a waterfall and got to swim during the calm stretches of the river. At the end of the day our team celebrated with ice cold Nile Special beers.

please notice the facial expression of the jump master, he told Jenny my jump was one of the best he's ever seen

Our raft for the day

-Visited a fellow PCV Denae at her site on Rusinga Island to help with their annual cultural
festival and spent Christmas in Mbita, enjoying the view of Lake Victoria

working with the kids of Rusinga Island on making promises to maintain and improve their health

-Visited Kakamega Forest



I also went to Nairobi for our mid-service medical check ups, celebrated New Years in Kisumu but unfortunately, I also had my laptop stolen from a guesthouse in Kisumu.

January:
-Back to school
-Celebrated Jenny's Birthday at her site

Wearing my Christmas present to the girls,
thanks mom for bringing them all the way from home!

-Margie came and visited me at my school for a week

we made chili, yum

-Started a health club in the school
-Attended the first GAD (Gender and Development) committee meeting, for which I am the vice chair

and finally, in February:
-Attended the WISER induction ceremony

-Celebrated my 24th birthday in Kericho


-Went on a weekend trip to Naivasha

Out for a walk among giraffe, zebra, buffalo and antelope on Crescent Island

Boat ride to spot the elusive hippo

-Volunteered at a mobile well child clinic with LALMBA
-Lizzie and Denae visited my school for a week to teach life skills and guidance and counseling
(more on that in the next update)