These are my personal opinions and do not reflect those of
the Peace Corps.
And on behalf of myself! Sorry for any grammar, bad spelling
or incomprehensible thoughts. I'm no genius when it comes to writing but I do
love sharing my international experiences with those I love! Thanks for
reading!
TID BIT ABOUT ME: I'm living in Kenya as a
Peace Corps Volunteer. I will be teaching primary education at a school for the
deaf as well as HIV/AIDS awareness. I don't know what subject I am teaching yet
but it will vary from Math, Kenyan Sign Language, English, Geography, Health
Class, etc. I also have no clue what grade I'll be teaching. I'll update this
when I find out my site and details in the next few weeks!
October
4, 2012
Jahmbo!
Wow, only
four days have gone by and I can't even tell you what we have done. It's as if
I'm in a dream, probably because I'm still jet lagged from our wake up at 2am
in Philly, 2 hour bus ride to NYC, 5 hour wait at JFK, then our 15hour flight
to Johannesburg and FINALLY our 4 hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya! It was a long
trip but because of the amazing people who are also doing Peace Corps Kenya, it
was a painless process to get here. It's amazing, the Peace Corps really does
select similar people for this job. Everyone is interesting, intelligent, loves
to explore, curious, excited to work their hardest to make a difference, and
what is even more amazing is that from day one before we even knew each other
we were acting like a team/family. Our entire group went out for beers and
burgers, an obvious outing the night before we go to a country with no really
good beers or burgers, womp womp womp. It was an amazing site. 28 of us
scarfing down our final meal in America all at one table, chatting away about
what we thought Kenya was going to be like, what we left behind in America,
what we were nervous about, and goofing around to make all the nerves go away.
(Just a side note: 10 of us are going to be Deaf Educators
and 18 are going to be Math and Science teachers, all in Kenya)
Everyone in my group is from an
amazing assortment of backgrounds. We come from all over America. Some
from cities, some from farms. One of the guys with us, Jay, is deaf and it's
been amazing having him around. He is so patient with all of us and is a wonderful
teacher. I'm rusty on my American Sign Language and every time I apologize for
not understanding or being slow, he sincerely replies it's fine, it's fine. He
is also amazingly funny and easy going, so it makes it easy for all of us to
interact with him despite our lack of ASL. I asked him if it was hard being
deaf in a hearing group and he jokingly replied yes, but the second we all get
to our sites where the rest of us are the hearing in a deaf world, the tides
will change! hahaha
The ages in
our group range from 23-60. Some have left family. Some have left boyfriends
and girlfriends. There's a married couple who joined together. There are some
who left husbands in America.
Some come from teaching background, some haven't. Some have had many years of
sign, some haven't. And we all have different backgrounds. It truly is the most
diverse group of people and yet we all have one goal. To put ourselves into a
situation and a country that is incomprehensible at times, challenging,
beautiful, interesting, life changing and put ourselves into a country that is
willing to let us in to try and make strong relationships with Kenyans and help
in the school system.
I couldn't have asked for a more amazing group of people to
go on this crazy adventure with!
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