One week more.

Another week another destiny. This soon ending road in front of me.

One week more.

Bizarre. Emily (my lovely roommate) leaves tomorrow night. I thought two months would be a long time, but I feel like I haven't been here nearly long enough. I haven't really gotten a view of a public school system like I wanted to.

At the same time, though, I'm excited for home. I CANNOT wait for camp, and it'll be a joy to see Jon and Jenny again. It'll be nice to be home, to be with my family, to be back on the North Shore of Boston eventually.

But let's focus on the now.

On Monday I went on a field trip with my class 2 students. We went to Paradise Lost, a camp ground with caves, a waterfall, and a lake. We started the day by loading all 39 students onto 6 rowboats and handing them paddles. We didn't make it very far, but I got some fun pictures! On our boat, Ms. Elizabeth and I rowed, so we actually made it around a bit. One of the boats got stuck and the guide had to go back to shore, grab a canoe, and pull them back in.

Then we went on a hike. Half the time, us teachers were bent in half to avoid the trees that had knotted themselves over the path, but the kids walked upright. We made it to the waterfall, and went behind into stone-age caves. It was rather clay-y, but cool (in both ways). From there, we loaded the kids two by two onto the backs of horses and sent them on trail rides (the ride was really just about 50 feet down a path, then back).

We all loaded back up onto the bus and headed to Rock City Gardens, an amusement park. The kids got to ride on rides, go swimming, and just goof off. The teachers got to sit around, eat lunch, and enjoy each other's company away from the kids (Daisy and I also rode a ride or 2...) We dragged the kids off the rides onto the bus and made it back just in time to catch the school bus home.

Yesterday I was in Class 4 for the first time. This has long been  my "ideal age", so it was nice to sit in with them. They're incredible. I was blessed during snack time when they all pulled out their snacks and I was journaling in the corner. I saw one of the girls going around to all of the students, and then she came over and placed in front of me a tupper-ware lid full of pieces of all of their snacks. There were carrots, oranges, a few peanuts, some cake... They're really great kids. The girls and I all sat in the classroom all lunch time-- they decided to hang out and talk with me rather than go to recess. We had some really good conversations (and they all now know about my entire family and some of my friends. I even showed them pictures of you guys). They were a blessing to be with, and I'll go back with them tomorrow.

Today was staff meeting, and Emily saying goodbye to a lot of people. From there, we went to the police station for Emily to get an abstract of what she had stolen for insurance purposes, and then coffee so I could get internet for a bit.

4 more school days to be spent at Logos. I will spend my last one for sure with my class 2 kids I've spent the most time with.

See you guys soon. xoxo

(Finally) An Update!

So I haven't posted in... 2 weeks now?

My bad. Lemme fill you in real quick. (and I mean real quick. My laptop is about to die and I forgot the charger)

Week 1
I spent week 1 back at Logos, classroom-hopping. Monday I was in my regular Class 2. Tuesday I went to the Montessori kindergarten Logos also runs. Wednesday I was in the other class 2, but the teacher wasn't there. So I became the teacher for the day. Fortunately, a lot  of other teachers came in for subjects like Kiswahili, Music, etc. Thursday and Friday I was in the Special Ed classroom, which was a really interesting experience.

The way Logos does Special Ed is inclusion, so students are in the classroom most of the time. Depending on the severity of the disability, however, they spend a  certain amount of time one-on-one with the special ed teachers. There are 2, so they'll only ever have 2 students in the class at a time.

Week 2
Last week 9 of us from Nairobi Chapel went on a trip to Moyale, the northern-most part of the country. It was a 24hr bus ride each way, and we're not talking Greyhound. We got there, settled in to where we were staying, and then went to Ethiopia. Turns out Ethiopia and Kenya have a completely open border; you can walk across without being asked for a passport. The one catch is you have to be back by 6-- if you try to stay in a hotel or anything, they'll ask for your passport and it has to be stamped.

In Ethiopia we went shopping, I drank the best coffee I've ever had, and I got at least 8 marriage proposals or declarations of love. Yay. We would cross back over at 6 and go to dinner, play cards or pool, or just hang out until bedtime. The group I went with was awesome. Before we went I only really knew Emily and Kate, the 2 girls I live with, but the rest of the group was amazing.

Ok, it's really about to die. But today I went on a field trip with my class 2, so pictures and description coming soon!!

p.s. I'm doing really well and both excited and terribly sad that I'm leaving here in 9 days!

My Health!

Coming to Kenya, one of my greatest concerns was my health. I know some of you have probably been worrying about that as well. It hasn’t been stellar in the past couple of years, and incredible medical attention is not something I could get quickly here if I needed it. If I had an arthritis flare up, if I had a crippling migraine, if something went wrong, I would likely have to tough it out. There are, of course, hospitals here. If it was bad enough, I could see someone.

I could definitely get tested for malaria.

Anyways, my health has been a bit of a miracle. Despite many of the things trigger my arthritis being present (cold weather, rain, walking more than normal, stress, etc.), I haven’t had any problems with it. A couple of mornings I’ve woken up with my fingers a little swollen, but 10 minutes later that was gone. My knees, which gave me trouble even when I was in remission, haven’t hurt in the slightest. The last time I was at my rheumatologist, he suggested I try cutting back on the medicine—take a pill every other day if I could, rather than every day. I tried that while at school, but I pretty quickly had to go back to every day. For the past 3 weeks I have been taking my pills every other day, and it is still gone. I don’t know if the food makes a difference, or what it is, but it doesn’t even feel like it is lurking just under the surface, as I used to feel. I feel good.

Migraines are pretty much the same. I do get the occasional headache, but I attribute that to spending 3 hours a day on a school bus and the rest of it with second graders. I don’t think getting a headache after that is worrisome. I would actually be more concerned if I wasn’t getting headaches sometimes.

I really feel all around good.

There is one thing that I’ve discovered since coming to Kenya, and it’s that milk doesn’t settle very well with my stomach. I don’t have much dairy when at school besides lattes and ice cream, but here tea and coffee are both milk based, and they drink a lot of tea. When my stomach first began acting up, I assumed it was something I had eaten. I let a couple days pass, but it was getting worse. See, when I’m stressed or not feeling well, I tend to drink more tea. The more I drank, the worse I felt. The worse I felt, the more I drank. You see the problem. The day I realized it was the dairy I was both hugely relieved and super upset. Fortunately, now that I know, I can avoid dairy. OOPS, no, no I can’t. See, it’s winter here, and it’s kinda cold, so we drink tea ALL THE TIME. Most days I can get away with only drinking 1 or 2 mugs, which my stomach can usually handle. Some days it’s really hard to say no, but my body doesn’t really like when I drink 4 mugs of milk tea, so I pardon myself and hope I’m not being too rude. I also just really love tea, so having it limited for me makes me really sad. 

The food, other than that, really agrees with me. I enjoy having organic foods and not very much processed. I also have a Cadbury chocolate bar, which I usually enjoy a piece or two of after a day at school.

Really, I am amazed at my health here. God has been gracious to me, and has given me more than I could ask for. It might only last as long as I am here, but that’s ok. He is faithful in my sickness and faithful to give me health. He gives me breath each day, and that’s more than I have any right to ask for. 

A week off

This week has been interesting. The Members of Parliament voted as to whether laptop funds should be reallocated to teachers' salaries, and voted against it 98-75.  No end in site. Some students have started study groups to teach themselves so they don't fall behind private schools. Some classrooms have been filled with cows as students are made to work for their parents during their time off.

On the other hand, I've discovered I get a little homesick when I'm in a foreign country and am not kept busy. And when all of the other interns leave for 10 days, it gets worse. Well, Monday I'm back at Logos, and that'll keep me occupied until everyone is back.

I was actually able to do something yesterday. I went to a developing day care in Dandora, a part of Nairobi with the highest crime rate. The daycare, run by Nairobi Chapel, is the type of place I would actually really love to work with. It hasn't been around long-- they are trying to buy a new plot of land to expand from Preschool-8th grade. Right now they've made it up to 2nd Grade.

Since it is a private school, the students pay tuition to go and the school gets no money from the government. They hope, with the new plot of land, to become self-sustaining in time. Right now every student has to pay 200ksh a month, the equivalent of $2.33. The school is located in an area that this is actually a struggle for some parents to pay. The money doesn't actually fund much at the school, but it holds the parents responsible for their kids' education.

Besides that, Emily and the rest of the interns at Nairobi Chapel (ie all of my friends here) have gone for a 10 day missions trip to Kitale. It's made my time off even more boring... but a 40 minute FaceTime with the family is always good for boosting the spirits. The extra sleep has been ok too.

Strike!

Well my internship has taken an interesting turn. I have been in schools for the past month... and now the teachers are on strike. Every public school in Kenya is closed (and the Private school I was at is on midterm break.)

There are 2 unions in Kenya-- KNUT (Kenya Union of Teachers) and KUPPET (Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers). Kuppet called a strike last week for secondary schools. Many teachers listen to them, but if KNUT calls a strike, everyone listens. If a school tries to continue holding session after KNUT calls a strike, they will have people protesting outside the school. Yesterday began KNUT's strike for all Primary schools. 12 million children are now not going to school.

Many of the students who aren't going to school now don't live in places that they really want to spend all day. That puts them out on the street, which is exactly what the government has been doing a good job at stopping. 10 years ago they enacted free primary education, and it's gotten a lot of kids off the street. But right now they don't really have anywhere to go. Walking to and from the mall yesterday, there were a lot more kids out begging than there usually are. 

Loosely the way school works here: pretty much upper class kids go to British or American schools, Upper/Middle class goes to Private schools, and everyone who can't afford that goes to public school. So it's only really the lower class kids who are out of school now-- the underprivileged kids who don't have an equal chance to begin with.  

So why are the teachers protesting? It's only slightly complicated. They want money. They've been trying to get increased stipends for housing, commuting, and medical expenses. They now know that the money exists because the Government has started a laptop program for students and has set aside a good amount of money for that program. The program, though, is a little reckless. It is rather haphazardly giving laptops to every form 1 student and teachers are afraid of what will happen with those laptops. It is likely they will end up stolen, mistreated, lost, or sold. Instead of giving the students laptops without a plan, the teachers want more money for themselves, or for the government to hire more teachers. They think that with the increase of teachers, or with teachers paid more, the students could actually use the laptops and be trained how to take care of them.

These strikes have lasted for long periods of time before, even to the point of interfering with national tests. There's a chance this one will go on even longer. KNUT has had 6 strikes and subsequent talks with the government since 1997. Each time they've been promised more money, and each time the government hasn't followed through. The teachers have promised not to go back to school until this is actually resolved. But, of course, the government is saying that KNUT has "unsustainable demands" and that there is a "huge budget deficit".

We'll see how long this lasts this time. I'll go back to Logos Christian School, the Private school, on Monday and be there until this strike ends or I go home. I'd really like to see more of Kawangware Public, so hopefully it won't last too long. Watching the news about all this is really interesting though. 

I also spent this last weekend in Mombasa and just posted about it if you're curious :)

Mombasa! (Ooh, say it again!)

Mombasa!! Emily (my roommate and fellow intern) and I went to Mombasa this weekend. Mombasa is a coastal city, a vacation spot, and also a tourist place. The first night we got in late and headed to a hotel. It was a really nice place we let ourselves splurge a bit to get. I had my first shower with running water in a month, we had Wi-Fi, there was a pool, it was on the beach, the food was fantastic… We went to the restaurant attached to the hotel and had dinner. We stayed there until late, and then decided to go swimming at 1:30am. People thought we were crazy (it’s winter here) but it was a warm night and we had fun. Made it to bed by 4am.

Sunday we went to church at Trinity Chapel, a church plant of Nairobi Chapel. Emily knows people from there, other interns that used to work at Nairobi Chapel. We met up with some of them and went to the beach. I’ve now been in 3/5 oceans of the world and Emily and I ran into the Indian Ocean. We also pet a camel, wandered the beach for a while, and then headed to town. We wandered around town for a while, did some tourist-y things. Then we went back to a friend’s place, watched a movie, and had dinner. It was an incredible way to spend my 21^st birthday.

The next day we started off our day in the sunshine, tanning. I got a bit of color, but it rained most of the rest of the day. We went to Fort Jesus, and old British Fort built a long time ago. We had a tour guide take us around Old Town. He showed us the old slave tunnel, the ports, told us the history of the area, and then took us to some cool shops. Emily and I both got a pair of Masai sandals and some other trinkets. Because of the rain, we skipped the ferry and went to the market, stopping for coconut along the way. Picked up some snacks for the journey home (peanut butter Oreos!) and headed back.

All in all, the weekend was absolutely incredible. I took about a million pictures (check Facebook for some of them) and had a bunch of new experiences. I had so much fun and am so glad that I got to go. 

A New Role

For my first week and a half at Logos, I worked in my Grade 2 class, observing, teaching, learning. The past 3 days I've worked with the older kids.

Wednesday I was at 2 different schools-- a public school where I spent time with grade 8, and a private high school where I interacted outside the classroom with a bunch of students.

Thursday and Friday I was with Grade 7 and taught an hour of science to Grade 6 (with only 20 minutes prep, I'll have you know.) Friday I wasn't planning on being with them anymore, but my Grade 7 grabbed me and told me they were making a chocolate cake on a giko (basically a small gas stove that uses charcoal). I was fascinated to see how it would turn out, so I tagged along and helped out. And I must say, though it took longer than it otherwise might have, it didn't turn out bad! They also might have followed the recipe closer, but it was fun. After a morning spent baking cake (and sitting in on the rest of their lessons), I had a meeting with their principal, Ms. Clara, whom I've met with before. 

Ms. Clara is the one who has helped me organize this internship at the school and is the primary person I emailed while still in the states. She knows a lot about the Kenyan education system (obviously) so I've learned a lot from her. We talked for over an hour yesterday (and even longer the Friday before) about it and I have such a deeper understanding because of it. Talks with her have been invaluable.

Fridays we get out of school early and I was so exhausted I was excited to get home early. With an exclamation from one of the teachers, "Let's start this weekend early!" we pulled out of the school, up the road, and the bus jerked a few times and broke down. Hooray. A few minutes of keeping the kids entertained later the other bus pulled up and we packed it full with all the kids. It was so crowded and we eventually surrendered to the noise. We then had twice the number of kids to drop off and my stop is one of the last stops. So much for getting home early.

Monday I start at a new school, a public school in the slum of Kawangware, so that'll be interesting. Prayers please for that experience. And for energy-- I'm sleeping 8 hours most nights and am still exhausted by the end of each week. Other than that, I'm giving thanks for the incredible opportunities I've had and for the things I've learned.

(This is a giko)