Catching up

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.