MOVING TO SHIMONI

As you all know from my last post it took me two days to get to my site. It took me longer to get to my site then anyone else even those people who were the fly in sites. Funny enough the people who had to fly in sites which are the furthest sites were the shortest travel. The way that you get from Nairobi to my site is ride a 10/11 hour bus ride from Nairobi to Mombasa, then take a tuk tuk from to likoni ferry, take the 10min ferry ride to the other side of Mombasa, then board a matatu for 2 hours ride to Shimoni. You could do this trip in one day but the issue is that the last matatu to Shimoni is at 6pm so if you miss this matatu welp, you better go find a room wherever you are, so it took us two days to get to my site.

It was cool though, my principle and I traveled together and he was very laid back about the traveling. I am the 4th Peace Corps volunteer at my site so he is use to us American's and also he wasn't to horrified at the large amount of luggage I had unlike other principles who had never had a Peace Corps volunteer and saw the massive amount of stuff we had to bring to live in Kenya for 2 years. Although, it was still quite a site to see lugging a big hiking backpack, a big duffle, a smaller rolly bag and my small backpack into tuk tuk's, buses, etc. Thank goodness we only have to do that two times in total for the entire two years!!

The most exciting part of my trip other then the fact that I was finally moving to my site and getting to meet my kids, was that I got to stay in a tent rather then a room when we stayed overnight in a place called Voi. They use one of those old looking safari tents that you imagine in the old colonial safari pictures with the men with a handle bar mustaches, khaki shorts and shirts and a big khaki hat. They put in cement flooring and a bit of a structure to have a real shower then a bucket bath, as well as western toilet but it was a magical experience. I was hoping my home in Shimoni was going to be the exact same but unfortunately that's not what Peace Corps qualifies as a place to live for 2 years.

When I got to Shimoni, it was NOTHING how I imagined it. Honestly, I couldn't help but mix thoughts of a Florida beach town with an African twist of dogs, cats, goats, chickens running around, mud huts every where, and dirt roads. It was weird looking place I created in my head. What Shimoni actually looked like was a dirt road leading into a very small area that had thatched hut restaurants, vegetable venders, fruit venders, then it forked and one dirt road lead you to a mosque, more homes and a hotel and the other lead me to my home. The road that leads me to my home is parallel the water so I get to see the water everyday riding my bike to a form school. My road has a bar, a hotel, some businesses and then a bunch of homes at the end and when my road finishes you can walk down this cute little path to the beach. (Pictures will be posted when I feel comfortable taking my camera around, since it's an expensive thing to have and I don't want people getting the wrong impression that I have tons of money and can rip me off all the time)

I have my own little room in a house. You walk through a metal door and there is a big hallway with rooms on either side. Back to the dorm life! I love it though, it's cozy, it's not a lot of cleaning and we have a backyard with palm tree where I can hangout or neighbors whom I hangout with in their homes. It's also so very quite and beautiful! Because most people don't have electricity the stars are unbelievable and despite it being pretty hot during the day Shimoni cools down at night and there is a constant breeze so sitting in my backyard at night time is very relaxing. Luckily, Viki the last Peace Corps volunteer who lived in my room left me a ton of her stuff so it wasn't to much of a pain in the butt to move in.

When I moved to Shimoni it was 3 weeks before we had to start school so I did a lot of wondering around and heading to my banking town Ukunda/Diani, a big tourist spot that has a grocery store (so exciting!), that is 1.5 hrs away. I lucked out on my site, we get a good amount of different foods and I can eat fish whenever I want! It's beautiful and the people are so very nice! I have had incidences where my bike broke down and random person walking will just come over and help me. Or people inviting me to have chai with them or dinner at their houses. I do get hassled a bit by the men, which can be VERY annoying but I just say Hapana (meaning no) and for the most part they leave me alone.

I live with a family who rents out the other rooms in the house and owns a house 50ft away. There are two girls who are around 20, one women who is in her mid 30's, her son, cousins', sisters, etc. and they have taken me in as a family member. It has been so great! I eat dinner at their house all the time, play cards with the girls, and hangout with the little ones. They have helped me acclimate so much and help me through the confusing cultural differences and understandings. The older women also has had a lot of interactions with people from America and other parts other parts of the world so she understands my culture better then most which gives me a nice break from the constant struggle of cultural differences I face everyday. The girls who are around 20 also give me such a nice break because it's like I'm hanging out with my own sisters. They have helped me more then I can explain!

Shimoni is wonderful and the South coast is stunning. The South coast isn't as developed as the North coast and so the drive down to the my site is just fields of palm trees and lush fields of different trees and small communities of huts and houses. I love it!

Thanks for reading!

SWEAR IN!

After 10 weeks of waiting, cramming in information about teaching, Kenyan culture, language, host family experiences and time with each other. December 14th, 2012 came and we were sworn in as true volunteers. At that point everyone had been calling us Peace Corps trainees as is the Peace Corps tradition and the excitement of soon being called a Peace Corps Volunteer built up as we got closer and closer to our swear in date.

All the girls dressed in their finest traditional Kenyan garb that we all had made for this specific event and the boys dressed in traditional Massai clothes, Kenyan dress shirts or looking spiffy in their button ups and ties. We all piled into a bus and were taken to the ambassadors house, a beautiful house that had a big gardens surrounding the entire property with monkeys running around in the trees. When we entered the backyard we were greeted by women in grass skirts dancing while drummers played traditional Kenyan music. The air was filled with so much energy from how excited we were to be at our ceremony to the people who had helped us along the way and ready to give us our certificate as an official Peace Corps volunteer.  There was also the smell of burgers, chicken, potatoes salad, real salad, and beer in the air. Even though it had only been 10 weeks since we had anything close to a burger, or real ketchup. Just the thought of being able to eat and drink some of these delicious things got us all giddy haha

We walked around greeting people, looking around the property and of course checked out the forbidden pool which had once been a part of the ceremony but I guess in previous years PCV's had gotten to drunk and started getting to foolish around the pool lol One wonderful surprise that I got to experience was that my host Mama had surprised me the night before at my hotel saying she was going to be there for my ceremony. It was so so sweet and I was more then happy that she could be there for me. My host family and I still talk while I live in Shimoni and have planned a time when I can visit them in Machakos and a time when they can come to Mombasa.

One of my favorite parts of the ceremony was when the people who were dancing, drumming and singing called the people who were going to teach in each region (coast, central, western, eastern and turkana) to come up and dance the traditional dances from that region. As many of you know, I LOVE to dance so when they started calling us all up there to dance I couldn't have asked for a better ceremony. By the end, each and everyone one of us were up dancing as well as many of our counterparts having an absolute ball! It was so great to get a taste of the vast cultures we were all going into and just to see how much fun everyone was having and obviously getting to dance just was the cherry on the top of the cake/day or whatever you say.

During the ceremony many people such as our country director, the director of the education program, the ambassador spoke about the history of the Peace Corps, the values and goals of the Peace Corps, the impact the Peace Corps has had on Kenya and the work that we will be doing once we all moved to our different sites. My favorite speech was by 3 of my friends. Jay, Vince and Amber who thanked everyone for their help in our training and our experiences in the last 10 weeks but what was cool is that Jay signed the speech, Vince said it in English and Amber spoke in Kiswahili. It was a great representative of the many faceted experience we had during training and will have during our two years of training and showed how many cultures were being exchanged, learned about and practiced while here as Peace Corps volunteers. I looked around during those speeches and realized that I was about to leave the people that I had bonded so well with, used as support to get through some of the tough times during the first 10 weeks, laughed with during cultural confusion moments, discussed life, learning, teaching, friends, family, EVERYTHING under the sun with, had become my best friends and now we were all moving to 27 different places to do some amazing work as teachers for two years. It was a sad/happy/proud moment!

After the speeches, each of us got up with our headmasters and mistresses from the school to get our certificates. Each of our headmasters and mistresses had all come to Nairobi for a few days so that we could get to know each other, have them be there during our ceremony and then travel back to our sites together. Then after the certificate giving it was chow time!! All of us piled on the food, grabbed a few Tuskers and sat down stuffing our faces with the amazing food, contemplating on what it would be like to leave each other, what our sites were going to be like and hoping that it wasn't going to be an awkward ride with our headmasters and mistresses, seeing that most of us were going to be traveling at least 6 hours to get to our site and at most two days (that was me haha) with just our headmasters/mistresses. O and we were going to have two years worth of our lives in bags that we had lug from bus, to matatu, to tuk tuk to whatever form of transportation. If you have never been in any of these forms of transportations in Kenya, let me just say it looks a lot like in circuses when 10 clowns somehow get out of one of those tiny little cars. So with our HUGE bags getting into any of these forms of transportations is an awkward situation alone.

The ceremony was pretty spectacular and as great as I had imagined it was going to be! And Woop woop, now I'm a PEACE CORPS VULNTEER! ex-Trainee.

Thanks for reading!

FAMILY APPRECIATION DAY

Before we left Machakos to go swear in Nairobi, we had a family appreciation day where 2 members of our family came to have lunch with us, showed them a skit we made up, made a few speeches and had a picture slide show that had pictures of us and all of our families.  

Two of my brothers came, Jon and Evans. Jon is 17 and Evans is 14. Both boys are a bit shy but such sweet hearts. While I was living at my host families house both boys were so nice and we use to talk a bit but they never opened up fully. During this lunch Jon was so much more open and talkative. I'm not sure if it was because I was a women staying in their home that they felt that they couldn't be relaxed and friendly around me because it might be inappropriate but I finally got to see the real Jon. Evans had come along with me to different events and had met my friends and their host brothers and sisters, so we had gotten to know each other slightly better. Evans is extremely shy and so I was shocked but pleased that he came along with me for many of those events and so happy that I got to spend my final days with my host brothers.

For the skits we did a funny run through of how we struggled with sign language, didn't know how to take a splash bath, didn't know how to really hand wash our clothes, how to cross the busy street, or speak kiswahili but by the end of 10 weeks we had learned it all and were true Kenyans at that point as well as to thank our host families for teaching us everything!

It was a fun day and was good to say goodbye to our host families!

                                           ( far left Jon, Me, Naimi my aunt, Evans)

MODEL SCHOOL

            It has been a while since model school and soon I will be starting real school but model school was a pivotal part of our training so I thought it was important to share. At that point we had been talking about teaching for weeks but had yet to practice our new knowledge. It is also a nerve racking thought when you know you have to teach a class in sign language so to have mock classes all in sign language eased the anxiety somewhat.

            We had model school at Machakos School For The Deaf and the kids were chosen to stay behind to participate in model school. In return they were given all meals for free and a certificate at the end of the session. It's amazing how many people love certificates in Kenya both big and small. Many of the kids were also pretty excited to stay at the school because back at home not many people sign and so they don't communicate as much as they would in school.

            The children are unbelievably well behaved at this school. It is one of the oldest schools for the deaf in Kenya and has a lot of funding unlike other school. The children who attend this school are from families who have the money to send them to a good school and each child has at least one person who believes that they can make something of themselves despite being deaf. Therefore there are some of the best teachers and the principle is very involved in advancing education and life for the deaf. He was part of creating KSL and making KSL recognized as a language in Kenya.

            We had four PCV's there to watch us teach and give us feedback. They were extremely helpful and the two PCV's created an anxiety free zone. It was great having my fellow trainees around because we would help each other lesson plan, change our lesson plans or create new ideas on how to teach a subject. We have many good teachers in our group, who are patient and willing to teach those of us who haven't had as much experience a few tricks of the trade. Which was greatly needed because when teaching children who are deaf, you have to take a different approach especially because most of them struggle reading and writing English. Making it so that you have to explain everything in pictures. KSL (Kenyan Sign Language) being a pictorial language on top of the children not grasping all of the English language makes it so that you can't describe anything in words. Also, such words as Cash Crops and Food Crops, which was a topic that I was teaching, doesn't have a sign for it (which is what you find in KSL many times because it's a developing language) and them reading Cash Crop and Food Crop doesn't mean anything to them. So you have to break down all concepts, describe a few different scenarios and show pictures for the children to understand and then revisit the concept a few times in different ways for it to stick. For example when I was teaching cash crop and food crop, I first started off asking, who has a shamba (garden) at their house? Then I asked...whose family eats what is grown in the shamba? Whoever raised their hand I said well you are eating a food crop because you grew it and then you ate it. Then I asked whose families sells what is in your shamba? Those who raised their hand I said this is a cash crop because you went to the market and received money for the food that you grew.  It is a much more complicated concept then what I just described and my kids didn't get it at first so I had to review this topic and describe cash and food crops multiple different ways but you understand where the bases starts. You do this with hearing kids as well but with hearing kids you have a few more outlets to explain a concept. You can write it in their mother tongue, the spoken language is a little more developed then signed language, then you also have the pictures, etc. to help explain. A child who is deaf, if one picture doesn't work you have to find another picture to help you explain or you give them multiple different scenarios. You just need to be creative with how you explain things, which can be challenging but a lot of fun!

We also had to stay over one night to see how teachers on duty works. In a Boarding schools always have a teacher on duty stay one night a week to watch over the kids. We chose a P.E. type activity after school and then a fun activity after they had dinner. Mackenzie, Elizabeth and I decided to have the same night and chose to do freeze tag with all the kids, then show them how to stretch and do exercises, such as pushup and sit ups. One of our KSL teachers joined in on the sit ups, she could barely do 2 before she started complaining and joking around saying I need to be her personal trainer. After our little exercise show, we did relay races. All three of us participated and quickly were lapped by these kids. Kenyans truly are naturally speedy gonzolaus's. They all had their shoes off and I could barely see their feet hit the ground they were so quick. The three of us had no chance. After we had dinner we put on a movie for them, which was a big treat and we got to know the other PCV's as the kids watched the movie.

All the PCV's that came to help us in model school were staying at the school and they were with us that night. They shared some insights into what life was going to be like and we got to know more of the 130 PCV's in Kenya. 

One of the best parts of model school was at the end of the week when all of us got the kids together and taught them the Macarena. They got it down quickly and then broke out their own dances. Break dancing, 3 adorable girls showed us their own dance, moves I can't even describe other then Elvis meets a more traditional jumping dance. Every child was smiling and all the PCV's were laughing and jumping around right beside them. It was the perfect ending to our Model school experience.

CANING

       In Kenyan schools and even in Kenyan homes it is not uncommon for kids to be caned. Meaning the kids bend over and the teachers or parents whip their backs with a stick or hit the kids fingers with a stick. It's their way to reinforce discipline and instill respect. It has been going on for many many years and although it's illegal in Kenya, people do it all the same.  Most of the people who are doing it are older Kenyans, they grew up with it and they don't see anything wrong with it. The kids then get use to the thought that caning hurts but is just part of the cultural norms. The teachers and parents don't know how to discipline the kids any other way. During school they were taught that caning instills fear and fear equals respect. The majority of children in Kenyan schools are much more disciplined then the children in America. Even babies don't cry as much as they do in America. That might sound completely ridiculous but it's true! I sat for a 10hr bus ride from Machakos to Mombasa with two babies onboard. During that entire time frame, both babies cried once possibly twice and it was for such short increments of time. I don't know the parenting style of those babies homes and I'm not even sure caning was a part of it. But often, I do see parents run after a child when they are being bad with something in their hand looking like they are going to hit the child with that object. I haven't seen contact being made but it's the concept of instilling fear in a child so that they don't misbehave. But when I see children not crying for a 10hr bus ride or see how well the Children act in classrooms I can understand why people think that caning is effective and it is hard to teach them that there are other effective ways of disciplining a child.

            After having a long discussion with my host Mama about caning, as well as many many lessons on why there is caning in Kenya, how to prevent it, what to do if you see it happen. Is that they don't have anyone explaining or showing them alternatives in discipline and it takes much longer to teach a child to act right when your using behavior charts or positive/negative reinforcements like taking away recess when their bad and giving them a cool pencil at the end of the week if they are good. When caning, behavior management is much easier and quicker. Our teachers in the United States learn a much more in-depth understanding of learning styles, behavior, classroom management, etc.  then Kenya's teachers.

            I haven't herd that caning happens at my school but I haven't started school yet. I hope hope hope there won't be any but I will do what I can to help change it if I do see it happen at my school. I know many PCV's going to schools where there have been incidences of children getting pretty severally caned from teachers. It is a mind set that needs to be changed and one that is being addressed by many people. It will take time but it's always good to be aware of what is going on and do what you can when you have the opportunity.

MY HOST MAMA'S DANCE

My mama meets with a women's group, who are mostly teachers, once a month to go and visit the villages that they grew up in and bring presents to the parents and show their thanks for having such great parents. They vote on which village they are going to visit that month and get to meet each others families.

This month my mama asked if they could not go to the village and have it at her house because she wanted me and my friends to see what a traditional Kikamba ceremony was like as well as interact with teachers from Kenya. All the women agreed and were excited to meet us and we were so excited to meet them. My host family and I dance a lot, I think Ann who places us in our houses had to know how much I LOVE to dance because the minute my family wakes up in the morning they turn on the music and start to dance. Even my 5 year old brother has a jerking motion with his legs shaking that sort of goes along with the music. Which was why it was so nice to get to dance with my mama all day!

There are certain traditional dances and songs that they sing every time they visit each others families. They do special Kikamba (the name of the tribe in Machakos and the language that is spoken in the Machakos region) dances, to welcome in the women who are a part of the club, to talk about how thankful they are to have each other as friends, to thank their parents for being good parents, to thank god for giving them such good lives, families and being prosperous.

The dances are all done in a circle as one women sings out in Kikamba the other women respond singing the same line. At the beginning of the ceremony all the women stand in two lines singing welcome to each women as she enters the compound and they sing her name as she dances through the two lines of women dancing as they welcome her. After all the women are welcomed in, we all eat TONS of delicious food preparing us for the many hours of shaking it and singing. haha

All my deaf ed friends got to come and enjoy the festivities with me. The women gladly invited us up to dance and soon were saying how happy they were to have us as friends now. My friend Jay, who was deaf got to be one of the two men at the dance. Jay is deaf and I wasn't sure how my mama's group was going to react to having a deaf person in the group. Some Kenyans don't really know what to do if they meet a deaf person or the believe that they are cursed or they believe they are stupid. So I was excited to possibly open their minds to how well rounded deaf people and culture is! They women took to Jay so quickly. Anna, Mackenzie and I were interpreting the entire time and the women were constantly asking us if we got it and did Jay understand what they were saying. We were teaching them small amounts of KSL and it was so fun to have a multitude of cultural exchanges. And the dancing everyone loved!

It was such a wonderful day that I got to share with my mama and my friends. All the women were so welcoming and they kept saying how thankful they were that all the Peace Corps volunteers were integrating themselves and fitting in so well with Kenyan culture. My friends had a blast as well, everyone was up and dancing! It was so great to open up the deaf world to more hearing people who were all teachers and get to integrate further into the Kenyan life style!

Thanks for reading!

KENYA THANKSGIVING!

During HIV/AIDS week the Loituktuk crew came to Machakos. The Loituktuk people are learning how to teach Math and Science to hearing kids. IT was SOOOOOOOO great seeing them! We only got to hangout with them in Nairobi at the very beginning of this adventure for about 4 days in total but in that small amount of time we all got so close. We all stay in touch through text but it was great to just hangout and catch up.

Their sites will unfortunately be very very far away from my site but we already have ideas floating around of when we are going to visit each other during our breaks and staying in touch.

What was great was that we got to celebrate Thanksgiving as an entire unit. Thanks to my friend Ben who made good friends with chef at the hotel they were staying in, the hotel cooked us Thankgiving dinner.......Kenya style. Before we knew that the hotel was cooking us dinner we thought we were going to have to go find a turkey, kill it ourselves (I'm not joking), cook all of our food over a fire and figure out how to get the ingredients we wanted from Nairobi. Thanks for Ben's amazing bargaining skills, we got a turkey, cranberry soup (it was more soup then sauce), mashed sweet potatoes, ham, rolls, and other delicious food! It wasn't quite the feast that we are use to, no stuffing, pie, brussle sprouts or endless amounts of turkey or Thanksgiving sandwiches the next day. BUT IT WAS A SHOT AT THANKSGIVING! and we were with everyone and that was what mattered. I missed everyone at home but I'll have a lifetime of Thanksgivings in America.

It was great, all the Kenyan trainers joined us and got to experience their first Thanksgiving. We also had lots and lots of beer with dinner and so the party was a great time. By the end of the night we were all playing spin the bottle dance, so if the bottle faced you, you had to go in the middle and dance. The trainers brought their traditional dances and the Americans brought their 'get low' dancing. The two combined is the best dancing EVER! Who knew that some of our trainers, who are straight edge during the day could get down and dirty on the dance floor. It was such a great time sharing a holiday that was so important to all the of PCV's with our Kenyan friends.  

We got to stay at the hotel with the Loituktuk people which is  BIG DEAL because typically we have to be home by 6:30pm to our home stays and we can't leave the house. But on Thanksgiving we got to all hangout all night at the hotel catching up and having a wonderful Thanksgiving party. We also, had our friend Kris who is from Australia, a girl Anna from Germany and another girl Jessica who was from the Netherlands who joined in on our American holiday!

It was my second time having Thanksgiving outside of the United States and I have to say it was quite the success!

I'm thankful for all the new friends that I have made, this wonderful experience I'm in the middle of, the kids that will be my students, and my family and friends who have been so supportive while I've been abroad!