Month: January 2010

I’m in the news!

For a completely ridiculous reason, sorry.

So some of you may have noticed I haven’t been replying to emails. This is because before I left for Kenya, I decided to upgrade my free Google Apps email account to the $50/year “Premier” version, which buys me telephone support among other things, which I figured might be useful if I have email problems in Kenya. Anyway, a year passed, and I let the Premier features expire since I never used them.

Due to a Google bug, my email totally went berserk and I couldn’t access it at all, and I couldn’t even access the settings for my emails, AND since I no longer was paying for phone support, no one would help me. So I started posting on the Google forum looking for help, and I made the news, which in turn may well have forced Google to hurry up and fix my email. Quite an ordel for something terribly unexciting. Also a longwinded excuse for not replying to emails. For anyone who’s interested or just amused, here’s the article on the Register (UK):

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/29/google_apps_downgrade_loop_fail/

ErinRose in Kenya, Part 3!

Post author By Paul
Post date 2010/01/29

Before we resume our regular programming (meaning longer, rambling, more verbose passages of text), here’s another round of pictures, courtesy mostly of ErinRose, who was here until Sunday.

This one’s for you Elise, from the Nairobi nature walk:

ErinRose and I ate lunch near the rhino and saw dozens of baboons wander past us:

The guide told me I didn’t tip enough after being led into the cheetah cage for this pic. Apparently the eight guys who sit around the cage need to split the tips between them. I’m mean so I still didn’t tip more:

Back at school, ErinRose and my counterpart and I handed out various undergarments that were sent from America by a previous volunteer’s friends and family:

P1040279 - Copy

Doing what I do best in a plane to Lamu:

Me taking a picture in Lamu.

Here I am “explaining” a science experiment (poking holes in paper to reveal the crescent-shaped spot on the shadow caused by the eclipse) to my vocational students, another teacher, and some others. I had never heard of this trick and wasn’t even aware that there was an eclipse happening, but another volunteer called me during the eclipse and explained how it worked and insisted that I must go show it to some students. ErinRose knew the trick, too, so she poked the holes. It was pretty cool, and I still don’t totally understand why it works at all: