Kenya Time

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Another instance of Africa time and American time.

Today it was planned that I was to meet a teacher from my school here in Kakamega at 10 am. We were meeting to teach parents of deaf children at our school sign language so that they can better communicate with their children. It is really good to see that their are teachers here at Mumias Primary School for the Deaf that are teaching parents. As well that their are parents who are wanting to learn sign language.

I left this morning at 7:30 and arrived at 8:30. I wanted to get their in plenty of time so I could do some errands I really needed to do before the meeting. One thing I needed was unlock mpesa account on my phone so I could add money and thus use my phone. I accomplished that with little trouble. Well maybe not little. Finding it...yah yah yah. There is nothing like asking 5 people and they give you different directions but all are in the same general directions. Finally, after I had walked for an hour and came full circle to where I started I asked a couple that I was passing. I was looking for some help. Isn’t it nice when you are looking for help and you ask another tourist. But it worked out good because he was able to speak Kiswahili to another gentlemen that was walking by. The tourist couple, who was from Nairobi, translated the man’s answer so I could find the Safaricom Care Center. Once I arrived at the building, I looked around and noticed that I had walked down that street not to long ago.

Also, during my time in the safaricom care center I also was looking at getting another phone. It has been suggested to purchase a backup cheap phone. Why you may ask, incase the primary one gets stolen or stops working it is good to have one. I did not buy the phone, but was comparing prices.

After my trip to the safaricom store, I took a walk through the market. Wow. It was pretty much 4 times larger than mumias. People, fruit, vegetables, clothes and everything else was laid out to be seen. Among the foods that are not normally in Mumias were corn on the stock and pumpkin. It is still amazing that virtually every seller sells the same thing.

Kakamega market

President Kibaki and President Barack Obama
(most if not all business have portraits of President Kibaki but this rare one had Obama as well).

Normally their are hens, goats or cows eating food scraps left in the street. This was the first pig i have seen in Kenya.

I then notice that it is time to meet my teacher for the meeting. I text my colleague to say that I was going to be a few minutes late, Pole (I am sorry). I go to where we are supposed to meet and ask around where we are supposed to meet. I asked what seemed like 10 different people and none of them knew. I was told to just wait as they go and look. I waited and waited. No one find out anything useful besides telling me I don’t know.

I met a lady who is also at the school and she suggested that I could wait with her. She was attending a seminar/lecture for teachers with HIV. I sat and listened to the various lectures who basically said, that your status as being infected with HIV will not change so you should live your life. You have a huge responsibility as a teacher, and thus should be your focus. I never really knew before I arrived here how big hiv/aids among every walk of life really is. Sex is normal and rampant. The act is not the problem, but the lack of protection, limited partners and abstinence. Those are the three main messages that are preached among Africans. Even though people know this information they don’t take the necessary steps.

As I mentioned, I arrived at the meeting place a little late. I waited another 2 hours before the other teacher arrived. If I knew he was going to be late I could have spent more time at the market or doing various other things. Even though I know about africa time, I forgot today for some reason. Maybe next time, i should ask if the meeting is on America time or Kenya time.

After we had a brief meeting with the parents because there was only 5 parents, there are normally 20-30. There might be a meeting next Saturday; I will wait and see.

Once the short meeting was over I visited a RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) who now lives in Kakamega. He did his service in Tanzania and COS (Completion of Service) November of 2009. He was first assigned to Kenya, but because of the violence of the election in 2007 he was moved to tanzania where he stayed for 2 years. It was nice hearing his stories of his travels and his experience as a peace corps volunteer. There is definitely a bond amongst PCVs.

On my way back to the matatu station I wanted to stop by the supermarket to see if they had a rocking chair. Of course they don’t. I was disappointed. I picked up a few things while I was there such as more spices and a food grater. One of these days I am going to get a rocking chair. Also I would really like a hammock, either bought or made.

Teaching breakthrough

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentines Day in Kenya. There was chatter amongst the staff at school about the importance and the big thing that is valentines day. Well the day came and went and it definitely did not live up to the hype. Of course there were plenty of comments on the local radio stations. On one station the host was taking calls about relationship troubles and what should be done. I could only think of Delilah. The more love stories that are shared; sometimes I wonder if the caller actually listens to what they are saying. Sometimes it is humorous.

My sitting room

I mentioned earlier that I was going to interpret for a catholic mass on Wednesday morning. Baptism by fire. I guess it is nice to be humbled. For starters I arrived 15 minutes ahead of when I was told to be there, but the service was a good 10 minutes underway. After a few minutes I go up on stage and start to interpret. I notice very quickly that the Father is speaking much faster than he did for the other interpreter that interpreted before I came up. It was very hard. On a personal note, I wrestled with interpreting for information that I don’t believe is true. Interpreting for a church service is very difficult. A lot of the words must be explained either before or after the service for the information to be fully grasped.

These past two weeks have been hard. Teaching is hard profession and I have total respect and admiration for those who teach. My main struggle is teaching social studies. Unlike many of the other subjects, this one requires knowledge of a lot of signs. I have some, but near not enough. The other teachers continually say that bringing visual aids is very helpful for this subject. I totally agree. It is hard when I go to teach, the students look tired and in no way interested. The class is right after lunch or right before. I can somewhat understand. When I walk into the class and the pupils ask is it P.E. time, I am not sure what to think. I guess it Is nice that they enjoy P.E. but that does not give me any confidence for teaching social studies.

Well Monday arrived and it felt like it was going to be just another day, but how in just moments everything changed. While I am sitting in the staff room planning my lessons for the day, I see teachers running out of the room; screaming and pointing. I then noticed pupils running also. My first thought was that their was a fight. I ran outside to see what was going on. Fire! Rooms behind the kitchen had caught fire and it was spreading quickly. The fire department was called, 20 minutes away. All of the staff and teachers pitched in by dousing water on the fire from buckets and large sufrias (cooking pots). While people were doing that, others (including myself) were removing furniture and everything that was important in the adjacent rooms out. It may have looked like a chaotic situation, but things seemed to flow nicely. We are are able to put the fire out and then we see the fire truck arrive. They begin to unload, then they notice the fire is out. They pack up and leave. St. Angelias Secondary School (over the fence) came to assist in putting out the fire. It was remarkable to see so many people working together.

What makes this even worse is the rooms that were affected was a man’s living quarters. In addition to that, he is planning on getting married 28, February 2010. All of the money for the dowry, clothes and food that he was planning on using for the wedding was destroyed. I can’t imagine what is going through his head right now.

The teachers put together some funds and brought whatever clothes or household goods that we thought would be helpful for the man and the family from our own homes.

Needless to say, there was little teaching that happened that day.

Seven weeks. I am mentioning the time frame for one reason. It has taken me this long to have one good class of Social Studies. I have tried several methods of teaching the material, but nothings seemed to work. Everyday the pupils look bored. I am not sure whether they are bored or whether they are not understanding the information. I dread teaching this class. I have no idea what to do. Some days I want to just skip the class and do something else. The majority of the time I draw maps on the black board and have the pupils to copy and label the appropriate places. I have done the provinces, climate regions and cities for roughly 4-5 weeks straight. I have tried on several occasions to try and teach with out the maps, but with little success. Today I tried something new. I wrote a paragraph on the board from the text and then signed it to them. After I finished; I asked a pupil to come up and sign it as well. The rest of the class was paying attention and seemed to understand the material. They copied the paragraph while I wrote the questions on the other side. I did the same thing with the questions. I signed it first, then had a pupil come up also and sign it. It definitely made my day.

I have mentioned before that I m teaching life skills. Currently I am teaching them how to write a letter. I have some elementary school teachers back in the states who are having their class also write letters to my 3 life skills classes. I am looking forward to receiving the letters and have the pupils read it. Every child should get a letter, which will make their day.

Of course having favorites is highly discouraged, but I have some. So sue me. I have one class I thoroughly enjoy teaching. The pupils greet me with a big smile and deaf applause. Last week the class started standing up when I walked into the room. They would then sign: welcome, how are you? we are fine. What an honor.

Buying a rocking chair in Kakamega on Saturday.

Teaching

Monday, January 18, 2010
Today I visited the police station with the assistance of a fellow
teacher. I wanted to introduce myself to the local authorities here in
Mumias. Not only is it a requirement for me to meet the important
people in town it also is good for those people to be aware of my
presence. I introduced my self to the Officer Commanding Station (OCS)
and the Deputy OCS. This would be the equivalent of the police chief
and the assistant police chief of the town. They were very hospitable
and appreciative that I stopped by and introduced myself.
This evening I went to help a few of the students in my math class who
were struggling. It is a wonderful feeling when the light bulb goes
off in their heads. Of course the struggle will continue to be that
some kids are very smart and appear to be bored with the work being
given.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Teaching. It is still hard to believe I am doing it in Kenya. There
are definite struggles. One large one is teaching. My teaching
experience before I came to the peace corps was minimal at best. For
some reason I don't feel intimidated with teaching which is a good
thing. I want to do the best that I can but struggle with how to
present the information so that the pupils understand. Teaching deaf
students is a lot different than hearing.
I feel comfortable with teaching math. I understand and like math so
teaching it is a joy. My greatest struggle now is teaching social
studies. There is so much material that needs to be covered and
explaining that to deaf students is very hard. The greatest obstacle
is the signing vocabulary. During Pre-Service Training we were not
given the vocab for teaching subjects. The emphasis was on
conversation. On that matter I feel very comfortable, but teaching is
very hard. Currently I am teaching and explaining maps to the pupils.
I am going over the mountain ranges, rivers, climate regions,
provinces, agriculture and so forth. It is important for the students
to understand where these things are located.
I have started teaching life skills. My first topic i have introduced
is how to address a letter to be mailed. Hopefully soon, I can have
them write a letter to some teacher friends back home. I am taking it
a day at time. Since i am only teaching one class a week to three
different classes; it might take a while, but am willing to wait.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
My birthday. I received a phone call from mom. It was nice to hear her
voice.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Where to begin. This past Monday I helped with the athletics training
at the school. In March a group of students will be selected to attend
regional competitions. Athletics consist of running short and long
distances. The school also has a futbol, netball for girls
(basketball) and dancing. Behind the school is a soccer field where we
met for practice. As I arrive numerous of the kids are already
running. I then noticed that either the kids are running barefoot or
in flip flops. Yes flip flops. I can hardly walk in them much less run
in them. They ran for 30 minutes. I was tired just watching them.
Every grade and every class has a prefect (lead student). During the
running they would carry sticks to hit the pupils that were not
running. As much as I am not used to seeing kids being hit with sticks
this method seem to work. After the 30 minutes the boys and girls were
separated and were led by a prefect in stretching. The coach then
selected out every age group to race. For the younger age it was 2
laps and for the upper age (class 8-8th grade) ran 5 laps. I was so
amazed at how well the kids ran. I did notice during the race they
took off their flip flops and ran barefoot.
Math class. Ohhh ya ya. This was harder than I thought. It is hard to
teach adding 3 digit numbers if they have a hard time adding 1 digit
numbers. Yesterday I made up a game that they seemed to enjoy. I put
19 addition problems on the board. These all involved carrying a
digit. Ex. 9+4. I had two teams and made them do it as fast as
possible. They do like competition. It is encouraging to see when the
kids know the right answer and are trying to help the other pupils. On
the other hand it is hard because they usually help the same students.
I gave my first test as a teacher, it was math class 4 (4th grade; 8
out of 19 got 80% or higher. I suppose that is really good. And
basically the rest need a lot of improvement. I told them the day
before there would be a test and we went over problems that would be
on the test. The day of the test for the first 10 minutes I went over
again problems that would be on the test. When the review was done, I
erased the answers and told them to do the work themselves. The goal
is for the kids to succeed. To easy, I have no idea. With such
disparity in the class it is hard.
I also gave my first test in Social Studies. I had the students fill
in the blanks of physical regions in kenya and label them on the map.
We had gone over this map for 3 class periods. As was the case in the
math class some kids got it, but most were way off. They do want to
succeed really bad, but something is not clicking. Social studies for
me is the hardest to teach. The material is so wordy in the text book.
When I try to explain it to the pupils I don't do a good job, because
the material is wordy, it requires a lot of signs of which I don't
know. I definitely can learn some, but this is the greatest challenge
I have right now.
It is good to be connected and included in the activities at the
school. It is nice that the teachers are very welcoming and willing to
teach me things about the kenya way of life. I have been invitied over
for lunch at a deaf teachers house and helped make a cake at another
colleagues house.Last Sunday when I was having Sunday lunch with a
deaf teacher another teacher came in and said that there was a group of people that was
going to being making a cake that evening. Of course I chimed in and
asked if I could join. They asked if I would buy some milk and bring
it over that evening. I later found out that the group of 4 people had
just started a cooking group. They would all pitch in a few shillings
for the ingredients and together they would make a big meal. It is
great to involved in a cooking group. I am eager to learn some new
things to cook and methods of cooking. I sounds like we are going to
get together once a week. If they slack off, i will persuade for at
least once a week.
Sunday evening we made a cake. I had not seen a jiko oven in action
but was eager to see how it worked. A jiko oven is basically a
charcoal basin with charcoal in the cavity. A pot is placed ontop of
the coals with sand/gravel in the pot. Another pot with whatever you
are cooking goes inside the sand/gravel pot. A lid is then placed
ontop and hot/burning charcoal is placed on top of the lid. With in 45
minutes our cake was done. It tasted wonderful. I look forward to
trying various cakes and desserts in the coming days and weeks.
On Saturday I am attending mumias youth deaf group. The essence of the
group is to equip the deaf youth in and around mumias about hiv/aids.
There are a great number of youth that are in hiding because not only
they are deaf, but also they have infected with hiv/aids. The group is
looking into finding different ways to reach the youth in areas that
they understand and is beneficial to them. The secretary of the group
is a deaf teacher at my school.
Of course those were my plans, but I found out Friday morning that
there was a funeral for a relative of one of the teachers at the
school and I joined all of the other teachers in attending. Half of
the teachers left Friday night and the other half left that morning. I
had heard that funerals are a celebration with lots of dancing and
eating. I was looking forward to both. I thought there would be
dancing and eating both days, but just Friday night. I left Saturday
morning and arrived well into the program. The event was outside under
numerous tents. The ceremony on saturday lasted several hours and had
numerous speakers. what was interested was the first born son of the
diseased gave a detailed explanation of how the person died. A "play
by play" certainly not normal for america, but nice to be apart of
something different here in kenya.
January 31, 2010
i went to bugoma, it is a small town about 1 hour away via a matatu on
a uneven dirt road. I am looking for a blender. The lady that I had
lunch with a few days ago served avocado juice. She informed me the
only ingredients were avocado, sugar and water mixed in a blender. I
can't wait to make my own.
On my way back from bugoma with K ann we ran into some kids that
looked like they were on the wrong continent. They were wearing
basketball shoes, jordan shorts, and college basketball jerseys. When
I saw a N.C. State jersey I said wait a minute. I might have to break
out the orange and white. I could not pass up the opportunity to ask
where they play and when. Next Saturday and Sunday I am heading to the
hardwood to play some ball. I am curious to see how different or
similar it is to playing on the playground back home.
Also on Friday I was asked if I would be the sign language interpreter
for mass on Wednesday morning for the deaf at the school at the local
catholic church. I had one stipulation, the priest must speak english.
I would be of no use if it was in Kiswahili. We will see how this
goes. I am not nervous, but maybe that will change when I get up on
stage at 6:30 am.