Will write more later. For now, catch up on the photos:
Me, my sister and my mom in Mombasa:
And in Watamu and Malindi:
And on safari with the fam and my girlfriend:
And visiting an officially-sanctioned tourist-friendly Massai village:
Well, my girlfriend left on Sunday, so it’s back to the usual routine for the rest of the term. It was a fun two weeks while she was here. In my previous blog post I uploaded some pictures from her first weekend here, so now here are some pictures from the second and third weekends, with a few weekday pictures thrown in for good measure.
Second Weekend (Watamu and Malindi):
After some good snorkeling in Watamu, we took the glass-bottomed boat back to our hotel, Hemingway’s.
In Malindi, we dropped by Vasco de Gama’s Pillar (made from Lisbon limestone… none of that unacceptable Porto granite, even if if does hold together better in earthquakes):
In Watamu, one of the few butterflies in the Butterfly House:
Next door, the mysterious Gede Ruins (and me sitting upon them, ruining them further):
View of the ruins from a nearby staircased Baobab tree, which was an enjoyable climb:
Second week:
Upon our return to my home in Mombasa, we went to the Eid (end of Ramadan) festival/carnival. To get in we needed tickets, and there were two lines to buy them: one for men and one for women. The men actually made up more of a mob than a line, so it was handy that ErinRose could get tickets for us pretty quickly.
The carnival itself was like an African version of Something Wicked This Way Comes-meets-Dr. Lao. The whole thing was old-fashioned in a charming but unsettling way: many of the rides were manual, with men spinning children around or pushing giant swings, and we had the opportunity to see the world’s shortest women, twice (there were two of them), as well as the Nigerian rat monster. There was also supposed to be a severed head but it hadn’t shown up yet.
Here’s a clip of the carnival, with a man pushing one of the most popular rides, of which there were at least a dozen.
Here’s a professional photo taken in one of a half-dozen similar carnival booths. Because Eid is a Muslim celebration, and other people were taking rather conservative photos, we settled on this pose:
Here I am debating the merits of paying to see the severed head (which is depicted on the sign on the left).
The head wasn’t ready, so we went into another tent. Ahead of us, children climb over each other to see the world’s shortest woman:
Here she is, in a tiny little corner of the tent, just standing there with some extra clothes and some snacks at her feet. Because each shortest woman had competition from the other, we were encouraged to ask how old she was, to which each would reply “65” or “75” or something similarly impressive.
After much anticipation (there was a dramatic countdown), we were allowed to go into another tent to see the Rat Monster from Nigeria. The flash photo makes it a little less scary, but even with minimal lighting, it wasn’t much more terrifying:
Later that week, ErinRose’s birthday dinner at the Tamarind restaurant, which you may remember as being the swanky place with a fish tank as part of its flushing system:
In her last class with the younger kids, ErinRose taught them how to make paper puppets (I don’t actually know what these things are called—it was more of a girl thing in school). Here’s a clip:
For our last weekend we went to the Shaanti Holistic Health Retreat, which was a cool little new-agey yoga resort. We only did the yoga once (my first time ever), but we enjoyed the overall peaceful vibe regardless. Here’s a view from the restaurant:
This place was a full board experience, so we only ate out once, at Ali Barbour’s Cave restaurant, which was pretty cool, just like it sounds… a restaurant in a cave.
On our last evening at Shaanti, we took advantage of the outdoor bathtubs with a view of the stars and the ocean. They are next to communal area where people do yoga, so they are keep-the-swimsuits-on kinds of baths, but especially with the sparkling grape juice, it made for a romantic final evening.
So as of Monday, I’m back to teaching my classes without a helper, which means the blog posts will look much less like I’m on a luxurious vacation and much more like I’m busy teaching. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures!
Today was the first day of the third and final term of the school year. Out of 160 students, not many were here yet. To be precise, I think 5 kids showed up. This is relatively normal, as first week is really the “ramp up” week. We had a teachers’ meeting (which I rustily interpreted for the two deaf teachers) and then I ran some errands around town.
As I walked around I reflected on what I want to do differently this term. Most significantly, I want to make a real effort to de-prioritize my own projects in favor of putting my weight behind other people’s ideas. I’ve been here long enough to get a sense of which people I respect, so instead of working in my cave (AKA my house) on projects that I’ve concocted in isolation, I want to be an enabler for other people’s projects: people who have been here much longer than me, and whose ideas I trust. The person I want to help the most is my counterpart. He’s the youngest teacher on staff, and he’s Deaf—a product of the school he’s now teaching at. He’s also a volunteer’s success story—a previous volunteer tutored him heavily here when he was a child. He’s proven himself to be smart and reliable, and he has ideas for the community here. We’re going to start small, and I’m going to help with the filming of the school’s video/print yearbook once more kids return from break, maybe next week.
I also want to put as much time as possible into the Nairobi project. I’m in research mode right now, trying to get my hands on all previous similar efforts. Anyone know where I can get a copy of this?
Anyhow, by changing my approach I think I can not only do some good for others, but I can help myself out a bit, too. Developing workbooks for the class and picking software for after school computer time is fun, but because my peers (the other teachers, etc.) aren’t a part of that process, I think it makes them wonder what I do all day. Working on more visible projects would improve my standing and, as a result, probably my own morale.
On an unrelated note, last weekend I got together with some other volunteers in Malindi and Watamu, which is an area about two hours up the coast. Here we are bickering over the bill at the fancy Italian restaurant, where I has prosciutto and melon and olives as an appetizer!
And here’s the Malindi airport.
And, in no particular order, here are some random pictures that you may enjoy. I figured you should catch up before classes start again.
Busted socket in my house (second one I’ve had to replace— why does this happen?!?!)
Another Nairobi slum view from the train:
Mombasa views from the bus:
I know monkey pictures are always a hit, so I’ll finish this post with one. I took this picture from my front door. There were four of these in my tree the other morning!
