On the Road

So after Deaf Games I had only about one day to wash my clothes, clean my house (with some serious help with my last couple guests) and relax, after which time I hit the road with a fellow volunteer.  School doesn’t start again for about a month, so this is my chance to see something besides Mombasa.  First stop: Nairobi!

Due to a series of unfortunate incidents (to be discussed later), we ended up with tickets on an unusually nice bus that had A/C, a toilet, and even free soda.  Here’s a picture I took while waiting for the bus.  I expect it will be only be amusing to my old coworkers.

In Nairobi we stayed with more Deaf Education volunteers at a comfortable hostel.  The first night we went out to dinner at a nice Ethiopian restaurant when it began to rain.  My first thought, demonstrating how differently my mind works now: “Free water is falling from the sky!”  Here are some of the girls shielding themselves from the “free water” as we wait for a ride back to the hostel:

On the second day we ate sushi and visited a museum in Nairobi.  It was empty in many places— a giant building that didn‘t quite know what to do with itself.  One of the exhibits consisted mostly of cardboard cutouts of local rugby players.  On the other hand, the real highlight was an exhibit where I saw many early skulls and skeletons of early man, some of which I had read about in school, so that redeemed the whole place.  They also had this cool art installation.  You can see my reflection in this picture that I took of it:

The last few days we headed up to Embu, which is where I initially thought our training was going to be held, and where another Deaf Ed volunteer lives. The sign language name for Embu is basically a pantomime of a snake biting a hand, suggesting that perhaps I should have brought my boots.  Oh well.

Today we were led by the school’s watchman (who apparently guards the school with a bow and arrow, and also knows karate) to a nearby river.  The bridge across the waterfall has a handrail made entirely of barbed wire, which was not the least bit surprising because in Kenya it seems that barbed wire is the most readily available material for just about anything.  Anyhow, as a first for my blog, here’s a second photo with me in it, relaxing in the shade under the river.

We’ll have a few more days of travel and relaxation before in-service training (IST) starts in Nairobi.  I’ve been trying to work out the last few kinks of the educational floppy disk while I’ve been at the school here in Embu, because the fast computers here have revealed a few more problems that are making it hard to have disks ready by IST.  I’m working at it, though.  Stay tuned…