I shot this video today because, in a rare moment, none of the children wanted my attention. This is the library.
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Monthly Archive for May, 2009
For some reason I have been unable to access my blog for the past week or so, as the Internet seemed to only work for websites I didn’t really want. Oh well.
The second term has been reinvigorating. Class time has become quite different since I made the investment in the printer. I print worksheets for all my students the night before class, and normally that means two double-sided printouts of varying difficulty, usually along the line of a single theme. Examples include: sudoku, connect the dots, easy crosswords with vocab-reinforcing pictures, and mazes. This week most everything was pirate themed (it keeps my interest if the themes are timely), and I threw in an Obama maze for good measure. Few students, and often no students, get through all the work, but that’s OK, as long as they can stay busy at one of the difficulty levels. Different students respond differently to the activities, as they appeal to different personalities I think. One of my students, a girl much older than the rest of her class, has always been in a state of visible annoyance at the menial exercises presented to her. In particular, she hates anything that involves crayons. I hadn’t been able to pique her interest in anything; that is, until we had a word search day. The rest of the children struggled to find all the words, but she immediately began a methodical hunt and she finished long before anyone else… and she was smiling.
I love seeing progress with the puzzles. I’m mostly seeing a change in the children’s’ “lookahead”—that is, their use of strategies necessary to determine which solution is “correct” when there may be multiple correct answers (like a maze), or a correct answer that can cause the other answers to become wrong (crosswords, sudoku). This is so completely the opposite of copying from the board that it’s been tough to get them to accept the idea that you should write “possibly correct” answers down, and that as the teacher, I can’t say “correct” or “wrong” until they finish.
The worksheets are also great because kids who are waaaaaay behind can simply color them without holding back the class. It also becomes optional homework if they don’t finish in time. Most classes start now with many students showing me how the completed the previous class’ work overnight.
Improvements around the house has been slow but steady. I finally managed to fit my new sinktop in such a way that it doesn’t have any wiggle room, and I’m teaching myself some rudimentary plumbing work as well!
I’ve also converted my home into a WiFi hotspot, which means I can have multiple laptops online at the same time, which is great for visitors (and for me when I have visitors). I hide this technology under a doily to confound thieves:
I’ve also kept busy in the library. My improvements with the floppy disk mean that the programs are more intuitive, and the kids need less help from me. This is great because they develop more confidence on the machines, and it frees me up to read to the younger kids. Reading in sign is something so critical for their learning, but it’s something I’ve been terrified to try in the classroom, because it puts my own signing on the spot, and it requires me to entertain 15 kids at once. In the library I usually have an audience of one or two at a time. The kids like Curious George and tell me that he lives close to their house.
The floppy disk itself has undergone a major overhaul after it had so many problems on the computers in Embu. I‘ve now tested it successfully on a wider range of machines, and it’s far more consistent—it should work with 8MB of RAM as well as modern dual-core CPUs. The sheer number of changes, though, meant that I needed the kids to spend time breaking it again, but it’s now finally back to the the refining stages.
This weekend many volunteers till be convening in Mombasa for a long weekend. I’ll be sharing some WiFi and some beers while they’re here, and then on Tuesday it’s back to classes again.
Thank you so much everyone for the birthday wishes— they didn’t all appear on the blog right away because of my Internet weirdness, but I did see them, and thank you. I hope no one’s arm was twisted too hard 
. It is nice to be reminded that the world hasn’t totally forgotten me.
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So much has happened since my last post that it seems like the best thing to do it just show you a lot of photos.
After my stop at a fellow volunteer’s in Embu (“Fun-bu,” as she calls it), we moved as a group to a nearby volunteer’s site, which is an amazing Deaf school. (After we left, apparently this area of Kenya became a bit rough because the matatu owners stopped paying for local “protection,” and some people’s limbs were cut off.) Here’s the school:
Just look at that gardening! Apparently they have an awesome computer lab, too. This is the one school that performs consistently above the guessing average on their standardized tests, and it was run for many years by a former Peace Corps volunteer who decided to stay. A sad site at the school was a deaf-blind child who was not picked up by his parents, so he was staying there for the whole month.
After one night there, it was off to Nairobi for more Peace Corps training. This mostly consisted of Powerpoint-style presentations for a large group, although we split off into smaller groups for the afternoons. The highlight was catching the kitchen on fire during the cooking seminar. Let’s peek into the kitchen:
Yes that is a nun. For some reason out hotel was run by nuns. While in Nairobi I did things I can’t do in Mombasa, namely I ate sushi and tortilla chips (but not together).
At the end of training ErinRose flew into Nairobi and we traveled the next day back to the coast with a good number of Deaf Ed volunteers. Here were are in front of One Love Island, where we camped and ate delicious calamari:
Here is the closest village, where one of the business volunteers live. This place basically has nothing in common with Mombasa, even though it’s only a few hours away. A telling example of this is that when we walked through the village, children ran up to us with their palms out and open. I instinctively ignored them, because I see lots of begging children ever day who will grab my arm if not my pocket if I stick around too long. The volunteer saw this and said something to the effect of, “This is a local greeting. Give them your hand and they will kiss it.” Which is what happened. I was humbled and astounded.
Over the next few days we worked our way back down the coast, and I got to play tourist for a bit, which was amazing, but I’m not used to A/C anymore so I got a cold. Here’s a view from our room in Kilifi. Its hard to see, but there is a pool and the ocean is behind it.
Here’s a look out of the side of a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled covered motorcycle) on the drive into town from the hotel:
ErinRose took this one while the group was idling after snorkeling. While she was taking pictures, I still had the taste of vomit in my mouth from getting seasick. It was worth it, though, because I saw a puffer fish. And a humuhumunukunukuapuaa. I surprised even myself that I remembered that fish’s name from long-ago Hawaii snorkeling.
And here’s our last group dinner before we all went our separate ways:
As it turned out, back in Mombasa, the first week of school was a a false alarm, since a lot of the kids weren’t back from break yet and it is apparently customary to not hold classes until more show up, so ErinRose and I has a surreal week in Mombasa, where I lived a life of luxury just minutes away from my home where my toilet is a hole in the ground and my bath is a bucket.
Here is one of the places we stayed (that’s the Mombasa bay out the window—I live just on the other side of it):
Monkeys on the patio (I’m no camera quickdraw, unfortunately):
Is this luxury, or just bizarre? A fish tank as the water source for the urinal.
The second week of school just finished (although it was the first week where I actually taught anything), and things are going well. I bought a printer finally and I’ve been making lots of worksheets for my classes. I also have been putting to use many of the items that people have been generously sharing. Vocabulary Bingo in particular was a gigantic hit!
So there’s a one-month summary for you. Now it’s back to normal.
18 Responses to “Catching up”
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I’m so glad you’re alive! Not that I thought you weren’t, just that I missed updates. Sounds like things are lookin’ good! I saw John Dion a few weeks ago in LA, made me miss you.
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What a cool Blog! We wish you well Paul! Erin Rose told me about what a wonderful time she had with you. I know she misses you so much. When Erin Rose told me about the stars at night, I could picture them in my mind- gave me goosebumps! She has such a way of describing things.. theres an English major for you.:)
Take care!
Carolyn ( ER’s Best Friend ) -
Well, glad to hear everything is well,and your back to blogging and teaching. I managed to remove the 12 GB’s of Knoppix’s distros from Erin Rose’s laptop, so her machine would not crash anymore, and I heard a rumor that you compiled your first code, or at least something like that. Very Nice!
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Fun-bu is not the same without you and Mercer.Although I kind of like it better, since I was away so long! What ever happened to the floppy disk? Please do share this vocab bingo! When you come to Nairobi I have a whole block of velveeta we can make nachos!!!
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K, I’m not really sure where I’m supposed to post this, but I just wanted to say Happy Birthday! Hope all is well over there–you are missed at UBH’s Homework Clubs!
Take care. -
VIRGINIA AVENUE UPDATES:
1) My computer went nutso on me, so I put in a new hard drive and reinstalled XP per your instructions before you left. Worked like a charm, until I installed Gigastudio. Now it reboots itself whenever it’s the most inconvenient for me.
2) I finally fixed the futon! And it only took me several months to get around to it. I figure I can get at least another 5 years out of that thing, or sell it for quick cash–whichever comes first.
3) The other day Eric Googled my name and found a link to your website for one of my songs. He was blocked from downloading it at work so I had to do it for him. While I was downloading, I was reading all the little “production notes” that you had written for all of my songs to help promote them. I had forgotten all about those, and I gotta say, I was touched! Then I was embarrassed. Then deeply ashamed. And then my computer rebooted itself.
4) Everyone here at the apartment misses you, and when I say “everyone”, I mostly mean me. I’ve found that neither of my new roommates can hold a candle to your prowess in computer troubleshooting, repairing stuff, or spaghetti westerns. Plus, neither of them ever buys any cool electronics for the apartment. ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS
Happy Birthday, Paul…
Mark
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Hey, Paul, Happy birthday. This will be one to remember. Have been enjoying your blog and especially this last round of pics. Between Africa and India, ErinRose is only a few shots away from being the most immunized individual in the world. Best wishes, Scott
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Happy B-Day! Don’t drink the water.
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HI PAUL!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! ¡FELIZ CUMPLEA?OS! BUON CUMPLEANNO!
Wishing you a wonderful day!
Thank you for sharing all those fun photos. You and ErinRose look great – glad to hear both of you had a good time! That fish tank – is incredible!
Paul, you are doing such a great job! Take care and enjoy your experience!
Cariñosamente,
Patrick & Gloria
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Happy Birthday, honey!! Wish I was there to celebrate with you, but instead I will eat some cake from Aroma in your honor!
xo er -
Paul,
this is Rand. Happy Birthday! Your mother will telephone you tomorrow. -
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL. GLAD YOU ARE BACK AND VERY GLAD YOU HAD A BREAK AND ENJOYED YOUR TIME OFF. WE SENT YOUR DAD YOUR BIRTHDAY CARD AND GRANDPA DIDN’t FORGET THE $2.00 BILL. WE CELERATED OUR 62 YEARS OF MARRIAGE YESTERDAY. WHERE DID ALL THE TIME GO. LOVE AND BEST WISHES FROM US.
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Happy birthday Paul!
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hey paul,
happy birthdays!hope you’re doing well half way around the world.
take cares,
-norbert. -
Paul Blair! Happy Birthday! Sounds like Kenya is intense. Sounds like you had a good time with ErinRose in town. Looking forward to reading more!
JOHN
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Paul B!! I’m late to the game on this one, but Happy Birthday! I really enjoy reading this blog. I can’t wait till I quit Tech Services Manager and join the Peace Corps myself (read: go work at Starbucks). Those kids are lucky to have you! Have I said that before?
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Happy Birthday, Paul Blair! Miss you ol’ friend. Hope all is well.
I loved the video! Sounds like things are going well, if only temporarily! Hopefully I will see you around the Facebooks…
We are headed to Cleveland for Angie’s greaduation this weekend (how old do you feel?) and I will make sure everyone is caught up on the blog posts, it’s awesome to read about what you are doing! xo
more videos are a must