COS and DOS

At Close Of Service (COS) PCVs must write a Description of Service (DOS). It is basically putting the last two years of your life as a PCV into a one page summary. Below is my DOS, proof that I am now an RPCV, no longer a PCV, and that I made it for the whole two years. Next, I'l be doing some traveling before heading back home to Oregon for the holidays. Thank you to everyone who has supported my efforts here over the last two years, I could not have done it without all of you.

Description of Service

Ms. Christine BoyerMath/Science Volunteer 2009 – 2011Kenya

After a competitive application process, stressing applicant skills, adaptability and cross cultural understanding, Ms. Christine Boyer was invited into Peace Corps service. She was assigned to serve in Kenya as a Math/Science Volunteer teacher in the education sector.

Ms. Boyer entered into training on November 04, 2009, participating in an intensive nine week training program in Loitokitok, Kenya. Language training in Kiswahili consisted of 135 hours. Other training included: 65 hours cross cultural, 95 hours technical, 22 hours medical, 22 hours safety and security, 22 hours field-based training and development, and 9 hours Peace Corps policy and administration. Ms. Boyer obtained a Kiswahili proficiency of intermediate-high on a language proficiency interview.

After successfully completing training, Ms. Boyer was sworn in as a Volunteer on January 6, 2010. She was assigned to Bande Girls' Secondary School under the supervision of the Ministry of Education. At Bande Girls’, Ms. Boyer taught biology, chemistry and Life Skills classes as her primary assignment. She worked closely with her Kenyan colleagues to promote the implementation of varied teaching methods and through these efforts over 100 students improved their grades in the sciences.

Ms. Boyer also undertook several secondary projects within her school and community. Her activities within the school included the formation of a health club and subsequently acting as the club’s advisor, serving as the head of the guidance and counseling department, conducting computer training courses for school staff, serving as an advisor for the science congress competition and organizing a scholarship program for students in conjunction with an international charitable organization. In the community, Ms. Boyer organized and carried out a workshop for the staff of a local primary school on the importance of educating girls, strategies for creating a student-centered school and the elimination of corporal punishment. Ms. Boyer also worked with a local non-governmental organization, LALMBA, assisting at community outreach clinics.

Within the Peace Corps/Kenya organization, Ms. Boyer served as vice-chair of the volunteer run Gender and Development Committee (GAD), which organized a week long girls' empowerment camp for over 80 girls and included over twenty Kenyan counterparts, where she served as camp director. She also helped to establish a GAD small grant program in which Peace Corps Volunteers in Kenya can apply for funding for gender and development related projects in their communities. Additionally, Ms. Boyer worked with other members of the committee to create a manual for volunteers on how to organize girls’ empowerment camps. She also assisted with Peace Corps pre-service trainings and in-service trainings for new Peace Corps Volunteers. Ms. Boyer completed her service on November 29, 2011.

I need to apologize for not having updated in so long. I have an excuse, I swear. After many attempts to revive my computer it is officially dead to Kenya. The power cord and the subsequent replacement power cord were both fried thanks to the power fluctuations at my site. So, for about the last 3 months I have been without a computer. I have also been busy wrapping up all of my activities/projects and responsibilities at school, planning my trip home, saying goodbyes and packing. These last months are kind of a blur, but I will attempt to recreate the most interesting parts in back-dated blogs soon.

Last year the Altrusa International members of Salem, Oregon graciously donated funds to Bande Girls' Secondary School in order to provide scholarships for 6 students. These students have benefited immensly from these scholarships. Without exception, each of these girls has been able to compleltly pay this years school fees through the help of the scholarship and their families contributions. With these girls constantly in school instead of being sent home to collect school fees, they have all been able to improve their exam scores. I was recently informed that Altrusa will once again be donating funds for scholarships for next year and my students are elated to know that they will be able to continue their education. So, Altrusa, asante sana (thank you very much) for your help from me, my students, and all the staff of Bande Girls'!

Meet the girls who have benefited from Altrusa's generosity:

Risper: Risper is a form 1 student this year and she has been the overall number 1 ranked student after every exam since she started here at Bande. She has a true passion to learn and she often comes to my office after classes to ask for extra help or to talk about her goals and how she can achieve them. One of my favorite stories about Risper happened last term. The principal of the school was going to the form 1 class to teach History but she could hear another teacher in the class so she went back to her office to wait for that teacher to finish. After waiting for 10 minutes the teacher had not left the class so she sent the secretary to tell the teacher that they were using her class time. The secretary came back to report that there wasn’t in fact a teacher in class, instead, Risper had been at the board explaining some complicated concepts in mathematics that her classmates had asked her to help explain.

Lilian and Faith: Lilian and Faith are two of the smallest form 1 students in the school but they never let that stop them from being the first to raise their hands to participate in class. Both of these girls were among the top 5 performing girls in the district when they took the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Exam (KCPE), the national exam taken by all students at the end of grade 8. Both girls are outgoing and inquisitive and are a joy to have in class.

Maureen: Maureen is always smiling and joking and never fails to make me laugh in class. She is incredibly outgoing, which used to lead to her being distracted from her school work, but I have seen her transform her outgoing nature into a positive trait that helps her to absorb as much knowledge as she can in class. Last year, when I taught Maureen as a form 1 in biology, she was scoring between 20% and 30% on her exams. This year Maureen has improved tremendously and now scores between 60% and 70% on her exams, placing her among the best in the class. Maureen is the first to volunteer for a class activity and is constantly asking insightful questions. I have been truly touched by her academic progress and I know this scholarship will further encourage her hard work and dedication in the classroom.

Winne: Winnie is a form 3 student whom I had the pleasure of getting to know through her participation in science congress for the last two years. Science congress is an interschool competition where students present scientific concepts or experiments related to that year’s topic. For the past two years Winnie has presented at the zonal level and placed number one, qualifying her to move on to the district

competition. Winnie has excellent public speaking skills and is extremely gifted in academics. She has served as a prefect in the school for the last 3 years and teachers have come to depend on her honesty and leadership abilities. Winnie’s success in school is made even more remarkable when you learn that she became pregnant when in primary school which forced her to take a year off from school. Now

back at school she has expressed her gratitude for the chance to finish her education and the opportunity to improve her living standard for the future.

Trizah: Trizah is another form 3 student who transferred to Bande at the beginning of this year. I got to know her during this year’s science congress competition. I have been extremely impressed with Trizah’s drive and her academic ability. When she went home for the April holiday her mother, who is a single mother after the death of Trizah’s father, informed her that there would not be enough money to continue

to pay for her school fees. Through Altrusa’s generous donation, Trizah has been able to stay in school and has the chance to reach her goals.

The difference that these scholarships have made in the lives of these six young women cannot be overstated. The school plans to use the money from these students’ school fees to help build a badly needed new dormitory for the school.

Here are some pictures just for fun and also because I am bored, the teacher strike is still on and I have some time to burn and some fast internet for a change.

Some cute kids in my village, luckily they have gotten used to me and no longer call me mzungu or yell how are you?. Now they call me Madam Christine and stand and wave.

The guard and repair man from my school trying to locate and then kill a snake that Denae had the good fortune to find in my pit latrine.

Jenny with yet another cute kid in tow.

School was set to open on September 6th for the third and final term of the 2011 school year. This term will be my last as a PCV and teacher here in Kenya. But there was a small problem when students, teachers and PCVs went back to school this week: A national teacher strike. The basic story is that teachers are unhappy that the government failed to hire more teachers, are unhappy with their salaries and overcrowded classrooms. So, in the means time, you can find me working on secondary projects around the school and in the community.

Here are some links to news stories of the strike:

Daily Nation: Teachers: Strike to go on

Daily Nation: Govt fails to stop teachers strike

NY Times: Briefs: Kenya Teacher Strike

As the vice-chair of the GAD (Gender And Development) committee for Peace Corps Kenya, I had the honor of being involved in Camp GLOW. GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World and Camp GLOW is a week-long girls’ empowerment camp. The camp is organized by PCVs who are members of GAD and by other interested volunteers. This year GAD organized two Camp GLOWs, one in April that was held in Mombasa on the Coast and another in August in Kisumu in Nyanza province. PCVs served as counselors, facilitators and planned all the logistics of the camp, they also nominated young women from their communities that they felt would benefit from the camp as well as nominated Kenyan counterparts who they felt could help facilitate sessions and would also benefit from such an experience. The Kisumu camp that I was a part of was one of the most rewarding experiences that I have had during my time here in Kenya as a PCV. The August camp, which was possible through the GAD committee, Peace Corps Kenya staff and PEPFAR support, was made up of 22 Peace Corps Volunteers, 84 young women and 18 Kenyan counterparts. A unique aspect of the August Camp GLOW was the participation of deaf students and counterparts. Of the 84 students half were deaf. Women and girls in Kenya face many challenges. Challenges range from the pressure in many communities to undergo female circumcision to being seen as a potential dowry rather than a future leader of the nation. Girls are often left at home rather than sent to school and those who are lucky enough to attend school carry the extra burden of their household responsibilities that can distract them from their academic pursuits. Gender violence is another issue that is prominent in Kenya and many women believe acts of rape and abuse are their fault. Females in general in Kenya are disenfranchised and disempowered. Combating these gender inequalities is the reason GAD and Camp GLOW exist. The goal of Camp GLOW was to empower girls through teaching participants about leadership, communication, healthy relationships, health, and future careers. The girls learned about HIV/AIDS prevention and women's health issues through interactive presentations facilitated by Peace Corps Volunteers and host country nationals. They also participated in a “career day” where women leaders attended the camp and spoke about their professions first in a panel and then had one-on-one meetings with the participants. Evening activities were geared towards cultural exchange and interactions between the hearing and deaf participants. Throughout the week the girls were empowered to take control of their bodies, lives and futures. Participants also created action plans for how they will share what they learned at the camp with their communities and schools when they return home. The camp was a huge success and it was apparent to all in attendance that there had been a powerful and palpable change in the attitudes, self-esteem and confidence of the participants. Like I said, this was one of the most fulfilling activities that I have been involved in during my 2 years here, the week was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it. Here are some pictures from the week:

The August Camp GLOW participants

The end of the week celebration disco!

The PCVs who made it all possible! (my students snuck into this picture too...)

The girls from Bande enjoying the bonfire and roasting marshmallows. This was their first time to make marshmallows and they were champs!

From L to R: A student who jumped in the picture (don't know her, but the rest are my students or the counterpart I brought), Lynet (a form 2), Mercy (a form 3), Caroline (a teacher at Bande), Risper (a form 1) and I.

Condom demonstrations

In my form 2 class we are currently studying gaseous exchange. Last week we learned about the respiratory system in insects and after talking in class about spiracles we went out into the field and caught grasshoppers so the students could observe the spiracles in action. This week we learned about gaseous exchange in fish and in amphibians. So we did a lab where the students cut out the gills of fish to observe them and we also went on a "frog safari" where we caught frogs so we could observe them breathing (mostly the movement of the buccal cavity). Here are some pictures, proof that science in fun!

On our "frog safari" we were able to catch a few frogs and the girls got to observe the way the floor for the frogs mouth moves up and down to facilitate inhalation and exhalation.

Prime "frog safari" terrain was around the taps from the water storage tanks

Giving notes to the class about gaseous exchange in fish after our gill observation lab

Students in my class taking notes

The girls in the lab awaiting the lab instructions. These are my form 2 students, you may notice Diana, an albino student who joined Bande Girls' this year. I'll be talking more about her in an upcoming blog.

Outside the lab, looking in

Showing my students where the operculum is located and how to remove it to expose the gills

Observing the gills in water to see how the differ than when observed out of the water

Identifying the gill bar, gill rakers and gill filaments with Maureen.

Yum Samaki (fish)

Checking to see if the skin of frogs is really moist and thin like I told them it was for gaseous exchange to take place

Frog safari success!

Observing the lungs

Finding the operculum and counting the number of gills

Getting ready for the fish lab

When I came to my school one of the first things that I did was to ask my principal about the main challenges that the school and the students face. The very first thing that she told me was school fees. In Kenya, primary school education is free, but secondary education is only minimally subsidized. This means that many students are not able to access a secondary education. It is even harder for girls to access secondary education due to the cultural institutions which place an emphasis on educating boys, while girls are often seen as merely future dowry opportunities for the family. Girls’ education has recently become a priority of the national government but the funding is lacking to make an impact at the local level for girls education. In Nyanza province, where my school is located, especially in areas in close proximity to Lake Victoria, the issues of poverty and high prevalence of HIV/AIDS compounds the issue of education. Families often struggle to put food on the table and as a result education becomes a luxury. Families often also suffer the death of the main income generator in the family which forces them into further poverty or forces them to become dependent on extended family members. The students at my school often dependent on extended family members to pay their schools fees and when this person dies they are once again forced to drop out of school. A students ability to concentrate in the classroom is greatly affected by the anxiety of not knowing where their school fees will come from, if their families are eating or if their parents are going to live through the next yearIn an effort to help my students with the challenge of school fees, I helped a handful of my neediest students apply for a scholarship through the Kenya Education Fund. Out of the girls that applied 3 were chosen for full sponsorship. Kenya Education Fund is a nonprofit organization that supports needy students in Kenya. Through donors in America it provides students with a full scholarship for their secondary education. Please check out their website www.kenyaeducationfund.org They are doing amazing work in Kenya and if you feel so inclined, you can donate through their website. You can even specify that you would like your donations to go to Bande Girls' School students and your donations are tax deductible.

The three girls who are now sponsored by KEF were invited to Kisumu last weekend for a workshop where they learned about leadership, entrepreneurship, how to succeed in their studies and a number of other topics. I went with the students and they were beyond excited to go and visit "the big city" and also to meet the other KEF students. They had a great time and it was such an amazing feeling to see these girls be inspired to continue with their education. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Viviance, Margaret and Salome at the conference.

The students and I with the director of KEF, Brad who was also a PCV here in Kenya

After a long day of workshop sessions, a visit to Lake Victoria and a trip to Nakumatt

Kenya Education Fund!!!!

When we got to Kisumu I took the girls to the shore of Lake Victoria and treated them to some sodas

We also visited the Jomo Kenyatta Grounds in Kisumu and explored the "big city"

There are numerous dichotomies here in Kenya. Some are small, some are glaring, some are comical while others are depressing. On my walk to the village this morning, to buy my weekly supply of veggies, I was struck by the many contrasts that I experience and observe here, especially the contrasts that are seemingly illogical. I ran through a list of these contrasts in my head:

-Using my laptop, but by candlelight, because my house doesn’t have power

-The joy of seeing my students learn and the horror of seeing them be caned

-Washing my clothes by hand but cooking with a gas cylinder burner

-The majority of Kenyans owning cell phones but lacking the income to pay school fees

-The Kenyans walking everywhere many without shoes while my principal drives her own car

-The fact that I learned to cook things like coconut curry and spaghetti sauce from scratch in a kitchen without a refrigerator or oven

-The luxury safari lodges and the makuti (palm leaf thatch) roofed houses in the village

-The wealth of Kenyan politicians and the squalor of Nairobi slums

-Eating sukuma wiki (kale) and ugali every day in the village and eating sushi, pizza and burgers in Nairobi

-Women in bui-buis and the outfits of prostitutes on the streets

-The connections of phone calls and emails to America and the isolation of living here

Kenya is an incredibly complicated country, as the dichotomies above illustrate. It is caught somewhere in between a third world country and a developed nation. There are incredibly motivated and educated individuals who are working for change in the country, but problems like impunity and corruption are still crippling the countries future. The population is aware of the standard of living in westernized countries and many strive to attain this is level of affluence while others fear the loss of Kenya's rich culture. It is an amazingly beautiful country with a multitude of natural resources, and after being here for the last year and a half, I have nothing but hope for Kenya's future.

Just a quick, and hopefully fun, update for everyone back home.

An overview of my Peace Corps experience by the numbers:

Months in country: 19

Months left in service: 6

Christmases spent away from home: 2

Books read: 65

Scorpions found in my house: 2

Dead bats found in my house: 8

Classes taught per week: 25-30

Average class size: 45

Students at Bande Girls' Sec. School: 300+

Teachers at Bande Girls' Sec. School: 16

Teachers who have been at Bande longer than me: 4

Average wake up time: 6:30am

Average bed time: 10pm

Bouts of giardia and dysentery: 4

Malaria "scares": 1

Phones owned: 3

Languages spoken in a day: 3 (English, Kiswahili, Luo)

Kilometers to my village from school: .5

Hours to nearest paved road: 2

Proposals from Kenyan men: countless

Trips out of Kenya: 2 (Uganda and Europe)

Time spent having not a clue what is going on, especially when traveling: ~80%

New Cooking Skills Acquired: numerous

Electronics "sacrificed": 4

Times that the personal property insurance paid off: 2

Grad School Apps in progress: 3

Hopefully I'll be adding to the books read in the next 6 months. I have set a goal of reading 100 before I leave. That's what happens when you don't have electricity in your house and desperately need entertainment. Thanks for reading!

After school closed for April holiday I was able to travel to Naivasha to meet up with some PCV friends and explore Hell's Gate National Park. Hell's Gate is unique because you can ride bikes through the park (or walk if you want), which means you are very close to all the animals. We rode around the park from 9am to 6pm and saw lots of zebra, including baby zebra, baboons, buffalo, warthogs and lots of impala. We rode out bikes for a few hours, during which time we decided on a bike gang name of Hell's Munchkins, to reach the gorge at the other side of the park and hiked through the gorge for a few hours. The gorge is absolutely beautiful, it has been shaped by volcanic activity and more recently by a river that flows when the rains are heavy. When you walk through the gorge the guides warn you about flash floods and they point of the "emergency exits" that take you to higher ground in case a flash flood is coming. The only downside to the day was that I had been really sick the week before so I hadn't eaten solid food in about 5 days and the biking left me utterly exhausted. But, it was totally worth the effort to see everything that we did that day. After Hell's Gate I headed to Nairobi for a few weeks to do some work in the office writing an annual stake holders report for the education project and then to see a physical therapist for my shoulder (which is doing ok, but washing clothes, carrying water and riding public transport make it very aggravated so it's nice to get some PT when I can). Then it's vacation time and I'm headed to SPAIN to meet up with Cydney and Courtney! YAY!

Here are pictures from our Hell's Gate adventure.

This month was the zonal and district science congress competitions, and this year Bande Girls’ had 7 projects that competed at the zonal level. Of these 7 projects, 6 were chosen to continue and compete at the district competition. Because of this impressive showing Bande placed 2nd out of all the schools who competed at zonals this year. I was extremely impressed with the students work and the experience was beneficial to their education, especially in their development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Most of the students that presented this year also presented last year and they have made huge strides in their confidence and public speaking skills which also includes a huge improvement in their English. I was also impressed with the amount of responsibility that the teacher who is the head of the math and science department took on in preparing the students for the event. Last year was the first year our school competed, and most of the planning and responsibility fell on me, so this year it was great to see another teacher become invested in the activity and it makes me confident that the school will continue to place an emphasis on science congress even after I have left the school. Yay for sustainability!

Here are some pictures of my students preparing for their presentation and also celebrating afterward!

This years science congress was held at Rabwao Secondary School, where my PCV friend Chris works, and is not too far from Lake Victoria. After the students had all finished presenting the other teacher from Bande, Mr Akello, and I took the students to the lake. They had a blast playing in the water and some of them had never been down to the lake before. Aren't they hilarious? They always keep me entertained!

The students and I down at Lake Victoria

Susan and Salvera working on their posters for their push-pull method of pest control on farms project.

The night before the zonal competition, students working on their posters for their presentations.

Winnie and Engrede practicing their presentation on an alternative charcoal using sawdust.

Phostine and Nancy working on their coconut oil extraction project.

Nevina and Zerah who presented how to make glue using different trees and plants.

Clare and Trizah presented a biology talk about drinking fresh juice instead of buying concentrate or factory manufactured juice.

Veronica and Viviane with their homemade wart remover project

Mercy and Ephie looking through their write-up about an ammonium phosphate fertilizer made using all local materials.

A few weeks ago some PCV friends, Denae and Lizzie, came and visited my school for the week. Both Denae and Lizzie are public health volunteers so while they were here they taught my life skills classes, taught the weekly guidance and counseling session and met with my health club to do some activities. It was great to have guests for the week and we had a lot of fun cooking and watching movies in the evening and then working all day with the students.

In life skills class we taught decision-making skills and how to say no to sex. To do this we gave the girls different scenarios and they had to decide what to do and the steps they might take before making a decision. Then we gave them pressure lines that boys may use to convince them to have sex and asked them to write responses. The students worked in groups and then presented their choices and their responses to the pressure lines as a skit for the whole class. Some of the girls got really into playing the parts in their skit and it was really entertaining. We also discussed all the consequences of having sex to encourage them to delay sex. Of course we didn't want to ignore the fact that not all students will choose to say no to sex, so during the health club meeting we taught them all about condoms. We played games to get them comfortable talking about condoms and sex and get them use to touching condoms, then we did a condom demonstration and then taught the girls how they can do condom demonstrations for their classes. And finally, during the weekly guidance and counseling session for the school, Denae and Lizze talked about rape. They told the girls the steps to take if they are raped, strategies to minimize the risk of being raped and the emotional and physical impact that being raped can have on someone. All of these topics are subjects that are not usually openly discussed in Kenyan society, so it was an incredibly educational and useful week for the students and they really enjoyed having more "mzungu" (white people) around to interact with. Lizzie, Denae and I also played volleyball with my team in the afternoons and we had them do a relay race so we taught them the three legged race, the crab walk and wheel-barrow racing. So, basically, it was a blast! Lizzie and Denae also sat in on my biology classes and Lizzie was nice enough to take some pictures of me teaching, so now you can see what I do here everyday! Here are the pictures, enjoy:

Lizzie and Denae with some of my students after they taught guidance and counseling to the whole school.

Teaching about rape at guidance and counseling

The condom water balloon toss game with the students in my health club

A student from the health club demonstrating how to do a condom demonstration for class mates.

The condom hot potato game with the health club. The condoms were blown up as balloons and contained questions related to sex and condoms. Whoever had the condom when the music stopped had to break the condom and answer the question inside to get a candy.

Making condom water balloons for the health club games.

Me teaching my form 2 biology class. This is what I do everyday!

Doing a relay race with my volleyball team, they had never done the crab walk or wheelbarrow before.

The students presenting their skits of how to respond to pressure lines with Lizzie and Denae in life skills class.

I have not written an update in way too long, so first let me try and give you a brief overview of what I have been up to in the last few months, some complete with pictures.

December:

-Traveled to Uganda to go white water rafting on the Nile and bungee jumping

This was one of the most amazing adventures that I have had in my life. Myself and 3 other PCVs, Jenny, Rachel and Nik, traveled to Jinja, Uganda by bus and stayed at Adrift. Adrift takes people white water rafting on the Nile and also has a 40m bungee jumping platform that is directly over the Nile. The rafting was an all day event with up to class 5 rapids. We flipped the raft a number of times, went down a waterfall and got to swim during the calm stretches of the river. At the end of the day our team celebrated with ice cold Nile Special beers.

please notice the facial expression of the jump master, he told Jenny my jump was one of the best he's ever seen

Our raft for the day

-Visited a fellow PCV Denae at her site on Rusinga Island to help with their annual cultural

festival and spent Christmas in Mbita, enjoying the view of Lake Victoria

working with the kids of Rusinga Island on making promises to maintain and improve their health

-Visited Kakamega Forest

I also went to Nairobi for our mid-service medical check ups, celebrated New Years in Kisumu but unfortunately, I also had my laptop stolen from a guesthouse in Kisumu.

January:

-Back to school

-Celebrated Jenny's Birthday at her site

Wearing my Christmas present to the girls,

thanks mom for bringing them all the way from home!

-Margie came and visited me at my school for a week

we made chili, yum

-Started a health club in the school

-Attended the first GAD (Gender and Development) committee meeting, for which I am the vice chair

and finally, in February:

-Attended the WISER induction ceremony

-Celebrated my 24th birthday in Kericho

-Went on a weekend trip to Naivasha

Out for a walk among giraffe, zebra, buffalo and antelope on Crescent Island

Boat ride to spot the elusive hippo

-Volunteered at a mobile well child clinic with LALMBA

-Lizzie and Denae visited my school for a week to teach life skills and guidance and counseling

(more on that in the next update)

Last year for Thanksgiving my training class was still in PST and we put together an American food feast as best we could and rounded out the day with turkey day themed crafts and a skit. So, the only way to top last years thanksgiving was to have TWO thanksgivings, and the lucky girl that I am, that is exactly what I had! I spent Thanksgiving day in Kisumu with other PCVs where we cooked a turkey. Well, actually, cooked is an understatement. What we really did was bought a live turkey in the market, slaughtered it, cleaned it and then we cooked it. We also made all the usual Thanksgiving accompaniments including: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, gravy and apple pie for dessert. Can someone say delicious? What's really funny is that I had a more traditional Thanksgiving than my parents who ate prime rib. Here are some photos from my Kisumu Thanksgiving... (Warning: Some pictures are slightly graphic)

Now to Thanksgiving #2. My second Thanksgiving was back at my site. There is an NGO near me called LALMBA and there are two Americans volunteering there and they were nice enough to have all the ex-pats in the area over for Thanksgiving on Saturday. So it was the 3 PCVs in the area, the two LALMBA volunteers and two Americans who work for the NGO WISER that is near Muhuru Bay. Same story with the turkey for this Thanksgiving, we bought it live and took it all the way to the table. But, unlike in Kisumu, there wasn't a functioning oven so we improvised and came up with a jiko setup to cook the turkey. It was a lot of fun to get all the ex-pats in the region together and since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, it was nice to celebrate all over again. Here are some pictures from this Thanksgiving!

Proof of our amazing Thanksgiving feast

Matt from LALMBA carving the turkey that he killed with his bare hands

The jiko cooking improvisation that cooked our turkey to perfection!

Charlie, Chris and I. The three PC volunteers in their non-PC head wear.

Back to Loitokitok - with a quick stop in Kibwezi

After finishing with exams and grades at my school I packed up and headed to Nairobi en route to PST for the newest group of education volunteers.

An HIV/AIDS workshop had been planned for Mon and Tues of the week when we were to be in Loitokitiok so we were lucky enough to get to go instead to Kibwezi for a few days. Jenny and I got to sit in on sessions talking about HIV/AIDS in Kenya and we also visited a local CBO (community based organization) that is doing work with OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) and we visited a primary school where the students performed skits, dances and songs about preventing the spread of HIV and taking care of family members with HIV/AIDS. There is a picture above of the students performing a dance and the one below is a picture of all the trainees.

After the HIV/AIDS workshop in Kibwezi it was time to head to Loitokitok and Jenny and I had quite the adventure getting back. There was some miscommunication with the PC training staff as to how Jenny and I were supposed to get back. First we were told we could go with the PC vehicle but when we got to the vehicle they said there wasn't enough room but we could go with the buses that were going to carry the trainees. When we got to the buses for the trainees we were once again told there was no room for us and that we should go with the PC vehicle, since there was no room in the PC vehicle we asked if they could at least take our bags and luckily there was at least enough room for those to make our travel easier. So, after some confusion, Jenny and I were on our own to get to Loitokitok. But, no problem right? We're experienced PCVs here in Kenya, we can do this no problem.... We left Kibwezi and headed to Makindu where we wanted to stop and have lunch at the Sheikh Temple (I highly recommend stopping here to anyone in the area, the food is delicious Indian food and it's all by donation) which was really the only highlight of the trip thanks to the events that ensued. I swear I'm not complaining because it really was hilarious! But, here's what happened next: The matatu that we got from Makindu to Emali was so jam packed that the tout was leaning over the back of my seat and his face was less than a milimeter from my face and Jenny said it looked like I had two heads, apparently having another persons face that close to my own face makes me really uncomfortable but there was no where for me to go so I just laughed awkwardly and hoped the trip was short. In Emali we found a matatu to Loitokitok but this leg of the trip was doomed from the start. The matatu started having engine problems as soon as we left Emali but instead of turning around right then or going to a mechanic in the substantial town of Emali we weaved back and forth across the road to make it up the tiniest of inclines on the road. About halfway to Loitokitok we had to stop in the middle of nowhere in a tiny tiny village and have someone look at the engine, it was getting fairly close to dark so Jenny and I were a little worried, but it didnt take too long before we were on our way. About 20KM from LTK we were told to switch to a station wagon that smelled completely AWFUL (we decided it smelled like feet, pickled goat and BO) and I was sitting next to quite possibly the creepiest guy in Kenya, he had super long fingernails that were dyed a weird color and he kept saying "welcome customer" in a really creepy voice and we think he was trying to sell us his nail dye. I also think he had sniffed too much nail dye fumes because he seemed kind of out of it and passed out across the passenger on the other side of him about 5 minutes before we finally arrived in Loitokitok. Ok, so we are finally at our destination, so the adventure is over right? Nope. Jenny and I quickly grabbed some dinner to-go in town and headed to our guest house. Along the way there was a huge section of the road that was flooded and really muddy and when we were trying to get across this mud puddle/cow pie mess I fell. Perfect. I did the splits and ended up totally covered in mud. When I recovered to a standing (wobbling) position my skirt was so heavy with mud that it kept falling down to my knees and Jenny had to help me pull it up since my hands were full of stuff. My shoes were so muddy that they wouldnt stay on and my feet were slipping around, making the short walk a lot harder than it should have been. We finally made it to our guest house where I was able to take a much needed shower, but not before Jenny took some pictures for evidence of our ordeal. It was a really really long day, but Jenny and I laughed the whole time because everything that happened was just so absolutely ridiculous. I'm glad Jenny was there with me so we could laugh at everything and also so I have a witness that I am not making this stuff up! So, if nothing else, the day was highly entertaining.

Here is the aftermath of my fall in the mud. Don't I look happy?

In Loitokitok, Jenny and I led sessions about dealing with corporal punishment in schools, classroom management and discipline. It was so great to meet the new trainees and its fun to be around them since they are so full of enthusiasm and optimism! I think they are an excellent group and I can't wait for them to get to site and see the things that they are doing in their schools. I also got the chance to visit my homestay family and that was a blast! It was crazy to be back in the house where I had stayed a year ago and think of all the things that have happened since then and how my views of Kenya have changed and grown. It was so nice to see my Mama, I miss her like crazy! She is the sweetest woman and I have her to thank for my cooking, clothes washing and Kenyan house keeping skills! She had a baby a few months ago, little baby Alvin, so I can now add another brother to my list of Kenyan family. Isn't he adorable?

Week 9: Last week of teaching

Week 9, in addition to marking my 1 year in Kenya, was the last week of teaching at my school. Originally we were going to teach through the end of week 10 but because there hasn't been enough rain, the school administration worried that the drinking water would soon run out and so they moved the schools closing date up by a week. This sent all the teachers into high gear and we were all busy trying to cram the rest of the topics in the syllabus into the last week of school. I am happy to report that I was able to finish the syllabus in all of my classes, which is a real accomplishment, considering how huge the Kenya syllabus is and most teachers in Kenya do not finish the syllabus, leaving topics that have to be covered the next year. (This syllabus "debt" is never really made up and eventually the students suffer in form 4 when they can't finish all the topics in a subject). Over the weekend I played a review game with both of the form 2 classes and also with the two form 1 classes. The students enjoy the game, or maybe they just enjoy the stickers they get for winning, but I also like to think they are learning and revising as well so they can do well on their exams.

Week 10: Exams

All the forms started their exams this week and they will continue until the middle of next week. Form 3 students are taking exams that will determine if the school will allow them to become form 4s next year, and therefore, take the KCSE at Bande Girls. The government passed a law that no student should be held back because of failing grades, but some schools have adopted passing marks that the students must obtain in order to proceed to the next class. While it is understandable that many parents don't want to, or don't have the means to, pay for an extra year of secondary school, some students really do need to repeat a grade if they are going to have any chance of doing well on the KSCE. Speaking of which, the KCSE was completed this week and the 26 form 4 students have now left the school. They will return around February or March of next year to get their results from the school, but they are no longer students, they are now full fledged adults in Kenyan society.

My form 1 students continued to perform well in biology, but I think they can tell that everything is getting harder with more and more information being added and the concepts becoming more complicated, and, of course, some of them need a wake up call to start working harder in class. Overall, I was really happy with their performance and many of them continue to improve from their previous exam grades. The form 2 class did not make me as happy. The highest grade in my form 2 biology class was a 33%. I was really disappointed in their performance. It can be really discouraging to feel like you are working so hard to provide the students with everything they need to succeed, only to have them fail. A good illustration was one of the questions on the exam, it was a diagram and they had to identify what the diagram was of. The diagram in question was of a nephron in the kidney. I had made multiple posters of this diagram, made a model out of straws and string that was posted in the class and that the students could also take down to study, I also checked all of their notebooks to make sure they had drawn it correctly, and during the review game all the teams were to draw and label the same diagram. The diagrams and the model were displayed in the classroom for the last 3-4 weeks, and, when it came to the exam, some students still couldn't write that the diagram was of the nephron. Sigh. This is the pinnacle of my discouragement since being here. But, the results were not all bad, there was one major bright spot. All but 2 students were able to properly draw the graph from the graph question, which is an aspect of the exam that we have been working to improve all of this term. (There was one exam where none of my students got any points on the graph question). I was really happy with how they did on that part of the exam and since there is always a graph question included on the KCSE which counts for a lot of the points in the 3rd paper, this is a great improvement. I guess this tells me that I need to work with my students on their study skill and their test taking skills and teach them how to read and study for understanding, not just for memorization purposes. There is always more work to do...

After I finished marking all of my exams and calculating the final end term grades for my students, I packed a bag and cleaned my house as I am now headed back to Loitokitok to help with PST for the new group of Math/Science Education volunteers. I am excited to go back to Loitokitok and see my home stay family and also to meet the new volunteers. By the time I return to site school will be closed, so I said a sad good bye to my students until school starts again in January. My plans for December include our mid-service medical exams in Nairobi (can't wait to see everyone from my group again), another Girls' Camp similar to the one I helped organize in August, at a local girls secondary school, some research on future projects and hopefully a nice vacation for Christmas and New Years.

1 YEAR IN COUNTRY

November 4th officially marked the one year anniversary of me being in Kenya. On November 1st of last year I said goodbye to my parents in the airport and left for staging in Philadelphia where I met the other 24 volunteers in my training class. After the long flights it takes to get here we finally arrived on November 4th in Nairobi ready to start our Peace Corps adventure. I should note that since arriving in Kenya not a single volunteer from my training class has gone home, no medical separations, no administrative separations, we are all still here. We all survived to the one year mark, which is incredibly rare (maybe even unheard of) in Peace Corps. Here is a document from the Peace Corps Wiki site about numbers of applicants and volunteers that make it to various landmarks in service.

So, on average, out of 100% of trainees that make it to their country 90% are sworn in as volunteers at the end of Pre-Service Training (PST). Then out of all the volunteers sworn in 83% make it to the one year mark. So, statistically speaking, we should have lost 2 trainees during PST and then another 4 since then. But, obviously, our training group is amazing and we have all survived to this point. I should also mention that if it were not for these amazing individuals (and other PCVs here in Kenya) I would probably not have survived to this point. My training class has truly become like a second family to me here and their support is the most valuable resource I have on the rough days, they know what it's like to be living and working in Kenya, they let me vent and help me find solutions to the problems that I face. I love them and I am so proud of our group! I can't wait to see them all again and reunite when we go to Nairobi for our mid-service medical exams.

In the last 12 months I have learned an incredible amount about the world, myself, Kenya, teaching and life in general. I have a new found respect for teachers all over the world and also have a new level of appreciation for all the things that I had in my life growing up and am lucky to have now. Since arriving and undergoing an understandable amount of culture-shock it's amazing to me how normal my life here now seems. Often, when I talk to my friends and family back home, they tell me what an amazing thing I am doing and comment on how hard it must be to be living here "roughing it". But, to me, most of my days seem completely normal and I have adapted to living in rural Kenya, this is enhanced by having such a normal daily routine because of school. I am no longer phased by using the outdoor pit latrine, I no longer even think twice about it (except after dusk because around that time the bat that resides in my latrine likes to come and go, nothing like having a bat interrupt a bathroom break). And nothing seems more normal than washing my clothes and dishes by hand. I have also noticed that some of my instincts have changed, however subtly. Now when it starts to rain I immediately get up and put my buckets outside to catch water, when did this become my natural reaction to the noise of rain on the roof? I have also lost the instinct to reach for a light switch when I enter a room, my house was wired for electricity a couple weeks ago and I still find myself coming home in the evening and going to light my lantern or candles... Which, truth be told, has been totally justified lately, as the power hasn't been on for the last week anyway. My entertainment has shifted from TV in the states to books here in Kenya and in the last 12 months I have read 36 books. I guess that's what not having electricity will do for you.

Despite all of the ways my life now seems completely and totally normal to me, there are of course some things that I will never get used to seeing (or hearing). I still have an incredibly hard time with societies view of women (men are superior, women should serve their husbands in every aspect), of violence (caning in schools, beating in the household), and the corruption (I won't even go into it here) and it still gets to me to see the poverty in this country. By now its a lot easier to block out the kids and adults yelling "mzungu, mzungu. How are you?" But there is still a part of me that hates the attention and there is still a part of me that can't help but be indignant when a total stranger asks me for money or asks me to marry him and take him to America. Kenya is a beautiful, rich, amazing country and it hurts me to know that so many of its citizens don't see the potential here, but would rather ask for handouts or escape to the States. My Peace Corps experience has been full of ups and downs but luckily the ups have far out weighed the downs. I love my students, I enjoy my fellow teachers and when all is said and done, I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to work here and I am happy.

When we were in training someone told us that our two years here will be the shortest long time in our lives. I understand the sentiment now. In so many ways it does not feel like I have actually been here for a year, the time has flown by (but it does feel like I have been away from home for a very very very long time). When I think about how quickly the first year went I start to panic because there are so many things I want to accomplish before I leave. There are so many projects that could be done here, so many things that could improve my school and the lives of my students, that it is easy to feel overwhelmed and feel that I have accomplished nothing since I arrived. But, if I look at the little things, like students who have gained self confidence, the small strides in their academic progress, the change in opinion from some of my staff about things like caning and female circumsision and wife inheritance, then I feel like I have made a difference in the last year but mostly I feel incredibly excited for the things that I will accomplish in the next 12 months. If the first year served no other purpose than to orient me to life here, become acquainted with my community and the needs of my school and students, then it has been incredibly successful and it will make my future projects have a larger impact and be all the more sustainable. So, here's to the next 12 months.

Week 8 of the term was packed with lab activities for my students. I think all my poster making and lab activity flaunting in the staff room has finally started to pay off because one of the other biology teachers came to me and wanted to plan a fairly complicated lab activity with the students. I was really excited by this, so this week we had all the form 2 students dissect a liver (which we just finished studying) lungs (studied them last term) and then tested the tissue for the presence and concentration of catalase (enzyme) by placing them in hydrogen peroxide and watching the catalase do its magic as it changes the hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water. The next day in class we discussed the practical as a class and it was one of the first times that my students have really been able to synthesize their observations into biological conclusions and I was so happy to see their critical thinking skills improving. Then, after a long week of teaching, practicals and secondary project work, I headed to Kisumu to celebrate Halloween with a bunch of PCVs and some other ex-pat friends who are in the area. It wasn't all fun and games though, I did do some work on the sessions that I am going to be teaching at the new education groups training when I head back to Loitokitok in a few weeks, but more on that later. Here are some pictures from the halloween party, Mike and I dressed up as the Green Monkey from the Nickeloden tv show Legends of the Hidden Temple, and if you don't get the reference to one of the best shows of my childhood than I don't know if we can be friends. Mike and I actually won the costume contest at the party!

Happy Halloween

Jenny in her Jack-O-Lantern costume that she sewed herself!

Jenny, Me and Whitney the cavewoman

Green Monkeys! We're going to take the grand prize and go to SPACE CAMP!

(big shout out to Whitney for drawing our monkeys and making the lovely medallions that will save us from the temple gaurds)

Neil as a mzungu (white person/tourist), Rich, Amber the flapper and the jack-o-lantern

Every week there is a “teacher on duty” or TOD. The TOD is responsible for all the activities at the school for that week, including supervising preps, manual work and being responsible for disciplining any students who are caught breaking the rules during the week. This means that the TOD gets to wake up at 4am and make sure the students are in morning preps on time and then staying late into the evening until the students go to sleep at 10pm. It’s a lot of responsibility and no teacher likes to be the teacher on duty. This week was my week to be the TOD and it left me exhausted every evening when I finally got home. I had some issues with caning on Monday, a number of teachers were caning students for various reasons and it was just too much for me to handle so I had to go home for the day and try to calm down, we had a staff meeting that evening where I was able to bring up the issues that I continue to have with how caning is used in the school as a form of discipline. I understand that caning is deeply ingrained in the culture here and I know its not going to go away over night but together as a staff we were able to make some progress toward moving away from caning as a first live of punishment. We also decided that next week the Guidance and Counseling department will meet with the entire school to come up with alternative forms of punishments and then the discipline committee is going to meet and come up with guideline of what punishments should be administered for the various rules when they are broken by a student. This will give the TOD a clear guideline of how to discipline the students which will making being TOD easier and it will also provide some consistency in the punishments which our school is currently lacking. So, although Monday was a fairly traumatizing day for me, I think a lot of good was able to come out of it. Wednesday was a holiday: Kenyatta Day. So there were no classes after 10:30 and the students went to the field to play volleyball, football, handball, netball and the rest of the students played with the frisbees that my parents had brought them. It was fun to be out in the field with the students and it was also nice to see the students getting a break from the usual demanding class schedule. There are only about 3 more weeks of classes left in the term and that has put stress on the staff and the students to get through the remainder of the syllabus before school ends for the year. This week in my form 2 class we dissected a kidney and the students worked in groups and presented on the various kidney diseases, both of these activities turned out really well and I continue to be amazed at the change that I see in my students from how they were when I first arrived. Their public speaking skills have really improved and I can tell that they are more confident when they stand in front of the class, this is one of my small victories that I cherish. Now it's the weekend and I am off to meet with the LALMBA association. The director of LALMBA is in the country and 2 American volunteers just arrived at their clinic so I am going to go and welcome them to the area and talk about ways we can collaborate on projects in the future. Here are some pictures from our weekly Guidance and Counseling sessions that are held on Wednesdays, some pictures are from when Diana, a form 3 student, presented on drugs and drug abuse and some are from when Mr Mugesani, the assistant to me in the Guidance and Counseling department, talked about decision making. I also included some pictures of how I spent last weekend - washing all my clothes, and of the second scorpion friend that I have found in my house. Enjoy!

Week 4: Girls Education

During the week a Girls Education meeting was held by the Nyanza Womens Group for Girl Child Education. All the schools in the district brought their female students to St. Gemma Girls' Secondary School. A number of important guests were in attendance and gave speeches to the girls encouraging them to stay in school, to achieve in the sciences and to put their education before marriage. The District Education Officer (DEO) gave a speech during which he said "Marriage before career is slavery". He said the same thing when he visited Bande, but I just love that quote. This sentiment may not be true for women in the States, but it is definitely true for women here. If a woman is not educated and has no way to support herself than she is totally dependent on her husband. This can mean she has to ask permission to leave the house, has to ask for money to buy even the most basic things and in essence, becomes a slave to her husband. This can put the woman into a situation where she is abused but has no resources to leave her husband. Or in a country where the HIV rate is about 8%, if her husband dies, she has no way to support herself or her children. There were also a number of important female business women who came from Nairobi who spoke at the event including the manager of the Kenya Literature Bureau (the company that prints all the text books in Kenya) who is from Nyanza. The whole day was inspiring and the students really enjoyed hearing from all these important people who encouraged them to do well and made them feel like people care about them and their future.

Week 5: World Vision / Ruma

When I first came to Bande I asked the principal what the major issues facing the students was and one of the things that she told me was that the students have an extremely hard time buying sanitary pads and this can lead them to use unsanitary measures during their period or they simply do not attend class when they have their period. In the worst case scenario, female students will go to extreme measures to try and earn money to buy pads, which does not exclude sleeping with men for money. So, since that time I have been working to try and get reusable pads donated to the school to help with this problem. This week all my hard work paid off when World Vision came to my school and brought 50 packs of reusable pads for my students. The students who received the pads were a list that my principal put together of the 50 girls who could use them the most. The students were so grateful and happy to receive the pads and I was so touched by the thank you speeches they gave. The students talked about what a huge difference this is going to make in their lives and what a relief it is to them that they no longer have to worry about how they will buy pads every month. There was also a form 4 (12th grade) students who talked about what a big difference this is going to make for her when she takes the KCSE, the national exam that starts in a few weeks, because now she will be able to focus on the exam instead of how to attend to her period. The whole day made me really happy and also reminded me of all the little things that we take for granted in the States. Here are some pictures from the day: The representatives from World Vision talking to the students, a student giving a thank you speech, me with the students and then a group picture (not all of the students who received pads were in the picture).

Over the weekend I went to Ruma National Park with Chris, Dom and Mike. Ruma NP is the only major NP in Nyanza and it is known for the herds of Roan antelope that can only be seen here. The park is outside of Homa Bay and we had some difficulties getting out there, but when we finally made it, it was so worth the trouble! We camped in the park which was absolutely beautiful and it was so much fun to go camping again, I don't think I realized how much I missed camping until we went. We had a good time trying to get a fire started and finally had to get help from one of the KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) employees. The view from the camp site was amazing and it was nice to relax, hang out and drink some wine with friends. In the morning we set off walking in the park, we saw giraffe and a ton of Roan but on our way back to the campsite we were intercepted by some KWS officers who informed us that walking in the park is illegal... oops. So they drove us back to the campsite and oversaw our packing up of camp and then us leaving the park, but at least we didn't get a fine (or arrested as Dom suggested to the KWS officer). The whole weekend was a blast and it was a nice break from the school routine. Some pictures from the park:

Week 6: Stima! + prayer day

I GOT STIMA (electricity) IN MY HOUSE!!!!! After months of being told that electricity was coming to the school, it finally happened. The classrooms, staffroom lab and the dorms were all wired about a week ago but it took longer to get all the houses on the school compound hooked up. When I signed up for Peace Corps I never expected to have electricity in my house, but now that I have it I am so happy! It is so nice to be able to charge my phone and computer anytime I need to, instead of having to rely on the solar panels at the school. It has made it so much easier to do work on my computer which has made me more productive and more connected to the outside world. It also means that I stay up later since I have light to cook and read by, and its a lot easier to flip a light switch rather than lighting a lantern every night. The power still goes out fairly often so I'm not getting rid of my lantern and candles, but electricity is AMAZING! Here are some pictures of the demolition (kind of) that went on to wire the house and my new outlets and light bulbs in my house. It may not be as exciting for those of you at home but I can tell you that many a PCV over here is now jealous of me!

Sunday the school held a “prayer day” for the form 4s in preparation for the start of the KCSE. The KCSE is the national exam that students take at the end of form 4 and covers all the subjects that students have studied and all the material the students have covered from form 1 all the way to form 4. The exam is given over two weeks and the results basically determine the rest of the students life. The scores are used to determine entrance into universities, colleges, technical colleges and are also used for hiring in all job positions. Even when a Kenyan is in their 40’s and applying for a job they still have to provide their KCSE score and many job openings give a minimum grade that applicants have to have obtained in order to be eligible. So, you know, no pressure or anything. I really don’t think there is any way that I could have passed an exam like the KCSE, the exams are hours long and many subjects have multiple papers and each one takes hours to complete. For example, in biology there are three different papers, or exams, that make up the total biology exam. The first paper is all short answer, the second paper has graph questions and essays and the third paper is the practical paper where the student is given a lab experiment that they have to carry out and then answer questions about, its a tough exam to say the least. I do not envy the students who have to take the KCSE. Prayer day was a chance for the parents of the form 4s to come and pray that the students perform well in their exams. All of the teachers and students attended the event and the form 4s performed a number of songs and parents and guests gave speeches of encouragement to the form 4s. Here are some pictures from the event:

I haven't written in a long time and for that I apologize, so here are some updates on what I've been doing in the term so far, and there will be more to come.

Week 1: Parents visit!

My parents were here for the first week of school, they were able to meet my staff, students and see my lovely house! They were real troopers and barely complained about the facilities. My parents visited all of my classes to talk with the students and also brought a Frisbee for each class that they can use during their PE classes. We had a fun time playing Frisbee with the neighbor kids (that is, until I rolled my ankle swinging the little boy around). It was great being able to show my parents where I live and work, it makes it so much easier for them to understand what my life is like here, which helps me out since it is so hard to describe my experience here. Other highlights of their trip to Bande: washing clothes by hand, making guacamole for my staff – which they loved, and seeing the fishing boats on the lake at night lit up by their lanterns.

Here's a picture of my parents on the bus back to Nairobi to catch their flight. I think I wore them out!

Week 2: Nairobi

After taking my parents to Nairobi and to the airport for their long long long flight home, I had to stay around because of my sprained ankle… RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation) is not easy to accomplish when you live in remote Kenya – I can’t exactly not walk or not stand when I’m at my school, especially if I want to buy food from the market or do my job and I have yet to see an ice machine in my village. So, Nairobi it was until my ankle got better. I did some physical therapy which helped, got a brace and then headed back to school.

Week 3: Catch-up

I spent the week grading exams and calculating grades for my students, catch-up from when I was gone in Nairobi when the opening exams for the term were taking place. Saturday the school was host to a large Christian youth rally with over 20 schools in attendance. Each school's choir performed a few songs and guests from all the churches in the area came and gave speeches to the students. Chris came for the day and after the main sermon of the event Chris and I headed to Migori for good food, good internet connection and to stock up on necessities from the grocery store. Here are some pictures from the event:

VACATION

My parents came to Kenya for a little over two weeks. While they were here we went on safari in Masai Mara, visited one of the most beautiful places on earth: Lamu, and they roughed it at my house when they came to visit my school. I will add more later, but here is a little taste of our trip

With school closed a week early and a travel ban put in place by Peace Corps due to the referendum I had a week of free time to try and fill. Chris and I decided to use this time to organize and hold a Girls Empowerment / Life Skills camp for the girls of his school and the girls from my school that live in and around Muhuru Bay (where Chris teaches at Rabwao). Chris and I were lucky to have the help of two other PCVs to help facilitate the different sessions. Whitney had come to stay with me since her site is in the Rift Valley, where there had been a lot of speculation that violence would occur, and Sonya, a public health volunteer, was also staying in the area for the travel ban since her site is also in Rift Valley.

Together, the four of us put together a packed day of sessions about goal setting, female role models, assertive communication skills, female reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and condom use and healthy relationships. Between the two schools about 70 girls were invited to the camp and we had an excellent turn out of 50 girls. In addition to the sessions that we held we also had some fun with the girls teaching them all about how to make and love PB&J sandwiches, holding condom "races" and we also provided lunch for the girls, complete with sodas (a big treat for Kenyan students). The whole day was a huge success and it was great to see the girls getting a chance to talk about and ask questions about topics that are often neglected both in school and in the homes here. I had a number of students tell me what a great time they had and Chris, Whitney, Sonya and I all felt very accomplished and fulfilled (oh, and exhausted) at the end of the day. Here are some pictures from the day.

Goal setting session where we talked about what the girls want to achieve after secondary school, we talked about careers and how to realize their goals.

Female reproductive health session, here the girls are arranging the stages in the menstrual cycle.

Group photo at the end of the day

End of Term 2

Term 2 came to a close. Schools all over Kenya closed a week earlier than had been originally scheduled because of the August 4th Kenyan referendum on a new constitution. Looking back on this term I think it went a lot more smoothly than my first term at Bande and the weeks really flew by. I am much more comfortable in the classroom and feel like I am making more of an impact on the teaching styles of the other teachers and connecting even more with the students. The term of course had its ups and downs but I've learned so much and I think things will continue to be challenging but the longer I am here the more equipped I feel to face the challenges. I try to omit most of the downs on here and focus on the ups, but maybe I shouldn't do that... it doesn't give the whole picture. The highs in Peace Corps life are incredibly high but the lows can be really low. I am still incredibly happy to be here and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else anywhere else right now, but that doesn't mean I don't have bad days. I would have to say my biggest challenge at my school is the use of corporal punishment (caning) as a form of discipline. I've come to terms with the fact that I can't expect caning to go away over night but I am working with the administration and the other teachers to try and move my school away from this punishment. This of course doesn't make it any easier for me to see the students being hit, but I have found ways to cope and I have gotten a lot of support from other PCVs and the Peace Corps Kenya staff. As far as the students' classroom performance the form 1s once again performed really really well in biology with the lowest grade for the whole form being a C-. I've been so happy with how hard they work and even as we add more and more information they still continue to do well in their exams. My form 2s had kind of a rough time with their end term exam, it was the longest, most challenging and most comprehensive exam we have given to them and a lot of them struggled with the graphing questions and I think some were just intimidated by the length of the exam itself. But its good to see the areas where the students need some extra revision and we will be tackling a lot more graph questions so they can get comfortable with those. The end of the term snuck up on me for sure, and things were complicated when I got stuck in Kisumu on medical, I came down with a stomach thing that turned out to be dysentery (what am I a character on the Oregon Trail game?) and needed a few days of lying in bed before I could travel back to site. I was lucky that my fellow teachers stepped in and when I got back to site they had finished calculating all of my students grades and had completed their report cards for the term, I am incredibly lucky to work with such a great staff! Now it's time for a month off from teaching to recharge for the last term of the year!

A Luo Funeral

Unfortunately, last month my principal's mom died. To show our support for our principal the entire staff of my school attended the funeral together, including a small group of students. Luo's are traditionally buried in their village homes, which in this case was in a village past Kisumu called Bondo. It was a long trip from Bande but it was a very interesting experience. The whole funeral and burial events occur over a number of days. In this particular case the body was brought home to the family's home on Friday, there were funeral events that evening followed by an overnight vigil (which from what I have heard is more like a wake/party than anything else), then Saturday the events started early in the morning with the body being laid to rest in the evening. There was also a special church service on the next day (Sunday). Because of the distance we only attended the Saturday afternoon events. We arrived at the family home were fed (there was enough food to feed an army, and there might have been enough people there to make an army). We then listened to speeches made by a number of people who were connected in some way to the deceased, the family or the community. Below are pictures from the event which show the group of students singing a song with my principal before she gave her speech at the event. The entire event was an experience with the most intense part being the way Luo's act at funerals. There are women and girls wailing, crying, yelling and throwing themselves on the ground or onto the coffin in mourning. Another PCV described it perfectly when she said it is very hard to watch another human be in so much emotional agony. These outward and dramatic displays of emotion are also in contrast to the usual emotional restraint (especially with negative emotions) that is shown by Kenyans day-to-day.

Volleyball

Undefeated at the zonal competition Bande's volleyball team, coached my yours truly, moved on to the district competition. (Check out fellow PCVs description of how games are run/corrupt/frustrating here in Kenya at the following link. Chris' Blog Chris is at a secondary school that is about 30 minutes from mine and right on the lake.) The first day of competition at districts was full of frustration which began when I was asked to leave a number of my players behind since there wasn't enough room in the vehicle the school had hired (I should note that the football team wasn't going to leave any players behind...), but after sorting things out and working out a fair deal for both teams we were on our way, the next frustration was that the event started almost 4 hours later than scheduled, but despite these issues both volleyball and football teams played well. We played well in pool play and qualified for the semi final match the next day (so did the football team). The second day was equally frustrating, but in a very different way, when we were stopped by police on our way to the event and forced to leave half the students on the side of the road and then go in two trips, since according to the police the vehicle was overloaded. I'm sure a bribe was payed, but since I am supposed to be culturally sensitive and not politically agitating, I won't go into that... The team played extremely well in the semi final match but were ultimately defeated. They didn't go down without a fight though, taking the game to 5 sets with the final set ending 13-15. The team we lost to went on to win the championship match so I think the girls should be extremely proud of their performance.

Now the term is coming to a close, earlier than planned because of the upcoming referendum, and it's hard to believe that so much time has passed. I'm looking forward to August when I'll get a break from teaching and MY PARENTS WILL BE COMING TO VISIT!!!! But thats all for now, cheers!

Happy 4th of July! I had an excellent 4th celebration which was spent with a small group of Americans at WISER, a girls school in Muhuru Bay which is a village nearby. There are 4 American's working there right now (2 are going to be around for about the next year at least and 2 are headed back to the states by the end of this month) and one of them was nice enough to host Chris and I and another American who is working in a nearby village for some American food, wine and to celebrate of course! We didn't have any fireworks but we did have hamburgers and potato salad and lots of wine so I can't complain. It was unlike any 4th of July I've had before but it might have been one of the best.

July 4th also marks my 8 month anniversary of touching down in Nairobi. Time is definitely a funny thing, maybe especially in the Peace Corps. Its hard for me to believe that its already July, sometimes it feels like time has flown by and I can't believe the second term is almost coming to an end but when I think about how long its been since I have been home or seen my family and friends in the states it can feel longer than 8 months. But, as a tribute to 8 months in country, here are some lists of 8 that you might enjoy...

8 things that I hardly notice anymore:

1. The heat

2. Lack of electricity and running water

3. Waiting for hours for things, whether it be a vehicle to go to town or a meeting to start

4. The heavily armed police and security officers

5. Traveling 6-7 hours to get to Kisumu

6. Wearing a skirt everyday

7. Usually being the only white person for miles

8. Speaking at a slower pace while teaching so my students can understand me better

8 things that keep me happy at site:

1. My phone - not only allows me to call other PCVs but also has internet so I can occasionally (ok, everyday) check facebook and send an email home and get emails too

2. Books - pretty much the only consistent form of entertainment that I have at my disposal

3. A glass of wine - always nice after a 12-14 hour work day

4. My iPod - music is amazing

5. My students - These girls are amazing, they keep me motivated and also provide a constant source of entertainment

6. Long walks

7. Ear plugs - allows me to sleep through roosters, dogs barking and the bell that wakes the students or announces breakfast

8. The support of family and friends both here in Kenya and back in the States

8 things that can really make my day: (most of which I have to go to Kisumu or Nairobi to get)

1. A shower - a REAL shower with warm water

2. Cheese - really any food that I can't usually get at site

3. Going to see a movie

4. Going swimming

5. Getting mail or a package

6. Air conditioning

7. A Western toilet

8. Fast internet access

8 things that I use on a daily basis:

1. HEADLAMP!!!

2. cell phone

3. iPod

4. lantern

5. gas cooker

6. water filter

7. bug spray

8. sunscreen

8 new skills I have learned since coming to Kenya:

1. How to take a bucket bath

2. How to bargain in 2 foreign languages

3. How to wash all my clothes by hand

4. How to ignore constantly being yelled at by small children (Mzungu, mzungu how are you?)

5. How to sit still for long periods of time and wait

6. How to cook Kenyan foods

7. How to disassemble and reassemble a lantern

8. How to spell using British English

8 TV shows I miss (but I do miss TV less than I thought I would):

1. Grey's Anatomy

2. The Office

3. How I Met Your Mother

4. Weeds

5. Entourage

6. Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia

7. NCIS

8. Law and Order: SVU

(I'm sad to say there are more...)

8 life lessons:

1. Be patient

2. Try to judge people by their intentions not their actions

3. Have a sense of humor - laugh at yourself

4. Revel in the small victories

5. Listen

6. Be a good friend

7. Try your best

8. Be kind (though my mom's been telling me this for years... thanks mom)

Well, there you have it, 8 months in Kenya. Only 18 more to go!

On Saturday our school held a Harambee. The word harambee means to pull together and it is the national motto of Kenya. The event is a fundraiser and parents, villagers, local officials and guests come and donate money to the cause. Our school was holding the harambee in order to raise funds to finish building two new classrooms, a new dorm, new bathrooms and latrines and hopefully paying for the cost of having electricity hooked up to the school. I'll describe the event more later, but here is a video of the girls performing for the guests of honor at the harambee. They performed a traditional luo song that was accompanied by dance, they did an excellent job.! Hope you enjoy!

Back at site and back to work. Here are a few highlights from the past few weeks:

An A

Our school just finished our opening exams and I could not be happier with how my students performed! My form 2 class almost made me cry tears of joy! For the first time, one of my form 2s got an A on the biology exam! I was so happy! And when I was grading all of the exams I felt like everyone had done pretty well so that also made me happy, but then when I put all the scores in my mark book it turns out that every single one of my students improved their grade from the last exam! I am beyond proud of them, not only does this show that they are working hard to improve, but the fact that they are doing so in a subject that they have always been told is extremely difficult, and some of them have heard their whole life that girls can't do well in math and science, is a huge deal!

The form 1 students also did really well on their biology exam with most of them earning about the same grade as they had been earning last term or better. This form 1 class is extremely hard working and most of them did very well on the KCPE (the national exam at the end of primary school, which schools use as a benchmark for admission to secondary school). So I'm glad that they are still living up to their potential!

A Bee

I was walking back to my house one day when suddenly I felt something really painful on my foot, I looked down to see that a bee had gotten caught between by sandal and my big toe and had stung me. This is the first time in my life that I have ever been stung by a bee, and I am actually quite terrified of them (or at least I used to be, being stung and seeing what it feels like has definitely helped curb my irrational fear). The bee had stung me between by toes right on the inside of my big toe and it hurt pretty bad, but I was able to hobble home and use my aspevenin kit (a reusable suction kit for snake, scorpion, spider bites, or in this case bee stings). The kit worked wonders and I was almost completely pain free and able to go and play volleyball in the afternoon as usual.

A Quote

My students, along with everyone else at my school and in my community, tend to say some pretty hilarious things to me. When I first got back to site after my vacation I was a lot tanner than when I had left and the staff and students took notice. One of my students said to me "Madam, you look a lot browner than when you left... Don't worry though you will recover!" This exchange made me laugh, I thought about trying to explain that in the US people actually pay to go to a salon and get a fake tan, but I was worried that description wouldn't really translate. Also, I got asked in the staff room the other day by one of my colleagues: "Obama is the President of North America, right?" So, I got to do some geographic education, which by the end had one of the teachers convinced that states in the US are actually like nations, not like provinces, just like Kenya has provinces within the country, like I tried to explain... I'm trying to do a better job of remembering some of the interesting quotes and questions I get asked, so hopefully there will be more to come.

Teaching Differently

During our training the Peace Corps training staff likes to stress that they don't just want us to go to our schools and teach, they want us to "teach differently". This means a number of things. One, a majority of teachers in Kenya go to class (when they go to class, attendance by teachers is a huge problem in Kenya... thankfully not so much at my school) and dictate notes to the students for the entire lesson, which if I were a Kenyan student I would say: BORING. So, since arriving at my school I have tried to demonstrate the effectiveness of making and using visual aids, interactive activities and laboratory practicals in my classes. A few of my favorite interactive lessons that I have used:

Being a Plant: When my form 2 class was studying transport in plants I took the whole class to the field and they had to make a plant with themselves as the material, so some of the girls were the root hair, some were the xylem in the root, xylem in the stem, and the leaves. Then I had students who were given water and mineral salt "molecules" and they had to act out the process by which the plant absorbs and transports these materials all the way until water is lost to the environment through the leaves. This was the first big activity that I tried with my class so it took quite awhile for the students to get the hang of it but when we went back to class to review what we had just done the girls really understood and were excited about the topic.

Classification: When my form 1 class was studying the units of classification (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species) we did an activity where they came up with their own sentence to remember the order. For example: Kenyan Students Can Often Fear Giant Snakes. Each student had to come up with one of these sentences on their own and then draw a picture to match! We had a blast and some of the sentences the students came up with were hilarious! And, I should comment that not a single one of my students missed this question on their exam!

Circulatory System: Right now my form 2 class is about to finish the topic of transport in animals and we have been studying the mammalian circulatory system. Much like the plant activity I recently took my class to the field where we constructed a circulatory system. I had students assigned different parts of the circulatory system and they held big labels (like, Left Ventricle, Aorta, Hepatic Vein etc). Then we took a big ball of yarn and connected all the parts together to represent the flow of blood in the body. There were also students who were red blood cells, oxygen and carbon dioxide, so the red blood cells followed the string through the circulatory system, when they got to the lungs they picked up oxygen and then brought it to the tissues, where they picked up carbon dioxide and brought it to the lungs. The whole activity worked really well and it was a blast!

Organelles: My form 1 class is currently studying the cell and we are going over all the different organelles and what they do for the cell. In my class we have been playing "Organelle Bingo". The students make bingo cards in their notebooks and fill them in with the different organelles however they want. Then, I draw an organelle at random, expect instead of just reading the name of an organelle I read a description, so, the students have to know about each organelle so they can mark it off on their bingo sheet!

Well, that's a short overview of some of the things I've been doing at site since the term started. More to come soon!

Cheers!

After vacation, training in Nairobi, and then staying in Nairobi for an extra week for some medical stuff, I am finally back at site! Yay!

The girls reported back to school on the 5th, the regional games competition was on that Friday and Saturday and then classes started on the 10th. Since arriving back at site I've been teaching classes, re-marking the volleyball court so we can start practicing, and just generally trying to get back in the swing of school. This term I am teaching both streams of form 1 bio, one stream of form 2 bio and life skills to all of the classes. So, this term I have 18 lessons a week, which is 4 less than last term. I’m excited to have fewer classes this term so that hopefully I can start doing some secondary projects with the school and in the community. Right now I am still working on getting a scholarship program going for my students who could really use assistance paying their school fees, I’m still coaching volleyball and the volleyball competitions will be this term so that will also keep me busy. Other secondary projects are starting up a health club at my school that can do peer education at our school and also at the local primary schools, building hand washing stations for the school. I've also been talking to the geography teacher about possibly starting the world map project with the help of the form 4 class. I was also able to schedule my classes so that I have Friday afternoons off, this will make it a lot easier for me to set up meetings with organizations and go on trips on the weekend every once in awhile.

Most of my schedule/class changes were possible because we got 3 new teachers! The school is supposed to have at least 9 TSC (Teachers Service Commission) teachers (teachers who have gone to university and gone through a teacher training program), but when the school population was way down a few years ago, most of the trained TSC teachers were transferred, and unfortunately, they haven't been replaced since the school has grown to its current size. The school right now only has 4 TSC teachers and all of the other teachers are hired by the Board of Governors (BOG) of the school. All of the BOG teachers are very dedicated, but some of them just finished secondary school last year, while others are just teaching until they leave for university, while others have taught for years but have not been through a teachers training school. Having a majority of BOG teachers causes a number of problems for schools. Often BOG teachers only stay at a school for a year or two, this causes inconsistency in teaching, and causes the administration to constantly be looking for replacement teachers, and many of them do not want to be teachers in the future, which can cause a problem with motivation (thankfully this is not an issue at our school). BOG teachers are also paid for with the schools funds, while TSC teachers are paid by the Ministry of Education, so the more BOG teachers a school has to hire, the more the school is paying out of their pocket. Hopefully Bande will be getting more TSC teachers in the future, but for now we are just happy to have enough teachers in each subject and we are incredibly lucky to have such dedicated BOG teachers on staff.

In other news it is now the height of the rainy season here, which means everything is green and growing! When I got back to school the whole compound was overgrown with grass and plants, so the students have been busy slashing the fields and remarking all the paths on the compound. The rain has kept me well supplied with water for cooking, cleaning and bathing, which I appreciate, but it also makes traveling much more difficult. The roads between Migori and Bande are incredibly muddy with giant ruts and rocks that stick out after being exposed by the rain. The bridges on the road are also incredibly low, and they have a tendency to be overrun by the rivers after a few days of rain. Luckily, there is an alternate route to town that is better, so I won't be stranded. All in all, its really great to be back home (it really does feel like home to me now), and I really missed the students and the staff, so it's been great to see them too!

Inspired by my friend (and fellow 2009 WU grad), Lauren, who is serving as a PCV in Nicaragua, I am putting up the packing list that I wish I had had when I was leaving for Kenya. This will probably be very boring for non-PCVs, sorry about that!

First of all, I want to let all future PC/Kenya vols know that there is this little store called Nakumatt here, and it is more or less a Kenyan version of Wal-Mart. There is next to nothing that you cannot get at a Nakumatt and there are many all over Kenya, so don’t stress about bringing things that you can buy here (probably for cheaper, and then you don’t have to carry it). Also, keep in mind this list is coming from a female PCV…

Clothes: There are lots of excellent used clothes markets where you can get cheap clothes; you can also have tailors make skirts for you from local fabric. But during training your opportunities to go shop for clothes will be limited, so make sure you pack enough to last you a few months at least.

A few pairs of khakis and jeans (for weekends, travel, going out when in the big cities)

Skirts (for work, as a teacher I wear a skirt every day, and they should be past the knees)

Shirts (maybe a button down or two for work, plain semi-fitted t shirts work well for most occasions and also comfy t-shirts to work out in/garden/weekend wear etc.)

A slip (there kind of a big deal here, but they are easy to find in country)

Undergarments (I suggest a 2 year supply, the selection here is not the greatest, and I highly recommend ex-officio and I think PCVs get a discount, check on peacecorpswiki)

A nice out fit for swearing in

A scarf or shawl (dresses up outfits, also easily found in country)

A few outfits for going out (I wish someone had told me that I would be enjoying the night life every once and a while so I could have packed accordingly)

Workout clothes (baggy basketball shorts have worked well for me, nothing too tight)

Pajamas (You will probably be spending time with your host family in the evening and maybe in the morning in your pajamas, or at site you will be walking from your house to your bathroom in your pjs so think about that when choosing)

A light jacket (it does get cold)

A thin rain jacket (rainy season…)

Sweats/sweatshirt (if you have room left in your luggage)

Shoes:

1-2 pairs of tevas/chacos sandals

1-2 pairs of dressy shoes/sandals

1 pair athletic shoes

I packed a pair of hiking boots and I haven’t used them once, I just wear my tevas or the nikes I brought, so I don’t recommend bringing any unless you’re big into hiking. Bata is a shoe store found all over Kenya and they have great shoes for cheap (including shower shoes that you will need).

Toiletries:

PC medical will give you a med kit that includes all the OTC drugs you could ever want (pain reliever, allergy meds, tummy meds, cough and cold meds, and vitamins) plus lots of other fun stuff (sunscreen, bug spray, tweezers, condoms, hand sanitizer, floss, a thermometer, and band aids). They will also give you a mosquito net, and lots and lots of shots when you get here. They refill all of the stuff in the kit so don’t waste space brining it with you! PC medical here is Kenya is AMAZING and they take really great care of us, so don’t worry! You do need to bring a 3 month supply of any prescriptions to last you through training, and don’t forget glasses or contacts if you wear them.

Shampoo, conditioner, lotion, almost any kind of hair products, toothpaste, tooth brushes and deodorant can all be found at almost any market and any supermarket, so my suggestion is to only bring as much as you will need for maybe two months while you are in training and then you can stock when you get to site, liquids are heavy to pack (damn weight restrictions on luggage) so if your luggage is overweight just toss these out, you can buy them here!

Tampons (these are expensive in country and the only brand here is ob. I would suggest bringing as many as you can stuff in your luggage)

Electronics, etc.:

Computer (I would say 90% of PCVs here brought one and they are happy they did, they are great to watch movies on, type up proposals and grants, store pictures, and you can get a modem here that lets you get on the internet from almost anywhere)

External hard drive/flash drive

iPod and speakers

camera/memory cards

Kindle -some PCVs have them and they love them, I’m thinking of having my parents bring one over for me when they visit

HEADLAMP, HEADLAMP, HEADLAMP (oh and did I mention extra batteries and bulbs?) –seriously the thing that I use absolutely everyday and would hate to be without!

LED lantern (my house doesn’t have electricity and I ended up asking my parents to send me one, its fairly useless if you have electricity at your site but the power goes out pretty often and its nice to have)

Rechargeable batteries (if your house doesn’t have electricity you can find places in your village where they will charge them for you)

Radio (I hardly ever use mine, and you can buy one in country if you really want one)

Solar charger (again, I hardly ever use mine since there are places to charge things in town and your school or organization might have a generator, solar panels or electricity)

Unlocked phone (I didn’t do this, but some people did, check out Paul Blair’s Kenyan Phone tips blog for more info, lots of phones for sale here and most are very nice so that’s another option)

Miscellaneous:

A pillow/sleeping bag/sheets (you can pack these in those vacuum pack bags to save room)

A multi tool

Bike helmet

Alarm clock

Sewing kit

Water bottle

Solar shower (some PCVs use theirs every day, I hardly ever use mine, but it was light to pack so you might as well)

Camping towel (just bring one, you can buy more easily at nakumatt)

Games (cards are good)

Books (a lot of trading goes on, so just bring one or two)

Journal

Daily planner

Travelers Cheques (your atm card from home and a credit card are good to have to)

Pictures of home (and extra senior photos you have laying around that you can give to host family and friends, they often ask to keep pictures of you)

Gifts for your host family and friends (calendars are great and easy to pack, toys for kids, etc.)

Sporting equipment (I brought a few Frisbees which have been great to have and I recently bought a jump rope so I can do something active in my house)

Powdered drink mix (I especially recommend bringing Gatorade mix because it tastes way better than ORS and you can’t find it here)

Spices are easy to find in any supermarket so don’t worry about packing any

A world map (so you can show people just how far away from home you are, and it’s a great thing to put up in your house to decorate)

The packing list we got included the following: knives, peeler, grater, duct tape, pens, pencils, notebooks, plastic storage bags and containers, umbrella, work gloves and potholders, I would not pack any of these. They are all easily available in country and you won’t need them at all during training while you live with a host family so I think it’s better to wait and buy them after you move to your site.

Luggage:

My luggage consisted of a rolling duffel bag, a backpacking backpack (both as checked luggage) and a small backpack as a carryon.

Hmmmm, I think that might be it. I’m sure I left something out but hopefully someone out there will find this helpful, and if you are packing for PC (in any country) RELAX!!! Anything you really need you can find in country (what do you think the people who live there do…) or you can always have it sent from home!

Also, some general advice: set up power of attorney before you go, or at least put someone on your bank accounts and fill out the IRS form to give someone power to do your taxes. I have had a few snags with my bank account since being here and it is so much easier to have someone in the states (THANK YOU MOM) who can deal with it rather than trying to call internationally (and being put on hold).

If you're reading this as a invitee to PC, CONGRATS!!!

Cheers

Since I last updated I went on an amazing vacation with some other Peace Corps volunteers from my training class. Jenny, Margaret, Whitney and I went to the coast of Kenya and enjoyed a week of warm weather, beautiful beaches and relaxation! It was a nice reward for having completed our first term at our schools and it was really great to get to see and explore a different part of the country (all four of us are posted in the Western portion of Kenya). I must say that the majority of the time we were on the coast I did not feel like I was in Kenya, or Africa at all for that matter. The streets of Old Town Mombasa make you think you are somewhere in the Mediterranean, Malindi is basically a little Italy plopped down on the Kenyan coast, and the influence from India as well as Muslim influence makes for a culturally diverse experience all along the coast, but is especially strong in Lamu. Right now our whole training class is back in Nairobi for our IST (in-service training). We are still 25 strong!!! We’ve been told multiple times how unusual it is that we are all still here! If you remember it was a big deal that all 25 of us were sworn in after training and no one went home during that time and now we still haven’t lost anyone from the program for any reason! (We are beating the odds left and right). IST has been a week of workshops, guest speakers, and sharing ideas/frustrations/successes with one another. Next week I will head back to site and have a few days of down time before the second term starts up. Now, mostly so I can brag, here is a general run-down of our vacation:

• April 9th: Nairobi to Mombasa

o We met up in Nairobi and took the overnight train to Mombasa. The train experience was really fun and interesting! Our second class tickets included: dinner, bedding and breakfast. The train runs through Kibera (the second largest slum in Africa) on its way out of town, and it was interesting to see the structures/people/living conditions, and it went on forever, it’s huge. We also went through beautiful landscape on our route. Starting off with the urban landscape of Nairobi then changing to drier more dessert climates and going through/around the Tsavo National Parks, and then finally the slow change to a tropical, humid, palm tree landscape.

• April 10-11th: Mombasa

o First of all I have to say that the coast is HOT and HUMID!!! And we weren’t even there during the hottest part of the year, but we were extremely happy that the hotel we were staying at had A/C. It’s amazing how the little things become such exciting luxuries when you are used to living in a house without electricity let alone A/C! We spent our time in Mombasa exploring the Old Town, hitting the beaches and checking out Fort Jesus. We ate delicious food (coast = spices) and even went bowling! The beaches are incredibly gorgeous and we enjoyed just lying around with nothing to do, then heading to a beach café to have a Tusker or two. I have pictures on my facebook and there is a link on the sidebar if you want to check it out!

• April 12th: Road to Malindi

o On our way up the coast we stopped in a small town where there is a small business PCV who is working with a community organized conservation center to develop eco-tourism. We went snorkeling with the program he is working with, and it was a really great time. We were also joined by two other PCVs from our training class and had a fun day out in the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean by the way feels like a warm (very very salty) bath. I was shocked by how warm the water was, especially since we were looking forward to getting some relief from the heat in the water, but no such luck, the water is not much cooler that the air temperature. We saw lots and lots of colorful fish and other under the sea creatures. When we finished our snorkel adventure we headed about an hour up the coast to Malindi, by the time we arrived it was late so we just went for dinner and gelato (yesssss gelato! We almost passed out when we entered the shop. Like I said, it’s the little things!).

• April 13th: Malindi

o Gedi ruins! We spent the majority of the morning exploring the Gedi (or Gede) ruins which is just outside of Malindi. I took lots of pictures, so check those out on facebook! The ruins are from the 13th century and are of a Swahili town. The town has multiple mosques, a palace complete with public courts, houses, and tombs. The portion of the ruins that we were able to explore, the part that has been extensively excavated, is the town center. They have found a number of artifacts that show that this establishment was involved in extensive trade during its peak, including beads from Venice, vases from China, a lamp of India, and scissors from Spain. After our ruins exploring we met up with another PCV from our training class who works in a school outside of Malindi. We spent the rest of the day exploring Malindi with her and eating more delicious foods.

• April 14th – 17th: Lamu

o After a long bus ride we arrived in Lamu! Lamu town is located on an island in the Lamu archipelago and it is absolutely gorgeous, I described it as paradise a number of times! The town of Lamu is Kenya’s oldest town and was one of the original Swahili settlements along the coast of East Africa. The town is almost entirely Muslim and has a very rich culture and a really interesting history. One interesting fact about Lamu: there are only 2 cars on the whole island, so the main form of transportation (other than walking and carts) is by donkey. The island even has a donkey sanctuary that we visited when the donkeys can retire after a life of hard work in such a hot climate. There is a PCV from our training class who works in a deaf school on the mainland close to Lamu island who was able to meet up with us and show us around, it was great have a personal tour guide for the time we were there. We enjoyed exploring the small streets, shopping in all the little boutiques all over the place and eating all the delicious food. We had one day where it rained most of the day, so we took that day to check out the Lamu museum and Fort Lamu. The next day we had absolutely gorgeous weather and we were able to take advantage of that and take a dhow trip. A dhow is the traditional sail boats used by the Swahili people. Our dhow trip first took us through a mangrove forest and then took us out into the Indian Ocean to snorkel and fish. The snorkeling was fantastic, and it was amazing to be able to look in any direction and we were the only other people within our view. We fished from the boat with a set up like a kite string spool. The spool had the fishing wire on it, we tied weights at the end and then a hook above that and put a little bait, so in a nutshell it was fishing without a pole. We were able to catch our lunch and then our crew took us to our own private island where they cooked our fish and other delicious food for our lunch. Our meal included coconut rice (a local legend), our fresh (fresh, fresh, fresh) fish fried, a vegetable curry sauce and copious amounts of fresh fruits! The atmosphere, the view and the food made this by far the best meal that I have had since coming to Kenya. Our trip took most of the day, so when we got back to the town we rested up and then had a night out on the town!

• April 17th: Pit stop in Mombasa

o After another long bus ride leaving Lamu we arrived in Mombasa. The trip is too long to make it from Lamu to Nairobi in one day, so we had planned to stay one night in Mombasa on our way back. With all of the coast volunteers (Coast Corps) also headed to Nairobi for training there were lots of PCVs in town that night. It was also a veteran volunteer’s birthday so a lot of other volunteers not from our training class came into town for the night. We did our last minute vacation shopping in town, and then headed out to celebrate the PCVs birthday and to end our vacation with a bang. We ended up at a night club which is basically a parking lot with a few bars around the perimeter and lots of plastic tables and chairs and then people dancing to AMERICAN music wherever there is room. By this time there were about 15 PCVs out and we had a lot of fun taking over the dance floor. You can imagine dancing for a few hours in a hot climate so we were all excited when it started raining on us, so while the Kenyans were all running for cover from the rain, all the wazungu stayed and danced in the rain. Some of us hardcore fun seekers stayed out dancing until 5am, which also included a swim in a nearby pool before we headed back to our hotel. It was an excellent way to end our vacation, and a good time is always had when PCVs get together! Work really really hard, and play hard every once in a while, might be a good way to describe our philosophy.

• April 18th: Back to Nairobi, time for IST

o The downfall to staying out until 5am was having to be up early to catch our 8am bus to Nairobi. We all caught our bus though and then caught up on our sleep on the long ride to Nairobi. Our group was among the last from our training class to arrive at the conference center and it was great to get to see everyone and all be back together again. Like I mentioned before, no one from our training class has left PC/Kenya, and we really are like a second family, so it has been great to be back together after 3 months apart!

I hope I have successfully made you all jealous with the account of my vacation! And I must say that we found it quite humorous when we were snorkeling in the Indian Ocean or having a cold beer on a beautiful pristine beach or dancing all night in Mombasa that this is something we were getting to enjoy during our time in the Peace Corps. I’m sure you picture (just like we did) life more along the lines of mud huts, and modest living… but everyone deserves a vacation right??

Cheers!

I was told that some people were having problems using the link to view my pictures on facebook. I've updated the link and put it in the sidebar right under my disclaimer. Hope this works!

Here it is one more time too:

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045872&id=27501679&l=02d9df7ee7

We are still in the middle of our end term exams, but I'm in Migori running a few errands and getting some paperwork typed and printed for my school. I thought I would share some random stories just for fun!

A Luo Name

When I arrived at Bande I was given a Luo name, and I realized I had never included it on my blog. Being given a Luo name was a very nice and welcoming gesture on the part of my community! In Luo tradition children are given names based on the time of day which they were born. Children can also be named after relatives, or for the kind of weather during which they were born, but by far the most common is to be named for the time of day you are born. Children are also given a "christian" name, which is usually what they go by in school since there are so many students with the same Luo name. It is also much easier for me to pronounce these names, so thats a nice advantage for me! So, since I was born in the morning my Luo name is Akinyi (female names start with A and male names start with O). It is pronounced so that is rhymes with bikini, with the A sound like in awake. So, when I go to the center I am known not at Christine, but as Akinyi!

Laundry

I've decided that doing laundry in Kenya is just like washing your car in America... Some days washing your car is fun and you have a good time, getting soaking wet and being outside in the sunshine. But, other days, washing your car is another annoying chore which takes a lot of time and effort, and you end up soaking wet... Washing clothes in Kenya is exactly the same way for me. I usually do my laundry on Saturdays in the late morning, washing a weeks worth of clothes can take me 2-3 hours from start to finish (depending on how dirty my clothes are, and how clean I want them). Sometimes I really enjoy being out in the sun, I listen to some music and sometimes some students stop by and keep me company. I usually end of fairly soaking wet from the process, but all in all its enjoyable. Other weekends, washing my clothes is the last thing that I want to do, it takes a lot of time and by the end the clothes I'm wearing are wet and I'm sweaty and tired from the process. So, there you have it, washing clothes in Kenya!

Going Green

Oregonians will be very happy with this post! My life is very green here in Kenya. All the water I drink, cook with, use to wash clothes, bathe with, is all from water catchments around the school. The water catchments catch all the water off the roofs of the classrooms, houses and kitchen and store them in giant tanks. In addition to these tanks I can also set out my buckets in a downpour and fill them up that way. The other day there was a huge rain storm and I filled all my buckets (about 30 liters of water) in only 20 minutes! Also in the green department, my school has a solar panel which is what I use to charge my phone, ipod, etc during the day. My house has no electricity, and since my parents were nice enough to send me an LED lantern I now use that to light my house at night, it runs on batteries which are rechargeable, which I can charge from the solar power at my school. I feel so green I could hug a tree!

Entertainment

Since my forms on entertainment are pretty limited, I spend a lot of time reading in the evenings and on the weekends. Thought some of you might enjoy seeing a list of the books I have read since arriving in Kenya.

Say You're One of Them

The Glass Castle

Educating Esme

Water for Elephants

Three Cups of Tea

Under African Skies

Atonement

Staggerford

The Gate Crasher

Remember When

Nine Hills to Nambonkaha

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Survivor

Handle with Care

So, since November I have read a total of 14 books! Its amazing how many books you can read when you don't have TV to distract you. Which reminds me, if anyone feels the desire to send me something, BOOKS!!!! I would love any novels you have laying around!!!

Hope this was at least a little entertaining!

Cheers

-Akinyi

The term is coming to a close. Sometimes its hard for me to believe how long I have been here in Kenya (going on 5 months), but at the same time it feels like the months are flying by. Kenya's school calendar is year round and has three terms, this first term will end on the 2nd of April and then we will have a month of vacation before the second term starts on May 2nd.

I'm sorry to admit that it has been a very long time since I have updated my blog... In my defense I have been keeping very busy! So, here is a rundown of the things I have been involved with since I last updated.

Science Congress

Science Congress is basically the Kenyan equivalent of what we would call a science fair, with a few differences. Students come up with a project which fits the theme of the year and then present their topic or their project at a meeting with other schools, which are then judged by teachers who have been trained to judge. This years theme was Science and Technology for Economic Recovery. Students can compete in any of the following categories: biology, chemistry, physics, math, technology, computers, home science or agriculture. These categories are subdivided into talks and exhibits.

This year Bande presented 8 projects at the regional competition (not bad considering this is the first year we have participate). Some girls gave talks about genetic engineering of crops, others made charcoal from alternative and locally found materials, one group made a plastic plate from discarded plastic and another tested the concentration of vitamin C in fresh fruit versus store bought juice. My role in the projects was advisor, proof reader and practice audience for all of the groups. All of the project were excellent and it was really great working with the students to improve their projects. I was able to see my students really learning and also saw their self confidence and public speaking skills improve. I was also asked to be trained as a judge in the biology category, so I also served as judge on the day of competition. At the regional competition the top 3 projects from each project move on to compete at the next level. 4 of the projects from Bande were in the top 3! This also placed us 4th overall among the 15 schools that competed from our region.

The sub-provincial competition was last week, and we used every minute of free time, or preps, to prepare the students and their projects. Once again I was asked to serve as a judge, which unfortunately meant I did not get to watch my students present, but it was interesting to see how the other schools performed. In the end, the students did an excellent job with their projects, but none of them will be moving on to the provincial level. The girls should all be very proud of themselves, especially since all the students that had projects advance are only in form 2, meaning they have 2 more years to compete, so this was a great first exposure for them!

Games

Games, or sports, was held a few weeks ago. Even though I am not coaching any of the teams that compete this term I was asked to go along to watch the competition. This term the teams competing were: handball, netball and athletics (track and field). All of the schools from our region compete on the same day, so the day runs more like a large tournament. Bande had an excellent day! Our netball and handball teams won all of their games, which means they will advance to the next level of competition which will be held at the beginning of next term. All of the girls who competed in athletics were among the top 3 in their event and will also be moving on to the next level.

End Term Exams

This week Bande is having our end term exams. I co-wrote the exam for my form 2 biology class (with the teacher who teaches the other form 2 class), and then wrote the form 1 biology and chemistry exams. Over the last couple of days I have been playing review games with all of my classes. This has not only (hopefully) helped my students prepare for exams, but it has provided me with endless entertainment! The concept of playing a game show type game is somewhat foreign, and has been an interesting concept to try and teach my students. They have pretty much gotten the hang of it, except for wagering or betting in the final round. It took my at least 10 minutes to try and clarify this idea, and when I thought I had finally gotten the idea across to all the students and asked each group for their final bet they all bet 50 points (the other questions had been between 100-500 points). I found this incredibly funny and had a good laugh. My mom has since commended me on introducing the concept of gambling to my students, but I maintain that its an important math and reasoning skill!

This more or less brings us to what I'm up to right now. I've made the trip into Migori today in order to do some research on scholarships to help some of my students pay their schools fees. A full year of secondary school at Bande (including room, board, uniforms etc.) costs about 25,000 Kenyan shillings, or about $300. The level of poverty in this region of Kenya is staggering, and even this amount of money is a struggle for the majoirty of families in the area. Some students are sponsored by various organizations, relatives or other individuals. A few of my brightest and most promising students have had recent deaths in the family which have taken their fee-paying relatives, or parents. In an attempt to help them stay in school I am trying to network with any and all NGOs and Kenyan non-profits. As I am unfortunately finding there are many many students who need financial assistance and very few resources out there. But, I will continue to work to try to help these students stay in school.

A few random moments which I hope can bring you some laughs and smiles

Locks in Kenya are almost all padlocks. I have a padlock to lock my front door and another that I use to lock my bedroom door. A major downfall of padlocks is that you can lock them even when you have NO IDEA where the keys are. I had a lovely run in with this fact. The other morning I woke up and got ready for school as usual and then headed off to school, I locked my room and then froze, realizing too late that I had just locked my purse, phone and keys in my room. I contemplated scaling the walls of my room since they dont reach my roof (there is no ceiling between my walls and tin roof), but first I attempted to reach the keys through my bedroom window. All my windows have bars on them so this was no east feat, but thanks to another teacher who happened to be walking by, we were able to get a branch from a tree and scoop up by purse from the window... crisis averted.

Transportation is a constant source of entertainment here in Kenya. I've described matatus previously on my blog, but matatus are rare between Migori and my village of Bande. Instead, there are station wagons which are called olwendas (cockroach in Luo). All these station wagons are in some sort of disrepair, whether its cracks in the windshield, spares on the tires, duct tape holding parts in place, and none of them have doors which you can open from the inside. Now, when you think about a station wagon you are probably thinking that they seat 4 passengers plus a driver. Well, you are mistaken. These olwendas can carry 16 adults if the need arises (and the need seems to arise on every trip). How is this accomplished you might ask? Well, the driver routinely shares his seat with another passenger, two more passengers share the front seat, 5 adults cram in the middle seat and 6 are in the trunk. Oh, thats only 15? I must have forgotten to mention that the tout is sitting on the window sill of the front seat, legs in the car but with his body outside while he holds onto the roof. There are also numerous combinations of adults and children that can cram into the olwendas, and dont forget the chickens and yes, even goats, which occasionally also make the trip!

Trousers vs pants. Friends vs coworkers.

Oh cultural differences and the never ending language barrier that inevitably turns into an embarrassing moment for the mzungu. Here in Kenya when you talk about pants you are actually talking about underwear, when you want to say pants you have to say trousers or you have just made a rather embarrassing social blunder. Also, there is no such thing as a man and a woman being friends here. If you are just friends with a person of the opposite sex you say they are your coworker, classmate or some other descriptor which explains how you know them. If you say that you are friends with someone of the opposite sex it means you are having a love affair with them. During our cultural training all the trainees were told all of these things, but that doesnt mean its not easy to slip up here. During my first life skills class I had my form 1 students ask me all the questions that they had about America. The questions that I get asked are always entertaining (maybe I'll include a blog listing all those questions), but one was about whether students in America wear uniforms to school. I answered with most dont, but schools have a dress code. When they asked what I used to wear to school I say just pants and a shirt... OOPS! I meant trousers and a shirt, but it was too late the class had already burst out laughing at my mix up! The students also wanted to know about the 2 other Peace Corps volunteers in the area, both of which happen to be male. I told them what schools they work at and their names, then a student asked if either one of them was my friend. I answered, without even thinking about it, "Of course! They're both my friends!" OOPS!!!! No, I meant they are both my coworkers, we get along well... but, too late the class was already in stitches again!

Being a mzungu in rural Kenya for awhile now, I am no longer phased by being stared at, poked and prodded by interested children or by making a fool of myself, it all comes with the territory! Just like we were told in training, our sense of humor will really come in handy over there 2 years!

Last week I celebrated my 23rd birthday! Being in Kenya made my celebration very different from what I am used to, but I was able to celebrate with some fellow Peace Corps Volunteers in Kisumu the weekend before, and on my actual birthday the teachers and students at my site were great and I had an amazing day.

First I will start with a recap of my trip to Kisumu. The trip from my site to Kisumu took about 7 hours each way. Luckily I was able to travel with Chris, the PCV who is in Muhuru Bay, not far from Bande. We met in Migori and then traveled from there together. Most of the 7 hours is spent waiting. Waiting for a car to drive through my village that I can take to Migori, waiting in Migori for the matatu to fill with passengers so we can leave, waiting while passengers get off and board the matatu at various intervals along the route. But, all in all, the trip to Kisumu was fairly painless. When Chris and I arrived in Kisumu we met some PCVs from the public health sector as well as 5 other PCVs from our training class. It was great to see the people from our group and also great to meet some new faces. It has been hard going from seeing the other people in my training class everyday to being so far apart (so I must note that when Margaret, Jenny, Whitney and I all saw each other for the first time we ran to each other and hugged and laughed.. all very strange things for any Kenyans witnessing this happen, but we were just soooo excited!)

This was my first time in Kisumu and I have to say I absolutely love it! It offers a lot of amenities but is a little smaller and therefore a little safer than Nairobi. Kisumu was majorly affected by the post election violence though, and there are still many burned out buildings and piles of rubble. It was such a contrast to see tall, new, shiny buildings next to burned out shells of what used to be super-markets, banks, hotels etc. Most of the city is being rebuilt or cleaned up, but you can still see signs of the violence on almost every street. There are also a lot more tourists in Kisumu, which was kind of bizarre, I am used to being the only mzungu (white person) within many kilometers. And it is rare to see even another mzungu in my main banking town of Migori, and most of them are here working with NGOs, missions, and orphanages, not tourists…

While in Kisumu I was able to eat pizza, hamburgers, ice cream, Chinese food, and had the most amazing brownie for dessert one night. These are all foods, with the exception of ice cream which I can buy in Migori, which I cannot get anywhere near my site, and haven’t had since last time we were in Nairobi. We also went and saw two movies while we were in town, went swimming at one of the nice hotels in Kisumu and watched the Superbowl!!! We also went out to a few bars which was fun, but the guest house where we were staying also had a roof-top balcony where we spent a lot of the evening, drinking wine, talking and catching-up on each other’s lives.

Watching a movie was an interesting experience. I walked into the theatre and felt like I had been transported back to America! The theatre was empty expect for me and the other PCVs and it was air conditioned!!!! We all got popcorn and soda, and both of the movies we saw were excellent! We watched Sherlock Holmes and Avatar! I had heard so much about Avatar from people back home that I felt somewhat connected to American pop-culture by seeing it! The movie was breath-takingly gorgeous, and all of the PCVs had to laugh at the similarities between the movie and our lives. If you’ve seen the movie, think about when the main character is trying to learn to live in Pandora, and that was and sometimes still is our lives here. Learning a whole new language, eating different foods, new customs etc etc. Swimming was another excellent amenity that I was able to enjoy. Since Lake Victoria and other fresh water here in Kenya can give you Schistosomiasis (a lovely disease that affects your liver, and can have complications for the rest of your life if not treated) we are told to stay far away from swimming in these places, so even with the temperature soaring, we get to enjoy only the view. So, being able to actually swim was amazing, in fact, I think it was my favorite part of the whole weekend! I had planned to only be in Kisumu for the weekend, and to return to my school to teach on Monday morning, but Peace Corps had informed us that we needed to be in Kisumu on Wednesday morning in order to receive that H1N1 vaccine, so I stayed in town for a long weekend instead of traveling all the way back to site just to turn around. This is what made is possible for me to get to watch the Superbowl! Since we are so far ahead of US time we had to stay up until 3 in the morning just to watch kick-off, but it was fun to watch some American football (actually TV at all) for a change. Unfortunately, we did not get the commercials, which are almost the best part, but we made some delicious nachos, pizza and drank some beers and really enjoyed.

Then on Monday, since I needed to stay around Kisumu anyway, I travelled with Jenny to her site. It was really fun to get to see someone else’s site. Her house is really nice and she has electricity, unlike me, but she also has a 45 minute walk from her house to her school. It was great to meet her students and we spent a lot of time answering questions about the US. The students seemed shocked that Jenny and I didn’t look anything alike… Then in the evening we ate dinner with her neighbors, an elderly couple, and they were great to talk to, and the woman is an amazing cook! The next day Jenny taught her lessons and then we once again headed to Kisumu for one more night before I headed back to Bande.

Since our medical officers were traveling from Nairobi they were able to (finally) bring me the package that my parents had sent me for Christmas! I’m excited to have some movies to watch, a book to read, and more pictures to put up in my house, among other things that I got from my amazing family for Christmas! Traveling from Kisumu to Bande once again took 7 hours, so by the time I arrived I was exhausted.

The day after I returned to site was my birthday! My day started with a phone call from home (where it wasn’t my birthday yet) and it was great as usual to get to talk to my family. I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to be able to communicate relatively easily with my family and friends back home. The rest of the day was spent teaching my classes, including the form 1 students who had reported to school the week before, so it was my first time teaching them. The teachers in the staff room also sang me the happy birthday song, which I didn’t think they would know, so that was a fun surprise. After school I took a nap and tried to recover from all of the traveling and then cooked myself my birthday dinner. I decided to make the most American food I could with what I had in my house, so I ended up eating tunafish and guacamole sandwiches for my birthday dinner.

This post has become very very long, so I think I will stop there, and I’ll write more the next time I head into Migori, and I will also upload more pictures then. Thank you to everyone who sent me a happy birthday message!

Cheers!

I have been at site for three weeks now, I have started teaching, coaching and doing guidance and counseling at my school. I am still adjusting to some things, like the language barrier, but I am really enjoying getting to know the students and the other teachers! I also have a new address where I can get mail and packages! It is:

Christine Boyer PCV

C/o Bande Girls Secondary School

PO Box 55 – 40409

Muhuru Bay

Kenya

I wanted to give you some insight into what it’s like to be a secondary school student in Kenya, in many ways it is very different from being a high school student in the US, at least from my experience. First of all, secondary school is not free. Right now it is subsidized by the Kenyan government, but many families either cannot afford to send their kids to school, or really struggle to pay for school fees. Many secondary schools in Kenya are boarding schools, Bande Girls is almost totally boarding. Also, many schools are single-sex. The education system is 8-4-4 like in the US, 8 years of primary, 4 of secondary and 4 of university. (In Kenya grades 1-8 are called standard 1-8, while grades 9-12 are called Forms 1-4). But, unlike in the US, Kenyan students take national exams at the end of primary and secondary school. The KCPE is taken after finishing primary school and tests students over 8 years of information, and the KCSE is taken after finishing secondary school, and tests students over 4 years of information. Secondary school students take the KSCE in 8 subjects and are then given the option to drop one of the scores. The scores are then averaged and an overall grade is given. This grade more or less determines the rest of your life. Universities look solely at the KSCE score for admission, and employers ask for your KCSE score before offering employment. So, not only is there a lot of information covered on the exam, there is also an immense amount of pressure to do well. Students take 11 subjects in Forms 1 & 2 and 7-9 subjects in Forms 3 & 4. Students must take English, Kiswahili and math for all four years. In forms 1 and 2 all students must take chemistry, biology and physics, but can choose to drop one in forms 3 and 4. At my school students take Christian Religious Education (some schools also offer other religious studies), geography, agriculture, business studies and government in addition to the required language, math and science classes.

At Bande Girls School the students wear uniforms, which consist of a dark blue skirt, white button down shirt, a blue tie and optional red sweaters (right now most of the girls are wearing their sweaters to class since they think it is cold… I on the other hand think it is very very hot.) Secondary school students in Kenya are also required to shave their heads, so all of the girls at my school have shaved heads. I’m sure there is more than one reason for this, one, it prevents things like lice in schools, and it also creates equality among the students. The schedule of each day is probably the biggest difference. The following is the students daily schedule:

4am-4:30 – Waking up/personal cleaning/Dressing

4:30-6:30 – Dawn Preps

6:30-7:00 – Breakfast

7:00-8:00 – Remedial work

8:00 – 10:00 – Morning Classes

10:00-10:30 – Break

10:30-1:20 - Midday Classes

1:20-2:00 – Lunch

2:00-4:00 - Afternoon Classes

4:00-5:00 - Games/Guidance and Counseling/Clubs

5:00-6:00 – Personal cleaning

6:00-7:00 – Supper

7:00-10:00 - Evening Preps

10:00-10:15 – Lights out

Some variations are that on Mondays and Fridays the school has an assembly from 7:30-8 and the girls do manual labor around the school from 7-7:30 on those days. There are games (sports practice) after classes on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Sun. Guidance and Counseling is on Wednesdays and clubs/debate are on Fridays. On the weekends the schedule is the same from 4-7am, but on Saturday the students clean their dorms for inspection between 7-10, and on Sundays the students go to church at this time. The students are in class for preps and lessons from 10-2 with lunch in the middle, then the schedule is the same again from 4-10, with the only exception on Saturdays when the students have entertainment from 4-6. For the few day scholars at my school they are expected to be at school at 6:30am and leave school at 5pm, and they must come to preps and classes on the weekends between 10-4.

Preps are basically times when the students sit in their desks and are expected to be quietly studying, reading or completing homework. Some teachers make-up lessons during this time as well. The remedial hour is for teachers to teach lessons if they are behind in the syllabus, or if the last year’s syllabus was not completed. The Kenyan syllabus is HUGE and covers many many topics, and teachers often do not finish in the time allotted.

As you can see a huge difference is the amount of time that students spend in class. (Class times plus preps) They spend a lot more time “studying” then I probably did in high school, but with limited resources (5 text books for a class of 40, no outside reference material etc.) the time can sometimes be less productive. It can also be challenging as a teacher to assign different types of homework to encourage learning. There are not materials or resources for research projects or group projects, so we have to be creative! My school is very lucky to have a lab, many schools do not have a separate lab classroom, but many of the materials are lacking. The sinks in the lab don’t currently work, and neither do the gas lines and there are only 2 microscopes. But, we are lucky to have even that, and we do have many chemicals, so I count myself and my school as lucky!

I wrote last time that I would be teaching chemistry form 1, biology forms 1 and 2, plus life skills. I am still teaching those things, but since there is a shortage of chemistry teachers I will be teaching both form 1 streams. I am also teaching life skills to all of the forms, so now I have a total of 22 lessons a week (not counting lessons on the weekend or during the morning remedial work). More than the 16 we had agreed upon, but I think it will be ok. My days are very full, especially since my school is boarding! I wake up at 6 and am at school by 7. I teach throughout the day until 4, and then head to the volleyball “court” at 4 (The volleyball court is a patch of field that we slashed and then dug lines to mark the court, we then filled the lines with ash to make them stand out, and the poles for the net are big logs, not what I am used to playing on. Plus there is sometimes the added chore of chasing chickens, dogs, donkeys and cows off the court!). I am usually out there with the students until 6 when I head to my house to bathe, clean up and relax. I either make myself dinner or I eat with my principal who lives next door.

This week was fairly uneventful, but I did have a surprise visit from my bat friend, and found a scorpion on my front step one morning. The sunrises and sunsets are absolutely amazing here, and they help to start and end my day right! I’m going to try to post some pictures of the school, my house, the surrounding scenery and the sunset and sunrise on facebook! The address to get there is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045872&id=27501679&l=02d9df7ee7

I hope everyone is doing well back home! Love you all! Cheers!

I have made it safely to my site and have survived my first week at my new school. The trip was long from Nairobi, but my principal and I were able to buy a few things in Migori before we headed to Bande. I am living on the school compound, and my house is really really nice! I have four rooms (which means a guest bedroom for visitors!!!!) and have my own latrine and wash room behind my house. There is no electricity or running water, but that's fine with me. My school uses solar panels and a generator to run lights in the classrooms at night, so I am able to charge my electronics from that, which is really I all need to stay happy. Bande is much much smaller than Loitokitok, and that has taken some getting used to. There is no hoteli (restaurant) where I can grab some food if I dont want to cook, there is no supermarket, and there is only open air market on Wednesdays. The things I was accustomed to being able to buy on a daily basis during PST are now much harder to get here. The hardest part is the new language barrier. While all the teachers at my school and all the students there speak english and kiswahili, there are very few people in the town who speak either of these languages. The more common language in town in Luo, and I only know a few greetings in Luo. I need to ask a teacher, or find someone in the community who can teach me Luo, because I know that will go a long way to my intergration into the community. For now, I am focusing on my school and teaching the students.

This week I spent a lot of time in the staff room preparing lessons, as all the students are taking opening exams this week. Unfortunately for me, that meant that I was mostly bored, and wasn't really able to get to know any of the students. The other teachers are all very nice though, and I had some interesting conversations. I am looking forward to next week when I will actually be teaching, and hopefully coaching volleyball after school. But, the week was now totally boring, I did have some exciting things happen to me.... Last Saturday I went to Kisii with Chris so we could buy things for our houses like jikos (stoves) and water filters, and when we were driving back to our sites between Migori and Bande, our car hit a COW, yes a cow! The cow had been on the side of the road until just before we reached it, when it decided it wanted to be on the road.... There was no time to break and swerving would have put us in a ditch.. so we hit the cow. The cow suffered a broken leg, and probably had to be slaughtered that night, and the car lost a headlight and broke its bumper, but all of the passengers were fine, thank god. The other exciting thing happened when I returned to my house on Tuesday after a staff meeting. I opened my door and was going to open all the windows in my house to let in the breeze when something dive bombed my head. I can out of the house in a panic, and from outside I could see a bat swooping over and over again in my house. I have no idea how it got in, since I keep the windows closed when I'm not around, but there it was. With the help of one of the prefects I was able to chase the bat out of my house, and hopefully it will not return for a visit anytime soon.

I think that is about all for me now, next time I head into Migori I will bring pictures to upload. The landscape around my village is gorgeous, and the sunrises and sunsets are always amazing! Everything is green right now because it is the rainy season, but I am told soon enough everything will be brown and dead... That is also about the time I think I will die from the heat as well... Cheers!

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I can't believe that it is 2010! In case you are wondering, my New Years resolution is to live in Kenya...

Secondly, it's finally official! I am a United States Peace Corps Volunteer! After the intense application process, 9 weeks of training, passing my Kiswahili language proficiency exam and more or less acclimating to life in Kenya, I was finally officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer today, along with the other 24 men and women from my training class. Our training class is a first for Peace Corps Kenya, with all 25 of us passing our language exam and all of us being sworn in as volunteers! We feel very lucky that none of us have needed to go home due to medical complications, nor were any of us sent home for administrative problems, or for not meeting the training requirements! We are awesome!

Our swearing in ceremony also marked the 45th anniversary of Peace Corps working here in Kenya, so the ceremony was held at the US Ambassador's residence and was more elaborate than usual. We listened to speeches from the PC country director, our training manager, the ambassador and the associate PC director of education. Three members of our training class also gave a speech in English, Kiswahili and Kenyan Sign Language. We took our oath of service and were presented with certificates of completion of training... and NOW WE ARE VOLUNTEERS! We are no longer to be referred to as trainees!

After the ceremony we ate cake and other treats, mingled on the gorgeous grounds, and were entertained by Kenyan traditional songs and dancing. Many of the counterparts and newest volunteers joined in dancing, and it was a really fun day! It is kind if surreal to be done with training and officially be a volunteer! I am so excited to start doing the work that I came here to do!

For the last 4 days we have been in Nairobi attending a number of workshops with our counterparts from our respective schools. (On a side note, there was a matatu strike in Nairobi, so we have been forced to use taxis exclusively to get around... which makes this more expensive, but has also allowed us to sing "Hakuna Matatu!"...) At our workshops we have talked about Peace Corps expectations, our expectations and our counterparts expectations, and from those, came up with our job descriptions for when we get to site. With my counterpart, Hellen, we decided that I will be teaching a form 1 biology class, a form 2 biology class, a form 1 chemistry class as well as life skills to both the form 1 and 2 classes. This will make for a total of 16 lessons per week, which I think will be a good load to begin with. I will also be helping coach volleyball at my school, and will possibly start a health club at my school. The main focus for the first term though, is definitely integrating into the community. I want to improve my Dholuo skills, and get a feel for what my schools and communities needs are, before I decide what other projects I may be interested in many a secondary project. I really like my counterpart and am looking forward to working with her and the other teachers at the school for the next two years!

Tomorrow morning we all head out to our respective sites. The girls at my school arrived today, and they will be taking opening exams next week, so I will have a little bit of time to acclimate and purchase the essentials for my house. I will be living on the school compound, and just found out that my school is a almost totally boarding school, and there are also other teachers that live on the compound, so that made me excited!

So, tonight is our last night together as a training class until April when we will get back together for In-Service Training (IST). We have gotten really close as a group, and though it will be hard to leave, we are all excited to get to our sites and get to work! So, tonight we are going out, to celebrate being sworn in, and also to celebrate Jenny's 23rd birthday! And, possibly take advantage of some non-Kenyan food while we are here in Nairobi (I had sushi two nights ago, and it was AMAZING!). I will try and write an update on my school, house and community as soon as I get the chance, and hopefully can include some pictures! I did post a number of pictures on facebook, because I have been able to get free internet here in Nairobi (the following link should allow you to see the pictures, even if you don't have facebook, I hope it works: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045872&id=27501679&l=02d9df7ee7 I included the picture of Charlie and his host mom that I had promised earlier...). Thanks again for all the love and support from home!

Merry Christmas!

I have had my first Kenyan Christmas. The days leading up to Christmas here in Loitokitok, it was hard to tell it was the holiday season at all, but I woke up on Christmas morning to Christmas carols being sang on TV. My host Mama and I spent the morning cooking, and then took all of the food to my host Baba’s parent’s house. As my Christmas present my host Mama gave me a new outfit to wear, and it is really pretty, a bit too big for me, but it was really really nice of her to get me something. The celebrations included eating a lot of food, most importantly goat; I was given the honor of eating some of the goat pancreas… I also got to talk to my family back at home. It was really great to hear their voices. I miss them a lot, especially during the holiday season!

Since Kenya celebrates Boxing Day, we exchanged presents on Saturday. I use the word exchange loosely because exchanging presents is not normally a part of how most Kenyans celebrate Christmas. But, in a cultural exchange, I did give gifts to my host family. They were partly Christmas and partly thank you so much for letting me stay with you gifts. I gave my host Mama a Peace Corps lesso (a kind of shawl/wrap thing, that all of the women here wear) and I gave my host Baba a calendar of Oregon. The calendar is already on the wall, and it is a nice reminder of home! The kids in my family got pens, stickers, a Frisbee, a deck of cards, and earrings (for my 16 year old sister), and I think all the presents were a big hit! And, my special Boxing Day treat was phone calls from my two best friends from home! I was so surprised when my phone rang and it was an international number, I was expecting my parents again, but was shocked when it was Cydney’s voice, and then Courtney’s voice! It was really great to hear from them, and it was so nice of my mom to arrange for them to call me! I can’t believe how lucky I am that it is so easy for me to communicate with the people I love back home!

Then, on Sunday, our training class got together to have a little Christmas celebration of our own. We did a Secret Santa gift exchange and also everyone brought little snacks. It was a fun day. It felt a lot more like Christmas than Christmas day did here.

In other news, training is almost coming to an end. We will be leaving Loitokitok next Sunday and heading to Nairobi for a while for training sessions with our future supervisors. It is hard to believe that we have really been here that long, and soon we will be officially sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers and we will be sent out to our respective schools. I am excited to start doing the work which I came here to do, but there is also an expected level of nervousness that comes along with leaving PST. Our swearing in date is January 6th. And, since 2010 marks the 45th anniversary of Peace Corps here in Kenya, our swearing in ceremony is going to be a bigger event than usual. The ceremony itself is taking place at the ambassador’s house, and a number of high ranking government officials have been invited. I’m sure it will be a day I will not soon forget, and I promise to take lots of pictures.

In the last few weeks we have been wrapping up PST and there has been a new focus of learning skills which will help us to integrate into our community. Those trainees who passed their LPI last time have started to study their local language, to assist with integration. I am studying Dhuluo (which literally means, mouth of the Luo), which is challenging, to say the least. Kiswahili and Dhuluo are in different language families, so while they share some words, knowing Kiswahili has not aided us much in learning the language. But, the kicker is that Dhuluo is tonal. Words that are spelled the same, when pronounced differently, mean two different things. And, since I have never encountered a tonal language before it can be incredibly difficult to decipher between the two, let alone try to recreate the sound you are supposed to be making when you say certain words! I must say, though, that the language is fun! Some of the sounds incite fits of laughter in all of the trainees learning Luo! And, I am very happy to have the advantage of knowing some Luo before I head to site!

Last week our entire training class traveled to Makindu for some FBT (Field Based Training… remember Peace Corps is a government organization, so they love their acronyms). We traveled to Makindu on Sunday. Peace Corps staff had decided that in an effort for us trainees to become more comfortable with public transportation, they would not be driving us in Peace Corps vehicles, but instead we were on our own to find our way there. Jenny, Whitney, Margaret and I arranged for a matatu to take us to Emali where we would need to switch matatus for the short remainder of the trip to Makindu. Since I am almost positive most of you don’t have firsthand experience with matatus, I will try my best to explain the experience. Matatus are mini buses that serve as the main mode of transportation between towns, and also around major cities like Nairobi. They usually have 14 seats. And by seats, I mean legal, has a seat belt, comfortable seats. BUT, most matatus cram as many people as possible into them in an effort to make more money. At one point between Emali and Makindu we counted 21 people in our Matatu. Some Matatus are falling apart, and their top speed is about 20MPH, while others are very nice and even have video screens that project music videos during the ride. Since the road linking Loitokitok to Emali is only partially paved the trip takes about 2 hours but can take up to 3 hours, despite it being only about 115 Km away. The ride from Emali to Makindu was less than an hour, and we all arrived safely, and with more matatu experience under our belts!

In Makindu we visited the current project of a currently serving Peace Corps volunteer in the business sector. She is working with the Makindu Children’s Center. This center provides services and support to OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) and to their caretakers. The children at the center performed songs for us, and we heard from a student who graduated the program and is now studying law. The current PCV gave us excellent insight into how to integrate into the community and also ideas on what kind of secondary projects we can be involved in. We also visited a VCT center and the local hospital’s AIDS/HIV center. But, at least for me, the highlight of the trip was watching various groups perform songs and dances in their traditional style which portrayed educational messages regarding AIDS/HIV. One of the groups was made up of young men and women, while another was comprised of women who were all above the age of 60. It was one of the most powerful experiences I have had since arriving in Kenya. I was struck by these women who were doing all they could to stop the spread of AIDS/HIV and their use of traditional styles of song and dance were very powerful. It was inspiring and humbling all at the same time. AIDS/HIV is a huge issue in all of Africa, and the numbers can be daunting and overwhelming to say the least, but there are things that can be done to make a difference, and these women are definitely going their part to make that difference.

Well, that’s all from me. I’m really sorry the pictures didn’t upload last time, but I will try again today and hope that I have better luck! Thanks for all the Christmas wishes, emails, and facebook messages! Love you and miss you all! And I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

December 4th marked our one month mark in country! To celebrate, a large group of the trainees along with two of the current volunteers, who are here in town helping with training, went on a hike! The hike was absolutely beautiful and I am going to try to upload picture from the hike when I am done with the blog.

Saturday was our first official LPI test… An LPI is a Language Proficiency Interview. It is the test that all Peace Corps trainees around the world have to take in order to be sworn in at the end of training. For trainees in Kenya, we learn Kiswahili, the countries national language (English is also a national language…) and we have to pass our LPI with a minimum score of Intermediate Low in order to be sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers. In case you are wondering what intermediate-low means, I’ll tell you! Our trainee handbook has the definition as: “Able to handle a limited number of interactive, task-oriented and social situations. Can ask and answer questions, create new phrases, initiate and respond to simple statements with complete sentences and maintain face-to-face conversations, although in a restricted manner and with linguistic inaccuracy. Within these limitations, can manage simple situations such as asking directions, making purchases, giving personal information. Vocabulary is adequate to express the most elementary needs. Strong interference from native language may occur. Misunderstandings frequently arise but with repetition the Intermediate-Low speaker can generally be understood by sympathetic listeners.” (The trick with Int-Low, which isn’t talked about here, though, is that you have to know a certain number of verb tenses, and have a sufficient vocabulary as well). Also, during the LPI there are usually a few role play scenarios, where you have to role play ordering in a restaurant, bargaining in the market, explain how to cook a Kenyan dish, or reserve a room in a hotel.

When we take the LPIs that can count it is with outside testers, not the language trainers whom have been teaching us for the last 5 weeks. If we passed yesterday we can request to switch to the local tribal language of the region in which we will be serving. If we do not pass there is a final LPI at the end of week 8. For practice, the trainers have put on two “mini” LPI’s, one at the end of week 2, and one at the end of 4 weeks. On the first LPI, I scored novice mid, which is two levels away from Int-Low. And then last week, I scored novice-high, which is only one level away from Int-Low!!! I was very exciting to be improving and am truly amazed at the amount of language that you can learn when you are immersed in it, and when you are in language class for about 4 hours a day! I just found out that I passed at intermediate-low! YAYYYYYYY! It is really nice to pass now because now I can start learning Kiluo. I will be serving my two years in Nyanza Province, which is where the Luo tribe is concentrated. It would be a huge advantage to my integration if I was able to learn Kiluo before going there! I have heard that Kiswahili is not spoken much in my area, and if you do not speak Kiluo, they would prefer to speak with you in English, not Kiswahili... So, there is extra motivation.

About my future site! I will be teaching in an all girls secondary school in the subjects of biology and chemistry. The school has also requested that I implement and teach the life skills course, which is a kind of general class which covers topics such as HIV/AIDS, non violent conflict resolution, relationships and hygiene. I am very excited! Like I said, I will be in Nyanza Province, my site in close to Lake Victoria and also fairly close to the Tanzanian border. If you are looking on a map, my village is not far from Migorii. Apparently there was a Peace Corps volunteer placed at my site a few years ago, but she had only been there a month before the evacuation and suspension of the Peace Corps / Kenya program. My mom was able to track down her blog for me, so I have read a little bit about my future site and the school. From her blog and from what our program director has told me, my site is gorgeous! The principal of my school is an amazing woman who has really grown the size of my school. My house is on the school compound, it has 4 rooms (so an extra bedroom for guests!), no electricity or running water, but my school has electricity and has a water tank from which I can get water. I am really excited, and I am looking forward to my site! It will be very bitter sweet to leave training though, I have become very close with my host family, especially my host mama, and I know it will be hard to leave. Also, during the day all of us trainees spend so much time together, that it will be a huge change to not see the other trainees every day. But, since most of us are concentrated in Nyanza province, we should be able to get together every once in awhile. I am also pretty lucky, in that I am not far from two other trainees. So, if I need a quick trip away I can visit one of them.

I have been hearing that it is freezing cold back home, and while most people are complaining, I have to say that I miss cold weather! It has been warm the whole time we have been here, at least to me… The locals are all telling me how cold it is and they are wearing jackets and sweaters while I am sweating in my short sleeve shirt…. I guess I have yet to adjust to the heat… But, Nyanza province is even warmer than here, so I better get on that. I also hope everyone is enjoying all the Christmas music (I miss it!) if you tried here it would not be hard to be completely oblivious to the fact that it is the holiday season. Not only does the weather not fit with my holiday season paradigm, but I have yet to see a Christmas themed commercial or hear any Christmas music, let alone any decorations! The rare time that I remember it is almost Christmas, I am caught totally off guard, and it just doesn’t seem to fit. I am going to try to listen to some of the Christmas music that I brought, and maybe see if I can watch Love Actually on one of the other trainees computers, I think that will get me in the holiday spirit!

Well, that’s all from me… I am going to try to upload some more photos for your enjoyment! Look for the captions in the comments section of the post! And, since Charlie (one of the other trainees) was nice enough to let me have some of the pictures off of his camera last time, and I know his mom has seen my blog, I am going to include a picture of him and his host stay Mama! Enjoy!

Sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog! I have a cell phone, which I can check my email on, but it costs a lot of money to load big websites (and it is pretty annoying to try and type long messages), so this is the first time I have headed to an internet café in town. A short overview of our activities since we got here: We spent a few days in Nairobi and then we drove to Loitokitok where we will be for the rest of training. I am living with a host family, and I absolutely love them. They don’t speak a lot of english like some of the other host families, but that means that I have been able to practice my Kiswahili a lot, which has been really good for me! My mama is amazing, and she has taught me to wash my clothes by hand and how to cook some Kenya dishes (chapati, ugali, sukuma wiki (kale), spinach) and in return I made my family guacamole this week which they really liked! A typical day in training consists of waking up at 6am, getting ready for the day (bucket shower), eating breakfast and then helping my mom with chores until 8am when language class starts. Language class is at my house so our trainer (Grace) and another trainee (Dom) come to my house every morning. We have language from 8-12:30 when we walk to town for lunch. There are a number of small places to eat in town and a typical lunch for me is beans and chapati or sukuma wiki and chapati, everyonce in a while I will order getheri (beans and maize). Lunch usually costs less than 100 shilings, which is about $1.50. Then in the afternoon we have technical traning from 2 - 4 or 5. Our technical training can be a variety of things, from going to Kenyan secondary schools and observing, or having guest speakers come and tell us about the differences in education systems, or writing lesson plans, and doing mock lessons for the other trainees. Then at 5 we are done for the day, and ususally a bunch of us go to town to have chai and chapati or we go for a walk. We have to be back at our homestay by 6:30pm because that is when it starts to get dark, so we all head home. At home I do my homework, usually with the help of my 9 year old host sister, and I try to help with dinner the best I can. We usually eat around 7 or 8 and then watch the news or tv. By 9pm I am exhausted and I head to bed, and I am usually asleep by 10. Training is busy, but I absolutely love it here!!! The other trainees are amazing and they have become like a second family here. We had a Thanksgiving celebration yesterday, complete with a turkey, making hand turkeys, sharing what we are thankful for and eating way too much food. We made mashed potatoes and stuffing and everything tasted amazing! We also played some football, some volleyball and later in the evening we sat around a fire talking and drinking beers! It was nice to have a full day of Americanness! I am going to attempt to upload photos now, so hopefully this works, the internet here is super slow! I miss you all and send all my Kenyan love! Feel free to write me emails at ceboyer@gmail.com, it is by far the best way to get ahold of me!

Just wanted to post a little update. I got back from a family vacation in Costa Rica, which was amazing, on Sunday. Went straight to Philly where we had our Peace Corps staging event. I met the other volunteers in my training group (25 in total) and they are all AMAZING! Right now we are in the airport waiting for our flight, and looking forward to a good 24+ hours of travel we have ahead of us!

Once in Kenya we will start our 9 weeks of Pre-Service Training, learning Swahili along with technical, cultural and safety strategies. I have no idea when I will get a chance to get on the internet again, but when I do I promise an update and pictures!

Saying good-bye to everyone was really really hard, but thanks for all of the going away parties, and well wishes, I love you all! I am so excited for my adventure and please keep in touch!

As I sit at work in the middle of the night all alone I have started the habit of reading everything I can about Peace Corps/Africa, specifically, Lesotho. As I was reading a letter from a RPCV who served in Lesotho she recommended documenting exactly why you decided to join the Peace Corps so you can refer back to those reasons on the tough days. Not only do I think this is sage advice, but I also thought people eventually reading this blog might want to know why it is, exactly, that I wanted to join the Peace Corps.

So, here are some reasons I joined the Peace Corps:

To serve as a global citizen. -I want to make a difference. I have been given a lot of advice about this goal, mainly current and returned volunteers have warned against thinking that you can change the world, but I think that I can make a difference and this is the number one reason why I am joining the Peace Corps. I also eventually want to work in the medical field and work in a community that is under-served, from my background and education I am keenly aware that those under-served communities are not just found in the US.

To gain invaluable work experience, which will benefit me in the future. -It is said that the Peace Corps is the hardest job that you will ever love. With this widely known and accepted statement comes a recognition by employers and educational institutions that RPCV posses unique qualities which set them apart.

To be immersed in another culture, and learn another language. -PC volunteers are given a rare opportunity to live and work in another culture for two years, rather than merely seeing a culture through the lens of a vacationer. I have always loved traveling (thanks Mom and Oma) and this is an extension of that passion.

To have an adventure. -Pretty self explanatory, except to add that at the current time in my life I have no significant responsibilities (a house, family, longterm career) to keep me from taking this opportunity.

Etc. -There are some other reasons, like, taking a break after Willamette and before PA school, pursuing a challenge, learning to live without (which I would expect will teach me to be even more thankful for the things I have), and the opportunity to travel all over Africa, but the ones listed are the main reasons.

After writing them down and articulating them (again, since I did this for the application about 8 months ago), I am sure that I am making the right decision.

I wanted to start my new blog with a quick overview of my experience in the application process so far:

I began my application in October 2008I submitted my application January 26 2009All of my recommendations were submitted February 11, 2009 (what a great birthday present!)I had my interview February 16, 2009My follow-up interview was February 23, 2009. At this point my recruiter -Erin- recommended me for service, but I was not given a nomination due to health volunteer nominations being full. I was told I would hopefully receive a nomination before my graduation in May, and could expect to leave in the Spring of 2010.Change of plans -I got a call from my recruiter with an opportunity for an earlier nomination (most likely January), the only catch is that I would not be nominated for a health position, but rather as a science teacher in Africa. After thinking this option over for, oh, about 20 seconds, I decided to go for it! (I did say I was flexible, and I liked the earlier departure date.)Received my official nomination on March 26, 2009 (during my AMAZING spring break trip in Tahoe with the girls!) for Science teaching in Africa.Next step was medical and background checks. I completed all paperwork and sent it to PC HQ at the end of April 2009.I was notified I had been dentally and legally cleared in June.Then I waited... In the meantime I graduated from Willamette University in May with my BA in Biology and continued to work at Salem Hospital in the lab. (This was a long waiting period, where I did not hear from the Peace Corps for many weeks at a time... patience...) I finally found out I was medically cleared July 24, 2009I was contacted by the placement office and sent them an updated resume, and final transcript a few days laterand.... Here I am. Trying to wait as patiently as possible for word on my official invitation. I am trying to expect the worst and hope for the best, and gain as much useful tutoring/teaching/classroom experience as possible in the meantime.