Football coach ?

Wed March 20 2013

            Hi! Well, I’m in Ahero, just chilling out . Just kidding, working my butt off! In Ahero I am spending some time at a different elementary school to get a feel for a rural education system as opposed to Eldoret's city schools. It is very different than El View but private schools and public differ in ways different than I thought. The public school has much bigger classes and less supplies and resources but the teaching is not nessecarily poor... since in private school teachers get paid depending on how the student perform its all about learning to pass exams and less investment in students (not too all - just some) but in public it is government paid and many trained teachers prefer it for the pension and benefits that come with it. 

The challanges are a lot of what the students face outside the school.  Many do not eat breakfast or lunch and maybe only get dinner, many are sick or have to stay home to help care for someone or do chores that day. During lunch period the teachers get sukuma wiki (kale) and ugali (flour and water) cooked for them, I feel so akward when the children just wander around hungry because there is no food at home, especially because I have trouble stomaching too much of the food butI make myself eat it because there is no way it is going to waste! It's a complicated system.  Families are extremely large, probably 8 children is normal, and there is some polygamy, which I don't think occurs as much in the city. It is interesting what family is here, there is often so much sharing of raising children and those who have money or work away from the village often pay for schooling of families children. It is also common to have aunts or uncles adopt children and move them to the city with them in order to give them more opportunities or because a mother or father are sick or have large families already. I like this outlook of family, having so many different families in our schools at home now I think it works well when there are a lot of people willing to work together to provide the best.

 I have to take a boda boda to school (motorcycle) it's slightly scary because you have no helemet and no protection.... I wouldn't' really recommend it but it's the only way to travel on these back roads. There are times when I enjoy it but after the rain when it's really slippy I do get freaked out.

I have been playing a lot of football with the kids, which is good because they have no idea what I'm saying, not being used to hearing english with any accents although they do learn it is school it is very hard to communicate, which makes teaching a little tricky. good thing I'm so good at charades....also songs!
It's fun to play with the students and they absolutely love it, having fun running around and screaming and playing. Look at those smiles!

It is just Jenn and I here for now but Sarah and Erica are going us at the end of the two weeks. We miss them!

Microwaves and Patience

Tues March 12 2013

Let me talk to you about patience. Patience is a virtue I do not poses. As in this is the girl who will eat a lukewarm meal because I cannot wait for a microwave to fully heat a meal. So, to work on an African computer system, filing books I don’t understand, half in a language I cannot read. Trying to fit in teaching, librarian duties and my own school work as well as exploring, friends and sanity. Dealing with communication in a way I don't understand, and students who will never tell me when they don't, patience has become the centre of my life. And let me be the first to admit, I’m still not that good at it. I am still likely to shut the library door and burst into tears of frustration once (or twice) a day because I don’t know what I’m doing and just see mountains of work ahead of me, and a thousand things needing to be redone and a million expectations and disappointments when I cant achieve it all. 

But the funny thing is, I am so excited about this. My ranting is in enthusiasm as opposed to in frustration. Challenge is good. Challenge, especially in an area you care about, leads to improvement, it means you do things you never thought you could do. It means at least once a day you think “I give up, I quit, I'm done.” Then at the end of every day you get to think “I didn’t quit, I kept going.” That is a great feeling. It's good to be uncomfortable because then you have somewhere to move. You will always make mistakes. You will entirely Screw up (or at least I will). And you will learn enough to make you eager to do it again. 

Rafting and Rugby

March 13 2013

Back in Kenya! Wow what a wild ride (literally in some cases). The girls and I left Eldoret to go to Uganda during elections time, as there was some worry over the possibility of violence in the cities after the results. Thank goodness everything seems to be fine right now, and I really hope it will stay that way now we’re home. Let’s relate some of our trip! We went first to Jinja, which is a city right on the Nile River in Uganda (which I reluctantly have to admit I never knew was in any countries but Egypt, but it actually goes through Uganda, Egypt, Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan and Rwanda). Crossing the border was an interesting experience, very different then the organization we have between the Canada and American border, there was a lot of in and out of the car and a lot of passport looking but not so much actual questions. But we had no problems and where on our way. I was quite excited to see the Nile, and though it does have crocodiles it seemed to be fine where we were staying so one of the first things we did was jump on in! Our friends Renske and Anneloes met us on the weekend and then returned to Kampala where we joined them later in the week, they work at the hospital like Sarah and Erica and we make a good group. The campsite we stayed at was lovely, made me feel quite spoiled though to be enjoying myself while people back in Kenya were praying for peace. The best part of the place as meeting all the interesting people that we did. It’s like when your out somewhere and you meet someone who likes a lot of the same stuff as you and has a thousand interesting stories to tell, but they are all at the same place! Among others we met a girl driving a bike through Europe and Africa, 2 boys just out of high school doing the same, a Canadian! And Austrailian couple returning from climbing mount Kilimajaro. Two Canadian brothers, one working in sanitation in Nairobi and the other travelling through Africa, a pig farmer who owns a farm on an island in Uganda, and a team made up of people from America, France, Mexico and England who are coaching rugby in schools all through Africa. We were very lucky to be invited to join the coaches at their rugby tournament, to watch how they do what they do! It was a very impressive event, I was especially interested in the inclusion of girls into the game which is not always easy to do in sports especially one like rugby. The kids didn’t wear shoes while they played, and the girls played in dresses, but you can tell they had a lot of fun and were learning pretty fast. I was impressed by the guys patience in coaching so many children at once, and ones who have never played Rugby before and possibly knew even less than I do about it:P There organization is called Rugby In Africa and I suggest visiting their blog if you are interested in more information and want to show some support! In the middle of the week we also visited Kampala, where we met with Juliet a lovely contact given to us by Jowi. Oh man was she fun! She kept telling us we were so young and needed to be looked after (which she did a very good job of) but she was very young herself. We got to visit a school and a hospital to compare then to Kenyan areas. The school was kind of the same, though their classes go up to class 7 instead of 8 and then they do 6 years of secondary school instead of 4 so it ends up being 1 more year of school. The hospital was huge and I think much more advanced from the hospital in Eldoret, at least that’s what I hear. I don’t have the courage to go very far in the hospital after last time when I nearly fainted! So I do my best to observe from a distance. We also met with a CIDA representative in the Canadian embassy in Kampala, it was great talking to them and telling them about our internship. The heat in Kampala was something ridiculous, I now understand why people tell us “Eldoret is cold, wear a sweater” because compared to Uganda, Eldoret is an ice box. (We will see how I deal with Canadian Winter next year). We also met Juliet’s family who were lovely and even sowed my skirt up that I had ripped during the day! I wish we could have stayed longer there but we wanted to go back to Jinja for the Rugby tournament. It’s definitely a place I’d go back to visit though the business of Kampala was completely overwhelming I’d really love to see more of the country of Uganda. I guess I really need to talk about white water rafting too:P The girls convinced me that white water rafting in the Nile would be an excellent idea and that I wouldn’t die, or if I did that it would be worth it (crazy muzungus). It was a fantastic experience and I wouldn’t take it back, however I think if I did it again I’d maybe stick to smaller rapids as opposed to level 5 (the highest level you can take untrained rafters on). It was great fun while In the raft but once it flipped I was fairly certain that was the end. However, there isn’t a group of girls I would have rather had such an experience with. The first time we flipped we all ended up in someone else’s rafts instead of back in our own so I just saw our guide paddling along the boat by himself thinking “uh oh where are my girls” but we had been rescued by various other rafts. The first drop was the most fun, off a 12 ft. waterfall so I can definitely say I’ve done that! I’m sure I’m missing something but that’s my last week and a bit in a nut shell, kudos to you if you read till the end!

Rugby in Africa: http://rugbyinafrica.org

School Kids and More Babies

Once again technical problems have prevented blog posting by me, but here are a bunch in a row if you care to read!

Feb 25 2013

This weekend we made another trip to a friend's village. Erica knows Gilbert from running races in Thunder Bay and he has visited us a few times, and we went to see the Peace run he was apart of a couple of weekends ago. At his village all the school children had gathered to meet and talk to us. I felt pretty bad because we arrived in Kenyan time - 5 hours late due to miscommunication with transportation. So there were less children as some went home, but there were still more than enough! As usual we were presented with a large crowd we didn't know what to present to. The children were great though and with the help of their teacher were prompted to ask us questions about Canada and what we are doing in Kenya. We met more babies and families and it was welcoming and great, a lot of the children are sponsored by people in Thunder Bay and there are always many more who need help in oder to go to school, which really makes me want to help them all. The teachers invited me to go back and visit them during a school day which I'd love to do and hopefully I get the chance!

Mountain Villages and Thank you

Feb 19 2013

Let's try and recap. (I can't believe how poorly structured my blogs are, and for someone who wants to be an author, shame on me!). I have been too busy/too darn tired to even journal to remember everything. On the weekend we went to visit the mountain village of our security guard, Risper. Risper is a wonderfully strong and kind woman she works to send money to her son as she is no longer with his father. I learn a lot from her and she really likes helping us with classes or research ideas which is so nice. The mountain village was absolutely incredibly fantastically beautiful. I am obsessed with mountains. The people in the village all told us to come back next time we are in Kenya, I would come back and stay! The families all live quite communally, taking care of everyones children and babies and animals are everywhere. I was holding one of the babies and they were just staring at me in awe (what is wrong with this persons skin and hair) as white people are not visitors they get often so remotely located. So adorable! We met Risper's aunt who is a healer, meaning she takes care of health using roots and plants and other things. She is also hugely involved in midwifery which is really neat as you can imagine how hard it would be to get to a doctor and a big hospital from way out there. It was a wonderful visit although way too short as travel took so long and I at least still get nervous travelling at night and try to avoid it.

I have really been missing my friends, family. I love teaching at the school, love love love it but everything being so different is such a challenge. People always think I know whats going on but I have no idea and so I just try to fake my way through. Finding out what I'm doing wrong is near impossible as no one ever tells me! That is probably the hardest part, people not realizing how lost I am. and expecting me to have answers when I don't understand or don't know in the first place. Going from being a student and on placement with a constant assistant teacher to literally teaching full time is a crazy adjustment never mind in a completely different environmentXD I am really lucky I have lots of experience with kids and am confident (or able to pretend to be) in what I'm doing. Math is a constant challenge because my struggles with it make it 1000 times more difficult to teach. Anyway, what I really wanted to say is how much I appreciate everyone's support. I constantly think about the encouraging messages and tweets I've gotten from people that seriously change my life because I could not be so strong or so happy without you. Every morning before I step into the school I thank the world for my blessings, think of people's wishes for me, and take a deep breath. I am rewarded for my struggles everyday by hugs from students or smiles over library books. Often when I am away thinking of home makes me more homesick but being somewhere that I know people are glad I am, and rooting for my success, makes everything easier.

So if your one of those people. Thank you so much. And if you wanna be, then send me an email ;) I'll email you back!

Books and Blessings

Feb 13 2012

I want to  blog about something serious. So if you read this and sense an unusual amount of solemnity, and perhaps find it unsettling, then go back and read about moose and bananas k? 

First the library I've been helping to set up, getting the students to start taking out books is really something. The kids are so so excited to get a chance to borrow books (like screaming with excitement) and it really opens my eyes to what I have been so fortunate to have. My ability to be a great reader really led me to other places, and gave me success in other areas. It might have even helped to lead me here now. No matter what I have always had the opportunity to escape in a story. Some of these students want the same, but without access to books what can they do? A book is an extra luxry rarely chosen over other necessities. I am so grateful that the school is able to provide some books for these kids. They are all very lucky that they have this available in their school, as so many others do not. I wish I could have brought all my books with me (why do they have to be so heavy!) as the older kids have way less story books and I would put every book I've saved on my shelf in the library for them if I could. I really wish there was a way I could get more to them. Books are so important and they can lead you so many places and open doors you haven't even thought of. Especially in a curriculum that trains really intelligent students, but trains them towards passing exams, not to creativity or independent ideas. And at times these kids need that more than anything. I think it's going to be a great thing to encourage reading and other outlets at the school.

Additionally, Today waiting for the bus to the library the kids were telling me about the elections. They are old enough to remember last time and the danger that occurred. But young enough that they don't know another life and it's just a fact that danger occurs around them. "People will fight", one of them told me, "and burn my house down". Another child insisted "no, my dad says no one will fight this time". I literally had to hold back the tears. I knew I would worry about the children, and that I am always going to be affected but like everything else it is not quite what you expect. I have only known then a short while but any teacher/parent knows the worry for a child. My students always ask me "teacher do you have any children?" and I say "No just my students." I trust in good and that there will be peace around the elections, and that they will stay safe from any danger they face and be able to have a great future though it may be challenging. 
Everyday new things amaze me about this place. I’ve always been hesitant about “missions” trips, because I hear so much negative stuff about the money you spend on a trip, when it could go straight to those who need help. That’s why I felt good accepting a position that was sponsored, therefore not using money that could/would be directly beenefitial. However, let me tell you, it can’t. Simple money does a fraction of what opening your eyes does. My life has changed, and though it may have always been heading in that direction so many things are more real now. And people are grateful for support. By loving their country, and by supporting people as people and not as projects to be donated to you change their beliefs too (though donations are great don’t get me wrong, and I know it’s not easy to make such a trip!). Its just that I see now the importance of human connection. So please know, that there are children here, who treasure a secondhand book like it’s the newest Ipad. Who are afraid of the future, but cling to the reassurance of parents who want so desperately to protect them. And they are not the worst off. Keep them in your heart, and do whatever it is that you can, be it donations or support or prayers. Keep my babies safe. Let them be all I know they can be. Love them with me.

Sophie