Moving to Shimoni

October 27, 2012

I found out my site a week ago and I couldn't be more excited to move! The area is called Shimoni  and i'll be teaching at a unit called Kichakamkwaju, yeah I know the Peace Corps gave me the easiest school to pronounce :0) I have 8 students in my entire school, since it's a unit not a government funded school. I'll have students from kindergarten to 8th grade all in one classroom teaching them all at once. From what the current volunteer said to me, what's going to happen is that I will have 1 or 2 kindergarteners in my room,  then 1 or 2 2nd graders, 1 8th grader or whichever students and i'll have to teach a little of the lesson that day to the older kids and then set them to do work and then teach the younger kids whatever lesson and then check on the older kids to make sure they don't have questions, are confused, need more work etc. and hop back and forth between students! It's going to be a crazy day of teaching but so great at the same time. I'm going to get to know my kids so well since there are only 8 of them and I can really understand where they are in levels of learning and how fast they learn so that I can make the curriculum specifically for them.

Shimoni is on the coast of Kenya, near the Tanzania boarder. It is known for being a tourist town because there is great fishing, snorkeling and you can watch dolphins off one of the islands. It is a Muslim community, which is going to be so interesting to see how I fit in with the community! I hear it's brutally hot and very dusty but an unbelievably beautiful spot! Also, one of the poorest parts of the coast.

I'll be living in a large room that acts as my living/bed room and doing all my clothes washing and cooking outside. Which is fine since it's so hot, it's not a big deal. Although, I'm not sure what I'm going to do during the rainy season for cooking but cleaning my clothes will be easier since I can just use the rain water instead of fetching water! I have to figure out my water situation because I can only get salt water from the wells and we only catch enough rain water to drink it. But I would like a freshwater shower every once in while!

I'll be living in structure that is kind of like a stone court yard with rooms surrounding it. Supposedly I'll be living with mostly men and the teachers from the hearing school that is attached to my deaf unit.

I haven't done a ton of research, I've only been asking around because I don't want to get any expectations. Also, the little amount of research that I did do was for tourists and I definitely not be living the highlife of nice hotels and fun explorations all the time due to the Peace Corps budget I'm on. So I'm ready to get there and figure out my life as a Peace Corps volunteer and how I fit in and what fun things I can afford that is also what the locals do or what places to eat or what places to go for my food.

Vicky who is the volunteer now, is leaving me a list of which vegetable and fruit mama's to go to and how much everything is. And places she likes and every. Mama's are the women who look after everyone and knows everyone! Pretty much all the women who are older. Many Mama's in Kenya who you can turn to for help!

Please take a look at any website about Shimoni and if you find out something cool definitely pass it along. Even though I say I don't want any expectations it's still nice to hear about cool things that I might miss when I'm living there or researching it myself!

Thanks for reading!