Breaks here are relaxing... a combination between work and rest... but the children spend more time playing and resting than working. Last week felt like a break although we did not close the school until Friday, but the primary children were only in class Monday and not even for real lessons(I kept busy taking the children out for impromptu PE to play), then Tuesday they were given their marks, but most of the week spent mornings working on the farm and cleaning their dorms and afternoons playing. This coming week is the proper break though with both secondary and primary free and most of the teachers gone home to see their families. I'm not sure if after this week it is back to classes or what, and am still not sure how I took a break when nobody else did(although they were supposed to... maybe) but am honestly happy to be here for the break, and to have had my break, so will not ask too many questions.
This past week I even helped on the farm a little bit. There are never enough tools, so the children take it in shifts, which keeps anyone from getting too tired so is a good plan anyways. They use jembes to break the ground, tools rather like a short handled hoe although the head is bigger. I tried to describe a pitchfork and they found that amusing, as they did my attempts at using the jembe. They told me I did a good job though, and I told them I was a farmer in America, which while a true fact, I am not sure they believed... They are convinced all farms in America are completely run by machines...
The other top activity of this past week was mancala. The children here go through game fashions. The first month I was here it was a stone game that I have not seen since, but all the little girls played it everyday. Then over December it was a dodging game played with a sock ball and then for a week the games all had to do with rolling four old tires. In the beginning of march they created a village out of building stones left over from the school, and now it is mancala on the sewer grates by the kitchen. They use the grates because in mancala, a game I think that comes from Africa but I play with my sisters, you have two rows of pockets(in our case four pockets for each player) and two banks for each persons stones. Then you move the stones in each pocket around, and if you land where there are already rocks, you pick up that pile and keep moving, depositing in your bank as you circle the board. Whoever has the most rocks in their bank at the end when all the rocks are taken wins. It is a simple game, but very fun and easy to join. I have had to explain it to some of the workers though and to two of the secondary teachers who always seem a little amused that the white women(myself and the young woman from England) are happy to play for ages on the grates with the little children... The children meanwhile were amused to hear I play the same game in America...
Meanwhile, the big event recently was this past Saturday's celebration for our Pastor's graduation. He graduated a few weeks ago from his seminary school(after finishing classes and being here since November) but this was the family celebration. It was lovely. He was Madam's first child, and has grown up in this ministry, achieved his dreams, and now returned, so all the children can look to him as a sign of the possibility for their own futures. We had a nice commisioning service with my MCC reps as special guests, and then a feast of chicken, bananas, rice and beans, maandazi buns... Apparently the boys had started cooking at 4am to finish all the food in time.
So all in all, life continues on in its fullness and challenges. It all feels a little unreal sometimes, but at others I realize this is also as real as it gets. Still, as I read headlines from around the world of chaos and absurdity and how the US government almost shut down over the budget, the fact that my life is a smattering of playing with rocks on grates and holding little babies(who now smile and laugh) and doing my best to live my days here on purpose and for the children, it can all feel a little unreal... My country reps asked if I had a countdown yet, and I confess I do, but it is more to make the most of each day than because I am homesick. What if we lived like each day really mattered? What if we lived on purpose? What if we lived without taking the people around us for granted? Those are the reasons I have a countdown, so I remember how precious each day is and that even when a day is hard, life is beautiful and I will not be here forever and to get up, go out, and live!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
The rains are incredible... I never appreciated them when I arrived back in September, but after several dry and dusty months, I see that they are glorious. With each rain, one can see the world turning green again, the shamba growing... One knows that soon there will be cabbage and kale with the beans and maize, that the cows will have enough to eat, and everything will be grow as it should...
I have also changed since the rains were a common day experience. As I stood on my balcony overlooking the rains yesterday, waiting for them to let up a little so I could walk to the nursery, I realized that I had learned to wait... to be... things I struggled with a lot when I arrived. I could just wait, enjoying the beauty of the rain, the smell of rain that always reminds me a little of home(although yesterday it was mixed with the smell of cow...). I have grown into the rhythm of life here, the waiting and the living...
Speaking of cows, a highlight of this past week was learning how to milk a cow. We have quite a herd, and two cows that currently are milking(the smallest baby cow truly reminds me of a puppy in how playful it is...) So one morning before class I got a lesson in milking from one of the men who keeps the animals. He is a newer worker and truly one of the nicest people... with kids of his own back home, so having a fatherly air about him with the children. Milking a cow was both easier and harder than I thought... I could get the milk to flow, but nowhere near quickly or as efficiently as my teacher...
In other news, we had our end term exams this week, and for the most part my children performed very well. My standard sevens, however, truly struggled, but according to the other teachers, the exams become much harder when they enter grade seven, and so if we all work hard, they should be passing by the end of next term. Apparently, I leave right before exams for term two which is unfortunate. While waiting two hours for exams to start on Thursday(we were waiting for them to be picked up from the district) I had a very nice time just hanging out in the staff office with the teachers, chatting for part, and when they switched to Kiswahili, following as best I could but feeling welcome to wait with them...
Now it is the weekend which is always lovely. Yesterday was Saturday and after the children cleaned their clothes and dorms they just lounged on the grass and played until lunch. Then after lunch we had a hilarious time of games. Here in addition to the teachers, nannies and workers there are three boys who returned to work after finishing secondary this past November, and they are my favorites because they are hilarious... They are a big help around the place, but also big personalities in the adolescent way... One is really into dancing and sometimes on a weekend afternoon will have all the children dancing to music in the dining hall... and even the babies know how to dance here... another is teaching primary(and always has his own personal soundtrack coming from his phone and is always on facebook on his cellphone which I find amusing)... and the third is mostly in the kitchen, but likes to walk around and show of his authority always a little louder than he needs be, but he is awfully nice. Anyways, yesterday they had all the primary come play and it was a lot of fun and a good laugh in the way big brothers are... I even played football with them until we all had to run and bring our laundry in when the rains came...
I have high hopes for a pleasant Sunday, as life continues on...
p.s. I still really love emails... so if you feel inspired...
I have also changed since the rains were a common day experience. As I stood on my balcony overlooking the rains yesterday, waiting for them to let up a little so I could walk to the nursery, I realized that I had learned to wait... to be... things I struggled with a lot when I arrived. I could just wait, enjoying the beauty of the rain, the smell of rain that always reminds me a little of home(although yesterday it was mixed with the smell of cow...). I have grown into the rhythm of life here, the waiting and the living...
Speaking of cows, a highlight of this past week was learning how to milk a cow. We have quite a herd, and two cows that currently are milking(the smallest baby cow truly reminds me of a puppy in how playful it is...) So one morning before class I got a lesson in milking from one of the men who keeps the animals. He is a newer worker and truly one of the nicest people... with kids of his own back home, so having a fatherly air about him with the children. Milking a cow was both easier and harder than I thought... I could get the milk to flow, but nowhere near quickly or as efficiently as my teacher...
In other news, we had our end term exams this week, and for the most part my children performed very well. My standard sevens, however, truly struggled, but according to the other teachers, the exams become much harder when they enter grade seven, and so if we all work hard, they should be passing by the end of next term. Apparently, I leave right before exams for term two which is unfortunate. While waiting two hours for exams to start on Thursday(we were waiting for them to be picked up from the district) I had a very nice time just hanging out in the staff office with the teachers, chatting for part, and when they switched to Kiswahili, following as best I could but feeling welcome to wait with them...
Now it is the weekend which is always lovely. Yesterday was Saturday and after the children cleaned their clothes and dorms they just lounged on the grass and played until lunch. Then after lunch we had a hilarious time of games. Here in addition to the teachers, nannies and workers there are three boys who returned to work after finishing secondary this past November, and they are my favorites because they are hilarious... They are a big help around the place, but also big personalities in the adolescent way... One is really into dancing and sometimes on a weekend afternoon will have all the children dancing to music in the dining hall... and even the babies know how to dance here... another is teaching primary(and always has his own personal soundtrack coming from his phone and is always on facebook on his cellphone which I find amusing)... and the third is mostly in the kitchen, but likes to walk around and show of his authority always a little louder than he needs be, but he is awfully nice. Anyways, yesterday they had all the primary come play and it was a lot of fun and a good laugh in the way big brothers are... I even played football with them until we all had to run and bring our laundry in when the rains came...
I have high hopes for a pleasant Sunday, as life continues on...
p.s. I still really love emails... so if you feel inspired...
Monday, March 28, 2011
Uganda concluded and the journey back to home...
I promised to write more about my time in Uganda, having ended my last post upon reaching Kampala. I arrived at Kampala during a slightly rainy midday that Saturday without really a plan or even a place to stay. Naturally, I did the most sensible thing upon arriving, which was to find a place to eat lunch, find my bearings, and flip through my guidebook to find somewhere to stay. The cheapest option was a tourist backpacking hostel, so I decided to opt for that and anonymity for the day. After all, if you want to be anonymous, go where all the other young, slightly dirty mzungus will be, and you can be pretty sure that you can relax, read your book and be left alone... even by the other dirty mzungus.
Then, I decided to go and get a good lesson in Ugandan history, visiting the Kasubi Tombs of the last four Buganda kings, or kabakas as they are called. The Buganda kingdom is the oldest in Uganda, dating back to the thirteenth century, and to this day they have a king, but his role is more ceremonial than political. The first president of Uganda was also a Buganda king, and apparently that was not a great combination.
These four kings, however, dated back to the beginning of colonial contact with Europe, and I could see in the summaries of their lives that my guide gave me, the struggles that that contact posed. The first kabaka invited European missionaries, but under the mistaken assumption that they would come and teach the Buganda how to make guns. Of course, even if they may have agreed to such a thing, the Europeans were not in the habit of giving out guns... They did give one ceremonial cannon, and in the drum house there was a wood cannon... Apparently, the kabaka would shoot off the little one, and then tell his guests that he would not shoot this other one because it was too terrifying. A clever strategy.
Anyway, after this first kabaka's experience, his son was not so willing to embrace the westerners, and even massacred some missionaries outside of town. It really is unfortunate that Christianity had to come to Africa so closely bound to colonialism... in many ways you see the church here still trying to work out that relationship, not that the church in the West doesn't have its own copious amounts of baggage to work out. Because of his antagonism though, this king was exiled to the Seychille islands(I remember when I was in Ghana learning about how the British exiled the Ashante and Fante royalty as well... anyone who sought to oppose, so also rebel leaders here in Kenya...), and his infant son suceeded him, somebody who could be handled more closely by the colonialists.
This third king then had quite a different experience than his father, having a more western education, serving for the British in the First World War, and becoming a Christian, having only one wife while his father or grandfather had had, if I recall correctly, somewhere like 800...
His son also was much more westernized, serving for the British during the Second World War, and then going on to lead Uganda to independence and become the first president. This experience of independence leaders and movements in Africa was not uncommon. During the World Wars, the colonial powers would have their colonial subjects come fight on foreign fronts, often for such notions as freedom, but this freedom was never meant to extend to them... Thus, the soldiers would come home, horrified by the slaughter they had seen, disillusioned yet also empowered. In the 1950s and 60s, the world and Africa were ripe for independence.
I did not really have any knowledge of Uganda's history, so found my lesson quite interesting. These Kabaka's had ruled out of Kampala, and even around the compound of the tombs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, descendents of the Kabaka's wives still live. Unfortunately, I could not see the tombs themselves as they had been burned down by an arsonist a year ago... They are in the proccess of rebuilding the traditional house to enclose the tombs. Thankfully, the kabakas were buried far enough down that during the fire, they were undamaged.
Kampala is a beautiful city. Originally it was built centered around seven hilltops(the kabakas would build their palaces on the hills for securities sake) and while it has grown from that original number, it is still very much a city of many hills, which also means a city of spectacular views. It is smaller than Nairobi, the city center has less modern skyscrapers and while a thriving business district, not quite the level one finds in Nairobi. However, as one of the primary modes of transportation is motorcycles instead of only mtatus, the traffic seemed better than Nairobi, if terrifying with all the motorbikes darting in and out around the cars. I thoroughly enjoyed my time though, and once I had my bearings(easy enough to get with all the hills and landmark buildings on them) I enjoyed walking all over.
Sunday I went to church at the Narimembe Cathedral, a big Anglican church on top of one of the major hills(incredible view!). It was nice, and one can always count on the Anglicans and Catholics to only last an hour in service... then from there I went to the Uganda Museum which I had been warned was rather underwhelming. It really was although it had some nice display cases with musical instruments... It had ethnographic exhibits about how the different tribes used to live, hunt, farm, play, etc, with a brief mention of the British and Germans striking a deal after the Berlin Conference allowing the British to take Uganda(they wanted Uganda because the Nile river runs through it and Egypt was at the time a strategic interest of the British). From the museum though you would not barely know Uganda was colonized, or how colonialism was in Uganda, or about the independence movement or subsequent almost fifty years of independence with its share of coups, awful leaders(think Idi Amin...) and current political strongman who just won another term last month...
That afternoon I just walked around downtown, making my route by the Parliament building, past the high end hotels and then back down into the CBD. Monday morning I headed my journey homewards to Kenya, catching a taxi mini-bus to the border.
Taxis as they are called in Uganda or mtatus as we call them here in Kenya are an experience in themselves, as are taxi yards. Nairobi has stages that are less congested, and so not the full taxi yard experience. Being in Kampala reminded me of my time in Ghana though. In Kampala, the city on hills, the taxi parks are down, and as you descend into them you feel like you will drown in the crowd of people. They are really just a big yard with hundreds of minibuses, and you have to find the sign with your destination, or ask directions and be pointed in the very rough right direction... as it had been raining, in Kampala they were very muddy, and as a quite muddy mzungu I raised a few eyebrows. I caught a few people quite openly laughing at the amount of mud I had collected around my sandals. Then truly, you find one, and before you know it there are twenty people on this little bus... you think small thoughts... as you wait for the taxi to fill, vendors ply you with an array of wares, mostly water, soda and biscuits, but sometimes and odd assortment of junk(plastic cars? sunglasses? calenders...)... then when it fills, the taxi somehow manages to get out of the park despite the fact that there seems to be no proper roads and the minibuses seem pressed bumper to bumper even parked... still, you think small thoughts and settle back to enjoy the ride...
I do enjoy the rides as it is a great way to see the countryside, the beautiful hills of Uganda, the sugar cane fields, and then crossing the border on foot(this time at the Busia crossing) fitting twenty more into a mtatu now, and then the beautiful hills of Western Kenya coming down into Kisumu and Lake Victoria. I had wanted to see more of Kisumu and even had an acquaintance from the states who was studying there, so Monday night I met up with her, and then Tuesday I walked around town and down to the lake, which looked like a field. Lake Victoria is the biggest lake in Africa and divided between Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, although Kenya, with only 6%, probably has the smallest part. Currently, all the lake weed has blown into shore though and it really looked like you were looking out over a great, green field, with a passing fishing boat where a canal had opened up reminding you it was in fact the lake. I really liked Kisumu, but by Tuesday afternoon, was ready to head back to Nairobi.
This time, I took a direct shuttle, which means I even had a seat to myself, and got to see more stunning crountyside; the tea fields of Kericho, the sloping hills with farms that seemed to want to roll off, the Rift Valley with its lakes... it was a good six hour drive...
Then a few days in Nairobi, my MCC team meeting which is always lovely to see the other MCC'ers, and Saturday back to Hope.
It was a lovely break, I had some good adventures, got to see a lot of friends, but now I am so glad to be back here. I missed the children, teaching, the crazy life that I live here... I'm not convinced the school did break while I was away, but apparently they had some American visitors for a week, and I am quite happy to have been away because groups make me feel awkward in my own home(and the child who told me about them seemed underwhelmed himself)... Now we are preparing for exams which start Thursday, and with the rains came the common cold(the poor children are so miserably sick!) so I am hoping they are feeling a little better before the exams. In other news, we got three more little infants last Friday, so the family keeps on growing...
Then, I decided to go and get a good lesson in Ugandan history, visiting the Kasubi Tombs of the last four Buganda kings, or kabakas as they are called. The Buganda kingdom is the oldest in Uganda, dating back to the thirteenth century, and to this day they have a king, but his role is more ceremonial than political. The first president of Uganda was also a Buganda king, and apparently that was not a great combination.
These four kings, however, dated back to the beginning of colonial contact with Europe, and I could see in the summaries of their lives that my guide gave me, the struggles that that contact posed. The first kabaka invited European missionaries, but under the mistaken assumption that they would come and teach the Buganda how to make guns. Of course, even if they may have agreed to such a thing, the Europeans were not in the habit of giving out guns... They did give one ceremonial cannon, and in the drum house there was a wood cannon... Apparently, the kabaka would shoot off the little one, and then tell his guests that he would not shoot this other one because it was too terrifying. A clever strategy.
Anyway, after this first kabaka's experience, his son was not so willing to embrace the westerners, and even massacred some missionaries outside of town. It really is unfortunate that Christianity had to come to Africa so closely bound to colonialism... in many ways you see the church here still trying to work out that relationship, not that the church in the West doesn't have its own copious amounts of baggage to work out. Because of his antagonism though, this king was exiled to the Seychille islands(I remember when I was in Ghana learning about how the British exiled the Ashante and Fante royalty as well... anyone who sought to oppose, so also rebel leaders here in Kenya...), and his infant son suceeded him, somebody who could be handled more closely by the colonialists.
This third king then had quite a different experience than his father, having a more western education, serving for the British in the First World War, and becoming a Christian, having only one wife while his father or grandfather had had, if I recall correctly, somewhere like 800...
His son also was much more westernized, serving for the British during the Second World War, and then going on to lead Uganda to independence and become the first president. This experience of independence leaders and movements in Africa was not uncommon. During the World Wars, the colonial powers would have their colonial subjects come fight on foreign fronts, often for such notions as freedom, but this freedom was never meant to extend to them... Thus, the soldiers would come home, horrified by the slaughter they had seen, disillusioned yet also empowered. In the 1950s and 60s, the world and Africa were ripe for independence.
I did not really have any knowledge of Uganda's history, so found my lesson quite interesting. These Kabaka's had ruled out of Kampala, and even around the compound of the tombs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, descendents of the Kabaka's wives still live. Unfortunately, I could not see the tombs themselves as they had been burned down by an arsonist a year ago... They are in the proccess of rebuilding the traditional house to enclose the tombs. Thankfully, the kabakas were buried far enough down that during the fire, they were undamaged.
Kampala is a beautiful city. Originally it was built centered around seven hilltops(the kabakas would build their palaces on the hills for securities sake) and while it has grown from that original number, it is still very much a city of many hills, which also means a city of spectacular views. It is smaller than Nairobi, the city center has less modern skyscrapers and while a thriving business district, not quite the level one finds in Nairobi. However, as one of the primary modes of transportation is motorcycles instead of only mtatus, the traffic seemed better than Nairobi, if terrifying with all the motorbikes darting in and out around the cars. I thoroughly enjoyed my time though, and once I had my bearings(easy enough to get with all the hills and landmark buildings on them) I enjoyed walking all over.
Sunday I went to church at the Narimembe Cathedral, a big Anglican church on top of one of the major hills(incredible view!). It was nice, and one can always count on the Anglicans and Catholics to only last an hour in service... then from there I went to the Uganda Museum which I had been warned was rather underwhelming. It really was although it had some nice display cases with musical instruments... It had ethnographic exhibits about how the different tribes used to live, hunt, farm, play, etc, with a brief mention of the British and Germans striking a deal after the Berlin Conference allowing the British to take Uganda(they wanted Uganda because the Nile river runs through it and Egypt was at the time a strategic interest of the British). From the museum though you would not barely know Uganda was colonized, or how colonialism was in Uganda, or about the independence movement or subsequent almost fifty years of independence with its share of coups, awful leaders(think Idi Amin...) and current political strongman who just won another term last month...
That afternoon I just walked around downtown, making my route by the Parliament building, past the high end hotels and then back down into the CBD. Monday morning I headed my journey homewards to Kenya, catching a taxi mini-bus to the border.
Taxis as they are called in Uganda or mtatus as we call them here in Kenya are an experience in themselves, as are taxi yards. Nairobi has stages that are less congested, and so not the full taxi yard experience. Being in Kampala reminded me of my time in Ghana though. In Kampala, the city on hills, the taxi parks are down, and as you descend into them you feel like you will drown in the crowd of people. They are really just a big yard with hundreds of minibuses, and you have to find the sign with your destination, or ask directions and be pointed in the very rough right direction... as it had been raining, in Kampala they were very muddy, and as a quite muddy mzungu I raised a few eyebrows. I caught a few people quite openly laughing at the amount of mud I had collected around my sandals. Then truly, you find one, and before you know it there are twenty people on this little bus... you think small thoughts... as you wait for the taxi to fill, vendors ply you with an array of wares, mostly water, soda and biscuits, but sometimes and odd assortment of junk(plastic cars? sunglasses? calenders...)... then when it fills, the taxi somehow manages to get out of the park despite the fact that there seems to be no proper roads and the minibuses seem pressed bumper to bumper even parked... still, you think small thoughts and settle back to enjoy the ride...
I do enjoy the rides as it is a great way to see the countryside, the beautiful hills of Uganda, the sugar cane fields, and then crossing the border on foot(this time at the Busia crossing) fitting twenty more into a mtatu now, and then the beautiful hills of Western Kenya coming down into Kisumu and Lake Victoria. I had wanted to see more of Kisumu and even had an acquaintance from the states who was studying there, so Monday night I met up with her, and then Tuesday I walked around town and down to the lake, which looked like a field. Lake Victoria is the biggest lake in Africa and divided between Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, although Kenya, with only 6%, probably has the smallest part. Currently, all the lake weed has blown into shore though and it really looked like you were looking out over a great, green field, with a passing fishing boat where a canal had opened up reminding you it was in fact the lake. I really liked Kisumu, but by Tuesday afternoon, was ready to head back to Nairobi.
This time, I took a direct shuttle, which means I even had a seat to myself, and got to see more stunning crountyside; the tea fields of Kericho, the sloping hills with farms that seemed to want to roll off, the Rift Valley with its lakes... it was a good six hour drive...
Then a few days in Nairobi, my MCC team meeting which is always lovely to see the other MCC'ers, and Saturday back to Hope.
It was a lovely break, I had some good adventures, got to see a lot of friends, but now I am so glad to be back here. I missed the children, teaching, the crazy life that I live here... I'm not convinced the school did break while I was away, but apparently they had some American visitors for a week, and I am quite happy to have been away because groups make me feel awkward in my own home(and the child who told me about them seemed underwhelmed himself)... Now we are preparing for exams which start Thursday, and with the rains came the common cold(the poor children are so miserably sick!) so I am hoping they are feeling a little better before the exams. In other news, we got three more little infants last Friday, so the family keeps on growing...
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Greetings from Uganda!
Greetings from Uganda! My school is on break, and all the teachers were told to leave, so I decided I would leave to visit my neighbor country of Uganda. And yes, I still don't understand how we break these two weeks while the rest of Kenya breaks in April... And yes, I am still apprehensive that the students have to take exams the moment we resume on the 28th... And yes, despite my concerns, real or imagined, I was thankfully able to leave those behind when the time came to go... And yes, I thought I was leaving on Sunday but then my ride to Nairobi switched to Saturday so I packed and left without saying goodbye which is never a good feeling... surely they know I am coming back because they ask at least once a week when I am leaving(not because they are trying to get rid of me, just because they know that everyone is always leaving...)
Meanwhile, while missing my children, I am having an amazing time. I was able to get a ride into Nairobi Saturday, stayed that night with my MCC country reps who just happened to be having a potluck that evening so I was able to catch up with some other MCC friends as well. Then I went to church Sunday with two of the MCC service workers, and joined them and some retired MCC people(legends was how they were described to me) for lunch after. We had the most amazing Indian food! Meanwhile, the conversation was an amazing combination of history and Kenya and peace... and I mostly just listened because the MCC legends are legendary for a reason. They have lived in Kenya or East Africa since the seventies(and she grew up in Tanzania even before then) and are very wise.
Then Sunday evening I got the night bus to Kampala, befriending most of the other bus riders as my means of security... or Ugandans are more open than Kenyans... or something. Anyways, I was glad to have chatted with some of them when we hit the border at five in the morning, still dark, and had to walk through this wide expanse of no mans land between the Kenyan and Ugandan immigration offices.
I arrived in Kampala around ten, met up with my friend Amanda who is doing SALT in Uganda, and we got lunch. I had an amazing calzone! Monday Kampala was electing a mayor, so we opted to lay low that day because elections can often mean conflict. There was no conflict on Monday, but I think the police did fire tear gas on people celebrating their candidates victory a day or two later... It was great to catch up with Amanda though and to hear how her SALT experience compared to mine.
Then, Tuesday I followed her back to Kamuli where she is living and working and got to see first hand how her SALT year was going which was lovely. I got to meet and stay with her host family who were incredible: while my position has me with the biggest host family ever, who I love, sometimes I wish I had a more traditional host family. I enjoyed borrowing hers for a few days. Then I got to see her work, where she works split between some teaching and some social work.
I really enjoyed visiting the schools and seeing how they compared to my experience. My school is not typical. Our class sizes are a dream, and education is such a priority that I don't have to worry about convincing my kids to study. Not so at the primary where Amanda teaches. Class sizes averaged around 100, and with so many children, the teachers had a daunting task. The teachers were very welcoming of me as their visitor, and I had a good conversation with one of them when Amanda was off doing some home visits. He says education is a real struggle in Uganda because people have so many children and there is free primary education(which is good) but with so many children that can make 100 children in a class. It does seem here like there is an abundance of primary schools, probably in Kenya too. I got to help with one of his classes, reviewing a social studies exam with p. 7, and then the next day another school had asked Amanda if I could visit so I taught their P. 7's English. The second school was much smaller, not in a permanent building but a subdivided hall, but the class sizes were much more reasonable. It was great to have an insight into education in Uganda.
As I showed up midweek I really just tagged along for daily life, but another fun experience was getting to sit in on Amanda's churches school outreach practices. The church youth had a trip planned for this weekend where they would go and visit secondary schools doing outreach and encouraging youth to be smart about AIDS. They had songs, dances, skits and plays that they were practicing, and it was fun to meet them and also to watch them practice. At a certain point, their leader had to confiscate all their cellphones because they kept talking during practice... some things are the same the world over... cellphones are taking over the world.
Truly, it was a rich couple of days, and then Friday morning I headed out for some solo traveling adventures, starting in Jinja a few hours away from Kamuli. Jinja is famous as the source of the Nile, and I went to the site where Lake Victoria becomes the Nile river. It was a beautiful sunny day(despite the rains starting this week, which while a blessing has left me often enough quite damp) and I rented a boat to take me out to see the source better and then to go out onto Lake Victoria. I had a great and knowledgeable guide, and while I feel I might have paid more than I should(I am a poor bargainer) it was well worth the $10 I paid... I takes a drop of water 3 months to make it from the source of the Nile to the Mediterranean. There were many beautiful birds along the source, and I even saw a monitor lizard. Then, after my tour, I had fried Tillapia and chips.
That afternoon I just walked around Jinja as I had decided to stay the night before heading onto Kampala. It is a medium sized town, but as it was also the first port in Uganda along Lake Victoria and connecting as a trade route to Tanzania and Kenya, it has some beautiful colonial architecture and just a friendly feel. I like walking, finding it the best way to get a sense of a place. I also had a cup of really good coffee.
Then, this morning I headed upriver to look at the Bujangali Falls, falls made famous mostly by the rafting industry which runs the Nile. I decided to save my money, remembering how scared I was rafting the Spokane river one summer in college with its non-existant rapids. Still, it was a beautiful falls to look at. I have a deep love of waterfalls, probably stemming from my time in Ghana where we would go chasing waterfalls for weekend adventures. They also are very majestic, but this waterfall will soon disappear as a dam is going in nearby. It will be good for the electricity it will provide, but I also can't help feel a little sad for the waterfall. When I left Jinja, it was starting to rain, and by the time I reached the Bujangali falls it was raining quite properly. I think I amused the people working there, having trekked through the rain to just look at the falls...
Then I headed to Kampala, but will leave my time here(still ongoing) for another post. Random Uganda observations... people here are very welcoming(a stereotype my Kenyan friends had told me about Ugandans, but it is true)... a primary means of transportation is riding boda-bodas, motorcycle taxis, and in rural communities the proper way to ride for women in skirts is sideways which was a slightly terrifying, if completely safe on rural backroads, experience... also on transportation I was in a 14 person minibus taxi yesterday that easily was holding twenty people(as I ride more popular routes in Kenya... i.e. police checks... this was a new experience)...
Anyways, that is all for now... I will blog again about my adventures in Kampala and beyond. We have MCC team meeting Friday and then I head back to Hope next Saturday. It feels strange to be away for so long, and I hope things are going well on this break that I never felt anybody knew anything about...
Meanwhile, while missing my children, I am having an amazing time. I was able to get a ride into Nairobi Saturday, stayed that night with my MCC country reps who just happened to be having a potluck that evening so I was able to catch up with some other MCC friends as well. Then I went to church Sunday with two of the MCC service workers, and joined them and some retired MCC people(legends was how they were described to me) for lunch after. We had the most amazing Indian food! Meanwhile, the conversation was an amazing combination of history and Kenya and peace... and I mostly just listened because the MCC legends are legendary for a reason. They have lived in Kenya or East Africa since the seventies(and she grew up in Tanzania even before then) and are very wise.
Then Sunday evening I got the night bus to Kampala, befriending most of the other bus riders as my means of security... or Ugandans are more open than Kenyans... or something. Anyways, I was glad to have chatted with some of them when we hit the border at five in the morning, still dark, and had to walk through this wide expanse of no mans land between the Kenyan and Ugandan immigration offices.
I arrived in Kampala around ten, met up with my friend Amanda who is doing SALT in Uganda, and we got lunch. I had an amazing calzone! Monday Kampala was electing a mayor, so we opted to lay low that day because elections can often mean conflict. There was no conflict on Monday, but I think the police did fire tear gas on people celebrating their candidates victory a day or two later... It was great to catch up with Amanda though and to hear how her SALT experience compared to mine.
Then, Tuesday I followed her back to Kamuli where she is living and working and got to see first hand how her SALT year was going which was lovely. I got to meet and stay with her host family who were incredible: while my position has me with the biggest host family ever, who I love, sometimes I wish I had a more traditional host family. I enjoyed borrowing hers for a few days. Then I got to see her work, where she works split between some teaching and some social work.
I really enjoyed visiting the schools and seeing how they compared to my experience. My school is not typical. Our class sizes are a dream, and education is such a priority that I don't have to worry about convincing my kids to study. Not so at the primary where Amanda teaches. Class sizes averaged around 100, and with so many children, the teachers had a daunting task. The teachers were very welcoming of me as their visitor, and I had a good conversation with one of them when Amanda was off doing some home visits. He says education is a real struggle in Uganda because people have so many children and there is free primary education(which is good) but with so many children that can make 100 children in a class. It does seem here like there is an abundance of primary schools, probably in Kenya too. I got to help with one of his classes, reviewing a social studies exam with p. 7, and then the next day another school had asked Amanda if I could visit so I taught their P. 7's English. The second school was much smaller, not in a permanent building but a subdivided hall, but the class sizes were much more reasonable. It was great to have an insight into education in Uganda.
As I showed up midweek I really just tagged along for daily life, but another fun experience was getting to sit in on Amanda's churches school outreach practices. The church youth had a trip planned for this weekend where they would go and visit secondary schools doing outreach and encouraging youth to be smart about AIDS. They had songs, dances, skits and plays that they were practicing, and it was fun to meet them and also to watch them practice. At a certain point, their leader had to confiscate all their cellphones because they kept talking during practice... some things are the same the world over... cellphones are taking over the world.
Truly, it was a rich couple of days, and then Friday morning I headed out for some solo traveling adventures, starting in Jinja a few hours away from Kamuli. Jinja is famous as the source of the Nile, and I went to the site where Lake Victoria becomes the Nile river. It was a beautiful sunny day(despite the rains starting this week, which while a blessing has left me often enough quite damp) and I rented a boat to take me out to see the source better and then to go out onto Lake Victoria. I had a great and knowledgeable guide, and while I feel I might have paid more than I should(I am a poor bargainer) it was well worth the $10 I paid... I takes a drop of water 3 months to make it from the source of the Nile to the Mediterranean. There were many beautiful birds along the source, and I even saw a monitor lizard. Then, after my tour, I had fried Tillapia and chips.
That afternoon I just walked around Jinja as I had decided to stay the night before heading onto Kampala. It is a medium sized town, but as it was also the first port in Uganda along Lake Victoria and connecting as a trade route to Tanzania and Kenya, it has some beautiful colonial architecture and just a friendly feel. I like walking, finding it the best way to get a sense of a place. I also had a cup of really good coffee.
Then, this morning I headed upriver to look at the Bujangali Falls, falls made famous mostly by the rafting industry which runs the Nile. I decided to save my money, remembering how scared I was rafting the Spokane river one summer in college with its non-existant rapids. Still, it was a beautiful falls to look at. I have a deep love of waterfalls, probably stemming from my time in Ghana where we would go chasing waterfalls for weekend adventures. They also are very majestic, but this waterfall will soon disappear as a dam is going in nearby. It will be good for the electricity it will provide, but I also can't help feel a little sad for the waterfall. When I left Jinja, it was starting to rain, and by the time I reached the Bujangali falls it was raining quite properly. I think I amused the people working there, having trekked through the rain to just look at the falls...
Then I headed to Kampala, but will leave my time here(still ongoing) for another post. Random Uganda observations... people here are very welcoming(a stereotype my Kenyan friends had told me about Ugandans, but it is true)... a primary means of transportation is riding boda-bodas, motorcycle taxis, and in rural communities the proper way to ride for women in skirts is sideways which was a slightly terrifying, if completely safe on rural backroads, experience... also on transportation I was in a 14 person minibus taxi yesterday that easily was holding twenty people(as I ride more popular routes in Kenya... i.e. police checks... this was a new experience)...
Anyways, that is all for now... I will blog again about my adventures in Kampala and beyond. We have MCC team meeting Friday and then I head back to Hope next Saturday. It feels strange to be away for so long, and I hope things are going well on this break that I never felt anybody knew anything about...
Saturday, March 5, 2011
More on school
Greetings friends,
Another week... they seem to be racing by these days! How is it already March?
Last weekend was a lovely break, and allowed me to plunge fully into this past week, and the week was full and good. This term really keeps on getting better and better as I feel more fully integrated into the school and more accepted as part of ordinary life here and less and less as some distinguished visitor(although I do still here myself often referred to as mzungu, which is a little frustrating as people are quick to tell you if asked, that this in fact is not a respectful reference... I told my PE class to at least call me mwalimu mzungu, meaning teacher white person...)
What does a regular school day look like here? Well, for the children it means getting up at the crack of dawn or before to clean their dorms before the 6:30 devotion bell(for me it means getting out of bed hopefully a few minutes before the bell so I can be ready and not late). After devotions, around seven, we take our uji(hot maize porridge). As it is bitingly cold that early in the morning, steam rises from our cups and warms us up. Honestly, it is quite good.
Then, after breakfast, the children go to their classrooms to wait for parade at 8 where the teachers instruct them in discipline and encourage them in their studies. At 8:20, classes begin. Periods last 35 minutes(there are nine in a day... I normally teach between five and six between English and PE), and there is a twenty minute break at 9:30 and a half hour break at 11. At 12:40, we break for devotions and lunch(beans and maize, truly quite delicious) with classes resuming from 2-3:45. At 3:45 the students have parade again and are either sent for chores or games. Games are a lot of fun, especially lately as the teachers are really into it, and breaking into girls and boys, they play volleyball or football with much laughter. Then at 6 the bell summons us for devotions and dinner, with the younger children being sent to bed after dinner(and me going to my room) while the older primary and secondary stay and study until 9.These children are committed to their studies, but as the primary means of learning is memorization, they probably need all that time... It was the same when I was in University in Ghana... to perform well we needed to memorize(at times verbatim) what we had been taught; at least in Ghana, critical thinking was not taught or encouraged, and thankfully it was pass/fail for me, because I did not get good marks...
Classes are 35 minutes. For English, this means going over our material and hopefully having time for the students to complete an in class exercise. If they do not finish, the exercise becomes homework, and if they do finish, I try to assign some review material as homework because they like homework... crazy children, but these children are pretty serious about their educations and have dreams of university and careers even in the lower grades. I was asked recently what my career was, and had to confess I wasn't sure. Different cultural expectations between here and home, where my generation seems to be moving away from the idea of careers in the pursuit of happiness, meaning, or some other vague ideal... For many of the children, they dream of becoming lawyers, doctors, and pilots, although one of my grade fours wants to be a baker so he can make cakes and chapatis(he told me this with the biggest smile, clearly he intends to eat a good amount of his wares!)
Thinking over why this term is so good, it is teaching properly in the school and being in the timetable as a real teacher. Also, it is the level of acceptance the other teachers have granted me, both primary and even secondary. While before I felt there was a level of wariness, this past week I have had good conversations with many of the teachers, and I think they are seeing I am not such a distinguished visitor anymore but perhaps a slightly eccentric peer. They can see I am trying, and I feel very blessed to get to work alongside such committed men and women(well, to be honest, there is only one other woman teacher, but she is incredible!)
Another reason perhaps why this term is so good, is that I understand how things work here so much better. Last term I was perpetually confused and afraid I was doing something wrong, and now while I may never know what is going on, I realize that that is alright and as long as I do my part well, I am okay.
As for my language ability, I now understand what people are saying most of the time, but haven't practiced speaking enough to be able to participate. This leaves me a little silent often, but entertained by the conversations around me.
Overall, things are good, and I have hopes that things will just continue to get better and better. This is why I wanted to come for a year, because relationships take time, and integrating cross-culturally takes time... To come for less time would have left me leaving before I had begun to belong... Coming for a year will make leaving quite hard, as already this feels like one home of many, and while I will also be so happy to see family and friends in America, I will be leaving so many friends and this family behind... That is life though, and life is real. Praise God!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Life continues on...
I feel like these updates are getting much more irregular. I remember in the first few months I was a very regularly weekly blogger, and now I make by and give excuses. My latest excuse is that there was a power outage this past week in the line which my room in the visitor wing of the boys dorm is on, so from Tuesday to Friday I not only had no internet, but no power or water as well. The line to the dining hall was irregular, but thankfully had power each evening so the children could study for their exams, and the girls dorm was out Tuesday until Thursday. Honestly, the boys dorm might still be out, but I have run away to Nairobi for the weekend. I needed to pick up my mail, and if I have to pay as much as I do... I might as well make it worthwhile.
Life at Hope continues on... We had midterms this week and most of my students performed nicely although there are a few who really struggle with school generally which is hard to see. I am sure they have learning disabilities, but we don't really have the capacity to meet those, or probably a proper awareness. Still, even when a student performs poorly, the teachers are often quite encouraging. The week before midterms we had practice exams and they were harder than our midterms(my students did not perform so well) and the teachers encouraged the students and even me:)
One low point of the week was catching one of my students, a girl who is one of my better friends, cheating on her science exam. While she tried to deny it, she did have the science text book open on the bench beside her. I reported her to her class and subject teacher and then ran away. Otherwise, I think my students were good and didn't 'steal' as they call cheating here.
I am still enjoying teaching, feeling more competent as time goes by. On the thought of school, the new secondary building is almost finished. The roof has been going on before our eyes this week despite the horrendous winds that we have been having. I can't imagine putting the sheet roofing on in those fierce gales. Still, it should be finished in March for sure which will be incredible. It is big enough I think some of the primary classes will be moved in there as well.
Also thinking of school, we have a school break for two weeks come March 14, which is a little puzzling. All of Kenya has school holidays over April, so why are we breaking in March? Everyone needs a break on the staff end, and probably the kids too, but I hope none of the teachers have children away at boarding schools or they won't even see them... Still, whatever the Madam says is law, so we are breaking in March. Personally, I haven't a clue what I will do on my break, but I have two weeks to think of something.
Meanwhile, I have run away to Nairobi, coming in yesterday to get my mail from MCC and then deciding to make a weekend of it. I needed the break. Today I have just been walking around downtown for hours because I can. Everyone asks if I have plans, and I am like no... I don't want plans, I want to wander... be anonymous... Life confined to a 13 acre compound for several weeks at a go has its challenges, so I am walking for all the days I can't go anywhere.
I am staying at my country reps house although they are out of town, so last night and this morning I just enjoyed reading outside because it was actually warm enough to be outside, and eating food like cheese and tomato sandwiches and mangoes... Then this morning I came downtown, caught up on my email in the cyber cafe, walked around, found the Railway Museum and visited there, wandered longer, had fries and a milkshake for lunch(I always eat junk food when I come in... because I can...) walked through the parks and around some more and then decided to hide from the heat and update my blog... Altogether a lovely relaxing day.
The Railway Museum was a fun place to go although I was the only one there. The man at the desk said the museum is quite popular with school groups, but being a Saturday, it was quite empty. Empty but interesting, and I learned some parts of Kenyan history I did not know. For example, in Kenya you find a lot of Indian people, and these families mostly came here to build the railways at the turn of the last century. The British colonists first tried to get the Africans to work, but they were quite hostile to the idea of a railroad through their land, so instead the British transported workers from India, India already having built a railway so these included people with some expertise. Then, after the railway was finished, the Indians stayed, being quite succesful in business. For example, they owned most of the supermarkets and continue to own several of the major ones.
The railway project in itself was highly ambitious and very expensive. The British parliament dubbed it the 'lunatic line' because of how much it ended up costing, and in addition to monetary cost, it was quite dangerous, claiming nearly 2500 lives of the people building it. Also, there was one part, where there was quite a bit of trouble to do with man eating lions...
The museum inside had all these old old photographs, of the railways but also of places like Nairobi and Mombassa. These cities have grown ALOT in the last 100 years. Then outside were a lot of old train cars that you could climb in. I was sorry to have not brought my camera, and was very glad I decided to go.
Meanwhile, wandering Nairobi has been lovely. This was the first place I was in Kenya, spending my first two weeks here, and it is where I always come for a break, so walking the now familiar streets gave good opportunity to reflect on the past six months. It is also great for people watching as most of the people out on a Saturday afternoon are out for leisure, and look quite smart, smart being the word people in Kenya use for when you look good.
I will head back to Hope tomorrow afternoon, so have some time left to wander and relax and, always important, stock up on books from the Mennonite Guest House library.
Meanwhile, the rains have not returned, and talk of drought continues even in the highlands while Northern Kenya and regions of Ethiopia and Somalia are facing very dire conditions and starvation. Pray for that region. Pray for rain. Even in the highlands I think people are feeling it if they do not have generous financial backing as we do... The shamba does not grow, and the grass is much too dry for the cattle to be satisfied. They say the rains should come in March or April, so hopefully soon...
In other news, I received an email with my return ticket this week. I leave Kenya on July 19, have reentry retreat in PA, and then fly home to Seattle on my birthday, July 26. Seeing my family will be a pretty lovely birthday, but it feels weird to have a document saying I am leaving, even if I still have five months time... When asked recently how it was going, the best answer I can give is life here is good and hard, but I am glad I am here...
Finally, I still love getting emails...
Life at Hope continues on... We had midterms this week and most of my students performed nicely although there are a few who really struggle with school generally which is hard to see. I am sure they have learning disabilities, but we don't really have the capacity to meet those, or probably a proper awareness. Still, even when a student performs poorly, the teachers are often quite encouraging. The week before midterms we had practice exams and they were harder than our midterms(my students did not perform so well) and the teachers encouraged the students and even me:)
One low point of the week was catching one of my students, a girl who is one of my better friends, cheating on her science exam. While she tried to deny it, she did have the science text book open on the bench beside her. I reported her to her class and subject teacher and then ran away. Otherwise, I think my students were good and didn't 'steal' as they call cheating here.
I am still enjoying teaching, feeling more competent as time goes by. On the thought of school, the new secondary building is almost finished. The roof has been going on before our eyes this week despite the horrendous winds that we have been having. I can't imagine putting the sheet roofing on in those fierce gales. Still, it should be finished in March for sure which will be incredible. It is big enough I think some of the primary classes will be moved in there as well.
Also thinking of school, we have a school break for two weeks come March 14, which is a little puzzling. All of Kenya has school holidays over April, so why are we breaking in March? Everyone needs a break on the staff end, and probably the kids too, but I hope none of the teachers have children away at boarding schools or they won't even see them... Still, whatever the Madam says is law, so we are breaking in March. Personally, I haven't a clue what I will do on my break, but I have two weeks to think of something.
Meanwhile, I have run away to Nairobi, coming in yesterday to get my mail from MCC and then deciding to make a weekend of it. I needed the break. Today I have just been walking around downtown for hours because I can. Everyone asks if I have plans, and I am like no... I don't want plans, I want to wander... be anonymous... Life confined to a 13 acre compound for several weeks at a go has its challenges, so I am walking for all the days I can't go anywhere.
I am staying at my country reps house although they are out of town, so last night and this morning I just enjoyed reading outside because it was actually warm enough to be outside, and eating food like cheese and tomato sandwiches and mangoes... Then this morning I came downtown, caught up on my email in the cyber cafe, walked around, found the Railway Museum and visited there, wandered longer, had fries and a milkshake for lunch(I always eat junk food when I come in... because I can...) walked through the parks and around some more and then decided to hide from the heat and update my blog... Altogether a lovely relaxing day.
The Railway Museum was a fun place to go although I was the only one there. The man at the desk said the museum is quite popular with school groups, but being a Saturday, it was quite empty. Empty but interesting, and I learned some parts of Kenyan history I did not know. For example, in Kenya you find a lot of Indian people, and these families mostly came here to build the railways at the turn of the last century. The British colonists first tried to get the Africans to work, but they were quite hostile to the idea of a railroad through their land, so instead the British transported workers from India, India already having built a railway so these included people with some expertise. Then, after the railway was finished, the Indians stayed, being quite succesful in business. For example, they owned most of the supermarkets and continue to own several of the major ones.
The railway project in itself was highly ambitious and very expensive. The British parliament dubbed it the 'lunatic line' because of how much it ended up costing, and in addition to monetary cost, it was quite dangerous, claiming nearly 2500 lives of the people building it. Also, there was one part, where there was quite a bit of trouble to do with man eating lions...
The museum inside had all these old old photographs, of the railways but also of places like Nairobi and Mombassa. These cities have grown ALOT in the last 100 years. Then outside were a lot of old train cars that you could climb in. I was sorry to have not brought my camera, and was very glad I decided to go.
Meanwhile, wandering Nairobi has been lovely. This was the first place I was in Kenya, spending my first two weeks here, and it is where I always come for a break, so walking the now familiar streets gave good opportunity to reflect on the past six months. It is also great for people watching as most of the people out on a Saturday afternoon are out for leisure, and look quite smart, smart being the word people in Kenya use for when you look good.
I will head back to Hope tomorrow afternoon, so have some time left to wander and relax and, always important, stock up on books from the Mennonite Guest House library.
Meanwhile, the rains have not returned, and talk of drought continues even in the highlands while Northern Kenya and regions of Ethiopia and Somalia are facing very dire conditions and starvation. Pray for that region. Pray for rain. Even in the highlands I think people are feeling it if they do not have generous financial backing as we do... The shamba does not grow, and the grass is much too dry for the cattle to be satisfied. They say the rains should come in March or April, so hopefully soon...
In other news, I received an email with my return ticket this week. I leave Kenya on July 19, have reentry retreat in PA, and then fly home to Seattle on my birthday, July 26. Seeing my family will be a pretty lovely birthday, but it feels weird to have a document saying I am leaving, even if I still have five months time... When asked recently how it was going, the best answer I can give is life here is good and hard, but I am glad I am here...
Finally, I still love getting emails...
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Life has been busy...
At one point I was going to be good and blog every week, regardless of whether anybody actually wanted weekly updates of my life here in Kenya... Needless to say, since the holidays, that has not happened. However, life has been busy, so before it gets overwhelmingly much, an update is due...
I think I mentioned our newborns. Two weeks ago we got four new babies, and I even got to play nanny for the weekend until the nursery was ready. They are doing very well. There is a picture on facebook but uploading to here is painfully slow on my connection, so I have given up trying. I think all the nannies have rather fallen in love with them.
Meanwhile, teaching continues to be a full-time job. I am in the system, and finally, through some trial and error, have learned more of what that means. It means in part that if my students don't perform well, I answer to the board... yikes! I have faith in my students though. Also, it meant I got included in the teacher meeting yesterday with the Madam. She called them all, and me, for tea. It was pretty funny. Everyone is pretty shy, especially around the Madam, and I don't think the primary and secondary teachers know each other at all(I really don't besides one or two secondary) so the bulk of the meeting was going around the circle saying names and then going over a few issues. It was really nice to be included.
Other highlights include my skipping school and going to look at animals. Two weeks ago our two Canadian visitors invited me to go to Lake Naivasha with them, expense covered. While Naivasha is our biggest nearby town and my general transit point when going to Nairobi, I had not been to the lake. It is the second largest in Kenya, has a very large bird and hippopotamus population, and in the middle is an island/peninsula that we took a boat to to see giraffes, zebras, wildabeasts and other 'prey' animals. There are no real predators there, so they have a pretty good deal and it was incredibly beautiful. We saw two baby giraffes less than a month old which were very cute. Then, as is one of the woman's custom, on her way back she picked up icecream for all the children. It is a great treat, and they were thrilled.
The other woman, who was here for the first time, meanwhile wanted to go on a full safari and Madam worked her charm and got really good rates, and somehow I got thrown into the deal. She has been great working with the babies and teaching everyone, myself and the nannies, how to take care of newborns... None of us are mothers, so we really don't know, but she has grown children and knew the ropes... Anyways, this past week she and I went on safari to Masai Mara, the big game park here in Kenya.
Masai Mara was incredible. We left here Monday morning early, and the drive to Narok and the game park took some five hours but was stunningly beautiful as it took us through the Great Rift Valley. Even as you drive, you pass a stray zebra, giraffe or ostrich along the way. It is very dry, and would be very hard to farm, which is probably why the Masai who live in that part of Kenya are traditionally herders, with their special humped cows who need less water.
We arrived at our rather nice tented camp(everything around the park is overpriced and luxury...) in time for lunch, and then once the afternoon started to cool, our driver took us to the park. Shout out to Kenya. Because I am here for a year and have my residence card, I can pay resident rates to get into parks and museums, so instead of paying $120 as a foreigner, I paid 2000ksh, or the equivalent of $25. Not only is this nice for me, it makes most of the parks and museums accessible not only to wealthy foreign tourists but to locals as well. Our driver was saying even the accomodations have resident rates, but we already had a really good deal.
Safari vans are cool. It is a pretty good industry here. They look like white minibuses used for mtatus, but have a really big gas tank so you don't run out of fuel in the parks, and once you get to the parks, the drivers can raise the roof, so you can stand and look out over the top of the bus but still have the shade from the raised roof. You bounce along these dirt roads, and are so close to the animals! It was like being in a National Geographic video, and we saw practically everything.
Our first afternoon we and around 10-20 other vans were circling a pride of sleeping lions, and at the very end as the evening began, they began to wake up. It was incredible to be so close to such an incredible animal. We took a lot of pictures... okay, I didn't as my cameras zoom is not ideal for animals, but my friend did and I stole all her pictures once we got back and they are incredible! Again, I can't put any here because I am not patient enough... We took some funny pictures of the other tourists too...
The next morning we were blessed by lions again, finding some finishing off their breakfast of bufallo near a tree where a whole bunch of babies were lounging. Baby lions really are just big kittens. It was incredible.
While the lions were probably my highlight, we also saw and chased a rather shy leopard, saw several lazy cheetahs, saw ostriches in their element(which was a nice contrast to the ostrich farms I stayed on in South Africa... they are such an old bird), saw hippos and crocodiles lounging in their muddy river, all sorts of gazelles and zebras and wildabeasts and water bufalloes grazing peacefully, as well as giraffes, elephants and an assortment of rather remarkable birds whose names I don't remember. It was very much like being in a National Geographic video...
Unfortunately, my stomach was on the rocks for part of my time, but even with that, it was an incredible experience and totally worth going. The teachers did a great job of covering my classes and were really sweet about it. I wished I could have taken all the children with me. On top of their resident rates, the parks also have student rates, but we don't have a school van yet so school trips are hard. One day...
I had the thought though, once back here and watching my students play football for PE... the lions were incredible, but this, right now, is the real deal! I'm not sure how I will be able to say goodbye to these children come July...
So life continues in its fullness here, always rich, at times hard, and I am excited to see what the next five months have in store. At the same time, I miss friends and family back home, and seek to live in a tension of place and time. As my mother said the other day, rather summing up my emotions and some of my struggles here... 'life is real. Praise God!'
I think I mentioned our newborns. Two weeks ago we got four new babies, and I even got to play nanny for the weekend until the nursery was ready. They are doing very well. There is a picture on facebook but uploading to here is painfully slow on my connection, so I have given up trying. I think all the nannies have rather fallen in love with them.
Meanwhile, teaching continues to be a full-time job. I am in the system, and finally, through some trial and error, have learned more of what that means. It means in part that if my students don't perform well, I answer to the board... yikes! I have faith in my students though. Also, it meant I got included in the teacher meeting yesterday with the Madam. She called them all, and me, for tea. It was pretty funny. Everyone is pretty shy, especially around the Madam, and I don't think the primary and secondary teachers know each other at all(I really don't besides one or two secondary) so the bulk of the meeting was going around the circle saying names and then going over a few issues. It was really nice to be included.
Other highlights include my skipping school and going to look at animals. Two weeks ago our two Canadian visitors invited me to go to Lake Naivasha with them, expense covered. While Naivasha is our biggest nearby town and my general transit point when going to Nairobi, I had not been to the lake. It is the second largest in Kenya, has a very large bird and hippopotamus population, and in the middle is an island/peninsula that we took a boat to to see giraffes, zebras, wildabeasts and other 'prey' animals. There are no real predators there, so they have a pretty good deal and it was incredibly beautiful. We saw two baby giraffes less than a month old which were very cute. Then, as is one of the woman's custom, on her way back she picked up icecream for all the children. It is a great treat, and they were thrilled.
The other woman, who was here for the first time, meanwhile wanted to go on a full safari and Madam worked her charm and got really good rates, and somehow I got thrown into the deal. She has been great working with the babies and teaching everyone, myself and the nannies, how to take care of newborns... None of us are mothers, so we really don't know, but she has grown children and knew the ropes... Anyways, this past week she and I went on safari to Masai Mara, the big game park here in Kenya.
Masai Mara was incredible. We left here Monday morning early, and the drive to Narok and the game park took some five hours but was stunningly beautiful as it took us through the Great Rift Valley. Even as you drive, you pass a stray zebra, giraffe or ostrich along the way. It is very dry, and would be very hard to farm, which is probably why the Masai who live in that part of Kenya are traditionally herders, with their special humped cows who need less water.
We arrived at our rather nice tented camp(everything around the park is overpriced and luxury...) in time for lunch, and then once the afternoon started to cool, our driver took us to the park. Shout out to Kenya. Because I am here for a year and have my residence card, I can pay resident rates to get into parks and museums, so instead of paying $120 as a foreigner, I paid 2000ksh, or the equivalent of $25. Not only is this nice for me, it makes most of the parks and museums accessible not only to wealthy foreign tourists but to locals as well. Our driver was saying even the accomodations have resident rates, but we already had a really good deal.
Safari vans are cool. It is a pretty good industry here. They look like white minibuses used for mtatus, but have a really big gas tank so you don't run out of fuel in the parks, and once you get to the parks, the drivers can raise the roof, so you can stand and look out over the top of the bus but still have the shade from the raised roof. You bounce along these dirt roads, and are so close to the animals! It was like being in a National Geographic video, and we saw practically everything.
Our first afternoon we and around 10-20 other vans were circling a pride of sleeping lions, and at the very end as the evening began, they began to wake up. It was incredible to be so close to such an incredible animal. We took a lot of pictures... okay, I didn't as my cameras zoom is not ideal for animals, but my friend did and I stole all her pictures once we got back and they are incredible! Again, I can't put any here because I am not patient enough... We took some funny pictures of the other tourists too...
The next morning we were blessed by lions again, finding some finishing off their breakfast of bufallo near a tree where a whole bunch of babies were lounging. Baby lions really are just big kittens. It was incredible.
While the lions were probably my highlight, we also saw and chased a rather shy leopard, saw several lazy cheetahs, saw ostriches in their element(which was a nice contrast to the ostrich farms I stayed on in South Africa... they are such an old bird), saw hippos and crocodiles lounging in their muddy river, all sorts of gazelles and zebras and wildabeasts and water bufalloes grazing peacefully, as well as giraffes, elephants and an assortment of rather remarkable birds whose names I don't remember. It was very much like being in a National Geographic video...
Unfortunately, my stomach was on the rocks for part of my time, but even with that, it was an incredible experience and totally worth going. The teachers did a great job of covering my classes and were really sweet about it. I wished I could have taken all the children with me. On top of their resident rates, the parks also have student rates, but we don't have a school van yet so school trips are hard. One day...
I had the thought though, once back here and watching my students play football for PE... the lions were incredible, but this, right now, is the real deal! I'm not sure how I will be able to say goodbye to these children come July...
So life continues in its fullness here, always rich, at times hard, and I am excited to see what the next five months have in store. At the same time, I miss friends and family back home, and seek to live in a tension of place and time. As my mother said the other day, rather summing up my emotions and some of my struggles here... 'life is real. Praise God!'
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)