Things have been moving along here at school.  We are winding down the term.  Last week the class 8 students took their KCPE exam.  This is an exam that determines if they move on to secondary school.  This test is a big deal.  Most schools have an armed guard outside the classroom so that the [...]

My good friend and former colleague, Linda, emailed me recently wanted to know what happened to my blog.  It turns out someone other than my mom reads this so I better start blogging again. We finally received the books!  Of course this happened several weeks ago and I’ve been too lazy to blog about it.  I [...]

Its just crazy. I still can’t get over it. Two weeks ago I was told our shipment of books arrived at port.  Great news right?  I was then told that we had five days to clear the shipment through customs.  They arrived on a Wednesday and the five day period includes weekends so we had to get [...]

I have recently returned from my journey to Western Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.  Here is a quick recap: My journey began when I left Maua early in the morning.  I opted to meet my travel companions in Kakamega where we were to tour the Kakamega Rainforest.  Instead of traveling through Nairobi, I took the northern [...]

Harambee Project UPDATE: As of this posting we have raised $11,230! Only $70 to go! THANK YOU to all that have made donations. Now the fun begins. Stay tuned. Happy Peace Corps Week!

There is something I’ve been meaning to talk about for some time now.  Just something that has been on my mind.  Its just been bugging me.  I made a mistake a while back.  It is entirely my fault.  I take full responsibility for it.  Before I departed for Kenya, well over a year ago now, [...]

As I may have mentioned in the past, I work with a group of deaf adults.  We meet every Sunday at 2 to discuss matters facing the Deaf in the community.  When I initially came to my site I wanted to seek out the Deaf members of the community and learn more about issues facing [...]

I just return from an amazing adventure with my dad.  He arrived a few weeks ago and immediately we were off to Masai Mara.  Masai Mara is one of the best game parks in all of Africa.  It shares the Kenya/Tanzania border with the Serengeti.  The highlight of the safari was seeing two cheetahs chase [...]

Greetings from Loitokitok. After all of the time I have spent in this little town over the past year, the beauty of Mount Kilimanjaro never ceases to amaze me.  I’ve been fortunate to call Loitokitok home for at least a short time as its probably one of the most beautiful places I will ever live in. As [...]

Well I have some horrible news.  I came back to my site to discover that my computer is broken.  I have no idea what happened to it.  It was working fine before I left.  I am hopeful that it can be fixed but until then my posts will be even more infrequent as well as [...]

Once again I am in Nairobi.  I am writing this post from the comfortable confines of the Peace Corps office.  I arrived in Nairobi yesterday to meet up with some other volunteers to celebrate Thanksgiving.  A former PCV who now works for an NGO in Nairobi graciously invited us into her beautiful apartment so we [...]

OK I’m going to take a page out of RPCV Kira’s book. Grab a piece of a paper and something to write with.  Now, write down my address: Matt Palma NJIA Special School P.O. Box 436 - 60600 Maua,  KENYA Write me and tell me what you want on the blog!

This post has nothing to do about my experience in Kenya.  If you don’t care about the Green Bay Packers, then you probably do not want to continue reading. You cannot call yourself a Packers fan and root for Favre at the same time.  Especially today, this is a HUGE game, not because of the drama [...]

As you may have noticed there have been some additions to the website.  There finally is an ‘about me’ page and a neew page, The Harambee Project.   I am working in collaboration with Books for Africa, a nonprofit organization and four other current and returned volunteers to bring over 20,000 books to schools throughout Kenya.  [...]

Every Monday I write ten new vocabulary words on the board.  We practice them everyday and there is a test on Friday.  This is always a fun session for me as when we practice, I just throw a ball around.  I’ll toss the ball to someone and they have to fingerspell the word that I [...]

This week marks my tenth month in Kenya.  Some days when I look back it seems like the time just flew by, but other days it feels like I have been here for a long time.  Its been worth it though and I’m looking forward to another 17 months.  Now onto a recap of the [...]

I know I know, its been forever since I made a post.  At this point, I probably have lost all of my 10 readers with the exception of my mom and my friends who hate their jobs and spend all day online reading whatever they can find.  I like to think that I will be [...]

Alright, I know, I know, its been a while since I’ve made a post.  But I have been VERY busy. I am enjoying my new class.  It is actually kind of fun.  The first few days I worked hard on making sure they knew the rules and understood them.  The rules are as follows: 1) Be on [...]

Ok, this is starting to get out of hand.  Nestor has again broken my window.  For the third time! Not only that, he has either urinated and/or defecated outside my door almost everyday since I’ve been back.  I’m mean geez, the size of some of these turds this little guy can squeeze out boggles my mind.  [...]