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:
Just a little news that applies to both my old job and to the Deaf community at large:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/automatic-captions-in-youtube.html
I think we all knew this would happen sooner or later, and it’s still not here 100%, but now a small subset of Youtube videos have the option of displaying Closed Captions based on some behind-the-scenes speech recognition. I haven’t seen any examples of this used over difficult material, but it’s a start.
Well, I’m back from Machakos and I’ve met the ten new Deaf Education Volunteers who just arrived. Some of them have blogs, which are now listed in the right column. Enjoy! I got back from Machakos just in time to grade my students’ exams, return them, and to finish shooting video for the DVD yearbook.
Today we had a big school lunch where all the teachers gave speeches (actually variations of one speech— help your parents when you go home and don’t be lazy) and the kids dressed up in their fine clothes, which is unnerving with the older ones because it becomes clear how indistinguishable they become from adults if they dress well. I just now (this evening) got home from the library, which I opened one last time for them to use the computers. Tomorrow is the day when the parents are supposed to pick them all up until the next school year starts. I’m “off” for the next month, but I anticipate the blog will soon attest that I’m going to be pretty busy.
If you’re a Peace Corps blog addict or a stickler for time, you might have noticed that I’ve not been in America for over a year, although I haven’t mentioned it until just now. For many people this is cause for reflection, but since I’m an endless pool of reflection, I thought I’d do something a little different. I thought I’d post some pictures from my phone. Phone pictures are a little different from camera pictures. Their subjects are unexpected and fleeting: people or places I probably wasn’t expecting to see twice, or simple moments that for whatever reason stuck me as worth documenting. So let’s see what the heck I’m talking about.
I took this picture in Loitokitok because I was struck by just how far I could see, something alien when I lived in LA and just as alien now in Mombasa.
I took this one because I’m an egomaniac. Also, this is about as long as my hair got in Kenya. I could never maintain those wisps in the heat here.
I found a copy of Climbing Magazine in the woodshop where I teach. It made me think of Salt Lake City and begging climbing companies for documentary money not long before leaving for Kenya.
A typical Kenyan dish… add a toothpick and it’s just about iconic.
Kids in my art class turning my vase into two faces.
President Kibaki and his entourage fly by in their Land Cruisers and Mercedeses just as I’m walking home. They’re a few minutes from the big fiber optic unveiling for East Africa, where Kibaki gave a speech.
ErinRose loving her henna as it’s being applied in old town:
If there was any doubt about the heat here, check out these candles in a hotel’s gift shop:
So there you have it… one year. I’m still too busy to make the big profound reflective post, but it’ll come around I’m sure.