New Year, New Term, New Mindset

As I start my second round of site visits after a relaxing break, I am starting to re-examine how I will approach my work.  I learned a lot not just during the first term, but also over the course of my month in Johannesburg.  As opposed to last year, when I went in almost totally blind, I feel prepared and excited.  I also feel scared, because knowing more in some ways made me see the cracks in the program, which are inevitable, but much more visible to me now. 

I’ve learned, most importantly, to take what other people tell me with a grain of salt.  Although my supervisor is more experienced and knows more about the project overall than I do, I can’t take everything she says without testing some of it myself.  Of course most of what she advises me on it amazing and helpful and informed, but I have now spent more time out on the sites than she has, and I understand some nuances that are not immediately apparent.  It starts from the most simple, personal things, and carries out to how I view the project.  Its not that there were any big hidden secrets I discovered, more of the natural progression of becoming comfortable at a job, combined with the larger picture of me becoming more confident as a professional and a development practitioner. 

Small thing:  I was told to pack pants for work because I would feel more comfortable riding motorbikes to work, and the teachers would be ok with me wearing pants (female teachers usually wear skirts).  This time around I am packing long skirts that I can wear on the motorbike and make me feel like I stand out just a tad less in town and at school.

Bigger thing:  Some of the staff members are ashamed of their lack of confidence and skill with the equipment, so they fabricate stories about having used it in their reports.  I was told that one site needed a lot less support because their reports and deliverables had been really good, but it turned out that they had been relying on one teacher while most of the staff was almost completely computer illiterate.  While this has been working fine in terms of their reports and presenting a successful project on paper, it doesn’t sit well with me because it is not helping achieve our broader goals.  I will work much harder with that site this term.

Wish me luck as I continue my Kenyan saga, I’m sure many more surprises, challenges, and successes lie ahead.

Killing Time in Luhyaland

Even though my job keeps me busy, I make sure that after 7 or so I make my time free.  Oddly enough, this is the hardest time for me to fill when I am out in the sugarcane field that is Western or in the desert up North.  I end up with plenty of free time in Rongai too, provided I haven’t tried to get anywhere that day and ended up in two hours of traffic.  I have devised some hobbies to relax my mind and keep me chilled out when it gets dark and I’m sitting in my room, a bottle of DOOM mosquito spray poised ever-ready on the bed. 

First, I have gotten back into drawing, which I did a lot during college.  I do the same abstract pen drawings as before, which have always had some Moroccan stylings and lots of detail, but they are becoming much more informed by the fabrics and textiles I see around me every day.  After my trip to Lamu, they are also much more Swahili-influenced.  For a few years I avoided color and drew in mostly black and white, but these days I have combined my styles, using intricate colored patterns that are set off with a solid black background. 

Reading is still a huge hobby, and I have read a lot of books since I arrived, most memorably the Kwani? Anthologies of stories written by Kenyan and other African writers on topics including the Kennedy airlifts of East African students to Universities in the US, the diaspora, dating, visiting your mom in the village, killing chickens, and hacking computers.  I have also enjoyed some true crime novels, weepy stories about heroic elephants (sorry mom), and am currently reading Obama’s Dreams from my Father.  I try to read Kenyan authors when I can, but they are not featured prominently in bookstores here.  Actually, the easiest things to find are Christian novels and self-help books.  At a premium, too.  Books are about 30 dollars at the cheapest here.

Podcasts have become a tidy little obsession that I can lose myself in while I go to sleep.  I love how I can download a bunch, listen to them a few times, and then my iPad deletes them for me.  No fuss, no muss.  Serial was a big part of my life in Joburg.  Also into crime podcasts.  I’m not a weirdo, I just find them soothing or something.   They are so clinical and straightforward, surprisingly.

I also like to just get out and walk around town.  There is not a lot to see in Mumias, but the markets are still fun to walk through.  Lots of wheelbarrows full of mangoes, hawkers selling pirated dvds and schoolbooks, fabric shops, and second hand clothing.  It can be frustrating because people never leave me alone when I am out walking, but putting up headphones that aren’t attached to anything usually does the trick.  Sometimes I want to talk to people and I do, but often I just want to be left alone to wander. 

The strike was called off and I return to work on Monday, but I’m not sure what the environment at the school will be like.  I’m guessing that the teachers will be pretty stressed and busy, so I don’t want to get in the way.  I hope my time in Western isn’t wasted.

Back to Western

This week I returned to Mumias town in Western Kenya to do my second stay at Munanga School.  However, things are different this time around for a few reasons.  One, I have come back from visiting all the schools and having spent 4 months in Kenya a little wiser and more prepared to work with the particular difficulties of this rural school.  Two, I feel like I understand the project as a whole much better after staying in Joburg at the head office for a month.  And… well scratch all of that, because, three, everything is very different this time around because the teachers are all on strike.  Kenyan public school teachers struggle with low wages, unpaid wages, overfilled classes, lack of supplies and resources, and long hours.  Last year the strike lasted for three weeks, and currently one week has passed.  However, I have still been sent out to Western with little direction for what I am supposed to do.  The teachers legally cannot enter the school, and it is a sensitive issue to ask them to work on school-related projects with me while they are striking.

I do have a lot of new projects to work on while I hang out in the hotel, however.  I have been given a Raspberry Pi to experiment with as a computing device to use in classrooms, a BRCK wireless router that uses a SIM card to connect to networks and has a built-in power supply, a new laptop (courtesy of Our Lady of Peace School), and a new tablet.  These things should all come together to create a much more productive environment for the school staff.

However, they have to be actually working to use everything, so until then I am waiting, watching movies, and fiddling with the Pi.  Wish me luck!

A Famtastic Christmas

I got a very special Christmas present this year—my mom and sister came to visit me in Kenya!  I got back here from Johannesburg on December 19^th and they arrived on December 23^rd.   I picked them up at the airport very late and they were still willing to open their suitcases that were full of treasures for me.   I’m currently drinking a lovely cup of coffee from the French press they brought me.

On the first day we kept things pretty chill and had lunch with D at Galleria mall.  After some relaxing, we had dinner at nearby Osoita, which inexplicably took about 3 hours.  The food was pretty good, but Amy’s pizza didn’t come until we were ready to leave. 

On Christmas we went back to the airport because I decided I do not like my family and wanted to send them back to USA.  Just kidding.  We caught a short flight on a little propeller plane to Lamu, and island on the coast.  The plane stopped in Malindi to let most of the passenger out and pick up a few more, including Sonia!  She took a bus all the way from Mombasa to have Christmas with us.  We landed in sticky hot Manda Island at noon and met W, who I would have worked at if I had been able to go to my original internship on Lamu island.  I wasn’t allowed to go because of the security situation there, but it has improved a lot, so we were able to go there for our holiday.  We still got a lot of side-eyes from people who thought we shouldn’t go to Lamu, but the island is very safe.  We steered clear of the mainland and all pirates.

We spent the next few days laying on the beach, swimming in the beautiful Indian Ocean, and exploring Lamu town, a very old Swahili town that is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  There are no cars because the streets are far to skinny for much more than a few people and a donkey, and all the buildings are white, some with coral walls.   The area is famous for woodworking, and most of the houses have beautiful carved doors.  We did some shopping and got some amazing souvenirs.  At night on the second day we went on a sunset dhow ride and explored the mangroves.

Dhow Ride

We had to say goodbye to Sonia when we flew back to Nairobi, but after a day of resting we took a magical trip to Kitengela glass, a glassblowing workshop not far from my house.  I had no idea the place was so huge, filled with weird and amazing sculptures created by a German woman who moved here 38 years ago.  The property is separated from the Nairobi National Park by a gorge, and you can walk our of a wire bridge for an amazing view.

 

That night we went to Talisman, my favorite restaurant, and had a delicious dinner.  I had mushroom gnocchi, Amy had sweet and sour chicken, and Mom had their famous burger and Dawa (medicine) drink. 

We had to go back and get straight to bed, because on Monday we went to Nairobi National Park!  It was just as good the second time, and the weather was perfect.  We saw three rhinos, tons of various antelope and bushbacks, wildebeest, giraffes, and best of all, two female lions.  We got to watch them stalk a herd of zebras and then flop down and nap like big versions of Nick and Lewis.  We capped off the day with long naps followed by dinner and ice cream.

On our last day we walked into the depths of Rongai, which I don’t do too often because it is really dusty and loud.  It’s a festive season, and the town drunks all came out to greet and yell at us, ugh.  We did find a cool tailor and get to visit Tusky’s (Walgreen’s #3 and my favorite store at this time).  In the afternoon we enjoyed each other’s company until they left for the airport and then I cried a lot.  Then I remembered that my friends sent me a disc drive for my computer and a ton of movies so I watched The Town and got happy because I no longer live in Boston.  The End

HAPPY NEW YEAR