World Map

Many months of work have finally paid off. I had wanted to leave behind something tangible for the kids to look at for years to come while they are here. The world map project is something that PCVs from around the world engage incorporate their community in; I wanted the same thing for my school. 

Peace Corps provided us with a manual for the entire project; from drawing the borders, grids, drawing the countries, painting and labeling.

I had numerous kids help, which was a blessing. I want to mention this before I go any further the KIDS did all of the work except painting the ocean blue background. I did not intentionally go around the school and ask kids to help. I started working on the map and once they saw what I was doing they wanted to chip in. For several weeks I tweaked and tweaked the borders of the map. Without it being square the whole map will be off. I think pictures will better tell the story.

Grids were drawn.

Countries were drawn using the grid sheet.

I examine the next move. 

Andrew, class 5, was the boss when either I was there or not. He had significant role in 

every aspect of the map project.

All of the kids that assisted with any aspect of the map got the honor of painting their

 name above the map.

Shimoni-South Coast

The month of June went by pretty fast. This is in part because I went to help a fellow PCV at her site with behavior issues at the school. She had told me on numerous occasions how things were getting worse and no sign of improvement. I mentioned I had a PCV come to my site in early February to help me with my special needs class. Because Mary did such a wonderful job teaching and training me; there was immediate results happening in the class room. I felt confident in what I was doing on a regular basis at my school that I could help her out.

Her site is located on the south coast, near Mombasa. It took me two full days to get there. Upon arriving in Mombasa from Nairobi I took a tuk tuk to catch the ferry. I don’t remember ever getting on a ferry before. I stood in line with everyone else. The gates were opened then cars, tuk tuks buses, and people boarded what I thought was the platform for the ferry. While waiting on the ferry to come (it was on the other side of the inlet) we started to move. I was really confused. It finally hit me, what we were all on was the ferry. 

I boarded the matatu and headed for Shimoni, 2 hour ride. I was greeted by Vicki at the final stop in Shimoni. It was really nice to see her. Walking to her place was a breath of fresh air; no more rushing to get some place.

Over the next few days I would go with her to her school to observe a normal day’s activities. Later in the evening, she and I would discuss things that I saw and the possible suggestions for making things run more smoothly. These things included: time out chair, reward system, positive reinforcement and effective communication between teacher and pupil. It was really nice to see for both her and I the positive changes taking place among the pupils. Their is the added benefit of her counterpart at school who is on the same page as her.

We also tried to enjoy the village of Shimoni a little bit. One afternoon we visited the boardwalk at the pier. We both anticipated crashing waves from the indian ocean beneath as we walk on the boardwalk. When we arrive we look at each other with confused looks. I was thinking, are we at the right boardwalk. There was no water to found anywhere. As we are walking along Vicki is welcomed to the boardwalk by the droppings of a bird. She said it is 3rd different continent that has happened. We find a bench to sit for a moment. We notice out in the distance a couple of goats grazing and then a man walking near by. In a area that is covered with water normally, goats are residing. This was quite funny.

The week at her site and school went by really fast and a lot of things getting accomplished. We both left Friday for Mombasa. I was to leave Saturday morning to head to Nairobi. While in Mombasa we both indulged in great food (pizza shawarma (pita bread stuffed with meat, ice cream and masala chips) and a little bit of second hand shopping.