Before I start attempting to describe the last couple weeks, I want to correct mistakes from my last post. Firstly, the name of the school that I'm volunteering with is called Ronesa, not Roynasa. It means "coming together" in Maasai. Secondly, I am not north of Ngong, but northwest.
Today marks the end of the 5th week that I've been in Kenya, which means that I'm halfway through my Kenya trip! What a wild thought. The past two weeks that I've spent in Olosho-oibor have been absolutely incredible. I can already tell that leaving this place is going to be very hard.
In order to help you understand what I'm doing on a daily basis without recounting the many adventures I've had every day, I'm going to describe one "typical" day of my present life.
I wake up each morning at 6:30, and though I set my alarm, it's usually the roosters that wake me without fail, about 2 minutes before my alarm sounds. On a day when I shower (which are few...) I'll ask Rosemary's niece, Beatrice, whom she has employed to be her domestic assistant, to warm a little water for me. I take the bucket of water out to a small structure next to the latrine and pour water on myself with a cup in attempt to wash away the dust and dirt. After my refreshing bucket shower, I go inside to have chai and chapati for breakfast and get dressed. Before I leave for Ronesa I go outside to the yard and brush my teeth as I watch the sun rise over the hills towards Ngong.
I walk across Rosemary's maize field on a small path to the school, and usually am there by 7:45. At 8:00, the students line up for assembly by class, where they are scolded if their uniform is incomplete, their hair isn't short, etc. Then they recite bible verses and sing songs until about 8:15, and then it's back to class. I begin the morning with either an English, math, or science lesson with grade one, then the same with pre-unit, and again with either nursery or baby class. They have a couple breaks throughout the day, when they go outside and play with a soccer ball or jump ropes accompanied by the cows and goats that like to graze in the school yard. There are 43 students total, 4 more were enrolled in the last 2 weeks since it's still the beginning of the term. Teaching in Kenya is dramatically different than the elementary teaching style I grew up with. Resources are the main limiting factor. 90% of teaching is done with nothing more than chalk and a blackboard. Children learn through repetition and copying, and are disciplined using a stick, which has taken some getting used to for me. But each day I get to know the students better, and they are learning to respect me as "teacher Kate", not just another mzungu.
At 12:20 I go home for lunch, and then come back an hour later. In the afternoons I don't normally teach, unless a teacher is absent, but instead I either work one-on-one with students that I've noticed struggling, especially with reading and writing, or I do other work for the school like covering books or making posters to put on the wall. The one-on-one time that I've spent with one particular student named Patrick, in grade one, has already been really rewarding. Every day he comes up to me and says, "teacher Kate, reading?" Now when he looks at a word he begins to try to sound it out, instead of just memorizing how certain words look, as he was before. And not only is it good for the students to have this individual attention, but it's good for the teachers to see the benefits that arise from stepping away from the blackboard and focusing on the kids. The employed grade one teacher is named John, he is 18, he'll be starting university in May to study education, but as of now he has no experience.
At 3:00 the students are dismissed and they all run to the gate to begin their walk home, which is as much as 7km for some students. I go home, usually exhausted, and relax and talk about the school with Rosemary and teacher Joseph. At 4:00 we have another cup of chai, which one of the zillions of flies decided to go swimming in the other day. Once it's cooled off a little, by about 5:00, I'll either go with Beatrice to collect firewood (and carry it on my head), help her cook chapati, wash clothes, or go with Joseph (not the teacher, a man who lives down the road, a friend of Rosemary) to look for giraffe's. On Tuesday we were particularly lucky and came across about 30 of them wandering across the bush at sunset. I just wanted to stand and stare at them forever, but I had to tear my eyes away because we had to get back before dark. In the evening I'll read, write in my journal, and eat dinner with Rosemary. The food is really heavy, usually maize and some type of beans, chapati, potatoes, or ugali (traditional Kenyan food, I'm not sure how to describe it). At around 8:30 Beatrice, Ann (Beatrice's sister who stays with Rosemary to go to school), and Dan (employed by Rosemary to take care of the livestock, etc.) come into the house. One of them reads from a Bible translated to Swahili or Maasai, and then they pray and talk about their day. By 9:00 I'm usually asleep under my mosquito net, or attempting to kill one that has gotten inside my sleeping sanctuary.
On Sunday's we go to church from 10:30 to 1:30, which you might think is a very long time to sit down and listen to somebody preach in a foreign language, but it's not like that at all. Nearly the whole time is spent singing and dancing to blaring, rhythmic music, and watching Maasai dance is quite impressive and entertaining.
This week both Joseph and Rosemary unknowingly bestowed upon me the same Maasai name, Nashipae. It's pronounced Nah-shey-pie, and it means joy. They like to constantly remind me how happy I am and "what a big blow" it will be to Ronesa and the community when I leave.
There are about a trillion other things that I wish I could talk about, for so much has happened to me in the last two weeks, but my Internet time is limited and my budget is tight! I know that what I've written doesn't even begin to do justice to the experience that I'm actually having, but I hope it has helped to paint you a picture of my life here in Maasailand that I love so much!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
From Mombasa to Maasailand
I've now been in Kenya for 3 weeks. The passing of time is so disorienting; it feels like months ago that I left Anchorage, and I feel at home in Kenya, but each day passes and before you know it it's a new month.
Last weekend Michelle and I went to Mombasa. It was a weekend both busy and relaxing. The streets of Mombasa are winding, confusing, and so very crowded. We spend about half of Saturday looking for a map of the city... a bit ironic. We stayed at the Jambo Paradise hotel in Mombasa, and that gave us the flexibility to visit both the northern and southern coasts. The beaches were the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. The Indian ocean is the perfect temperature for swimming, and is the brilliant turquoise color you always see in photos of paradise. To add to the picturesque image I'm sure is in your mind, imagine me riding a camel along the beach.
An 8 hour overnight bus ride later and we were back in Nairobi. Suddenly I only had two days left at Happy Life before leaving for Maasailand. Wednesday was Michelle's birthday so we celebrated by getting manicures and pedicures at a beauty shop along the street. The lady had never been to beauty school, but she made my feet look and feel as though they had never seen a speck of dust. That changed rather quickly.
Thursday morning came and I had to say goodbye to the babies. It was the most difficult to say bye to Sean, my favorite, who made huge improvements in his health while I was there. Then it was into the taxi and off to the next chapter of my adventure.
We drove northwest to Ngong, where I purchased six 5 ltr bottles of drinking water. Then we continued on and the road soon turned to dirt. We only got stuck on the road once on the way to my host family. The whole drive, despite the dust, I kept my window open because the scenery is breathtaking. I'm living just north of Ngong, at the start of the Rift Valley. The community is so spread out it almost appears from a distance as if nobody is living there at all. The landscape is full of acacia trees and lots of thorny bushes that continue as far as you can see, until they meet the mountains on the other side of the valley. The hills on the south side of the valley are sprinkled with windmills that supply power to Ngong. And my host mother, the most kind, warm, and inviting woman I've ever met, has a solar panel that allows her to have one light bulb in the evening when it gets dark. Rosemary, my Maasai mama, is the woman who started Roynasa (questionable spelling) primary school, where I'm teaching. She also has land for growing maize and beans, 5 cows, lots of goats, and too many chickens to count. The school is just next door to the house, so in the mornings at 8am I walk across the garden and through a gate to the school. It is a single building with a wooden frame and metal sheet siding and roofing, and it's divided into 4 areas. The school started in 2009 with just one class, so the highest grade is 1. But each year the school will continue to grow as the students progress to the next level and as more young children come to be educated. Frdiday morning I was handed a piece of chalk and asked to teach science, "head, shoulders, knees and toes" proved very useful. I spent some time in each class on , it was challenging because there is such a stark language barrier between us, limited resources, not to mention that they are overcome with fascination at the color of my skin and just want to touch me all the time. But the staff (there are 4) have been so helpful and I'm sure I'll find my niche here just as I did at Happy Life. The next seven weeks are sure to fly by.
Yesterday evening Rosemary took me for a walk across the savanna and to the watering reservoir where the giraffes come to drink every day. When we first arrived there were none there, but as we waited their long necks and heads began to appear, and they slowly and cautiously walked towards the water. They are so beautiful; each step they take is deliberate and measured, you feel so small seeing them so close. I took so many photos, but I'm doubtful that they'll be able to convey the beauty of a family of giraffes bending down to drink water with acacia trees in the background during an African sunset.
There is so much that is running through my mind, I think I could write about just the last two days for hours. Internet here is more expensive and harder to get to than it was in Roysambu, although it is not uncommon to see an old Maasai man herding his goats and sheep to water across the bush while talking on his cell phone. Many people, if given the choice between shoes and a cell phone, will prefer to have the latter.
Last weekend Michelle and I went to Mombasa. It was a weekend both busy and relaxing. The streets of Mombasa are winding, confusing, and so very crowded. We spend about half of Saturday looking for a map of the city... a bit ironic. We stayed at the Jambo Paradise hotel in Mombasa, and that gave us the flexibility to visit both the northern and southern coasts. The beaches were the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. The Indian ocean is the perfect temperature for swimming, and is the brilliant turquoise color you always see in photos of paradise. To add to the picturesque image I'm sure is in your mind, imagine me riding a camel along the beach.
An 8 hour overnight bus ride later and we were back in Nairobi. Suddenly I only had two days left at Happy Life before leaving for Maasailand. Wednesday was Michelle's birthday so we celebrated by getting manicures and pedicures at a beauty shop along the street. The lady had never been to beauty school, but she made my feet look and feel as though they had never seen a speck of dust. That changed rather quickly.
Thursday morning came and I had to say goodbye to the babies. It was the most difficult to say bye to Sean, my favorite, who made huge improvements in his health while I was there. Then it was into the taxi and off to the next chapter of my adventure.
We drove northwest to Ngong, where I purchased six 5 ltr bottles of drinking water. Then we continued on and the road soon turned to dirt. We only got stuck on the road once on the way to my host family. The whole drive, despite the dust, I kept my window open because the scenery is breathtaking. I'm living just north of Ngong, at the start of the Rift Valley. The community is so spread out it almost appears from a distance as if nobody is living there at all. The landscape is full of acacia trees and lots of thorny bushes that continue as far as you can see, until they meet the mountains on the other side of the valley. The hills on the south side of the valley are sprinkled with windmills that supply power to Ngong. And my host mother, the most kind, warm, and inviting woman I've ever met, has a solar panel that allows her to have one light bulb in the evening when it gets dark. Rosemary, my Maasai mama, is the woman who started Roynasa (questionable spelling) primary school, where I'm teaching. She also has land for growing maize and beans, 5 cows, lots of goats, and too many chickens to count. The school is just next door to the house, so in the mornings at 8am I walk across the garden and through a gate to the school. It is a single building with a wooden frame and metal sheet siding and roofing, and it's divided into 4 areas. The school started in 2009 with just one class, so the highest grade is 1. But each year the school will continue to grow as the students progress to the next level and as more young children come to be educated. Frdiday morning I was handed a piece of chalk and asked to teach science, "head, shoulders, knees and toes" proved very useful. I spent some time in each class on , it was challenging because there is such a stark language barrier between us, limited resources, not to mention that they are overcome with fascination at the color of my skin and just want to touch me all the time. But the staff (there are 4) have been so helpful and I'm sure I'll find my niche here just as I did at Happy Life. The next seven weeks are sure to fly by.
Yesterday evening Rosemary took me for a walk across the savanna and to the watering reservoir where the giraffes come to drink every day. When we first arrived there were none there, but as we waited their long necks and heads began to appear, and they slowly and cautiously walked towards the water. They are so beautiful; each step they take is deliberate and measured, you feel so small seeing them so close. I took so many photos, but I'm doubtful that they'll be able to convey the beauty of a family of giraffes bending down to drink water with acacia trees in the background during an African sunset.
There is so much that is running through my mind, I think I could write about just the last two days for hours. Internet here is more expensive and harder to get to than it was in Roysambu, although it is not uncommon to see an old Maasai man herding his goats and sheep to water across the bush while talking on his cell phone. Many people, if given the choice between shoes and a cell phone, will prefer to have the latter.
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