Bob with a banana from the local market. Banana courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.

Just a brief posting from the home turf before it’s time to say goodbye again. I’ve noticed my life recently has involved a lot of goodbyes. I’m getting tired of saying them, but I’ll be saying a lot more in the coming years. It’s all about loss, when you get down to it. What matters is how you deal with that loss.

I had thought that it would be really strange to come back to my old way of life for a couple of weeks, but I’ve slipped right back in, comfortable as anything. I can still drive perfectly well, the shopping malls don’t overwhelm me, and my stomach has been a real trooper in the past few days with all the sugar, chicken and rich food I’ve been consuming. In fact, my time in Kenya seems like a dream when I think about it. Like it’s all a blur, something that happened in the distant past. What’s funny is that I’ll be returning to that dream in less than a week, and I’ll probably be going through a mini culture shock when I return.

Farewell, privacy, hot showers, plumbing and cushy beds. Hello, cold basin baths, Swahili, boorish behavior, and boring food. But, at least life right now could hardly be called boring. And I can’t wait to see my friends, and students again.

So, totes worth it, yo. And funded by the government, no less. See you on the other side of the pond soon.

(P.S. Try not to destroy any more ocean ecosystems please. For that matter, try not to destroy any ecosystem at all. I hear solar panels are becoming more affordable…)

No seriously, I’m so looking forward to hot showers, carpeting, ice cream cake and catching up on all the movies I’ve missed, I can’t even begin to describe it. But, I will also miss my students like crazy! I already do, as school closed for the holidays last Friday, and I miss sitting outside chatting with them. For them, I will get back on the return flight to Kenya ready to tackle another year of service.

This term has certainly not been smooth, as I’ve had to deal with some of the teachers spreading rumours about me and gossiping about my private life (basically, they thought I was trying to chase boys). It was not fun. At all. At one point, I was on the phone with my APCD begging him to change my site, but I’m glad now that I’m staying where I am. Hopefully, things will blow over and I won’t give as much of a crap what these petty, jealous people think of me next year anyway. I didn’t come here to serve the teachers. The sooner they learn that, the better, si ndiyo (isn’t it)?

Well, the teaching part is over, and this week I will be very busy with some proposal writing workshops for PLWA support groups. Then, off to Nairobi to be poked and prodded for mid-service medical exams. Happy joy.

Then….HOME. Normally, I’m not one given to emotionally charged outbursts of a high-decibel nature but- SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

I will be in Colorado from the 17-18th December to renew my license and to see peoples in the motherland. Let me know if you want to hang out, I’ll book you for an appointment in my CrackBerry. Ha ha, just kidding, I don’t actually have a life.

As this may or may not be the last blog post before I head off to rediscover my roots and forget some of my KiSwahili: I love you all. I will see you soon. Tally ho, wot wot.

Fear not, my inquisitive, suicidal, hypothetical reader! I will tell you all. Okay, well, most.

The answer is: Not much. School has begun again, and I’ve been whiling away the days writing lesson plans, setting up lab practicals, entertaining students, and putting condoms on bananas. The latter was for educational purposes only. Really.

My trip to Mombasa went well. I got to see the Indian Ocean and swim in it! It’s so warm! And oh, the sea urchins. I think I was the only one of my group who didn’t get my foot impaled by those spiny little ^%$#%$.

Mombasa is like a larger version of Kisumu, with a fairly laid-back vibe and older buildings and streets. If you ever find yourself there one day, make sure to sample some schawarma from a roadside vendor. They’re like the Middle Eastern equivalent of gyros. Soooo good.
One caveat: If you go during Ramadhan (August), you won’t be able to find much food at all during the day. Be forewarned.
My safari was awesome! The only animals we didn’t see were leopards, cheetah, hyenas, and rhino. Everything else we did see. In fact, one lioness casually sauntered up to our van, passed behind, and went on her way. She was probably 1 foot away from us at the closest.

That’s about it for adventures. Back I trudge into the depths of a school term. But happy day! I’m coming back to the States for Christmas in December, so I have something to look forward to!

PS. If anybody reading this has an old laptop they’d be willing to donate to my school, we could really use it! My computer lab is trying to expand, and we need all the help we can get. Please e-mail me if you would be able to give a computer to Kenyan students.

Word.

Term No. 2 is finished, only 4 more to go!

Yes, it is the wintertime here, and things have been surprisingly chilly at my site. I have the whole month of August ahead of me, and all my plans are lining up, so hoo-rah.

SAFARI. That is all.

Yes, I am excited. I will be heading to the Maasai Mara on the 11th for some lions and cheetahs and giraffes, oh my. Then off to Kakamega (or as my mom says, “Kakamamie”) for more PC training, where I will get to meet a whole new batch of volunteers who have been sent to Western province. I was just thinking to myself the other day, “You know, this place needs more Americans,” and lo and behold, here they are. That’s just how powerful I am.

Week after training will be holiday tuition for my Form 1 and 2 students so we can actually finish the syllabus this year, then off to Nairobi to buy a netbook, eat some Italian food, and watch a movie or two. Here’s hoping all will go well with the constitutional referendum and Kenyans won’t decide to use this time to settle tribal scores again.

For the meantime, as I am forbidden to travel for the next week due to elections, I plan to update the chalk mural I’ve been drawing on my wall in my house, walk around the village and chill with the people, and re-read a lot of books/magazines. At least I won’t have to mark papers, but I will miss my students.

Thanks to all who e-mailed me in the wake of my principal’s murder. I’m doing better now, and hopefully will never be posting another entry as dark and depressing as the last one.

Emali kwa wote (peace to all),

Caitlin

About 2 days after that post, the headmaster of my school was ambushed in front of his house, pulled out of his car, and hacked to death with pangas (machetes) by a group of hired thugs. No arrests have been made yet. Perhaps none will.

As you can probably imagine, this was an incredibly stressful time for both I and my students, and I’m just now coming out of the dark mood I’ve been in for the past 3 weeks.

The violent nature of his death and the abruptness with with he died left the whole community reeling from the murder of my principal. It was so sad, as he was doing his level best to put my school back on its’ feet and was sponsoring so many of the students there. Now we don’t know what will become of those students or of the many projects he had started, like the laboratory or the boarding dormitory. He was beloved by many of the people here, and was my sole ally in setting up a life skills education schedule for my Form 1 and 2 students. Now I have no idea if it will be allowed to continue, as the teachers are hostile to this program because they don’t want to teach it after I leave.

We have an acting principal and deputy, who are teachers that were elected to carry on. I’m hoping our school gets a new headmaster and deputy soon, as the deputy has become a freaking fascist to the students and they are on the verge of striking.

It goes beyond hitting kids on their backsides a couple of times with a stick. Tell me, dear readers: Is it appropriate to beat girls with your shoes, strike them across the head, or cane them so hard that the cane breaks because you think they are dating boys at the school? (They’re not, and even if they are, so what?) I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing this and more lately, and everytime I have to sit and watch my students being abused by the staff, I want to die. If I speak up though, they will all run me out of the school and make sure I don’t come back, and I don’t want that to happen, so I have to keep quiet.

It comes to the point where one must desensitise herself to these things, or she will go crazy or go home. I hate having to do this though. I hate hearing the classic abuser’s anthem ringing from the mouths of the administration: “If you all would only do what you are supposed to do, you wouldn’t make us beat you!” I hate wanting to burst into tears almost every day because I’ve seen one more incident of violence against students that I can’t stop.

But if I can’t take the heat I should get out of the fire, I suppose. I came here to serve my students and not the teachers, so that is what I will continue to do.

July has been by far the worst month of my service yet, and I’m hoping I won’t have any more months like this one ever again.

So they took one of the few good people, one of the last remaining hopes for their community, and they killed him. Rumour has it that the man who may have ordered the principal’s death was jealous of his favor with people. It’s been explained to me that it’s the way Bunyore people are; when they think you’ve outgrown your rank, they’ll kill you. Screw cultural sensitivity. That’s just stupid.

How do you help people who just want to destroy anything good because it might make them jealous?

Sometimes I wonder…what am I doing here?

So, it’s time for another rambling post bout my adventures and travails in this here African country we call South Africa. Oh, wait, we aren’t in South Africa? Really? Cause you’d never guess by the amount of World Cup fever going on over here, where Kenya’s team, the Harambee Stars, didn’t even make it into the games. Let me enlighten those of you who don’t already know this: the rest of the world thinks football is the greatest pastime invented since navel-gazing and smashing mailboxes. It’s huge over here, and I can’t get away from that “Waka Waka” song that now haunts my dreams. I actually watched the match last night between USA and Ghana, which was the first football match I’ve ever watched in my life. Go USA, way to lose.

Hmmm, so what other mischief have I been up to? There was a minor earthquake here a couple of weeks ago, which we just felt as a shuddering of the ground. I also got the privilege to meet Sarah Obama, Barack’s grandmother in Kogelo. She lives out in the bush on a typical Kenyan housing compound, though with ramped up security and electricity now. I wonder what the poor womans’ life must be like now, with hundreds of visitors a day, all asking her the same questions and wanting photographs with her. She was nice enough, though speaks very little English or KiSwahili, so one of her great-grandchildren translates into DhoLuo for her.

Some of you also may be curious about what a day in the life of me is like (probably not, actually, but I tell myself these things to make myself feel Important. Just humour me). Here goes:

Morning: Wake up around 6:30, wash face, put water for the day to boil on the jiko so’s I can drink it without acquiring some wonderful little deadly disease, get dressed, drink coffee. If I run late, I bring the coffee to the staff room to finish, where everyone asks me to let them try a sip. Every. Single. Day.

I usually have 1-2 classes in the morning. Each class is 40 minutes long, unless it’s a double period. I’m usually covered in chalk dust by mid-morning. Then we have chai break at 10:45am. The chai is basically sugar milk water with a miniscule concentration of tea in it. Sometimes I believe the Kenyans think tea leaves are optional. I usually go to the football pitch to buy an andazi, which is a Kenyan version of donuts. Several students stop me and ask me to buy one for them. I laugh, then walk back to the staff room.

Afternoon: More lessons, sometimes it rains torrentially, sometimes it doesn’t. Massive boredom sets in, and I update my Facebook, check my e-mail, surf some news websites and political blogs on my phone. More staring out the window. Then I sit some more. Then I usually get tired of that and go sit outside for a change. Classes end at 4:00, and many students play games for the rest of the afternoon. I wander around aimlessly, sometimes chatting with students, sometimes goofing off on the internet some more. Then I wander across the football pitch to my house.

Evening: Prepare dinner, which usually consists of rice and veggies. Listen to some music, read books. Around 6:30ish I venture out to collect water in a 20-liter plastic jerry can from the rainwater catchment tanks on the school grounds. This is my water supply for the next 24 hours. I carry it over my shoulder to my house, then use it to wash dishes, bathe, drink, and cook with. I take baths out of plastic basins, using maybe a total of 8 liters of water. Bedtime is usually by 8:30, as there is nothing to do, and the mosquitoes come out to play in the late evening.

So this is my life now, occasionally punctuated by bursts of activity, but mostly characterised by long periods of boredom and not a little frustration. Stress has gone down, though it’s always still there, but I try to see my American friends as often as possible, so that keeps me sane. It’s not as bad as that most days, but I do get frustrated by the fact that I wanted to do development work here, and I’ve ended up working at a 8-5 job where I’m expected to beat students (I don’t, and never will, and this causes a LOT of stress for me, because the other teachers imply that I’m not a good teacher if I don’t cane the students for failing exams or not doing homework) and sit around a lot because they don’t have a lot of work for me. So basically a day in the life of someone pretending to be a Kenyan teacher.

But, despite all that, life goes on, and I do love my students. My Form 2 students in particular are hilarious, and I enjoy interacting with them. I wish they had half the opportunities I did when I was in high school, but we must work with what we have. So. Yeah.

Until next time, we’ll meet again, don’t know when, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sweet day.

Caitlin

I haven’t updated in a while, but I assume that’s not a hanging offense around here. Or there. I hope.

Anyhoo, lessee, what has been going on in my little world lately? Had IST in Nairobi, and it was a blast to see all my PC friends again. It really helps to hear that others have been going through the same things (or worse) that I have, and that I’m not a bad volunteer for getting homesick or wanting to get away from Kenyan culture for a little bit.

I’ve completed 2 weeks of the second term, and it’s been going really well so far. My students are getting comfortable with me and my crazy accent, so I can talk a little faster and they’ll still understand me. Well, most of them, anyway. Some of my Form 1 students can barely write a complete sentence in English, which begs the question of why they’re in school in the first place, but whatever.

I’m hoping to start collaborating on a website for PLWA’s (People Living With AIDS) with a German friend, so we can link these support groups to the international community and potential funding sources. We’ll see how that goes; I will need to obtain a computer first, though. Not having one is driving me nuts! So now I must figure out where to buy a netbook here so’s I can do some work. This will also mean PICTURES!!! (I don’t have a way to transfer pics from my camera card to this blog) and more frequent updates. Aren’t you all excited now?

I’m also kicking around the idea of having friends and family in the States collect their old National Geographic magazines for my parents to send over to my school. The students LOVE looking at Nat Geo’s, so if you think you might could help, stay tuned.

Hmmm, what else? Visitors are, as usual, always welcome. Hint hint. You know you want to see hippos! And flamingos! And Obama’s face plastered all over matatus and t-shirts! And adorable little kids screaming “MZUNGU!” at you all the day long! Karibu all.

On a more somber note, the stats from last year are out, and my district (Emuhaya) has a 9.5% HIV infection rate. Le sigh.

Until next time, when I can regale you (yes, all 3 readers of this blog!) with more tales of my adventures- actually, I just teach school all day, then go home and eat lots of biscuits and peanut butter.

…..Adventures!

Cheerio, wot wot,

Caitlin (who is slowly becoming Britishised. Make it stop!)

So it’s been a while, but I’ve been busy closing the school for the term. Everyone back in the States; be grateful for having basic things like photocopiers and computers in your offices. Having to copy report cards by hand 4 times over for 150 students = NOT FUN. Having to read, yes read, every single exam question to 4 classrooms of students because the ancient mimeograph machine screwed up the papers = NOT FUN. Having to mark 250 papers in 3 days = NOT FUN. How do teachers do this junk for years? I won’t ever want to set foot in a classroom again after I get back, I can tell you that.

So now I’ve gone from being insanely busy to being insanely bored. I’ll be heading to Nairobi in a couple of weeks for more goofing off, I mean, training. Meanwhile, I’m just bumming around the area until time to prep for the next term. Oh, and I miss my blue jeans. A lot.

Oy.

Hmm, so what has been going on in my exciting (ha!) life thus far? Went to the Kakamega Forest National Reserve last week with a German dude and two awesome teenagers, one of whom is my Form 2 student. The forest is gorgeous, the trees are awesome, but we really didn’t see very much wildlife. Some cool birds, a few monkeys, some bugs, and a “waterfall” (a very small one). But overall, glad I went. First rainforest I’ve ever been in.

I’m hoping to get a little more involved with maybe helping coordinate some HIV/AIDS outreach with my community someday, but for now it’s a struggle just trying to get a life skills curriculum implemented in my school. We’re supposed to be teaching it, but there’s no time (aka, they won’t make time). We’ll see; I was hoping to get a health club going, but for now I’ll just be happy if I can start up the life skills.

Been working on Saturdays with some AIDS orphans/ HIV-positive children at the local church. Mostly I try to teach them some English and arithmetic, but most just come to be fed and play with other kids. They’re really awesome kids, some of them are so clever. It’s something I hope I will be able to continue doing here; I’ve met a very cool lady here, Mama Trufena, who is a social worker and may help me a LOT with any secondary project I might do. I’ve been very lucky for that; she’s adopted me as her “Kenyan daughter,” and has me over for dinner a lot, as long as I help her cook it.

Otherwise, life goes on; I’m getting an accent, I can tell. I met some of my colleagues here a couple of weeks ago, and caught myself carefully enunciating all my words and reducing my slang usage before realizing I was surrounded by other Americans. It happens to us all eventually, oh yes.

I’ve been noticing also that the mephaquin (anti-malarial prophylaxis) I’m taking has been definitely disturbing my sleep and giving me vivid dreams. Stupid mephaquin. Imagine waking up 5-8 times a night completely disoriented and thinking you’re somewhere else; imagine that you wake up occasionally and can “feel” tiny ants crawling all over you. Ergh. If it gets bad enough, I’ll have to switch to an antibiotic; still waiting for the daytime hallucinations to start. That’s where I’ll draw the line, I think.

Quick word to all my wonderful well-wishers: If you wish to send me a package:

The Maseno address listed under my contact info here is okay to send to. PLEASE DO NOT write “lotion,” “food,” “candy,” or “money” (don’t send me money!!!), on the claims form when mailing the package from the post office. Customs will tear the box apart and rip apart all the items in the box if you indicate that there is any type of food or medicinal item in there (lotion counts as medicinal). Perhaps write “feminine hygeine products” or “school supplies” or something dull on the box so as to not attract attention. Just lie, it won’t count against you in the afterlife, I promise.

Thanks for reading, until next time, safiri salaama (safe journeys)!