Time flies pt 2

I don't think I have as much to say(at least not about September) so hopefully I won't poop out halfway through like I did before.

August
Our second break as PC/Ed vols. Not as jammed pack with PC related activities like the first break(April), allowing us more time to relax/travel/simply have fun-I would like to think I did a little of all 3:)
The 1st week of the month was spent with my students(4) in class 8. The 3 girls of class 8 were selected to attend Camp GLOW the following week so we decided to hold them at school rather than allowing them to go home and risking the chance of them not coming back for the camp. The lone boy of class 8 was forced to stay with the girls for a majority of the week to complete more practice exams, as you can imagine he was NOT happy about that. It was fun to be with them for the week. We laughed a lot, shared many stories, watched Harry Potter, and really just tried our best to make the most out of an otherwise boring week.

I enjoyed being in a much more relaxed setting with my kids-only a few teachers remained which meant I could teach when I wanted and as much as I wanted with very little distractions and I could just soak up the time with my kids. I get all sentimental when I start thinking that in just over a month they will be taking their exams and packing up for secondary school. We will not have anymore 'prep time' laughs or funny story times when we should be studying. They will not be around next year to give me a hard time about wearing a little ribbon I got from camp around my ankle or other silly American things that make me stand out. I always thought I would make relationships with people in my community and school but I never knew just how much the thought of saying goodbye would pull on my heart. And the Crazy thing is this isn't even the end of my service, I mean at least I will still be in the same country and possibly able to see them before I leave. Next year when it's truly time to say goodbye I will be a wreck, no doubt about it. Ok enough of that talk.
After saying goodbye to our boy, the girls and I had a few more days before we were off to Kisumu for camp. During these days we watched more movies, did hair(yup I played salon with my kids and put a perm in one of my fellow teacher's hair) which if you know me you know that I know NOTHING about hair,makeup, beauty or fashion so for anyone to trust me to put chemicals in their hair has lost their mind. We also cooked together which was super fun. The girls were pretty bummed about not going home when everyone else went because staying at school meant continuing to eat the same darn thing(maize and beans "githeri" for lunch  and grind maize "ugali" with kale "sukuma wiki" for dinner) for another week while going home meant delicious food such as Chapati. So how can I make the girls happy? Make chapati at school-I know, I know I'm a genius.

 We bought the flour for the chapati along with rice to go with the makeshift stew that we made from the canned meat donated from some relief food org and left over cabbage that is usually used for teacher's lunches. It was a pretty delicious feast if I say so myself. It was just nice to give the cooking staff(one man-Steven and one woman-Dinna) a break. They work so hard, coming in at 4am to prepare porridge and staying until 6:45pm(when they are done serving supper) everyday. The hours obviously suck but the conditions makes me feel bad for them, smoky kitchen along with a crazy workload of chopping wood(I tried this for 30mins- OMG its hard!) to keep the fire going all day, washing dishes(at least 100+ plates and cups every meal), serving the food they cook and serving the teachers lunch as well as tea for chai break at 11 and 4. Truly overworked and underpaid but always a smile on their face which makes me realize I have NOTHING to complain about. I love them, honestly there are  somedays it's their friendly nature or willingness to teach the silly mzungu a lilttle kiswahili in the midst of all their work that keeps me going. Ok back to Aug...

We went to Camp GLOW(Girls Leading Our World). This camp is put together by one of the 3 groups of PC/Kenya-GAD(Gender and Development). Camp GLOW  host about 60 girls, 2 hearing groups of 20 and one Deaf group of a little less than 20 because a few didn't make it. There are 2 GLOW camps one for the eastern(in April) and one for western Kenya. Girls come from my province(Rift Valley) along with Western, Nganza(pretty sure that's spelled wrong) for the August camp. The camp runs from Sun-Sat. The days are spent in lesson about HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, rape, communication, hygiene  esteem, body,careers, etc. Most of the Deaf Ed PCVs are in primary schools so our girls were being exposed to so many new things. These topics were also pretty new to my teaching. I've have been signing for less than a year so trying to think of the best way to talk about rape or hiv transmission or preparing a timeline for your life in sign language in a rather simple way that even the younger girls can understand was not an easy task to say the least.

 It was so interesting to see their faces and listen to their questions and comments during certain topics. I took 3 girls 2 of them physically disabled to go along with their deafness. I felt like these girls were much more vulnerable than the others so Camp GLOW was a must. It was amazing to watch them grow over the week. They became more comfortable with speaking out in touchy topics, you could tell they were really learning a thing or 2.

Camp GLOW was more than just classes. For many of the girls this was their first time outside of their school/village and in Kisumu. They were meeting all new girls and for many of the hearing girls it was their 1st time being exposed to the deaf community which was a very good experience for them. During the afternoons the students had fun activities like sports day, career fairs, reusable sanitary pad making,  IGA(income generating activities) of which they learned how to make bracelets, popcorn and fruit bowls that can be sold in the village.  During the evenings we had a bonfire(I chose to do that one because it reminds me of real camp:), movie night, craft night(I learned to knit haha you would think that I was a camper at this camp), and my favorite talent show night.  The last day they got to go on a field trip. Our girls went to the deaf VCT(Voulntary Counseling and Testing) to learn about the process of HIV/AIDS testing(positive is not good and all that jazz) and then we went to the Impala Sanctuary(there were other animals there too) as a large group. As you can tell this week was jammed pack with events so it was exhausting but def fun.The best part of all of it was when we came back to school this term. I watched my girls talk to the others about Kisumu, all the things they learned, people they saw in different careers, delicious food they ate(haha I was pretty happy about this part too) and animals they saw. The smiles on their faces as they told the stories along with the big eyes of the other girls as they watched/listened-priceless.

Immediately following GLOW I went to Tanzania for a few days to see PCV and good friend Tanique Carter. It was fun to see another part of Africa. Kenya and Tanzania are bordering countries but vastly different. For starters Kenya's official language is English which means most people know it whereas Tanzania speaks very little English even in bigger cities. Let's just say I was very thankful and impressed with Tanique's language skills that got me through the week. It was also interesting to see the different landscape. In the rift valley I would say it's green 75% of the year(dry season can be a little rough) which means tons of fruits and veggies but this wasn't really the case in the area of Tanzania I was in. All in all Tanzania was great. It was great to see Tanique, sleep and eat in a fancy hotel and just be on vacation after what seemed like forever.

Following Tanazania I went to visit PCV Jenny Black for a bit at her place. I decided I didn't want to be lonely/bored so we spent the week cooking and watching movies. I was a bum. It was great. That about sums up August. School was scheduled to start on Sept 3rd but little did we know this would NOT be the case but I'll save that for the next blog because once again this is much longer than I expected. So yeah pt 3-September and October coming soon. Man I have much more to say than I thought...go figure!

Time flies when you're having fun, right?

          I can truly say that I have had some of my best times of PC life so far during August, September and October. Of course a 3 month summary will be super long so if you're short on time(silly Americans and their lack of time:) her are a few of the highlights/special events-

• I sat through a demonstration of NGOs/donations gone bad.
• I successfully ended my second term. 
• I attended camp GLOW(GIRLS LEADING OUR WORLD). So great!!!
• Managed to step out my safe little bubble and travel around Kenya to see wonderful people and amazing places, even spent a few days out the country. 
• Officially Started a secondary project
• Celebrated my one year in Kenya with my close PC buddies
• Found a family that has a 6 year old girl with autism to play/work with. So excited to be spending time with my first 'special needs' love again.
• Oh yeah and watched Kenyan teachers have a 17 day strike.Fun:/

July

     The last month of the second term (the longest term of the year) and I can honestly say part of me was crawling to the finish line. I love my kids but it was obvious that we all needed a break or at least a change of pace for a bit.We all spent of week of being sick-coughs, sniffles, diarrhea, you name it- the school had it. With at least 20 little ones, who don't usually wash their hands, running around germs spread like wildfire. Mmmm Fun.

     In other news, I spent quite a bit of the month in meetings. Meeting with the BOG chairman of the school, the livestock and agricultural officer in our area and our principal to get everyone's ideas on the secondary project. I truly believe for a project to be even slightly successful there has to be a lot of local support. I reiterated the fact that this is not my project, my intention is to begin it and it to carry on for the benefit of the school as well as the women in the community. Everyone seemed to be very excited/supportive and full of ideas so it was good to hear. We developed blueprints, budgets, list of names of widows in the area and possible donors of chickens and some of the smaller materials. The most difficult part was finding a grant donor but this soon fell into place.

      I was selected to be a counselor of Camp GLOW(details to follow) so I  went to a meeting for preparation of that as well. It was good to get out of the village(to Nairobi) and see friends that I have not seen in a while. It was also nice to meet people in the other sectors(Public health and Business) including one PCV who is only 20 mins away from me. It's so crazy one moment you think you're so isolated and then BAM there's a person who shares your culture(very comforting fact at tmes) right up the road. Being an Ed vol and only having specific times allotted for vacation/traveling means that meeting others can be a difficult task.

       Another fun event of July was the distribution of hearing aids to all my kids! About 4 months prior, a group of guys came to my school and made hearing aid impressions(molds) for all my students. They even offered me one, and as cool as it may sound I had to decline. So we waited and waited for our chance to be shipped to the big city of Nakuru to get our brand new hearing aids. The date was moved a few times but it finally came right before the end of school in July. My kids were stoked! Day out of school, bread and soda for lunch and of course everyone just knew that they  getting a shiny new toy-what more can we ask for? We arrive at Ngala School for the Deaf(a very nice Deaf school in Nakuru) where we found many other students and community members. This organization was giving aids to all deaf schools as well as deaf individuals in the community. Sounds great right? If you would have mentioned to this me a few years ago(before reading numerous articles/having discussions in grad school and of course coming to Kenya and seeing aid gone wrong time and time again) I would have thought it was the best idea ever.Times have changed.

 But I can't do this story as much justice as a fellow PCV Jenny Black so here was her spill on it...

"How to assemble a hearing child in six easy steps"
Step 1: Take a deaf child (poor african preferred) and make molds of his/her ears.
Step 2: clean the child's ears in an assembly line fashion
Step 3: Insert ear molds into ears. If done correctly, the children will now resemble a line of robots.
Step 4: Attach a suitable hearing aid onto the child. Check effectiveness by making the silliest noises possible. Provide limited supply of batteries.
Step 5: Using the most condescending manner possible, teach the children how to insert a battery. (Note. There is no need to teach any further maintenance  These hearing aids will not get dirty, or nor are they to be repaired. The whole thing will probably just get replaced next year anyway. Nor is it at all reasonable to provide training for the children's teachers. Ignore all requests in as rude a manner as possible) Provide a quick hearing test to check if the child is understanding and/ or hearing human speech. Be sure this is done in a large tent with lots of distracting sights and sounds. Any possible reaction to sound means unqualified success.
Step 6: time to triple check the hearing aid. Be sure and talk to the child, expecting them to understand you. It does not matter if they have never been exposed to sound before or your dialect of English. Now that you have Given Them The Gift Of Hearing, it is only a matter of time before they start speaking.

Congratulations! You have just Made A Difference in the life of a child."

A little(ok ok a lot) of sarcasm-you would not believe how cynical most of us have become over the last 12 months, but that's pretty how it went. Giving the gift of hearing(as this org put it) is amazing if there is a way to do it well, but you must go deeper than the surface. Swooping in with your more than 300$ (30 thousand kenyan shillings) per hearing aid solution without proper training, care, or even evaluation is just not the way to go about it. I think so many times donors/westerners have their idea of what will help people but they do not do enough research. Too many solutions, not enough questions....How will these hearing aids perform in this climate? What will happen during rainy season? How many four year olds can keep up with a year supply of batteries when they can't even keep up with their own shoes? Who is going to help this kid learn to distinguish these very new and different sounds?...The hearing/speech therapist?

I think it's fair to say that at 700$ per child this money can obviously be put to better use. My kids eat all their meals outside on the ground and they sleep in dorms made with logs and iron sheets, so yeah if you really want to change a life start somewhere that matters. About 75 of my kids got hearing aids that day(a few were rejected because they were profoundly deaf-but the ones that are completely hearing got one:). Of those 75 I would say 50 had them in the next day of class, all day long  there was constant 'eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' sound  (think fingernails scratching chalk board)in every classroom because the aid wasn't in their ear properly and of course the only ones suffering were the teachers. By the time they packed up and headed home, about 2 weeks later, there was not one child with a hearing aid in their ear and not one came back this term with a hearing aid. $700 x 70=$49,000 completely wasted. Def enough for a spiffy new dorm.

Jenny said it best...'This is not the way to make a difference.'

I will say that I am very thankful for my prior knowledge and the chance to experience situations such as this one to put the world in better perspective for me. I have done so many things, truly meaning well but in retrospect it prob hurt more than it helped. Life is def a learning process.


And that my friends was the month of June in a nutshell.Well I've decided not to torture you guys much more. I'm tired of typing so I know you're tired of reading, so I will post this as is. But I must say I have tons of happier things to write so stay tuned.