Unexpected Addictions

I have about one day and a few hours left in Kenya.  There isn't anything else to do right now, so I figured I would write one more blog from Kenya.

There are a few addictions I have developed since arriving in Kenya, which I did not expect.  Don't worry, none are bad, but I have a feeling I will miss them when I return.  I'm also sure there will also be other things I will miss, which I have not thought of yet, but figuring out what those are will be one of the interesting parts about coming back to the U.S.

The first is riding on Piki Piki's (motorcycles).  If you don't want to walk, Piki Piki's are the main mode of transport in towns in Kenya.  I did not ride them too often, but it was fun whenever I did.  Growing up in the U.S., I never understood why some people liked motorcycles so much.  To me, it just seemed more dangerous than a car, and did not really look anymore enjoyable.  However, after this last year, I think I understand.  I have considered getting one at some point (not a Harley or anything, those still look uncomfortable to me).  It will not be for a while though, because I don't think it would really necessary right now.  I also worry that it won't quite be the same as riding Piki Piki's here.  The part of riding Piki Piki's in Kenya I enjoyed the most, was riding around the country and being able to look at the scenery.  In the U.S., I would probably mostly be riding in the city, and otherwise need to go too fast on the country roads to relax and enjoy it.

My second addiction is Tea.  More specifically, Chai with sugar.  I never expected to be a tea or coffee drinker, and I figured if anything, I would become a coffee drinker, since that is more common in my family.  But, I have gotten used to at least 2 or 3 cups of tea a day, so we will see if I go through any withdrawls upon my return.

Another addiction is Soda.  I never drank soda much in the U.S., but in Kenya it makes you look wealthy if you buy a soda, and it is also rude to drink a soda when someone with you is not.  So, whenever I was with a teacher who wanted a soda, they would also buy me one.  This is an addiction I really hope I can beat, because I always feel unhealthy drinking sodas.  Luckily, the brand I normally took was Orange Fanta, which is harder to find in the U.S.  So, hopefully that will help me beat the addiction.

Other than my addictions, obviously I will also miss the friends I have made here and my host family.  I am currently in Nairobi, waiting to fly out tomorrow, so I am done with almost all my good-byes, but they were hard to say this last weekend.  I really hope I am able to stay in touch with all of them through email and facebook, and perhaps I will be able to come back and visit at some point.

My Normal Day

For me, a typical day here in Kenya starts when I wake up sometime between 6:15 and 6:30 am.  The first thing I do, is I take a bucket full of water out to the shower and take a "throw shower".  Breakfast normally consists of Mandazi (which are like the Kenyan version of doughnuts) and Chai.

At about 7:30, I leave for school.  School is about a 20 minute walk away.  Along the way, there is a primary school, and since school has not started yet, all the students are standing out in the yard.  Almost everyday, they all shout, "Mzungu, How are You?!" multiple times.  One would think that they would have gotten used to me after I have been here for almost a year, but apparently not.

At school, depending on the day, I will teach between two and four 40 minute math and physics classes.  I mostly just teach Form 1 and Form 2 students (equivalent of Grades 9 and 10 in the U.S.), but on occasion, I will help out in a Form 3 or 4 class.  Everyday, we have morning tea at 10 am, which is normally my 3rd or 4th cup of the day.  Then, lunch is at 1pm.  Other than classes and eating, my day at school is filled with preparing for my lessons the next day and if I have enough time, marking students assignments.

Note: this is my normal day, but it varies from this fairly frequently.  Sometimes, i may be sent with a couple other teachers to correct an exam that was done by multiple schools.  Students may be sent home for school fees.  Or, like this last week, they may have a sports competition, which means a number of students are absent.

Lately, after classes finish, I have been helping the Men's and Women's Soccer teams train.  I mostly focus on just getting them physically fit, by giving them some exercises at the beginning of practice.  Then, the head coaches take over to work with them on their soccer skills.  They just had their competition this last Thursday and Friday, so I doubt this will continue.  However, the Men's Volleyball team qualified to proceed to the next level, so if they ask me to, I may work with them a bit this next week.

I leave school between 4:30 and 6, and either I go straight home, or I will go to the gym to lift with a couple of other teachers.  If I go to the gym to lift, we lift for about an hour, and then I am back home by 7 pm, when it is starting to get dark.  Once I arrive home, if I have any more work to do to prepare for the next day, I will do that, but normally my host family and I just sit in the sitting and talk.  We eat sometime between 8 and 9, and then after eating, I soon go to bed, normally by 10 pm.

Maasai Mara

The safari started on the morning of Saturday the 28th, when the company picked us up at the Mennonite Guest house in Nairobi.  There were already two other people in the Safari vehicle, and we then went to pick up two more people.  It was about a 5 hour drive to the Maasai Mara.  The first three hours were back-tracking the route I take to Nairobi.  After we went down the escarpment, we saw a herd of giraffes.  I have ridden along this route about once a month since I got to Kenya, and all I have ever seen are baboons, so the trip was off to a good start.

After we got into the park, we saw a couple buffalo, gazelles, zebras, and elephants.  They were a little ways off, but we were able to get some good pictures.  But, then as we continued on, we came across a herd of elephants (with a couple babies) that were only about 10 feet from the road, which was pretty cool.  Then, after we had driven around the park for a couple hours, our driver heard about a pack of lions over the radio.  (All the safari vehicles have radios, and so they communicate with each other if anyone finds anything interesting.)  When we got there, it seemed like a huge pride of at least 25 lions.  Although there were nine vehicles there, they seemed very comfortable with the vehicles.  A number of them walked between our vehicle and the next which was only about five feet away.  There was also a large herd of buffalo very close by.  In the herd, we could see one new born that looked only a couple hours old at the most (it was still all wet).  For most of the time we were there, the lions seemed pretty relaxed and uninterested in hunting, but as it started getting dark and we needed to head to our camp, they seemed to be gathering up and starting to stalk in the direction of the buffalo.

We went out of the park to the camp we were staying at.  The rooms were large safari tents, but it was hard to call it camping.  They had beds and bathrooms in the tents, and the tents were up on wooden platforms with wooden roofs protecting the tents.

The next morning, we went back into the Maasai Mara for a full day.  One of the first things I saw, was a hyena, but it was a ways off, and I needed to use my binoculars to see it (This trip is the only time I have used my binoculars in Kenya, but it was definitely worth brining them).  Since it was a ways off, I was unable to get a picture.  I also figured I would see some more, since it was still pretty early in the trip.  Unfortunately I didn't, so I never got a picture of a hyena.  Some of the other things we saw that morning, were ostriches, more giraffes, and warthogs.  Just before lunch, we stopped at the Mara river.  This is the river that is always shown in documentaries about the migrations in East Africa, where all the wildebeest and zebras  need to dodge alligators.  Unfortunately the migration was not going on at the time.  It comes to Kenya in July and leaves in September (the worst time for me, since that was right after I got here, and right before I leave).  However, there were still a lot of hippos and some alligators (or crocodiles, I forget which it is).  There are always some game wardens here, so we were able to get out of the vehicle and walk down to the river.  We were able to walk around, because they are all armed with rifles or semi-automatics, in case something dangerous comes too close.  I was still a little of an adrenaline rush walking around in an area where you know there are hippos and alligators very close, along with lions, leopards, and cheetahs in the area.  When we were almost back to the vehicle, we came across a couple of monkeys.  They must have been pretty used to humans, because they just continued about their business, and one walked only about 3 feet from Ben.

The rest of the afternoon, we saw some mere-cats and Baboons.  Then, on our way back to the camp, we came across a couple of cheetahs.  Cheetahs are just awesome.  We saw them jog a bit, but unfortunately never got to see them at a straight out run.  However, they did come extremely close to the vehicles, which was cool.  Then, as they walked off, we saw how good their camouflage is.  When the ducked down in the grass, they completely disappeared.

That night, we went to visit a Maasai village.  It was only about a 10 minute walk away from the camp, and most of the camp workers came from the village.  It was very interesting and I learned a lot about their culture, but I don't think I would ever do it again.  This is because the Maasai are in a very strange position culturally.  I think it is pretty safe to say that of all the Kenyan tribes, they have stayed the most traditional.  However, for that very reason, they are also in constant contact with the "modern world" through tourism.  What bothered me most, was how comfortable they seemed with putting their culture on display as a tourist attraction.  During our visit, I always felt like I was contributing to this struggle between two cultures, which I did not like.  That is why I wouldn't ever visit a Maasai village again.

The next day, we slowly drove out of the Maasai Mara and back to Nairobi.  We saw some cool stuff, but nothing new, so I won't mention anything here.  In summary, it was a great trip.  The whole time, it was hard to believe that we were really out in the wilderness.  This is because not only are there some many animals in the Maasai Mara, but they are also all the biggest attractions at zoos.  I think that the only animals that we didn't see, were leopards and rhinos.  Both are in the Maasai Mara, but rhinos are very rare, and leopards are incredible hard to spot since they spend most of the day hiding up in trees.

The lions came pretty close

An Ostrich with Elephants in the background

Ben took up the rear as we walked around the Mara River.
He had his pocket knife out for protection in case anything
attacked from behind.

Cheetah, also pretty close

Us with some of the Maasai at their village

Finally got a picture of me with my whole host family.

Best Vacation Ever!

Our vacation started on Friday the 13th of April.  On that day, I took the bus from Migori to Nairobi.  The next day, Ben and I got up early to get into town and catch our bus, which left at 6:30 am.  We were on the bus for 14 hours with two bathroom stops.  That night we stayed at the YWCA in Dar es Salaam for only $7 a night, but before we went to bed, we went to eat supper at an Indian restaurant (It was delicious).

On Sunday, we went to the pier and bought our tickets for the ferry to Zanzibar.  We had about an hour to waste before our ferry, so we walked around downtown Dar es Salaam.  This was mostly to ditch the man who insisted on assisting us in finding a ferry even though we knew what we were doing.  This way we did not need to tip him.  All ferries go to Stone Town on the west coast of Zanzibar, which is a pretty sweet place.  But I'll talk about it more later, because we spent more time there on our way out of Zanzibar.  Immediately after we landed, we took a taxi to the Beach on the east coast, where the SALTers from Tanzania and Zambia had already been for one night.

The beach we stayed at was called Jamiani, and the resort was called Zanzest.  Zanzest was awesome.  We got to know the owner, Chieron, fairly well while we were there, and it sounds like he just recently bought the place from the person who first built it.  It currently only has room for 8 people, so the six of us had the place all to ourselves for most of the time.  He is currently building to expand, but only up to around 40, because he wants to keep the small feel.  The owner is originally from Australia, but has lived in Denmark for like 20 years.  One of his friends, Ebu, also stays at Zanzest.  Ebu was born in Zanzibar, but lived in Denmark for 30 years or something, and he's the one who gave Chieron the idea of buying land in Zanzibar.

The Banda we stayed in.

The view from Zanzest

Our first couple days in Zanzibar were pretty relaxed.  Mostly just sitting around or playing frisbee out in the ocean.  The ocean floor slopes down very slowly at Jambiani.  Our first day there, we probably walked close to half a mile out, and it was only then that I was not able to touch.  On Tuesday, we went snorkeling.  We all originally assumed we would just be going out on a motor boat, but then they brought a traditional Zanzibar style sail boat to pick us up.  This boat was awesome.  We then snorkeled for probably about 2 hours.  We weren't actually at a reef unfortunately (we found out we would have needed to go out at low tide and just walk around to do that), but we still got to see some pretty cool stuff.  We saw one lion fish and I touched a star fish.

Walking on the beach

Getting ready to go snorkeling

That afternoon, we walked down the beach to a more populated area.  We found one beach side restaurant with a volleyball net out front, and so we played with a few people for a bit.  The invited us to come back the next day, so we did.  For some reason, there was nobody else there to play with us the second day, but since we were six, we had enough to play anyway.

All the SALTers in Zanzibar (It was completely by chance that we all lined up by height.  The probability that we would line up in increasing or decreasing order by height is 1/360, for decreasing specifically, it is 1/720)

On Thursday, we all left to head back to Stone Town, because the guys from Zambia and Tanzania needed to catch the early ferry on Friday.  As we were leaving Zanzest, Ben and I calculated we had both gone over 90 hours straight without a shirt on (we were a little proud).  We had a good day just wandering around Stone Town.  That night, we split up into two groups, but were going to meet back up to eat supper at a restaurant.  My group consisted of 4 people and on our way to the restaurant, we ran into the guy who had showed us to our hotel at the Food Garden.  He insisted that we get some food, and so we decided to get some appetizers, but then he ended up ripping us off.  We then proceeded to meet up with the others at the restaurant and ordered something cheap.  It turned out that Chieron, the owner of Zanzest, also needed to be in Stone Town that night, so we had arranged to meet up with him after supper.  But, after having been ripped off, me and the others from my group decided to go to bed not long after we met up with Chieron.  Thankfully Ben had not been part of our group, because after we got ripped off, I was considering that we go back to Dar es Salaam with the others on Friday even though we had one more day before we needed to leave for Nairobi.  But, after we left, Ben talked to Chieron about what had happened, and he said he could let us stay in Ebu's room the next night for free, since Ebu was staying out in Zanzest and that he could also set us up with a good tour guide.  So, Ben was able to convince me to stay, and like I said, I am very glad that he did, because our day turned out to be awesome.  We met Chieron for breakfast, and he gave us the key to the room and hucked us up with the tour guide.  Ben and I were really impressed, since were not staying at Zanzest anymore, so Chieron was not getting anymore business from us, and yet he went out of his way to help us out so much.  Our tour guide was great.  He showed us a lot of the city and explained a lot of the history of Zanzibar.

Ben, me, and our tour guide Hakim

On Saturday, Ben and I took the ferry back to Dar es Salaam.  Now, Dar es Salaam seems to be a very laid-back city, especially compared to Nairobi, which was nice.  However, according to the tour guides we had seen and people we had talked to, Dar es Salaam is a notoriously boring city for tourists.  So, we mostly just napped that afternoon after we had bought our tickets to Nairobi for the next day.  The day ended well though.  Ebu from Zanzest is like the music coordinator for Zanzibar or something, and he especially loves Jazz.  While we were at Zanzest, he told us about a Jazz event that was going to be happening Saturday night, so Ben and I asked him for the location and that night we went to this Jazz event.  I have always been a sort of half-hearted Jazz fan, but this concert made me realize I need to listen to more Jazz.  From the conversations we had had with Ebu, it sounded like the concert would be characterized as African Jazz.  In fact, at times it almost sounded like Reggae.  The group was a quartet of a Drummer, Keyboard player, Saxophone player, and Bassist, and they played about an hour long set with a few vocalists for some songs.  Then, they had a jam session, where people in the audience with instruments could come up and play.  Ben ended up going up to play keyboard for a couple songs and did really well.

The Jazz event in Dar

The next day, we got up early again to take the bus to Nairobi.  Now, at the ticket office, the sign said that the bus to Nairobi would leave at 6am.  We got to the loading point around 5:30am, and there were a few buses there, but the Nairobi bus had not arrived yet.  Ben went off to the Bathroom while we waited, and a new bus arrived around 5:40.  When Ben got back at around 5:50, I decided I should go to the bathroom too.  But, I had a feeling the new bus was the one for Nairobi, so I suggested we move our bags over there before I went.  I didn't think the bus would leave soon, since the two original buses had not left yet, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to camp out closer.  As we started walking toward the bus, a worker asked which bus we needed.  Just as I said Nairobi, the new Bus started pulling out.  The worker immediately turned around and started running after the bus, and we followed behind.  (Now, I would like to point out that it was not yet 6, which was when the office said the bus would leave, the bus had barely been there 10 minutes, and the original two buses had not moved yet.)  They got the bus to stop before it left the parking lot and we quickly scrambled on.  When we sat down, we checked our tickets, and they said the bus was leaving at 5:45 am.  We looked at each other, and just asked, "What did we do wrong?"  I guess the moral of the story is when traveling by bus in East Africa, constantly be talking with the workers, and check on each new bus that arrives.

That night, Ben and I had heard about a fast food hamburger chain that had a location near our guest house, so we decided we would get our supper there.  Maybe I just haven't had a hamburger for a while, but these hamburgers were delicious.  Also, the fries were just like they are in America (here, they are normally soft, instead of crispy) which was wonderful.  The next day, Monday the 23rd, I traveled back to Migori.

As I am posting this blog post, I am preparing to go on a 3 day Safari to the Maasai Mara.  Let's just say I'm having a great month, haha.  My next post will probably about the Safari (hopefully with lots of pictures).

International Criminal

This story actually took place a while back.  To be exact, it was on Thursday, August 25th, 2011 (my fifth day in Kenya).  The reason for my delay, is I figured my parents might freak out, especially if they read about it over the internet, instead of from me directly.  But, since then, I have told them, and I figured it was a good story I should share with the rest of you.

Now, this was during the time that Ben and I were taking Kiswahili lessons in Nairobi, and had spent the last half week trying to figure out the best way to get from the guest house to the language school.  On Wednesday, we thought we had figured out the best option.  Originally when had been told to take two buses.  One to down town and then another to the school.  However, going all the way to down town was quite out of the way.  So, one of our tutors told us we could be dropped off early by the first bus, and it would just be a short walk the rest of the way.  This is the route we used on Wednesday, and we thought it worked quite well, so we thought we had found our route.

Now comes Thursday.  The morning went well without any problems.  But then, in the afternoon, as we approached the place where we were dropped off that morning and got on the bus the day before, we noticed that there was nobody there, when it had been quite busy previously.  We did not think much of it however, since we were actually going home a little early.  So, we waited on the corner and waived down a bus when we saw it approaching.  The bus began to slow down, and come to the side of the road.  Then, before it stopped, it suddenly sped up and turned back into the middle of the road.  As Ben and I turned to look at each other in confusion, we were both grabbed from behind. 

As we tried to resist, four people in civilian clothes dragged the two of us toward an unmarked pick up with canvas over the bed, parked on the shoulder of the road.  They quickly flashed us ID cards on lanyards around their necks and said we were under arrest.  Thinking quickly, Ben told the one commanding the others we wanted to talk to the Embassy.  In response, the man simply said, "no Embassy".  At this point, the only thought going through my mind was, "Oh crap".  They eventually got us to the pick up and pushed us in the back.  The bed was already full of about 7 or 8 Kenyans in civilian clothes, and two armed guards near the opening to the bed.  Now, to be clear, when I say armed guards, I mean they each had a semi-automatic weapon.  It's been a while, and I don't know guns very well to begin with, so I don't know exactly what they were, but they were something like an AK-47.  After we were in the pick up, it started driving off.

Up until this point, we had not been told exactly what we were being arrested for.  Therefore, we tried to find out from the other Kenyans who had been arrested what was going on, but none of them seemed to know any better.  We noticed that a couple of them were using their phones.  Luckily, I had been given a phone by this point (Ben had not been given one yet, so thankfully we were together).  Ben suggested I call Ron and Martha (our Country Representatives).  With the guards sitting right next to me, I was a little wary of doing anything without permission, so I asked to see if it was ok.  They just gave me blank stares.  I decided to risk it, since others were using theirs.

I called Ron and explained our predicament.  He immediately said he wanted to speak to the person in charge.  So, Ben and I began asking for the person in charge.  Throughout this time, the vehicle kept driving for about 2 or 3 minutes, and the stopping at random points.  The guards and the people that grabbed us would hang around the back of the pick up when we were stopped, but they all just told us the person in charge was at the front, and would not let us talk to them.  I stayed on the phone with Ron and kept him updated on our location.  During this time, he kept repeating two things.  First, "I want to talk to the person in charge"  and second,  "I don't like this".  This was because other than the guards, nobody was wearing uniforms, and we had only gotten to see their ID's for a split second, so in our paranoid and adrenaline high state, we worried that they may not be police.

Eventually, the other people who had been arrested guessed that our arrest was because the location where we had tried to get a bus was not actually a bus stop.  This was news to Ben and I, since we had always seen a large number of people waiting there to grab a bus.  After about twenty minutes of driving short distances with long pauses in between, the other "criminals" suggested to Ben (he was sitting closer to them than me) that we try to bribe them.  As Ben was suggesting this to me, the men who had arrested us said we could get out.  They said we were free to go, but told us that that was not a bus stop and warned us never to try to get a bus their again.

As they drove off, we realized that Ben and I were the only ones released.  This was a little confusing, and we felt bad for the others, but there was nothing we could do.  We told Ron and Martha where we were and they came and picked us up.  On talking with them, we determined that they probably were just looking for bribes.  Apparently it is very common for people to be arrested, just so the police officer can receive a bribe, because if you refuse to pay, they often just let you go.  This is because they don't want to deal with the paper work of an actual arrest.  Therefore, it was kind of lucky that Ben and I were so new, because we had never thought of a bribe before it was suggested towards the very end.  But, if we had thought of it earlier, we probably would have tried to pay it.

In the end, we were still a little confused why we were let off when we were.  The only explanation we could think of, was that since I was staying on the phone with someone and kept asking for the person in charge, they were worried that we were some Whites with powerful connections.  I have no idea if this is true, but I kind of hope so, because I think it would be pretty funny.

So, that was the most memorably experience of my first week in Kenya.  Since then, I have not been arrested again, and hopefully I will make it the rest of my term without another incident.

Lunch

A couple weeks ago, I was walking to a friends (Austine's) house on a Saturday morning.  Recently, now that I have gotten to know the area better, I have started taking a shortcut through the neighboring maize fields to get to school, since the road is not very direct.  Since Austine's house is up past the school, I was taking this new rout.  On this rout, there is an older women (I would guess she is in her 70's) who comes to "home church" at our house on some Sundays, so I already knew her a bit from there.  So, when I am walking to or from school, we will briefly greet each other if she is outside. 

When I was walking past on this Saturday, she was sitting outside eating omena (little fingerling fish) and apoth (a vegetable cooked in a traditional way) and ugali.  I greeted her, and she then said "Karibu", meaning welcome.  At this point, I had already told Austine that I was on the way, so I initially responded, "sorry, but I need to go to a friend's house".  She then asked, "You don't eat omena?"  (In my experience, all Kenyans seem to assume that Whites don't eat omena, which is strange, since it is delicious.  The only reason I can think of is they may think we are scared to eat it, since you just pop the whole fish in your mouth, instead of picking the meat off the bones.)  Anyway, at this point, I realized that I was not in America, and therefore, being "on my way" could mean I would start getting ready to leave my house in ten minutes.  Also, it meant that not stopping, once I had been invited, would probably be rude.  So, I said that I do eat omena, and she then lead me inside.  We sat down at her table and started eating.  I don't think she knows much English if any, so all our conversations had too be in Kiswahili.  This meant we didn't talk too much.  (The one thing I remember trying to say while we ate, was that her cat looks like the one at our house.)  I felt bad eating a lot, because there wasn't  much to begin with, and I don't think she has much money, so I ate slowly.  After a little bit, I explained that I was full, since I had recently eaten breakfast at home.  She said that was ok, and told me to come again.

Upon leaving, what struck me most was the spontaneity of the whole visit and her generosity.  As I said, there wasn't much food, but she didn't hesitate an instant to invite me in and seemed very excited to have me there.  It was very characteristic of the culture here, and is definitely an experience I won't soon forget.

Education in Kenya

Earlier this week, one of my friends recently alerted me to the fact that I have yet to write about my actual teaching experience thus far in Kenya.  I was a bit shocked to realize I had forgotten to write about such a large part of my time so far in Kenya, and agreed with my friend that I  should write something on the topic.

I will start by explaining what I am doing while here.  I am teaching math and physics classes at Oruba Mixed Secondary School.  Last term, I had two physics courses (one Form 1 and one Form 2) and one form 1 math class.  This term, I have two physics classes and two math classes (one Form 1 and one Form 2 for each) and I am assisting with a Form 4 class.

To clarify, there are four Forms in Secondary School, with Form 1 equivalent to 9th grade in the U.S, Form 2 equivalent to 10th grade, and so on.  Also, subjects are done slightly differently here.  Every subject can be taken for the full 4 years.  All students take the same 11 subjects in Forms 1 and 2,  Then, when they move to Form 3, they can drop 3 or 4 of the elective subjects, so that they are taking 7 or 8 subjects the last 2 years.  So, this means that some students take physics for four years in high school.  Not many do (like in the US, physics is the least popular science), but all need to take it for at least 2 years.  Since students are taking physics from Form 1, this means that a lot of the topics covered for the first two years are done mostly just conceptually, because the students have not yet gained the mathematical skills to do many quantitative problems.  This has been a bit frustrating for me at times, since I have always studied physics with a very large mathematical element involved.  However, it is also teaching me how to explain physics concepts without getting too technical, which has been good.  Math is also taught a bit differently here.  Math is one of the compulsory subjects, so all students must take if for four years like in the U.S.  However, unlike how the Mathematical topics are split up by year in the U.S,, they are all thrown together in each year here.  So, you may go from an Algebra topic, to a Geometry Topic, to another Algebra topic, to a Trigonometric topic, and so on.  Another thing that I found interesting about the math syllabus here, is that it covers a bit of Calculus in Form 4.  It is by no means like an AP Calculus course in the U.S., because it is only an introduction that takes about one third of the year, but it means all students here learn some Calculus before leaving Secondary School, unlike in the U.S.

Now, onto my personal experience with teaching.  I will start with the frustrating parts of my experience, so I can end on a happy note.  One of my biggest challenges with teaching here, especially initially, has been the accent barrier.  Since I am always surrounded by Kenyans, I have become used to their accent and can usually understand them now, but my students only see me for about 40 minutes a day, so at times they still struggle with my accent.  They say Americans "swallow their english" because we slur all our words together.  So, I normally try to slow down and pronounce every syllable clearly, but at least once or twice a day, I forget and get lazy.   When that happens, one or two of my students will say "pardon", meaning "please repeat".  That is happening less and less though now, thankfully.

The other two main frustrations I have had deal more with aspects of how education is done in Kenya.  One of these, is how the school days are structured.  Students must arrive at school by 7am for Preps, which is like a free period, where any teacher can come in to do some extra teaching, or if no teacher shows up, it is a time to do homework.  However, more often than not, a teacher does come.  Then, classes and lunch fill the time from 8 until 3:20pm.  At 3:20, there is another Preps time.  And finally, from 4:00 until 5:00 is games/clubs.  Then after 5, students are allowed to go home.  My problem with this is that it does not leave a lot of time for students to do homework.  Especially, since a number of student do not have electricity, so it is too dark to work by 6:30pm.  Perhaps this is my American bias talking (and I realize that education in America is by no means perfect) or I may just have been out of high school for too long and forgotten what it is like to have class more than 2 hours a day.  But I am of the opinion that students need a chance to practice things on their own in order to really learn, and that does not seem possible with Form 1 and 2 taking 11 subjects.  To be honest, they do not have all eleven subjects every day, but there are 9 periods in a day.  So, to try and help deal with this, I try to leave between 10 and 20 minutes of each class period for them to do exercises while I walk around and check if they are correct.  This also helps me give the students some feedback, because it would not be possible for me to correct all 50 assignments from each class every day.

My other frustration has been the fact that exams are the soul mode of evaluation.  There is one exam that determines what Secondary Schools students can go to after Standard 8 (8th grade in the U.S.) and one that determines which University, if any, a Secondary Graduate can go to.  Also, at my school, there are three exams each term.  The first two are 15% of the grade and the final one is 70% of the grade.  I believe this varies slightly per school, but the fact that exams are the only factor in determining grades seems to be universal.  There are two reasons for why I don't like this.  One is that if a student just happens to have a bad day, that can completely ruin their grade for the term, or if it is during the Standard 8 or Form 4 final exams, it can mean they do not get into as good of a school as they should have.  The other reason for why I don't like it, is the fact that some people just are not good test takers.  I should mention though, that this system does have some benefits.  With such large classes (normally around 50 students per class) continuous evaluation would be very difficult.  Also, the national exams for determining what schools students get accepted to make sure that the evaluation is standardized.   However, I feel that the system can be improved, but I am not sure how it should be done, and if it is changed, it will take time.

In the end, I think that most of the things that frustrate me come from the fact that there is a shortage of teachers in Kenya.  That is why most classes have to be around 50 students.  And based on the teachers I have met in Kenya, I think most of the teachers are truly trying to do the best they can with the situation they are given.  Also, if anyone reading this thinks I have been too critical with my frustrations and has any comments or an alternative point of view I should consider, please let me know.

Ok, now onto the positive experience I have had.  Probably the best part of my experience teaching here so far has been the students.  They are all great kids.  They are incredibly well disciplined.  Even with the large classes, I have never really had much trouble controlling them.  In fact, at first I was worried that they might be too well disciplined, because not many talked much in class.  But I think that that was partly because of the fact they could not understand me well.  After they got used to my accent a bit and I got a bit better at talking more clearly, they began answering my questions and were more comfortable asking questions when they did not understand something.  Some of the bolder ones have even become comfortable joking around with me, which I like, because it means they are not intimidated by me or anything.  As most of you know, I don't like being too serious all the time, and like joking around with people.  They definitely know that I am a teacher and they respect that, but are still ok with joking with me.  For example, just last Friday, as we were getting ready for class, one student asked me how my night was.  I said, "good".  And he then asked, "How is your fiance?"  I was a little shocked and just said "Hakuna" meaning, "There isn't one".  Then another student asked if they could find one for me.  I obviously said, "no", and when they asked why, I said, "because I don't trust you".  And after that, we started with class.

Another positive aspect of my experience so far has been my fellow teachers.  I get along pretty well with all of them, and there are a few just a couple years older than me, whom I have become good friends with.  We all share the same staff room, and it can be a lot of fun to just sit and talk in there during lunch or between classes.  Also, on the weekends, I usually meet up with one or more of the teachers near my age.  Along with my host family, they are the people I have gotten to know the best here in Kenya, and they are a lot of fun to hang out with.  They have tried to teach me to dance on a couple of occasions, which just left them laughing.  We'll see if that changes at all before I go back to the U.S.

Sorry, this blog turned out to be pretty long.  If you read all of it, I hope you found it interesting.